by Mike Hopley » Dec 3, 2012 2:32 pm
Hi all,
I live near London, England. I've been caving on-and-off since 2002.
My favourite part of caving (so far!) is being part of expeditions that explore deep, vertical caves. I've been on six expeditions with Oxford Uni Cave Club, exploring caves in the Picos de Europa mountains of northern Spain -- most recently on the Pozu del Xitu expedition this summer.
The deepest I've personally been is just over a kilometre. I find depth to be a satisfying challenge -- physically, technically, and psychologically. Going deep underground puts us (mostly) beyond outside help, and I enjoy the sense of remoteness and self-reliance. And occasionally you get to take the first steps into places unexplored and unknown.
I'm interested in improving my SRT, mainly because getting out a deep cave takes so damn long, and so much effort. In Europe, we have a frogging monoculture. I've long been intrigued by American ropewalking systems, due to their much greater effectiveness under the right circumstances. Over the years I've been gradually adapting my Frog system to be convertible into a type of ropewalker -- and then testing it out on expedition.
These forums seem to have plenty of technical discussion about such things. Unlike in the UK, it seems that US cavers use a wide variety of systems, and no one setup is absolutely dominant. Hopefully I may get some ideas...
Cheers,
Mike