How frequently do you take hot drinks into the cave?

[PeteHall]

What's wrong with cave water? Seems daft to carry water down a wet cave.

(Obviously you should never try this in the Mendips because you would die a horrible death from something or other).

I've drunk the water from pretty much every cave I've visited (I do choose where to take it from) and I've never had so much as an upset stomach after caving. I did once have a nasty bout of weils disease after a Stoke Lane trip and that's one of the few caves I don't drink in!

I do like to carry rehydration salts and an empty bottle for longer trips; this makes such a difference and is a lot lighter than food.

 

[ZombieCake]

I've drunk the water from pretty much every cave I've visited

I'd probably give the cocktail of minerals in the likes of Upper Flood and Waterwheel and so on, and any where else the ground looks a bit gruffy a bit of a miss. Unless you're really in to very heavy metals. 

 

[cap n chris]

I've drunk the water from pretty much every cave I've visited

I'd probably give the cocktail of minerals in the likes of Upper Flood and Waterwheel and so on, and any where else the ground looks a bit gruffy a bit of a miss. Unless you're really in to very heavy metals. 

DMC on this forum will confirm that the heavy metal count from scientific sampling strongly suggests you should refrain from drinking water in the caves, big-time. I'm not going to provide any order(s) of magnitude but will state I'd definitely not be happy drinking water from the caves in my region. [e.g. the orders of magnitude are real].

NB: Think along the lines of arsenic, lead, etc.. Cumulative ingestion.

 

[Fjell]

What's wrong with cave water? Seems daft to carry water down a wet cave.



I've drunk the water from pretty much every cave I've visited (I do choose where to take it from) and I've never had so much as an upset stomach after caving. I did once have a nasty bout of weils disease after a Stoke Lane trip and that's one of the few caves I don't drink in!

I do like to carry rehydration salts and an empty bottle for longer trips; this makes such a difference and is a lot lighter than food.

I went down Stoke Lane the once. My abiding memory is being jammed in a little rift thing next to a duck with the water up to my chin as a large turd bobbed by about 2" away in front of my eyes. I decamped to the Dales shortly after.

 

[ZombieCake]

NB: Think along the lines of arsenic, lead, etc.. Cumulative ingestion.

Yep, totally agree with Cap'n Chris, IMHO please don't drink Mendip cave water.  There's also the slurry run off, and other things.  Clear water isn't necessarily safe water.  Have a look at what's upstream and what it's passing through from the surface.

 

[Roger W]

There's always a dead sheep not far upstream when you drink from a nice clear stream on the fells. And I used to think the water at the end of the Five Arches in Peak Cavern tasted delicious and was the best water you could get until someone told me it was radioactive...

 

[Fulk]

Once on a trip down Juniper Gulf I noticed a dead lamb decomposing in the stream on the way down, but on the way out got quite thirsty and ? having forgotten about said dead lamb ? had a drink from the stream (downstream from it). Didn?t seem to do any harm.

 

[cap n chris]

Once on a trip down Juniper Gulf I noticed a dead lamb decomposing in the stream on the way down, but on the way out got quite thirsty and ? having forgotten about said dead lamb ? had a drink from the stream (downstream from it). Didn?t seem to do any harm.

Baaaaa!

 

[Graigwen]

Aberystwyth University tend to prefer champagne underground.

 

[Pitlamp]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVVyS3MAbAA

 

[KristianBrook]

Mulled wine for christmas trips. Hot Tea and juice for shorter novice trips. A flask either in the car or at the Entrance of the cave is always nice as long as it insulated from the cold. Would not say I've used one often but they are becoming more prominent as I get older.

If I were to be decident though a stove and freshly brewed tea at a dig would be nice and probabaly keep the digging sesh going longer (not that I last that long anyway)

 

[A_Northerner]

For novice trips or when I'm digging I take sweetened chai tea in a flask.

2 chai teabags, milk, 1 teaspoon honey

It's sweet as hell but really perks miserable cold freshers up once they get something warm, sweet and spicy in them.

Other than that the only flask I take with me is a hip flask. Shot of whiskey when you're at the bottom of some godforsaken hole has the same warming effect as tea, plus Dutch courage, and it takes up much less room.

 

[Badlad]

Digging with a group of 'builder' types we often take flasks underground.  Not surprising as digging can often be like a day of work on site.  A good opportunity to sit around for a blag and a moan 

Wouldn't normally bother for a straight forward trip though. 

 

[Pitlamp]

If you watch that excellent Ink Sump video which appeared on here recently (well done the Freems and Jim et al; it really is good!) there's a brief clip of some sherpas enjoying the hot contents of a flask.

I tend to agree with Badlad in the above post; flasks are best suited to project caving rather than standard trips.

 

[tdobson]

If you watch that excellent Ink Sump video which appeared on here recently (well done the Freems and Jim et al; it really is good!) there's a brief clip of some sherpas enjoying the hot contents of a flask.

I did the avoidable duck before inksump a few months ago. I would have *loved* a flask after that one!

 

[Pitlamp]

It's properly called "Lake Sump" although it's no longer sumped, normally.
Saves getting clarted up with mud and slutch going round that crawl!