What caving related thing did you do today?

Nice; that's exactly what I was doing two days ago. Plugs & feathers are a powerful way of rock splitting, done right.
Anyone not familiar might like to note that you don't need to hit them hard; the trick is to keep going along them, tapping them in sequence. I like the sound of the rock slowly cracking, which you can often hear much better when working underwater.
 
Secured a permit for vertical trip this coming weekend. (Let's hope the rope shows up in the post by then...)
 
Evening, JAshley, (a bit off topic, but) your post suggests that you have access problems in the States. Is that so? And how bad is it?
 
Evening, JAshley, (a bit off topic, but) your post suggests that you have access problems in the States. Is that so? And how bad is it?
Well, not really. We have a fair amount of cave entrances that are owned by non-profit land conservancies. The location Saturday is owned by a conservancy, that has 37 properties, with 170 caves. They allow access, through a permitting system. Some locations have daily limits, or seasonal restrictions, but are otherwise "open" to cavers or hikers. www.saveyourcaves.org (SCCi)

Another cave that we frequent, has an entrance owned by a similar non-profit conservancy. It's setup differently. You can become an owner/member for $15 a year, and borrow a key. Or, become a lifetime member for $300 and get your own key, which I did. (This one is a 17-mile cave system, and growing BTW...)

Of course we have caves on private land, which are contingent on the land owner's permission.

Kentucky has 5,000ish registered caves if I understand correctly, including the "Mammoth" system, which is around 440ish miles & counting. SCCi owns an entrance to "Roppel" cave which is connected into the Mammoth system, which again, is free to visit with a permit.

Quite honestly, I could cave every day in Kentucky, for the rest of my life, and still not see everything...
 
I like the idea of lifetime membership with a key!
Not sure if that's in jest or not, but I think it's a nice system.

My wife's uncle (who introduced me to caving,) was instrumental in setting up that conservancy. He purchased the entrance property, and then founded the non-profit conservancy with other members. Their idea was to protect the cave, and access to it for perpetuity, and to make that access affordable. He's a pretty good story teller - and said he's had a group of college kids before pooling their $1's in his driveway, to pay the $15 and borrow his key. This particular conservancy also hosts an SRT class a couple times a year, for $25 a person. Half that money goes toward club-gear for the class. And they typically work with retailers and get a discount, since it's for a caving non-profit.

As far as the key - This particular entrance is a man-made entrance, and it's a vertical metal pipe down into the cave. Pretty sporting. This cave can also flood with heavy rain, so it's probably best to keep it locked/gated to keep unknowing "explorers" from getting into trouble. Lots of other caves are becoming gated as well. (In part also, a historical response to the bat-borne disease "white nose syndrome.") Personally, I'm in favor of gating caves to prevent vandalism, but encouraging easy-access to gate/keys for informed cavers whom are conservation minded.


I have no idea how access works in the UK & Europe. I've been reading "Race against time" bit-by-bit, and it seems like you all have "pot holes" everywhere. :LOL: Are they on freely-accessible public land? Private land with generous permission? I know the book is rescue-centric, but it makes it sound like "cavers" are a-plenty there in the UK, and they're quite risk-averse to wandering where they have no business, and then crying "help!" (I know that's probably not the case, but the book's rather humorous undertones do tell a rather funny story...)
 
Little bit of light plumbing work for storing & dispensing water at a cave camp. Water collected from a sump with wide mouth containers so needed a nice big opening for filling.
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Rigged the west route of Eldon Hole on my first ever use of a rack (BMS 'micro') instead of my Kong Banana - terrifying. Came back up the south route and vowed never to use it again. After testing it off the fence with my Raumer Handy included, I was somewhat more reassured, so dropped the north route this time and de-rigged it - lovely! ;)

Photo by Craig Brailsford.

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Rigged the west route of Eldon Hole on my first ever use of a rack (BMS 'micro') instead of my Kong Banana - terrifying. Came back up the south route and vowed never to use it again. After testing it off the fence with my Raumer Handy included, I was somewhat more reassured, so dropped the north route this time and de-rigged it - lovely! ;)
Very surprised to hear that Phil, did you get the short frame with 2 hyperbars like I have? I've tested that thing down to 6mm covered in fairy liquid and still got a perfectly controllable descent out of it. Admittedly most of my use is on fat ropes, but standard 9mm (even Petzl push) hasn't been a problem at all so far. If anything I sometimes want it to go faster on thick ropes (obvs without hyperbars) and have considered getting the long frame version as well.
 
Short answer, no! I got an almost-unused one from someone on here, but it turned out to be the long-frame version with only the top hyper-bar! The descent was smooth, if scary, as the rope felt completely in the wrong place for security, but it was unlocking at rebelays that was the problem - I kept dropping onto my long cowstail and had to climb back up to free it. Eldon Hole was echoing to my swearing, though that's not unusual on any trip - they're used to it by now.

Al showed me a better method of soft-locking first before the hard-lock (jammed behind the nuts at the top), which was way more firm, but adding the Handy back in fixed eveything. To be honest I was a bit depressed having to make that redundant, as it's my favourite piece of kit. As for the length, I guess I could always saw the spare two inches off the top of the frame and re-tap it - it's pretty huge for my needs, which tend to be of the tight, awkward type of abseiling ;)
 
Short answer, no! I got an almost-unused one from someone on here, but it turned out to be the long-frame version with only the top hyper-bar! The descent was smooth, if scary, as the rope felt completely in the wrong place for security, but it was unlocking at rebelays that was the problem - I kept dropping onto my long cowstail and had to climb back up to free it. Eldon Hole was echoing to my swearing, though that's not unusual on any trip - they're used to it by now.

Al showed me a better method of soft-locking first before the hard-lock (jammed behind the nuts at the top), which was way more firm, but adding the Handy back in fixed eveything. To be honest I was a bit depressed having to make that redundant, as it's my favourite piece of kit. As for the length, I guess I could always saw the spare two inches off the top of the frame and re-tap it - it's pretty huge for my needs, which tend to be of the tight, awkward type of abseiling ;)
Why the change from a bobbin? Especially if you're still passing rebelays?
 
Because the rivet that holds the safety catch in place on my Banana has loosened, and so the catch can open to alarming amounts even when 'closed'. Other than that it's fine, but this bit isn't really repairable, sadly. The stainless bobbins have still got plenty of life left in them.

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Because the rivet that holds the safety catch in place on my Banana has loosened, and so the catch can open to alarming amounts even when 'closed'. Other than that it's fine, but this bit isn't really repairable, sadly. The stainless bobbins have still got plenty of life left in them.

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I mean why the change from a bobbin to a micro-rack? Especially considering the passing of rebelays. Why not just replace it with another bobbin?

Just wanted to try something new?
 
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