I am always reminding everyone with me to be careful over and over again. If they nonetheless break something out of carelessness or disrespect, as has happened, I get a bit upset. If I get the feeling that a person is not developing any respect, I am not going to bring them along for future trips.
On the other hand, I have been in places where it is extremely easy to accidently break something, or where you have to choose between risking damage or turning around. In these cases I'm not going to be angry at anyone for an honest mistake.
I remember a trip where I repeatedly warned the other cavers to be cautious, then I knocked three or four very delicate stalactites of the ceiling with one brush of my hand. I was saddened by what I did, but I realized that I should be slow to wrath with others who may have similar mishaps.
David Grimes wrote:We had a similar topic a while back about destroying formations for exploration. The topic was something along those lines anyway. It seemed a lot of people would destroy a formation if it meant accessing virgin cave so I would assume those same cavers would not be angry if someone accidentally broke a formation.
Right now I am faced with the option to remove two small formations in order to continue a survey of virgin cave. I'll look for this topic to see what the general feeling on the matter is.