Expedition training

[thehungrytroglobite]

I am going on my first caving expedition in a couple of months and I was wondering if anyone has any advice on how best to train for it?
Primarily in terms of fitness - I hope to be doing some deep trips in Austria so want to improve my fitness, strength and endurance.

I also lack the necessary skills in rigging, surveying, bolting, etc etc though I understand that I will pick up a lot of these on the expedition.

For context, I live in the Three Peaks area of the Yorkshire Dales so have access to a lot of outdoor spaces, caves, crags etc although on days like today when the rain is torrential my exercise options are very limited. I also work a busy 9-5 Mon-Fri job, and sometimes work in evenings too, so don't have tons of free time. Is there something small I can do every day to improve my fitness before expedition? What do you think are the most efficient ways to do this?

 

[Badlad]

Start off with just a couple of pints every other day. Increase the number of pints gradually and then move to a strict daily regime. By the time you get up to eight a day you'll be ready to take on anything Austria has to offer. Worked for me anyway

 

[marsrat]

I am going on my first caving expedition in a couple of months and I was wondering if anyone has any advice on how best to train for it?
Primarily in terms of fitness - I hope to be doing some deep trips in Austria so want to improve my fitness, strength and endurance.

I also lack the necessary skills in rigging, surveying, bolting, etc etc though I understand that I will pick up a lot of these on the expedition.

For context, I live in the Three Peaks area of the Yorkshire Dales so have access to a lot of outdoor spaces, caves, crags etc although on days like today when the rain is torrential my exercise options are very limited. I also work a busy 9-5 Mon-Fri job, and sometimes work in evenings too, so don't have tons of free time. Is there something small I can do every day to improve my fitness before expedition? What do you think are the most efficient ways to do this?

Caving expeditions require a decent level of aerobic fitness (since your trips are likely to be measured in the 10h+ territory). With a high level of aerobic fitness, your cave fitness tends to shoot up (alongside being able to move quickly) as well as reducing general tiredness (and oxygen debt recovery times).

The main way you can improve this (yes it is no thrills, but proven to work within armed forces): low steady state runs. This involves a minimum of 30 minutes daily jogging at your quickest pace you can manage while still being able to speak in sentences (or breathing solely through your nose).
Another great exercise which should be done is hill running (yes it sucks at the beginning). Simply run up and down hills for extended periods of time, throw on some extra weight to make progression quicker (though be careful and watch how your body reacts - don't injure yourself). You'll notice the, "leg day" sort of pain for the first 1-2 weeks; just push through it. After 2-3 weeks, it'll start to become effortless.

Ensure you're eating an excess of food, you'll need it.
E.G

Monday - 30minute LSS
Tuesday - 30minute hill running
Wednesday - 30minute LSS (this is your recovery, push through the muscle fatigue).
Thursday - 30 minute LSS
Friday - 30 minute hill running
Saturday - 30 minute LSS (this is your recovery, same as before).
Sunday - Rest

(if you have more time, chuck an extra 10-20 minutes onto each run).

If you can cave regularly before then, then cave. Caving will improve your cave fitness (especially if SRT orientated) more than any other form of exercise.

 

[Oscar D]

Hill walking with a decently weighted (10 - 20kg) bag and lots of prussiking with ~10-15kg bag.

 

[mikem]

If there's two of you, set up a running SRT set up on your longest rope, like at hidden earth, & take it in turns

 

[braveduck]

I am going on my first caving expedition in a couple of months and I was wondering if anyone has any advice on how best to train for it?
Primarily in terms of fitness - I hope to be doing some deep trips in Austria so want to improve my fitness, strength and endurance.

I also lack the necessary skills in rigging, surveying, bolting, etc etc though I understand that I will pick up a lot of these on the expedition.

For context, I live in the Three Peaks area of the Yorkshire Dales so have access to a lot of outdoor spaces, caves, crags etc although on days like today when the rain is torrential my exercise options are very limited. I also work a busy 9-5 Mon-Fri job, and sometimes work in evenings too, so don't have tons of free time. Is there something small I can do every day to improve my fitness before expedition? What do you think are the most efficient ways to do this?

Camping at Gaping Gill this week is the best practice you will ever have .

 

[Pitlamp]

Carry my tanks down a few potholes. Or a cart load of scaffolding and clips to remote digs. It gives a whole new perspective on the concept of caving fitness.

 

[thehungrytroglobite]

Start off with just a couple of pints every other day. Increase the number of pints gradually and then move to a strict daily regime. By the time you get up to eight a day you'll be ready to take on anything Austria has to offer. Worked for me anyway

At GG I've been practicing a combination of carrying kit uphill, caving on consecutive days, and drinking every evening in the ale tent so hopefully that will help a bit!

 

[Leclused]

Try to train your rope climbing speed. When doing deep caves there is nothing so annoying to get stuck behind a slow person. Especially in alpine caves you will get very fast cold when you have to wait.

So an average climbing speed of 350-400m/hour is a good speed. Also practice your rebelay passing and change over. 50 or more rebelays are not an exception for a 500m deep cave.

 

[Leclused]

Try to train your rope climbing speed. When doing deep caves there is nothing so annoying to get stuck behind a slow person. Especially in alpine caves you will get very fast cold when you have to wait.

So an average climbing speed of 350-400m/hour is a good speed. Also practice your rebelay passing and change over. 50 or more rebelays are not an exception for a 500m deep cave.

But 250-300m is also acceptable after a long day or days 😀

 

[Speleofish]

There are three caving specific things you might consider. First, abseil and climb lots of big pitches. Getting good at rebelays and deviations is useful but the main thing is to do lots and lots of metres. Second, get good at meanders. Juniper Gulf is my favourite for both of these, but I'm sure there are lots of alternatives. Doing it two or three times in one day equates to most big continental caves. Third, if you happen to pick an unhelpful cave, get good at long distance crawling...(develops almost all of the muscles you won't use in the previous two scenarios).

If you can do all of these, you'll have no physical problem. You will probably have no difficulty with rope work if your colleagues are competent at rigging. If not, Ummmm....

Best of luck!

 

[cap n chris]

FWIW prior to visiting the Berger and other European stuff back in the early 2010s+ I did extra gym sessions on top of the usual (3-5 times week) plus built up my press ups (50 per cycle) to 30 times a day (1,500/day) plus cycling and each week visited Rhino Rift and did the first three pitches x 7 in the morning and then popped over to GB Cavern and did entrance-to-bottom and back x 6 which equates to 21 pitches up/down plus 2,400ft descent/ascent boulder hopping) in the month prior to going, so I could gauge my water consumption/aerobic fitness which meant I felt comfortable with the prospect of visiting deep caves without feeling out of my depth (see what I did there). Worked a treat as I didn't feel that the caving was anything other than straightforward, as a result. Work out your own fitness regime based on what you anticipate being involved in on site. Horses for courses. I think it's worth adding that for overseas caving there are few, if any, UK caves/regions which compare to the order(s) of magnitude which foreign caves can represent when set against what we have here to go at. Put another way, caving in the UK isn't really enough when it comes to being prepared for what exists in the rest of the world. Get as fit as you possibly can. You can't do more than that.

 

[cap n chris]

...And in Andalucia in (I think?) 2014/15 I felt inadequate in terms of fitness when chatting with people who did 60 mile fell runs* in the UK and even after spending 3 days underground on exped, prusiking up c1,000m, still opted to run about 12K back to base camp rather than get a lift in the minibus ("to get fit"); I thought they already were! FFS. I am/was not worthy. Overseas caving is a Darwinian reality. Survival really can boil down to being fit, especially in countries with no rescue services. Pretty harsh/bleak/daunting.

* Dave O,

 

[thehungrytroglobite]

Juniper Gulf is my favourite for both of these, but I'm sure there are lots of alternatives. Doing it two or three times in one day equates to most big continental caves.

Good idea, I've never actually done juniper gulf... maybe I'll spend a day doing it on repeat!

 

[Pitlamp]

Titan and Far Sump Extension (Peak Cavern System) is perhaps the most concentrated vertical maze in the UK. Depending on which route you choose you'll see a lot of rope go past your face. To be honest it's worth doing a trip or two in there anyway; it's a very fine cave. Worth checking with local cavers first though, to ascertain what up pitches are safely rigged.

 

[Leclused]

Training on speed and distance can also be done on a tower. It's sometimes easier to plan.

The following link shows you how two members had their own training facility set-up on electricity pole. We also have some ropes hanging in an old factory were we can train indoor

Training outdoor

 

[andrewmcleod]

Walk up a lot of hills, ideally carrying some weight (e.g. water bottles you can empty at the top to save your knees), and off paths (limestone pavement probably good but *be careful*). You can probably do the caving bit already (possibly minus technical skills) so it's 'the same but bigger and more' basically. It's hard to practice SRT other than doing it, and while it is important to minimise faff when doing rebelays (when you have 50 or more to do in a trip) it won't help if you are knackered before you've even started. Walking poles are very useful with a big bag; worth giving them a decent go.

Probably good fun training would indeed be to do all the caves on the Allotment, but don't walk up in your caving gear. Carry all your caving gear in a rubble sack in a monster rucksack. This may be how you do it in Austria (it's usually how we do it in the Dachstein) due to the surface being 25 °C in sunshine and the caves being 2 °C. Your rigging ropes will (partly) substitute for the drills/batteries/hammer etc. you'd have on exped. Working out a system for this may help you.

Plus from what I understand of the Cambridge exped the most common cause of injuries is the plateau itself. We are lucky on our side that we get good use out of the marked paths (which are still pretty wild in places!) but it's still horrible ground. So getting your legs/ankles/support muscles trained up for walking on rough broken ground might save you from the plateau monster...

I really need to get myself in shape at some point (otherwise I spend the first week of the exped recovering from the drive there and walk up the hill and generally feeling knackered) - much easier when you are closer to 20 than 40! I can also recommend not being involved in the organization of an expedition if you want to have enough time to actually prepare _yourself_ for it...

When you do get to Austria, just remember it is _not_ the relatively pleasant and sanitized experience of most UK caves, so ease yourself into it. Loose rock loose rock loose rock. Did I mention loose rock? And 'expedition rigging' is nonsense as far as I'm concerned - I want my rigging to be _better_ when I'm on exped where the caves are more serious and have more objective dangers (unknown reactions to water, deeper, further from rescue etc...)

And *most* importantly - remember it's supposed to be fun! (which doesn't exclude that it's also miserable, after all that's part of the fun)

 

[john green]

When I went to the Berger many years ago, we had 4 weeks notice as another group required additional numbers, we would meet at the Hill Inn on a friday evening, get pissed, camp outside, get up early Saturday do a serious SRT trip in the area before everyone else got there, the area had a lot more cavers then. Surface have some lunch do another short trip in the afternoon / early evening and then restart the process at the bar in the hill inn. It worked we bottomed the Berger!

 

[Leclused]

When I went to the Berger many years ago, we had 4 weeks notice as another group required additional numbers, we would meet at the Hill Inn on a friday evening, get pissed, camp outside, get up early Saturday do a serious SRT trip in the area before everyone else got there, the area had a lot more cavers then. Surface have some lunch do another short trip in the afternoon / early evening and then restart the process at the bar in the hill inn. It worked we bottomed the Berger!

Be aware that there is still a (huge) difference between a classic trip in a deep cave and an exploration trip. The loads during exploration are mostly much heavier. The work itself during explo is more physically, especially during desobstruction. Moving around rocks and dirt takes a lot of energy. Trips are mostly longer (multi days) during exploration,…

And a 2-3 week expedition vs an 3-5 days bottom trip is also a difference.

So be good prepared and enjoy your trip

 

[cap n chris]

It's an interesting trait in certain circles of the British Caving scene to publicise your foolhardiness and lack of good sense and then to parade it as some kind of badge of honour. Mercifully it's a behavioural tick which seems to be dying out.