Winnat's Caver
Active member
Hi hungry,
Last year I was among a generation of SUSS embarking for their first expedition to Tresviso, and we all had similar worries about not being fit enough. I am aware that this may be considered foolish advice to some on the thread, and that the difficulty of expeditions varies, but we found that the baseline physical fitness found in young cavers such as ourselves was already mostly good enough to serve on exped. Instead it was the time we spent practicing SRT, rigging, and rescue that was most useful.
Before going to Spain, 'exped training' became a bit of a meme in SUSS, and lots of us would go on day-long hikes with heavy bags, go on runs, and the like. Many of us were also fairly anxiety ridden about the whole thing, and worried an unnecessary amount. Once we got there it was fine. Apparently we would need to carry all our caving and camping things up a mountain to begin the expedition (Not sure what it will be like in Austria) but when we got there we managed to fit everyone in the landy and just drove the stuff up. I did end up walking up and down the mountain three times with gear, but it really wasn't too bad. As for the caves, I guess the best practice for long caving is to do long caving trips! Being Derbyshire-based, we practiced down Titan and JH whilst carrying bags. Essentially for the few months pre-exped, just try to get underground as much as you can. You're a caver and will probably find it quite fun. I found myself quickly getting far more comfortable with SRT and long pitches just by blitzing caving for a bit, whilst the time I spent exercising outside the cave wasn't as useful in a noticeable way. If you can, offer to carry dive bottles for divers.
Perhaps our perspective was a bit jaded as we were all outdoorsy 19-20 year olds anyway, but I gather by the amount you post in the caving memes chat that you are probably in a similar boat to us
. If you work till 5, try getting a couple of evening trips in each week. You can learn surveying on exped.
Last year I was among a generation of SUSS embarking for their first expedition to Tresviso, and we all had similar worries about not being fit enough. I am aware that this may be considered foolish advice to some on the thread, and that the difficulty of expeditions varies, but we found that the baseline physical fitness found in young cavers such as ourselves was already mostly good enough to serve on exped. Instead it was the time we spent practicing SRT, rigging, and rescue that was most useful.
Before going to Spain, 'exped training' became a bit of a meme in SUSS, and lots of us would go on day-long hikes with heavy bags, go on runs, and the like. Many of us were also fairly anxiety ridden about the whole thing, and worried an unnecessary amount. Once we got there it was fine. Apparently we would need to carry all our caving and camping things up a mountain to begin the expedition (Not sure what it will be like in Austria) but when we got there we managed to fit everyone in the landy and just drove the stuff up. I did end up walking up and down the mountain three times with gear, but it really wasn't too bad. As for the caves, I guess the best practice for long caving is to do long caving trips! Being Derbyshire-based, we practiced down Titan and JH whilst carrying bags. Essentially for the few months pre-exped, just try to get underground as much as you can. You're a caver and will probably find it quite fun. I found myself quickly getting far more comfortable with SRT and long pitches just by blitzing caving for a bit, whilst the time I spent exercising outside the cave wasn't as useful in a noticeable way. If you can, offer to carry dive bottles for divers.
Perhaps our perspective was a bit jaded as we were all outdoorsy 19-20 year olds anyway, but I gather by the amount you post in the caving memes chat that you are probably in a similar boat to us
. If you work till 5, try getting a couple of evening trips in each week. You can learn surveying on exped.
