First aid designed for solo adventurers

[JAshley73]

Some general thoughts on "solo caving" since that's the premise of the thread anyway - I'd be curious to hear other's thoughts on this as well...

I see the biggest danger in caving solo, is that of the event that something goes wrong. (duh...) The gentleman that introduced me to caving had lots of cave rescue experience, so it was impressed upon me from the very start, "If something goes wrong, it's a big deal, and a long time to get us out of here." If you're solo-caving correctly - that is, 3 sources of light, you have a call out time, your call out person knows which cave you're going to, which entrance, what you're driving, what your destination/objective is inside that cave, yadda yadda yadda - then the biggest risk of solo caving seems to be straying from those parameters that you gave your call out person. If you go missing, and you're not on the route to the objective that you gave your call out person, then the time-to-rescue would dramatically increase, as the search party tries to locate you.

Ok, so with that in mind, one's first-aid kit for solo caving, should have some provisions for stabilizing an injury, until a search party reaches you. In the event of a broken limb, it's quite probable that while exiting, you'll reach a spot where maneuvering out further, with one foot/arm, etc. becomes unreasonable, and it's probably best to hunker down and wait for assistance. In this case, that probably means splinting the injury, some mild pain meds, and hypothermia kit.



Another thing to keep note of, is stomach distress. The happened on one of my very early trips, where one of our party of 8 had some stomach distress in the trip. She had to make a quick exit before it was too late. But severe nausea could certainly complicate things, solo, or in a party. Having some sort of stomach medication in your kit, could possibly delay the problem symptoms helping you reach the exit before things turn really bad.

 

[PeteHall]

Please note that safe caving is never a solo activity. But we all know people still do it (I was stupid enough to do it when I was younger), and that's exactly why I chose this.

Unfortunately, my knowledge about caving is too little to say anything, and I just followed what some people said in the Reddit caving community (originally, I got advice from Reddit to register down here, as I didn't know anything about caving). Now I will know more.

I hope one day I will have the chance to try caving

Pretty confused here @GermanP. You're a student who's never been caving, but you used to do solo caving when you were younger?

Either way, you've started an interesting discussion.

 

[PeteHall]

I see the biggest danger in caving solo, is that of the event that something goes wrong. (duh...)

Which is precisely why the focus should be on prevention rather than cure; carrying a first aid kit is no mitigation for reckless or careless caving.

Caving solo can reduce the liklihood of many potential accidents, but increase the consequences in the event that such an accident occurs. So as a solo caver, take care and don't f#*k up.

 

[royfellows]

This fits with what I was told (and discovered) about alpine climbing: "If you take bivouac gear, you'll need it".

I am a relatively inexperienced caver and find that carrying anything at all through crawls and squeezes is awkward. A bag is cumbersome, and anything in a suit pocket gets squashed. On the other hand, there are some things you really do need to have with you - I haven't found the balance point yet (and I'm sure it varies from cave to cave and with conditions and company).

Try one of those little shoulder bags, Caving Supplies used to sell them as the "Riggers Mate" , but others I see are just belt loop. You can put a lot of bits and pieces in them and when you come to a crawl wrap the shoulder sling around one of your ankles and drag it. Just watch that there is nothing for it to snag on. I have as everyone, used tapes to drag full size kit bags through crawls, good for the business of those who sell new ones.

 

[andrewmcleod]

This fits with what I was told (and discovered) about alpine climbing: "If you take bivouac gear, you'll need it".

Best to be aware of the possible confirmation bias here though. You have the people who don't take bivouac gear and don't need it, and you have the people who take bivouac gear and needed it. But you don't have the people who didn't take bivouac gear and needed it...

 

[Cantclimbtom]

In addition to soliciting people to click a link on a site, have you had any thoughts on trying caving or mine exploring yourself (maybe a try it out type trip with a club)?

I looked and the University of Hertfordshire has a student: accounting and finance society, project management society but no caving or climbing or mountaineering clubs? (I'm not sure all of your peers sound very fun ) but there are a lot of clubs out there generally even if not student union ones. People enthusiast for an activity tend to be very friendly.

Give it a go... do it and ask people in person. That would be thorough research!

 

[Cantclimbtom]

Best to be aware of the possible confirmation bias here though. You have the people who don't take bivouac gear and don't need it, and you have the people who take bivouac gear and needed it. But you don't have the people who didn't take bivouac gear and needed it...

I've not taken bivvy gear and needed it, that was a LONG and COLD night

 

[JoshW]

Best to be aware of the possible confirmation bias here though. You have the people who don't take bivouac gear and don't need it, and you have the people who take bivouac gear and needed it. But you don't have the people who didn't take bivouac gear and needed it...

Some great examples of survivorship bias in this article (the most famous being that of planes returning from WW2 with holey wings)

Survivorship bias - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[JAshley73]

Which is precisely why the focus should be on prevention rather than cure; carrying a first aid kit is no mitigation for reckless or careless caving.

Caving solo can reduce the liklihood of many potential accidents, but increase the consequences in the event that such an accident occurs. So as a solo caver, take care and don't f#*k up.

Riiightt... While I agree, with your very obvious caution, this is cerainly a case where an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Case in point - I carry a small roll of tape, and two wooden floor shims in my pack. They cost me nothing in terms of weight and bulk. Can serve multiple uses if needed, and if needed badly, they'll greatly improve the situation amongst other challenges.

Similarly, when you drive on the motorway, do you wear your seatbelt? I mean, if one's going to drive solo, why not just drive fast and carefully? Ther very obvious answer, is that because sometimes things happen beyond our control...

I view having a few bits & bobs in my first aid kit - which cost me very little whilst moving about in-cave - just the same a wearing a seatbelt on the motorway...

 

[PeteHall]

Regarding the seat belt analogy, it is easy to argue that if cars were fitted with a spike on the steering wheel instead of an airbag/ seat belt, there would be far fewer accidents and road deaths.

Obviously, I'm not advocating for airbags to be replaced with spikes, but sometimes the perception of safety leads to careless behaviour, while the perception of risk focuses the mind.

Again, not suggesting that carrying a first aid kit increases the liklihood of an accident, but without doubt, peer pressure, a sense of safety in numbers, or distraction by others does increase accidents.

 

[Babyhagrid]

Caving in a group where everybody else is out of their depth is arguably more unsafe than caving there alone. Especially for difficult bits of cave.

 

[royfellows]

...................., or distraction by others does increase accidents.

I have just had a totally terrifying thought!
Just suppose, that at some time in the future, someone invents a mobile that works underground !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[kay]

Or caving in a group where you’re the one out of their depth. On your own, you wouldn’t be there.

 

[JAshley73]

Or caving in a group where you’re the one out of their depth. On your own, you wouldn’t be there.

Well at one point, that's all of us, right?

 

[kay]

Well at one point, that's all of us, right?

I suppose I'm not thinking of your first caving trips when someone is taking you under their wing. I'm thinking about when you're just not very good, or you're a lot older than you were (both of these apply to me) and in a group you can get bounced into something that's a bit beyond your current capability. Even if it's just moving faster than you normally would so as not to be a nuisance, and therefore not having time to be as careful as normal.

I'm very careful who I go caving with nowadays.

 

[JAshley73]

One thing that's always been the case on trips that I've taken, and have heard repeated quite a bit - The group alters their plans to accomodate the weakest member. Yes, it sucks, but I feel like it's probably the safest policy, to ensure folks don't push beyond their comfort zone and get themselves, and the group, in trouble.

At the very least, another member would self-sacrifice the full experience to stop and wait with a weaker member, while the rest of the group advances on.

As disappointing as that would be for the stronger members on an exciting trip, pushing weaker cavers past their comfort zone would most likely have worse consequences for the entire party.


(Maybe I'm just rambling at this point...?)

 

[Pitlamp]

I guess that's payback to some extent, for when the experienced members were novices and looked aftrer by a previous generation of experienced members.

 

[JoshW]

I guess that's payback to some extent, for when the experienced members were novices and looked aftrer by a previous generation of experienced members.

And isn’t that the point? That we all have a bit of a social responsibility to help those out around us who need it.

 

[kay]

I don't think many people mind "missing out" to help a novice with the potential to develop into an expert caver. It gets more difficult at the other end. No-one minds helping out an experienced caver whose abilities are now declining. But a caver who has been mediocre at best? That's asking rather a lot of anybody.

 

[carpet]

I have a bit of stuff in my first aid kit that isn't mentioned in your list of tickboxes, most of which is covered by JAshley73, but I'll find my first aid kit when I get home and double check what exactly is in there at the moment. In the meantime, I can't submit your survey at the moment unless I answer question 11, which is irrelevant to me due to my answer to question 10. Is there any way of fixing this at your end or shall i just tick them all and submit and then you can discount that answer from your data?