Explored a nice size phreatic maze cave a few days ago, with a team of 4 including myself. We probed far into the dry dusty passages, about 3/4 of a mile in from the entrance. Being a phreatic tube maze cave, there were plenty of awkward zbends, tight chest compressor sideways crawls, upward hands first squeezes and other very tough time and skin consuming obstacles.
Being the skinniest in the squad may have a downfall. I brought the team to a large room far back where we split and a team of two, myself and another, proceeded further. We chimneyed above a 50' fissure, squeezed sideways some more past large groups of popcorn and sharp rimstone. After a barrage of left and rights, we arrived at the room I terminated my last exploration. It was an arms first upward chest compressor I could just about make, so I wanted a backup to be able to push/pull if I became a bit stuck. After about a 10 minute struggle I was up through the squeeze, only to find my buddy was unable to follow behind. I pushed on a bit, knowing I had made it past the one section that had defeated me before (last time my caving buddy was so large he couldn't make it even near the last area). So on I went until I hit another tight tube. Seemed too tight, especially with noone from my team able to access me for help. So 30 feet from my last defeat, I was defeated again by a tube with an 'out' arrow carved where I attempted to enter. Frustrating.
Seeing those thoughtless carved arrows made me angry, but probably more so because I know whoever that inconsiderate person was had explored further than me. I don't know what to do to push the explore any further. The floor was dirt, so digging may be an option. Dumping space is a problem. But THE AIR!! I know the cave has much more passage than we've seen.
Knowing there is more passage means I am not finished. Not until I recruit a toddler to push these small passages.
This is more of an SOS distress call. Any skinny cavers who pride themselves on squeezes and might be in the vicinity of CO, PM ME!
Let's go scoop.