I got hooked on spelunking in the early 1990s in Tennessee. It was an adventure that would last for about 5 years and take me in several different caves including one that I went in between 35 to 40 times. There are basics to know when planning a cave trip and you need to have a good plan up front before starting out on your journey. I can’t say that I had them all right when I first started but I think my guardian angel kept me safe.
Leave an Itinerary
- Make sure to get plenty of sleep the night before so you are well rested .
- Eat a good breakfast before you go but don’t eat heavy after you come out until you are close to home.
- Leave word of where you are going and when you expect to be back.
- Leave a map of the directions to the location.
- Have phone numbers for the local police and emergency teams in the area.
- Let someone know a time of when they should call emergency teams.
- Make sure to leave cell numbers of phones you will have on your trip
- Never go with less then two people and three to four is preferred Making sure to leave the five above will ensure that if there would be a problem that you know at a certain point, someone would be looking for you and would know where to start.
Clothing
Clothing plays an important role in being prepared as well. Most people that I have ever seen get rescued from a cave, had no idea what they were getting into. When they were pulled out they would have a t-shirt and shorts on with a cheap plastic flashlight and no food or water. So getting back to clothing, 53 degrees is not bad when you are moving but when you stop in a cave it can get cold quickly. I suggest these items of clothing on your trip:
- Jeans, pants, not shorts. You will be crawling on your hands and knees and sometimes even your belly so you will want that protection on your legs. Also they will help keep the heat in when you are not moving.
- A t-shirt and a hooded sweat jacket. Again, a t-shirt is good if you are moving but when you stop you are going to want something that will cover your arms and give your body some warmth. Also if it is a hooded jacket it will help keep the heat from escaping out the top of your head.
- Gloves. I prefer those weight lifting or riding gloves with the fingers cut out because the padding on your palms gives you protection when you are crawling but you want your finger tips exposed so you can feel what you are grabbing hold of when you are climbing.
- Shoes and socks. Your feet are probably one of the most important parts of your body when it comes to these times of adventures. They have to be working well in order to get you in and out safely. I have used hiking boots and tennis shoes. I prefer a good high top tennis shoes or a light weight hiking boot. As far as socks go, I always regular tube socks but I always took a spare and a pair of thermal socks.
Lighting
Now let’s talk about lighting. Lighting is very important and you want to know what is out there because it has changed allot since I was going but none the less there is still the basics. As far as what I used it was MagLite, the best handheld light for the job. I have had one fall about 30 feet and land on solid rock and when we picked it up, the only thing wrong was the button was stuck. Once we fixed the button which was just moving it with our finger, the light turned on. Here are a few others I would look into.
- Petzl Explorer Light System ($299 from Karst Sports.) This is more for the hard core spelunker but would out of reach for the average person.
- Petzl E69 P Duo 5 LED ($109 from Karst Sports.) While this is a little more affordable it still expensive.
- Petzl Tikka Headlamps from RescueResponse.com
- I suggest these series of Petzl lights as they start around $20.00 and go up from there. I also suggest checking the web sites as I found better prices while I was looking. As far as Petzl headlamps go I would rate the as one of the best for caving. I have researched them and talked to people who have used them and they had nothing bad to say about them.
- (4) 8 hour glow sticks.
First Aid Kit
Now it is time to talk about first aid. When planning for a trip like this, you may want some basic items that are just common place. Remember that you are going to be crawling around and getting you hands dirty. You don’t want to be treating an open wound with dirty hands so think about the list below as getting prepared.
- Hand sanitizer and sanitizing wipes (This allows you to clean your hands and to clean up the area that is injured.)
- Exam gloves
- Splinter forceps and EMT shears
- Razor blade
- (20) Ibuprofen tablets
- (20) Aspirin
- (4) 12” long pieces of wood to use for splints
- 1” Medical tape
- Duct tape
- (2) ACE bandages with Velcro
- (1) small paper bag
- Roll, 4.5″ Kling gauze
- (4) 4×4″ gauze bandages
- (2) Instant Cold Packs
- (20) 1″ Band-aids, cloth
- (10) butterfly Band-aids
- (2) finger splints
- (1) 2oz tube of TF RenewAll ($22.95)
- (1) 4oz spray bottle of Cedarcide
- (2) gallon size Ziploc bags
- Glucose tablets
Beyond reliable light, food and water is probably the most important items on these trips. You must remember that even though your plan is to go in and come out in the same day, you can’t always rely on that. So for each person that is on your trip you should plan on a 3 day supply of food and water to sustain you if there should be a mishap. Those foil bags of tuna is ideal and it is good for you. Also, a hard candy like Jolly Ranchers are good to keep your mouth from getting dry. Other food items I have taken is beef jerky, trail mix, sunflower seeds and nuts. You can be creative in this department and pick things you know you love to eat. Last of all, there are some other things you may think about carrying but these are more for the advanced adventurer, like climbing rope, ascenders, harnesses, carabineers, chalks, and a figure eight.
Plan on having a good and safe time and when you plan it out ahead of time, and you will always start out in the right direction. One thing I do want to add. You really need a book like Caves of Tennessee that I listed below. It will give you useful information about the cave or caves you want to go to. If it describes a “major breakdown” then I would say scratch it off your list because if you look at the dates of when it was explored it was probably more the 50 years ago and it is probably not safe now.
Useful Web Sites and Reading
Caves of Tennessee – This book is excellent! I owned it and most of the caves that I explored were out of this book.
An Introduction to Caves and Caving – This web site will give more in depth information about caving.
These vendor web sites will give you an idea of what is out there and prices:
Inner Mountain Outfitters
Gonzo Guano Gear
4Bobandbob
Karst Sports
Rescue Response