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Hi all just trying to find a few different ways i can train for SRT (Mostly Accending) as i am planing a few cave trips in the next year or two where i will end up deccending to 1000m and more and i want to get really fit for it. Thanks in advance.

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I agree with Gary. Excellent overall physical conditioning will go a long way. Plus it is usually a lot more interesting than jugging a rope. I've spent some time thinking about expedition training. Just waiting for an expedition to come along for me to use it

Anyway, if I had a few months to train for a big trip my theoretical breakdown goes something like this.
3 days aerobic conditioning: Running, biking, jump rope, anything. I find trail running to be a better specific training for caving as it forces you to be a little more vigilant about where you place your feet, much as you have to be when caving. Plus running on pavement bores the hell out of me and hurts my knees. And biking on trails is also, well, just fun. It's important to have fun.
2 days strength training: Lift weights if you want, but I also find this boring. I find workouts where you just use your body weight to be more appropriate. After all, you're not trying to bulk up! Pilates, yoga, rock climbing, etc. Spend these days also focusing on stretching a LOT.
1 day specific rope training: Jug that rope, do rebelays, changeovers, etc. untill being blindfolded doesn't slow you down at all.
1 day of rest.

Another word of advice as far as training goes. Not caving related really, but just as far as training for anything specific. Most people jump in whole hog and do really well at first until they get lazy or injured. Depending on your base line fitness, jumping into workouts 5-6 days a week might not be the best idea. You don't want to get injured and miss out on the trip you're training for. Start 3 days a week if you need to. Whatever you have to do to stay healthy. And also take the week ahead of your trip off from training. Get rested, maintain your stretching routine and eat well.

Hit the gym. Being in shape will let you do things you would normally become extremely exhausted doing. Most people can do hard trips, but most are wiped out at the end. I take pride in still having gas in the tank when its all said and done becuase I dont sit on my ass watching TV every night after work. ;)

Aside from generally being in shape, here's what I did before going 4500' deep in Croatia. While I still got my butt kicked on that trip (even the best cavers there were pretty wrecked, it was kind of inevitable), the training helped immensely.

My usual exercise routine (when fully executed) consisted of eight miles of bike commuting every weekday, one or two trips to the rock climbing gym a week, and five to ten miles of hiking or walking on weekends, so I was already in decent shape. I decided to add an ascending routine to my workout, so I devised an in-place ascending rig and it was fairly effective. It consisted of a rope tied to an eyebolt in my garage ceiling, with an in-line figure-8 knot hanging right about at stomach height. I would stand on a chair then clip my harness into the figure eight which would leave me hanging with my feet just off the floor. Then I would clip the upper ascender of my frog system, with footloop, into the rope at a typical height above my harness. From there it was a simple matter of standing and sitting back down over and over again, simulating the frog motion but never moving the upper ascender. I would start out the routine by doing as many steps as possible until I was blown out. Then I would do smaller and smaller numbers of reps until I hit some number between 150 and 200 steps. Sometimes I hung a 35-pound weight below me because that's how much weight I was to carry in the cave. I did this routine three times a week continuously for four months prior to the trip.

In hindsight though, the best way to train is just to do as much rope climbing as possible with a heavy weight tied to you. Climb a 600' rope while a buddy feeds it to you. I did not have that luxury, so had to do the in-place sit-stand thing.

Lava wrote: It consisted of a rope tied to an eyebolt in my garage ceiling, with an in-line figure-8 knot hanging right about at stomach height. I would stand on a chair then clip my harness into the figure eight which would leave me hanging with my feet just off the floor. Then I would clip the upper ascender of my frog system, with footloop, into the rope at a typical height above my harness. From there it was a simple matter of standing and sitting back down over and over again, simulating the frog motion but never moving the upper ascender.

That sounds interesting, had to read it twice before my dumb self got what you were saying. I'll give it a go and see how it goes. hopefully going to the krubera-voronja next year so 2km+ of ascending, ill probs be doing that routine every day till then.

Well good luck - I can tell you that my method, while effective, is an absolutely horrible experience and not fun in the slightest, especially when carrying weight. Climbing a fed rope is much more fun. But if you're going to Krubera, heavy training is a must.

You might have noticed that there is nothing keeping your chest close to the rope in that arrangement, as there is when actually climbing with a Croll. You can add a chest harness with a carabiner around the rope to simulate it, or you can just leave it off like I did and let your arms keep you vertical to really get a workout.

Hang a pullup bar somewhere conspicuous in your house (like on the way to the kitchen) and bust a few off every time you walk by.

Training, training, training in the gym at first. And when approaching the expedition start training with SRT too, just to get the correct rhytm on rope

A small clip of our club training facility in an old factory :
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1068395/Movi ... aining.wmv

This is a boring task but has it's positive effects. Start without a tackle bag and after a while do it with 1 or 2 filled ones. Or with a lead-belt
Doing 200 to 300m/ hour up an down is a good training.

BTW where are you planning to do -1000m

If only every caver had access to a place like that we would all be in heaven. I am planning to go to krubera-voronja next year on one of the expeditions and the Berger cave at the moment still trying to work out the caves i will be able to get into without extensive permission. Do you know any that i might be able to get on an expedition next year?

Downundercaver wrote:If only every caver had access to a place like that we would all be in heaven. I am planning to go to krubera-voronja next year on one of the expeditions and the Berger cave at the moment still trying to work out the caves i will be able to get into without extensive permission. Do you know any that i might be able to get on an expedition next year?

Berger is not that hard to get in I would think. This cave is done frequently. Try to contact one of the expeditions for next year. I would say post a message on the ukcaving forum for a Britisch team.

On the psm there are every year several expeditions. I think that in 2013 or 2014 some Britisch cavers are planning a new dive expé to the Bu56 (-1400m). So they need a lot of people to move the equipement. A one-way trip to -1400 is about 16-20 hours depending on the conditions.

The club where I am member of is doing yearly expeditions throughout the year to the Anialarra- system (+30km / -770m). The main expeditions takes place in august (3weeks).

More info : http://www.scavalon.be

Leclused wrote:Berger is not that hard to get in I would think. This cave is done frequently. Try to contact one of the expeditions for next year. I would say post a message on the ukcaving forum for a Britisch team.

On the psm there are every year several expeditions. I think that in 2013 or 2014 some Britisch cavers are planning a new dive expé to the Bu56 (-1400m). So they need a lot of people to move the equipement. A one-way trip to -1400 is about 16-20 hours depending on the conditions.

The club where I am member of is doing yearly expeditions throughout the year to the Anialarra- system (+30km / -770m). The main expeditions takes place in august (3weeks).

Mate if you could send me any email address's and anymore links that you can think of for going to Bu56 that would be great, I tried looking on the net but can't find anything. Sucks living in Australia we dont have the deep caves of Europe....

Pm sent