Strange Cave Packs

[Squirrel Girl]

All this from a guy with Batman riding an elephant for an avatar.....

Which is a downgrade from... what the heck was the other thing, MacGuyver holding a rocket launcher? And you fail to mention that it's a miniature elephant! And Scott has, like, a garage full of rubber envelope-looking things to sell to other cavers! It's insanity!

So I guess, now the question is...... Is Scott "normal weird" or "weird weird"??????


We could make a poll! Of course, you'd never know if people were funnin' him. In either direction!

[Squirrel Girl]

On the other hand.... is there something wrong with riding an elephant?????

[gillip]

I have seen pictures of "worms". They are made out of the black HDPE culvert pipe, I think 8 or 10" diameter. Wedges are cut out of the ends so they remaining part can be folded in and wired up. The ones I saw were about 6' long. I think it may have been the MOLES that used them.
I have a 20 liter nalgene carboy with the bottom cut out. Inside I have a 20 liter dry bag. Close the drybag, attach webbing, run webbing out through the carboy out the top, and pull the dry bag up into the carboy. So far this has worked very well.

[caverdoc]

At an OTR ('79 or '79) a guy had a neat cave pack made out of a plastic case for welding rods. A spare carbide lamp JUST fit into it, with the reflector dismounted. He had a strap arrangement that allowed it to be carried slung or dragged on an ankle in crawls.

When actively diving with NEST we had custom packs made by a member that could be worn slung around the chest/back while diving the team SOP sidemount bottles. It was sewn from nylon, had a drawstring throat that was secured to the chest strap carabiner. It was lined with silver-coated bubble wrap, which SOP directed each caver/diver carry JIC accident, as a patient pad. I think mine is still down in the basement, I'll try to get you some photos, Scott.

When I first started caving in the 70s I used a surplus "engineer bag" from Sunny's Surplus in B'allmer (Baltimore). It looked almost exactly like the pack pictured in "The Longest Cave" in the sketch of a typical cave pack contents. I also used a surplus GI butt pack. I've got a few of those left from my service days, including newer one with fastex buckles from Blackhawk (a company owned by a former Navy SEAL who was in northern Iraq the same time I was. He had an issue pack catastrophically fail while he was negotiating a minefield and "take a dump" all over the ground. That's the kind of experience that impresses a soul to say, start an equipment company out of his garage...Blackhawk now does tens of millions of $$$ every year in military gear).

Scott if you ever get out toward Kansas you need to tour my basement. It's like IMO's secret gear stash...

Jay Kennedy

[George Dasher]

I've used fishing tackle boxes for camera gear. They're light years ahead of ammo boxes.

Jim Eyre's first book, The Cave Explorers, describes a caver who lost a leg in WWII and who worked in a metal shop.

He made all sorts of variants on artifical legs for cave packs. One even included a thermos.

This is, I suspect, the ultimate in not having to carry a pack.

Those top-opening gas-mask bags were the best; now I use a Lost Creek pack.

Jim Hixson just used to stuff his things in his pockets. He too carried no pack.

[SpeleoRover]

I wouldn't qualify pigs as weird - I regularly switch between my Swaygo and a gas can pig for gnarly crawly caves.

I think if one's frame would allow it (mine won't), multiple pockets on a set of caveralls would be the way to go. Look at the coverall jump suits that smokejumpers wear.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/augustgregg/2105638314/

Not a great example, but you get the idea.

[onebat]

I've used an old military gas mask bag in the past.