CatM
Moderator
NB. A genuine question, not a criticism...
I noticed on last week's episode of The Dudley, Caving and Cakes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIjbU0aYGis), that prior to Chunky's near disasterous fall (thank goodness for the cakes!), he was tackling the traverse in Edward's Shortcut. He was doing so by putting feet on one side and hands on the other, at the top of the flowstone/curtains/whatever you want to call it. I have seen many others use this method too, but have always assumed that the tape (seen at the bottom left of the screen) is meant to be there to prevent people touching the calcite; as such, I always go for the method of traversing as far as possible at a lower level, then awkwardly crawling along the muddy ledge on the right for the last little bit, and encourage others in the group to do the same.
So, my question, which I have often wondered: Is it considered "acceptable" to go for the former (easier) method, and if so, why is the tape there? :-\
I noticed on last week's episode of The Dudley, Caving and Cakes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIjbU0aYGis), that prior to Chunky's near disasterous fall (thank goodness for the cakes!), he was tackling the traverse in Edward's Shortcut. He was doing so by putting feet on one side and hands on the other, at the top of the flowstone/curtains/whatever you want to call it. I have seen many others use this method too, but have always assumed that the tape (seen at the bottom left of the screen) is meant to be there to prevent people touching the calcite; as such, I always go for the method of traversing as far as possible at a lower level, then awkwardly crawling along the muddy ledge on the right for the last little bit, and encourage others in the group to do the same.
So, my question, which I have often wondered: Is it considered "acceptable" to go for the former (easier) method, and if so, why is the tape there? :-\