Caving, potholing, claustrophobia, etc
Caving, potholing, claustrophobia, etc
Author
Discussion

bigandclever

14,283 posts

264 months

Monday 20th May 2013
quotequote all
ezi said:
I'd rather st the bed...
You bd. You made me googly for the source of the image ... here's the site in full, from 2001 http://www.angelfire.com/trek/caver/index.html

"I named the passage Floyd's Tomb, after Floyd Collins. It seemed to look like the tight spot where Floyd spent his last miserable days on earth".

fk me.

It's quite a long read, especially if you have to keep breaking off to calm the fk down, but interesting nonetheless. Here's a picture from the opposite end ...

Edited because the picture host is being a baby:



Edited by bigandclever on Monday 20th May 18:39

Pixel Pusher

10,390 posts

185 months

Monday 20th May 2013
quotequote all
Angry Sheep said:
I can't see how anyone can find it fun - spending time underground feeling trapped, with little air and staring at the arse of the person in front of you. I was so glad to be back in the open afterwards.
Try taking the tube to work.

You'd get used to it.

VinceFox

20,566 posts

198 months

Monday 20th May 2013
quotequote all
Pixel Pusher said:
Angry Sheep said:
I can't see how anyone can find it fun - spending time underground feeling trapped, with little air and staring at the arse of the person in front of you. I was so glad to be back in the open afterwards.
Try taking the tube to work.

You'd get used to it.
Funny you say that, rush hour on the tube has a similar effect on me.

IroningMan

10,598 posts

272 months

Monday 20th May 2013
quotequote all
'Did you feel that rock move?'

I've wandered about narrow gorges and big caverns - Google Les Gorges de la Fou or Postonja - but there is no way I could contemplate any kind of 'caving': I don't think of myself as claustrophobic, but I cannot imagine getting any kind of pleasure from wriggling through a crawlspace. Ever.

I can well imagine getting stuck, though.

IanMorewood

4,309 posts

274 months

Monday 20th May 2013
quotequote all
Worse still is when someone your caving with has a panic attack in a tight squeeze on the way out, then you've little choice but to try and calm them down and wait I sat for about 3 hours (damp and cold) last time it happened.

kowalski655

15,188 posts

169 months

Monday 20th May 2013
quotequote all
Have only been to 1 tourist cave,in Yorkshire I think,and that was bad enough.Only had to squeeze through 1 part that was narrow,and that just involved sucking my gut in,and 1 bit that I had to get on all 4s for as Im quite tall, but was still pretty scary,till we got to a large cavern.
But on the entrance the big tourist tunnel ran right by the original seam that the discoverer used,it was about 12 inches deep and went on for a long way,just thinking of having to crawl through that with no idea of what was at the end gives me the creeps.
And as for cave divers,they are certifiable!

ezi

1,734 posts

212 months

Monday 20th May 2013
quotequote all
bigandclever said:
You bd. You made me googly for the source of the image ... here's the site in full, from 2001 http://www.angelfire.com/trek/caver/index.html

"I named the passage Floyd's Tomb, after Floyd Collins. It seemed to look like the tight spot where Floyd spent his last miserable days on earth".

fk me.

It's quite a long read, especially if you have to keep breaking off to calm the fk down, but interesting nonetheless. Here's a picture from the opposite end ...

Edited because the picture host is being a baby:



Edited by bigandclever on Monday 20th May 18:39
The wiki article about Floyd is just grim:

wiki said:
Collins became trapped in a narrow crawlway 55 feet (17 m) below the surface. The reports about efforts to save Collins became a nationwide newspaper sensation and among the first major news stories to become a major sensation on the new technology of home radio.[citation needed] After four days during which Collins could be brought water and food, a collapse in the cave closed the entrance passageway to everything except voice contact. Collins died of exposure, thirst, and starvation after about fourteen days underground, three days before a dug rescue shaft could reach his position. Collins' body was recovered two months later.
Can't think of a worse way to go frown

E24man

7,953 posts

205 months

Monday 20th May 2013
quotequote all
Claustrophobia? Try being a submariner when it starts to go just a little bit wrong......

Waugh-terfall

18,488 posts

226 months

Tuesday 21st May 2013
quotequote all
bigandclever said:
You bd. You made me googly for the source of the image ... here's the site in full, from 2001 http://www.angelfire.com/trek/caver/index.html

"I named the passage Floyd's Tomb, after Floyd Collins. It seemed to look like the tight spot where Floyd spent his last miserable days on earth".

fk me.

It's quite a long read, especially if you have to keep breaking off to calm the fk down, but interesting nonetheless. Here's a picture from the opposite end ...

Edited because the picture host is being a baby:



Edited by bigandclever on Monday 20th May 18:39
This before bed was a really bad idea.

silverthorn2151

6,374 posts

205 months

Tuesday 21st May 2013
quotequote all
Waugh-terfall said:
This before bed was a really bad idea.
You're not wrong. I googled tight squeeze as well, as a result I've not conquered the feeling of panic caused by the duvet I've just been awake half the night in a cold sweat.

deadtom

2,747 posts

191 months

Tuesday 21st May 2013
quotequote all
bigandclever said:
here's the site in full, from 2001 http://www.angelfire.com/trek/caver/index.html
Just read the whole site, and while it is a very good read, it's just a ghost story.




ADM06

1,077 posts

198 months

Tuesday 21st May 2013
quotequote all
deadtom said:
Just read the whole site, and while it is a very good read, it's just a ghost story.
Got to admit that last page proper gave me chills!

deadtom

2,747 posts

191 months

Tuesday 21st May 2013
quotequote all
ADM06 said:
Got to admit that last page proper gave me chills!
yeah its a good yarn, It's quite long for a short story but I still ended up sitting and reading it through in one sitting, and like you said, its quite chilling in places.
for about 80% of it I was pretty convinced it was real, but towards the end it just started to overstep the line into the unbelievable.

I still highly recommend it as a way to kill an hour or so


prand

6,236 posts

222 months

Tuesday 21st May 2013
quotequote all
[quote]Collins became trapped in a narrow crawlway 55 feet (17 m) below the surface. The reports about efforts to save Collins became a nationwide newspaper sensation and among the first major news stories to become a major sensation on the new technology of home radio.[citation needed] After four days during which Collins could be brought water and food, a collapse in the cave closed the entrance passageway to everything except voice contact. Collins died of exposure, thirst, and starvation after about fourteen days underground, three days before a dug rescue shaft could reach his position. Collins' body was recovered two months later.
[/quote]

Reminds me of Toni Kurz who died on the Eiger. An equally awful and slow way to go, but this time hanging off a rope halfway up a mountain where nobody could get him.

I'm happy never doing either of these things!

Woolly

643 posts

245 months

Tuesday 21st May 2013
quotequote all
Just after I started a new job a few years ago they had a team building potholing event (one of the team was an experienced potholer). Really didn't fancy doing it but as I'd just started felt like I had to (it was on the afternoon of the FA Cup Final too which my team was in! Grrr).

So I feel qualified to give these handy preparation tips for anyone planning on doing it:

Fill a bath with 3 inches of very cold water.
Get in fully clothed.
Every minute bang your head hard with a tea tray.
Do this for 3 hours.

That should sort it.

I kept thinking well at least we're making our way to the huge atrium where there will be boats full of musicians serenading us ( I went to the Caves of Drach on holiday in Majorca when I was a kid). Nope, we just crawled around in mostly 3 foot high corridors and came out again. The only highlight was when a plump girl fell 6 foot down a slimy rock face knocking the team leader with her into a 4 foot deep pool.

It was about as much fun as no fun and I won't be doing it again.

Oh and a schoolboy was killed on an outward bound course in nearby caves not long ago too. I checked when my daughter went on the same course to make sure she didn't do this but it seems it is no longer included. Sensible.

RDMcG

20,681 posts

233 months

Wednesday 22nd May 2013
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Very little scares me,but claustrpphobic spaces, especially underground,leave me weak kneed. There is not enough money in the world to make me go potholing. I do not mind big caverns that you see in many places, with walkways, but that is the wimped-out version.

BlackVanDyke

9,932 posts

237 months

Wednesday 22nd May 2013
quotequote all
No no no no no no nononononoNO. I used to love climbing/scrambling but anything with a real possibility of getting physically stuck? No fking way. PS the Wiki surfing caused by this thread lead me to the case of baby Jessica McClure. :shudder:

Mobsta

Original Poster:

5,614 posts

281 months

Wednesday 22nd May 2013
quotequote all
BlackVanDyke said:
No no no no no no nononononoNO. I used to love climbing/scrambling but anything with a real possibility of getting physically stuck? No fking way. PS the Wiki surfing caused by this thread lead me to the case of baby Jessica McClure. :shudder:
From memory, a Canadian or American baby who fell down a well and was stuck there for 3 days. Or something similar.

Mobsta

Original Poster:

5,614 posts

281 months

Wednesday 22nd May 2013
quotequote all
deadtom said:
ADM06 said:
Got to admit that last page proper gave me chills!
yeah its a good yarn, It's quite long for a short story but I still ended up sitting and reading it through in one sitting, and like you said, its quite chilling in places.
for about 80% of it I was pretty convinced it was real, but towards the end it just started to overstep the line into the unbelievable.

I still highly recommend it as a way to kill an hour or so
Reading it now. No idea what you refer to, but the dog is suddenly freaking out underground, they have extra drill batteries and sense something is wrong.

New POD

3,851 posts

176 months

Wednesday 22nd May 2013
quotequote all
Climbing is dangerous. But an RAF helicopter might be able to carry you to hospital.
Swimming is in open water is dangerous. But it's possible to have a boat follow you across the channel to France.

But Potholing is a combination of Climbing and Swimming 1 mile below ground where there is no way a stretcher can carry you to safety.