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Getting Underground

If you want to get involved in caving, the best thing to do is find experienced cavers. The National Speliological Society, the national organization of cavers, maintains a searchable list of grottos, which are the chapters of the NSS. You will find the search box on the NSS home page. If there are caves near you, there is likely a grotto near you, particularly if you live in or near a city. The list contains addresses and/or e-mails of contacts who will be able to tell you about upcoming activities, training events, trips, and other functions, as well as where to meet. The best thing to do is to go to such a meeting, find an interesting person, and start asking questions. Within a few tries you will likely score what you want to know - and perhaps a new friend.

Advantages of finding a caving organization are:

• They know the locations of more caves than you do.
• They probably have contacts with landowners so you can explore some caves without trespassing that would normally be off-limits to you.
• They probably have a "gear pool", or you can at least borrow equipment from someone, so you don't have to buy equipment just to see if you like caving.
• They can teach you advanced techniques such as rappelling and other rope work.
• You will meet new friends.

Planning your own Trip

Don't Trespass.
       Not only does it irritate the landowner, but it makes it harder for other cavers to get access ligitimately later on. Landowners have buried or destroyed caves before to prevent trespassing. In addition, if you trespass, you expose yourself to a hidden danger: if you get injured, you will have to admit to a crime to be rescued. This may force you to have to make uncomfortable and unsafe decisions. It's not worth it.

Don't Go Alone.
       This is different than the other "don't go alone" warnings for activities like hiking. It is not that caving is that much more dangerous. It's just that if you do get injured, it's a lot less likely that someone will stumble upon you by accident and rescue you, and no one will hear your cries for help. It's also a lot harder to maneuver in a cave when injured than on the surface, so "self-rescue" is much more difficult. Go with a buddy. Better yet, go in a group of four. Three is usually considered the minimum, so that if someone gets stuck or injured the second person can stay with them while the third goes for help. Four allows both the person going for help and the person who is injured to always have a companion.

• Tell the name and location of the cave
• Tell when you are planning to get out. Consider this carefully. You want to leave enough time to have fun but not so much that if you do get injured, you're waiting around too long for the posse to arrive.
• Go to THAT cave and not others.
• Be out by THAT time.
• Make sure you call your contact when you get out, so they actually know you got out.

Use Proper Equipment.
       By equipment we mean anything you might use in the cave: safety equipment, food, etc. These should include at minimum:

• Safety Helmet.The ways a cave can get you to bump your head are just amazing. Most cavers use the helmets made for rock climbing which are available at outdoor and adventure stores like REI or Whole Earth Provisions, but these are expensive, so if you are just beginning and do not want to commit that much money, you might consider a construction helmet or "hard hat". They are available at many hardware stores and at places like Home Depot. Hard hats are not as comfortable as climbing helmets, which is why cavers prefer climbing helmets. So if you've been on a trip with a hard hat and liked the cave but not the helmet, you can get a better helmet.
• Three separate sources of light for each person. This means three different lights each of which should be good enough for the whole trip. This seems extreme, but that's just because you don't usually use flashlights for hours at a time, usually, and failure is not a big problem. We plan that each single light is good enough, but we don't want to be stuck in the dark if the plan fails. I once watched someone have six lights fail in a four hour trip. In any case, head lamps are far superior, since you don't need to hold them and bash them against rocks as you move through the cave.
• Water and Food. You should bring more than you think you'll need, in case you take longer than expected. Use durable water bottles and durable food, or put your food in durable containers. Caves shatter glass, pierce plastic bottles, turn chips to powder, and turn bananas to jelly.
• The Right Clothes. This means, most of all, clothes that are warm enough but not too warm. Err on the side of hot. Hypothermia is a big threat because you get wet and tired, and you can always take extra clothes off. Elbow pads, knee pads, and gloves can make the trip much better, and don't wear shorts unless you want some really interesting scrapes on your legs.
• An Extra Set of Clothes. This is for when you get out. Your caving clothes will likely set personal best for things you don't want to put on the car seat.
• Sturdy Day-Pack or Bookbag. It's so much nicer than carrying all this stuff in your hands, and having it will encourage you to not leave stuff behind.
• Sturdy Trash Bag. You want to take everything out that you bring in, and you don't want this trash loose. The trash bag will encourage you to clean up after yourself and if you have some time and energy, you can even clean up after the people who came before you. "Real" cavers carry out their urine and feces too. Liquids are carried out in a sturdy bottle and solids are wrapped up in aluminum foil (it's called a "cave burrito") and sealed in sturdy "ziplock" bags. It sounds gross, and it's easier than you think if you plan - and coming upon someone's "droppings" in a cave is pretty gross, too.

Protect the Cave.
       Cave conservation is probably a billion times more important than surface resource conservation. Really. Think about it: how much more space is there on the surface that can be screwed up and still have there be something left to see? Caves are tiny. You have to be careful. Cave formations such as stalactites form at rates of around 1/30 to 1 inch per century. If you break it, no one alive today will ever see it whole unless someone else goes to some considerable trouble to fix it. If you carry a cave formation out, it will probably never be fixed. It will also turn dull, possibly change color, and possibly turn to dust in a few years. The cool, humid environment of the cave is part of the reason the formation looks "pretty". Fingerprints are surprisingly destructive. They leave enough oil on formations to cause water to stop depositing mineral on that spot. The result is a permanent spot that becomes more visible as time goes on.
       There are several things that can be done to reduce damage within a cave.

• Don't touch cave formations. "Cave formations" include anything like stalactites that are not found above ground. These are the things that are a billion times less common than surface features. They may be more fragile than they look, and there's always the mud and oil on your fingers. When you're in the cave, you'll probably see places where people did not follow this rule.
• Choose safe paths and plan your actions. This is for both your protection and the cave's protection. There will often be difficult crawls or climbs. Think about where you're going so you don't get in a scary fix or in a place where you have to hold onto the pretty cave formation to keep from falling.
• Watch where your head, elbows, knees, and feet are. Most accidental formation breaks (and many minor injuries) happen because the knee or head whacks the rock while one is trying to figure out where the foot is supposed to go, or the foot hits the stalactite while one is paying attention to the hands. In other words, paying attention means paying attention to the part of you you are not actually paying attention to at the moment. For instance, notice that as you move your hands toward you, your elbows move out. As you move your feet up, your knees move out. My most painful injuries have come because I hit my knee on something off the path while lifting or moving my feet. I knew someone who crawled on his belly with his feet off the ground waving around above his knees. He was always hitting the ceiling with them. If there had been stalactites, he would have broken them.
• Don't bother the animals. If you are lucky, you'll see animals. Visitors from outside who den in caves, like raccoons, are sometimes seen. Snakes really are not common. Arthropods like spiders and centipedes are common, as are the ubiquitous cave crickets. Scorpions happen into caves sometimes. Be observant and enjoy what you find but do not remove them. Some cave dwelling animals are unique and endangered and should not be disturbed. If there is a bug in your way, don't squash it or slide over it, scoot it out of the way first, or move around it. An animal that deserves special mention is the bat. Bats are cute, fuzzy, fragile little animals that for some reason terrify humans, even though they are really quite wonderful. They are the mammal most closely related to primates. They have quizzical, weird faces and remarkably soft fur. They also have excellent vision and sonar and will do just about anything to stay away from you. The only way you are likely to be bitten is if a bat is injured or sick - otherwise it flies away. On the whole, just don't worry about bats. If you're lucky, you'll find some and see how cool they really are. Contact Bat Conservation International to learn more.
• Don't Leave Anything Behind. One of the nastiest things to find in a cave is the giant ball of long hairy fungus growing on the food or feces left behind by another caver. OK, maybe the fungus is cool, but the food or feces is not. Just about any trash you leave will be food, and it won't be fair food. Food left in a cave is like a miraculous boon from heaven that will unbalance the ecosystem in favor of whatever can eat it. Feces, urine, vomit, crumbs, lint, candles, paper, string, etc. are all food. What isn't food will never decay in a cave.

Don't Give Out Cave Locations.
       If you know about a cave, keep that information to people you trust. You may be interested in the cave. Someone else may be interested in using it for a party. Also consider how well a person you might tell judges character themselves. Your friend might be very conservation minded but unable to tell that one of his friends is just looking for a place to have a party. Several years ago in Austin the key to a gated cave made its way from safe cavers to a group that had a party in the cave involving massive throwing of rocks and breaking of stalactites. Someone couldn't judge character. Also, don't publish a cave location on the internet or in print. All control is then lost of who knows and does not.