A Cautionary Tale
- Thread starter Gerbil007
- Start date
Alkapton
Member
Good story for the pub 
I do 90% of my caving solo for similar reasons - I cave mid-week have no transport. But also I'm very slow underground if with others I try to go faster than I should. I agree with above - a spare light round the neck is a good thing. Reading surveys and descriptions beforehand is essential. Normally I have a mobile phone with me with image of cave survey and a pdf of "Caves of South Wales" and a pdf of a description of Draenen in it.
Even so I have had the experience of missing the way out of a cave and spending an hour in a 20 meter section of cave looking for a way back that might let me through - the thoughts that go through ones head are only entertaing after the event :-[ Twisting my knee at the bottom of two pitches was also interesting, but only really painful once outside the cave where crawling is not an option.
Nothing like solo caving for getting the adrenalin flowing - just be very very careful - treading slowly is good
I do 90% of my caving solo for similar reasons - I cave mid-week have no transport. But also I'm very slow underground if with others I try to go faster than I should. I agree with above - a spare light round the neck is a good thing. Reading surveys and descriptions beforehand is essential. Normally I have a mobile phone with me with image of cave survey and a pdf of "Caves of South Wales" and a pdf of a description of Draenen in it.
Even so I have had the experience of missing the way out of a cave and spending an hour in a 20 meter section of cave looking for a way back that might let me through - the thoughts that go through ones head are only entertaing after the event :-[ Twisting my knee at the bottom of two pitches was also interesting, but only really painful once outside the cave where crawling is not an option.
Nothing like solo caving for getting the adrenalin flowing - just be very very careful - treading slowly is good
Alex
Well-known member
This sounds very much like an experience I had in Hammer Pot (1 of the top 5 most difficult caves in Yorkshire), where I was thinking I was the bee's knee's of caving and thought nothing of going to the bottom of that place.
Only I ran out of energy slipped into Stemple Rift. I had an epic my self getting out of the damn thing after trying to crawl along at stream level thinking, like you I could not reverse my way back up the rift. In the end I did reverse out (It was bloody hard!!!) but by then it was too late and my mates had called CRO as they were unable to directly help me and CRO met me on the way out.
I spent approx 4 hours in that rift but I guess your experience was worse as you were alone and head first. So I can certainly emphasize with your experience and can say I also learned a lot from that day. The most important lesson it seems to if you can get in it, you can get out of it the same way. Do not just press on as you will get yourself in a worse situation.
I still do Grade 5 trips now as each one does improve me that little bit more, but before doing anything I am always think is this beyond me?
P.s. I then did a solo trip in there (As no bugger would come with me) to get all my abandoned gear out! That's one way to banish your demons, lol.
Only I ran out of energy slipped into Stemple Rift. I had an epic my self getting out of the damn thing after trying to crawl along at stream level thinking, like you I could not reverse my way back up the rift. In the end I did reverse out (It was bloody hard!!!) but by then it was too late and my mates had called CRO as they were unable to directly help me and CRO met me on the way out.
I spent approx 4 hours in that rift but I guess your experience was worse as you were alone and head first. So I can certainly emphasize with your experience and can say I also learned a lot from that day. The most important lesson it seems to if you can get in it, you can get out of it the same way. Do not just press on as you will get yourself in a worse situation.
I still do Grade 5 trips now as each one does improve me that little bit more, but before doing anything I am always think is this beyond me?
P.s. I then did a solo trip in there (As no bugger would come with me) to get all my abandoned gear out! That's one way to banish your demons, lol.
cavermark
New member
mrodoc said:Didn't spot the superfluous bloody hyphen. Actually the publishers Diadem are quite respectable - published the Darkness Beckons etc. Also bloody homonyms get me. I have seen them in newspaper headlines. one recent example was a reference to a bomb being 'diffused' - a neat thing if you can achieve it
I think homonyms are words that sound the same AND are spelt the same (rose (as in flower), rose (as in risen))
Diffuse and defuse would be homophones and heterographs.
Just so you know what you're getting annoyed about
big-palooka
Member
Les W said:
Don't you mean "dangling"?
mrodoc
Well-known member
cavermark said:mrodoc said:Didn't spot the superfluous bloody hyphen. Actually the publishers Diadem are quite respectable - published the Darkness Beckons etc. Also bloody homonyms get me. I have seen them in newspaper headlines. one recent example was a reference to a bomb being 'diffused' - a neat thing if you can achieve it
I think homonyms are words that sound the same AND are spelt the same (rose (as in flower), rose (as in risen))
Diffuse and defuse would be homophones and heterographs.
Just so you know what you're getting annoyed about
I thought I might be wrong again but I have now checked. The words just have to sound the same to be homonyms- doesn't matter about the spelling
kay
Well-known member
Alex said:
Seems logical.
But ...
If it was downhill when you were going in, it's uphill when you're coming out. So you can't come out the same way - what you did with gravity helping, you now have to do with gravity fighting against you.
Secondly ... there are some very useful devices for hanging things on hollow walls. Basically, a bolt with 'wings - you insert the bolt through the wall, and, one it gets to the cavity, the wings can spring out sideways and prevent the bolt being pulled out again. I can well imagine a ribcage working the same way.
"look before you leap" seems a good maxim - ie, before committing yourself, give some thought as to how you are going to reverse the procedure. But there again, you can deprive yourself of a lot of fun by being too cautious.
cavermark
New member
I'm happy being an independent pendant.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to: navigation, search
For homonyms in scientific nomenclature, see Homonym (biology).
In linguistics, a homonym is, in the strict sense, one of a group of words that share the same spelling and the same pronunciation but have different meanings (in other words, are both homographs and homophones),[1] usually as a result of the two words having different origins. The state of being a homonym is called homonymy. Examples of pairs of homonyms are stalk (part of a plant) and stalk (follow/harass a person), and left (opposite of right) and left (past tense of leave).
In a looser non-technical sense, the term "homonym" can be used to refer to words that share the same spelling irrespective of pronunciation, or share the same pronunciation irrespective of spelling ? in other words, they are homographs or homophones.[1] In this sense, pairs such as row (propel with oars) and row (argument), and read (peruse) and reed (waterside plant), would also be homonyms.
A distinction may be made between "true" homonyms, which are unrelated in origin, such as skate (glide on ice) and skate (the fish), and polysemous homonyms, or polysemes, which have a shared origin, such as mouth (of a river) and mouth (of an animal).[
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to: navigation, search
For homonyms in scientific nomenclature, see Homonym (biology).
In linguistics, a homonym is, in the strict sense, one of a group of words that share the same spelling and the same pronunciation but have different meanings (in other words, are both homographs and homophones),[1] usually as a result of the two words having different origins. The state of being a homonym is called homonymy. Examples of pairs of homonyms are stalk (part of a plant) and stalk (follow/harass a person), and left (opposite of right) and left (past tense of leave).
In a looser non-technical sense, the term "homonym" can be used to refer to words that share the same spelling irrespective of pronunciation, or share the same pronunciation irrespective of spelling ? in other words, they are homographs or homophones.[1] In this sense, pairs such as row (propel with oars) and row (argument), and read (peruse) and reed (waterside plant), would also be homonyms.
A distinction may be made between "true" homonyms, which are unrelated in origin, such as skate (glide on ice) and skate (the fish), and polysemous homonyms, or polysemes, which have a shared origin, such as mouth (of a river) and mouth (of an animal).[
