Hoyt McKagen:

>Q: What do you want to improve in the next cave trip?

We need more crawling in mud and water under low ceiling!!

The bigger pitches should be double-rigged to let two climb or descend at once and reduce waiting time at bottom and top; this gives more caving per total amount of time spent. (But handling of packs and gear was fast and efficient!) We were almost short-roped in three places and should have brought more and/or longer pieces. By leapfrogging ropes along, it is possible to double-rig but leave only one rope behind at each pitch, with last man down and first man up taking care of the other one. Rope should not be rigged so close to pitch that people are exposed getting on and off. In caves of this nature with multiple pitches, all free ropes should go ahead with first people down, to save waiting time while rigging later drops and in this case for the baggage traverse.

We were short on vittles; strenuous stuff like caving demands about 2.5 liters fluid and 3000-3500 calories per day. If you don't pee every two hours, you are too dry and chance becoming uncoordinated, weak, or nauseous. Also, some of the tiredness some of us felt going out was actually low blood sugar.

Kitchen capacity was low. Need at least one burner for every four people, and more cooking pots or pans in use. One burner should be mostly for boiling water only, for chai, soup, etc. Need to maintain pure water on hand in quantity of about 4-5 liters, with free access.

Individuals may all carry small pack with some essentials inside it: spare battery and lamps or complete lighting unit, small amount of durable food, a collapsible canteen or bottle of about 750-1000 ml, vertical gear, etc. All should be chosen with thought of being separated or other emergency, where individual light and resources are mandatory. Many cavers carry a plastic garbage bag inside helmet, to put on if needed for warding off cold air. Wearing harness throughout cave is OK in most caves but there will be times in close passages when it hampers movement.

Each individual may also carry his own pack with major gear such as utensils, sleeping bag, spare thermal clothing, etc; this avoids group handling and re-packing before, during and after trip and it improves packing efficiency in terms of space needed. Hence it speeds arrivals and departures and we have more time for beer.

Overall, trip gets high marks: people were prepared mentally, well-trained, skilled at the work presented, enthusiastic and fun to be with. Praises to Boss Dima for great organizing! Usually when I cave I am the last one to get tired, and it was nice to have it be different this time! A bit more schedule flexibility would have been nice; for example I wanted to go down main stream passage to bottom of Andrews the entire time we were in, but it wasn't option.

Regards,

Hoyt

Belfab CNC - Best MC Repair - Camping/Caving - Ten Myths

Get your knees into the breeze, please