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Caving in: Oman | California | Saudi Arabia

Caving

The site that this picture was stolen from is no longer on the web :-(	General Information National Speleological Society home page "The Caver's Multi-Lingual Dictionary" project at http://rubens.its.unimelb.edu.au/~pgm/uisic/lexintro.html National Cave Rescue Commission (NCRC) http://www.caves.org/io/ncrc/ Southeastern Cave Conservancy Web Site: http://www.scci.org
What do people see in caves, anyway?

http://www.hotwired.com/animation/collection/ezone/lenny_goes_spelunking/

Self_rescue egroup

Cindy Heazlet has started a caving self-rescue listserv which is archived at http://www.egroups.com/list/self_rescue/. You have to be a list member to consult the archive. Subscribe at self_rescue-subscribe@egroups.com.

From Cindy's list of recommended readings, posted on http://www.netcom.com/~cheazlit/self_rescue/:

• Harness Hang Pathology, by John Green, at http://pw1.netcom.com/~cheazlit/self_rescue/harnhang.html
• Oxford University Expedition Rescue Guide at http://www.mcs.le.ac.uk/~glowe/Caving/rescue/rescue.html

Ropework

• Learn the ropes (knots animated)
• Cindy Heazlit carries a piece of webbing, which she can tie into an etrier via a frost knot as needed: http://brmrg.med.virginia.edu/knots/FTL/frost.html

Caving in Oman

• Caving in Oman
• Majlis Al Jin, Oman, November 1994 (26K)
• Hoti Cave, through trips, December 1997 and again December 2000 - NOTE about Hoti, May 2002 - when I visited there I found a sign indicating the lower entrance to the cave was 'closed until further notice' and was informed by a gov't worker assigned to watch the site that the Oman gov't planned to make the resurgence area a show cave, including having a 'train' carry visitors up to the resurgence itself. The gov't has no objection to cavers entering at the upper entrance by Hoti village, but they will have to climb back out the same way. Through trips are no longer permitted.
• Arch Cave, Selma Plateau, May 1998
• Kaf Tahri, through trip from Arch Cave out its exit in the mountainside, Nov 1988 (pics up eventually, maybe)
• Jebel Kaw, reconnoiter and survey near Ibri, Jan 1999 (pics up now) 

Caving in Saudi

• John Pint’s remarkable site with lots of pics: http://www.saudicaves.com

Caving in California

Bobbi and I were out hiking in Castle Rock park near San Jose when we came across a group of people ascending "Goat Rock". I stopped to chat, left a card, and got e-mail next day telling me where they met each month. So I attended a series of meetings, a month apart, where people told about discovering caves locally, and gave slide presentations describing expeditions that were elaborate and challenging. And it became obvious there are some interesting opportunities in California to get claustrophobic. Nothing to equal Majlis Al Jin in Oman, but ample opportunity to get cold, damp, and muddy. A list of personal accounts appears at right.

The San Francisco Bay Area Cavers (SFBAC) homepage is at: http://www.best.com/~mushroom/sfbc/ Natural Bridges (and Yosemite), May 1997 Crystal Palace, April 1997 Lost Soldier's Cave, Sequoia Park, Nov. 1996 Lilburn, King's Canyon, Nov. 1996 Crystal Consumnes, Oct. 1996 Pinnacles National Monument, Sept. 1996 White Chief Cave, Labor Day Weekend, 1996

Other urls:

• Western Region Representative for LEARN (the Lechuguilla Exploration and Research Network) web pages are at http://www.redshift.com/~mrosbrook/learn/frames.htm
• Visit a cave rescue team: http://www.hoehlenrettung.de (site 'temporarily overloaded' July 2002)
• An obviously interesting web address:  http://www.petzl.com - Some very good explanations of rope mechanics here

 *Footnote: Glenn joined in too

On a misty cold Saturday, February 1, 1997, there was a session with the San Francisco Bay Chapter of the National Speleological Society in nearby Castle Rock Park put on by Cindy Heazlit on vertical rope techniques. Glenn went to learn how to rap (rappel, or ab, abseil). He not only went down a short practice pitch a number of times, but he made an ascent using what the Americans call the frog system, a chest ascender lifted by squatting and standing in a sling attached to an ascender pushed constantly overhead. Vance worked on honing his technique, and learned a number of basics about rigging and tuning his gear that his mates in Oman neglected to tell him before, during or after those harrowing fixes they almost got him into. Or maybe it's just a case of "when the student is ready, the teacher appears."

Use the navigation at the top of this page or your browser's BACK button to return to a previous page For comments, suggestions, or further information on this page, contact Vance Stevens, page author and webmaster. Last updated: July 25, 2002 Then on March 1, 2010 relinked to files formerly at Geocities, rescued to my own web host

March 6, 2010

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