Caving

March 9, 2010

When I was first introduced to caving, it was Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. You walk into the huge entrance of the cave, walk around looking at all of the things that are well lit and then walk out. Caving went to a whole new level when I came out of the other end on the Dead Man’s Crawl. Muddy and wet, I had experienced real caving. Until I came here I didn’t really understand that caving could go to another level. Then I was introduced to vertical caving.

With this type of caving you can’t just walk into the cave. Instead, you have to rappel into the cave. The Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia area is full of caves I found out. Some pits are over 500 ft deep. It is true, with most vertical caving experiences you have to be prepared to climb out. It isn’t the case for all of them, but most of the time the amount of feet you go down is the amount you have to climb to get out.

That was the case for Cagel’s Chasm. 193ft down I went and 193ft I had to climb out. All of it was well worth it as caving was taken to an entirely new level.