Problems when using string to navigate

[Ernie Coffman]

Here's a link to a New Zealand article on the problems of using string to navigate:

http://www.tv3.co.nz:80/News/Story/tabi ... fault.aspx

[Lost]

SHHHhhhhhh.... Don't tell the Cave Divers. Maybe they were Cave Divers?

[wyandottecaver]

here is an in-depth discussion on the topic

http://www.stationr.org/caving/index.html

from the table of cntents on the left select the "inane ASC" just underneath "safety bunny"

BTW rodger ling's site is AWESOME!

[Teresa]

After 22 years of caving, I went on my first trip with string a couple of weeks ago. Actually, it wasn't string-- it was a 300' survey tape unrolled and left between the entrance and the destination in a cave which has 4.62 miles of cave beneath 10 acres. The professionally employed cave guide who was in charge of the trip requested it; she took about 3/4 of the group with her, and left us with the string/tape.

I think we could have made it from destination to entrance w/o string -- only two actual turns in the maze -- but hey, why not? The passages in that cave *do* look very much alike, and it's like I've been in it twice in 22 years.

We rolled up the tape on exit. That's the big problem with string cavers (and arrow cavers, too). They leave the darned things in cave when they leave. Actually, if I went into many maze caves, I probably would get a pack of dive arrows (not the whole reel of line) and put them at judicious locations. And pick them up on the way out.

Gretel

[shibumi]

In years past before we got the yahoo problem under control in Buckner, I would occasionally find string in the cave. Since I routinely pack out garbage other folks leave, I'd start wadding it up. On a couple of occasions I would encounter the group at the other end of the string. The looks on their faces were priceless.

(Buckner Cave is one of the most highly trashed caves in the US, we've spent thousands of man-hours working to clean it up now that it is controlled by a conservancy. Back in the 80s and 90s there would easily be 200 people in there a weekend and another hundred or so during the week. Few of them were even minimally experienced cavers)