How to check out a white passage - educational post :-)

[Leclused]

In one of our projects in France, we needed to check out a very white passage to see if it continued. Luckily for us, it didn't.

Below are some picture of how Erik did it and the measurements we took to do it. All photo's by Jos Beyens and Michaële Vandecasteele.

- Clean undersuit
- Clean gloves
- special shoes with white sole
- no helmet to avoid hard contact with the stalactites
- special neopreen pads to walk on to avoid the mud

Special pads to walk on during the approach

Carefull inspection in clean clothes/gloves and no helmet

Climb towards the inspection point. Check out the clean soles !

Assistant is coming down after the inspection.

 

[pwhole]

That's awesome - nice work. And nice passage too.

 

[Speleofish]

Very impressive! If only we were all so punctilious (and so lucky - looks like a wonderful find!)..

 

[JasonC]

That's really taking conservation seriously - bravo!

 

[mrodoc]

Nothing new here. Just requires thought. At a BCRA conference some years back a team were exploring a crystal floored passage in Uzbekistan. They wore rubber gloves over their feet. Their video looked like a clip from Dr. Who - hilarious. Have had to do similar in USA and Australia in bare feet! We even did it in the Frozen Deep in one section.

 

[Leclused]

Indeed not new for us. This is standard procedure for us too for over 20 years already. I just wanted to show how some best practices are done

Nothing new here. Just requires thought. At a BCRA conference some years back a team were exploring a crystal floored passage in Uzbekistan. They wore rubber gloves over their feet. Their video looked like a clip from Dr. Who - hilarious. Have had to do similar in USA and Australia in bare feet! We even did it in the Frozen Deep in one section.