I've tried to keep this in mind, but I wish my feet had eyes. Often,
you can't tell if a crawlway's worth pushing unless you can cram your
head in it and look around a constriction or corner. I wish I had some
sort of stethoscopic viewer of some kind to shove through
constrictions instead of my head.
The other problem is groping around for footholds in a black void.
Sometimes you need to crawl in a bit head-first, see that there's foot
holds,then crawl back out to go on down foot first, knowing a bit more
about what's there.
That said, on the last Punkin trip, I got face-down into a more or
less 20-degree down-sloping crawlway, to find that it terminated, and
I had to push my self a body length back out of it -- that was the
roughest going of the whole trip, and winded me pretty good. (It
doesn't help at all when sharp rocks on the floor grab your shirt at
cram it up around your neck, either) It's hard on the shoulders, and I
wished I was in better shape. I don't think I could press 170 lbs.
over my head with a barbell, but that was what I was trying to do.
Tight caving takes more muscles than I knew I had sometimes.
CV
On Nov 29, 2009, at 5:07 PM, Matt Turner wrote:
Exactly what Mark said. Feet first while abit clumsy has two main
advantages A) you're body is designed to climb up and B) the blood
doesn't rush to your head and cause problems. We teach this on all
of our beginner trips here in Austin for good reason "If you've
never been down a passage before go feet first". While I'll admit
that I break this rule on occasion I never do it, without a backup
plan and thus far that back up plan never included Bolts and Rope.
[...]
A smart way to push tight passages is to go in feet first.
That usually keeps your head above your feet, and it makes it much
easier for people to help if you get stuck. And if it feels way too
small, don't force yourself in, although you might be amazed what
one can fit through with the right attitude and sufficient effort.
Mark Minton
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Permanent email address is mmin...@illinoisalumni.org
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