Hi Folks, Rankin here from Alabama. It was suggested that this site is the authoritative forum for caving. I'm looking forward to reading, learning and interacting with experienced caver's. I have much experience in industrial climbing and sport rappelling.
An Engineer by profession, and have somewhat of a reputation for climbing/rappelling to limited access areas. Very few Engineer's have the luxury of being able to gain access to many areas of a structure or natural feature for inspection or field determining details that don't exist otherwise. I work for myself and have for the last 19 years. Before that I worked for one Engineering firm for 18 years.
I have zero experience directly with caving and recognize it is often quite different form any sport climbing/rappelling, most notably getting back up the rope!
I will probably have many questions and concerns, I'm not scared of heights, but not too wild about “skinnying” down holes not much bigger than I am! I'll guard the rope and you can tell me about what you saw!