by Jeff Bartlett » May 21, 2008 12:31 pm
i've actually carried a carbide lamp just for warmth and marking permanent stations, with my stenlight on my helmet. saw someone do that in mammoth and it seemed like a good idea.
blaze orange fingernail polish does work well, and i suspect whiteout would be even better - haven't tried that. i also can't attest to the permanence of these options - has anyone recovered stations marked this way or tied into older surveys using either?
lumber crayon works OK, but in caves where there is any kind of dampness or seep it will slowly diffuse and then disappear. we surveyed a cave with a lot of belly crawling by marking stations on the ceiling with lumber crayon and using 6" plastic standoffs to shoot the shots - unfortunately, the stations rubbed off as we crawled by and were difficult to recover on a future trip.
permanent markers don't work well for me, unless the cave is really dry and the stations are free of mud/sediment the markers start hiccuping very quickly.
flagging tape is the standby - set your stations with a small dot (carbide or nailpolish/whiteout) and a streamer of flagging tape, and then you have the option to either pull the tape on your way out (leaving stations you'll need to recover; typically we make sure there is a permanent station every 3 or 4 shots in passage with no branches, and a permanent station anywhere a survey might need to be attached), or on a future trip after you've entered the data and made sure it's error-free. in a passage that will flood higher than the flagging tape, you can always go the poker chip route if a carbide designation on a rock (or the wall) isn't an option.
"Although it pains me to say it, in this case Jeff is right. Plan accordingly." --Andy Armstrong