Thank you for the interesting history of you past and early caving years. Jim
Sent from my iPhone On Sep 16, 2013, at 1:08 PM, Diana Tomchick <diana.tomch...@utsouthwestern.edu> wrote: > I don't get much time to discuss caving with people where I work, but last > week I had someone in my office that was admiring the Speleoprojects > postcards I had posted on my outer door (I save these from their calendar > every year, and post them in rotation as my mood changes). It turned out that > she was yet another person who claimed to suffer from claustrophobia and cto > have fears that the cave might collapse on her, and thus would never be > enticed into caving. Ten hours underground for most people would not be > designated as "pure fun". > > Whenever I hear someone talk about claustrophobia I find I have to restrain > myself from discussing my first "solo" caving adventure. This was actually on > my second wild caving trip. It involved a digging lead and I was the > skinniest person on the trip. By the time they had enlarged the hole enough > to let me through, they were so tired of digging that they just asked me to > go on through and check out the lead. This caused me some hesitation, for > obvious reasons (to a beginner, at least), but I was unwilling to admit my > fears. I did protest that I had no idea what constituted a caving lead, but > they seemed sure enough (or perhaps tired enough) to let me check it out on > my own. So after telling myself "it's now or never, either I go or I will > never be a real caver", I summed up the courage to squeeze through into a > pretty large room. I checked it out to the best of my beginner abilities and > told them that it was a dead end--but to this day I am sure that cave goes, I > just didn't know how to sense air movement and find the next digging lead to > work on. > > Diana > > * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * > Diana R. Tomchick > Professor > University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center > Department of Biophysics > 5323 Harry Hines Blvd. > Rm. ND10.214A > Dallas, TX 75390-8816, U.S.A. > Email: diana.tomch...@utsouthwestern.edu > 214-645-6383 (phone) > 214-645-6353 (fax) > > > On Sep 16, 2013, at 12:04 PM, Bill Bentley wrote: > >> Pure Fun! >> ----- Original Message ----- >> From: Louise Power >> To: Bill Bentley ; texas cavers >> Sent: Monday, September 16, 2013 10:17 AM >> Subject: RE: [Texascavers] Re: Solo Caving >> >> Was it 10 hours because you were having a good time or because you couldn't >> find your way out? >> >> From: ca...@caver.net >> To: texascavers@texascavers.com >> Date: Sun, 15 Sep 2013 13:42:32 -0500 >> Subject: [Texascavers] Re: Solo Caving >> >> Done a whole bunch in Amazing Maze Cave back in the mid 80's. I was in my >> 20's and was going to live forever. Regular pack nothing out of the >> ordinary. Can't remember if I told anyone where I was going or not. Would >> not do it again... I teach and preach against it now... The longest solo >> trip in there was about 10 hours...Maybe longer ... >> >> Bill > > > ________________________________ > > UT Southwestern Medical Center > The future of medicine, today. > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > Visit our website: http://texascavers.com > To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com > For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com > --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com
