What do you need to explore a cave?

Answer 1

You would need a first aid kit, water, emergancy water, at LEAST two days worth of food, rope harness and flare gun(if you need to use the flare gun be smart dont fire it straight up if there is no opening)

I am intrigued. I don't know where you (first to reply) go caving but the list you give may be of value on the surface if the caves are in very remote country. If so then you need to plan for the surface-camp, walking etc as well as the caving, but that's a separate matter.

That list's not much use for most caving trips. You may want a flare gun in remote countryside - but never underground, where it would be dangerous and useless, even with an open shaft entrance.

Sticking to the underground needs and assuming a normal caving trip of <12 hours duration without camping in the cave...

FIRST: a proper helmet and lamp designed for caving; as caves be dark, very dark and often contain low roofs or places with a stone-fall risk.

2: Proper footwear. Very often now, rubber Wellington boots though you could use industrial safety-boots. They won't last as long and are heavy. The main points are good support and good grip on wet, often muddy, rock.

3 : Decent lamp & helmet... a good idea to carry a compact spare & spare batteries in water-tight container. Some cavers attach a small torch to the side of the helmet as an emergency light.

4: Appropriate clothing for the cave, from a wetsuit if you're going to be in deep water a lot, to light clothing with perhaps a boiler-suit if the cave is dry & warm. Most cavers now use a one-piece fleece-fabric undersuit with a waterproof PVC one-piece oversuit, for most trips.

5: "Rope harness"... Hmmm, yes if the cave contains pitches. It may do if you are its explorers so will not know what it holds, but if you are, you would not be asking questions here about how to go caving! You'll find the ropes, descender, ascenders, etc to suit the cave and your own style of rigging and rope techniques; will come in useful too. (There are marked differences between European & US single-rope techniques.) Or of course, ladders and lifelines etc.

6: Food. Yes, sufficient to sustain you during the trip. E.g., Chocolate bars, boiled sweets, oatmeal bars. Water: very possibly, for long trips in very dry caves.

7: First-aid kit. A survival-bag and a few rolled bandages plus a pair of safety-scissors, all in waterprood wrappings, are the only items likely to be much use to you. Anything further is in the rescue-organisation's kit.

8: Still on underground kit only. Possibly a folded, laminated copy of the cave's survey / description if it is a complex system presenting route-finding problems. If not available, small cairns of pebbles or sand at junctions, and removed on exit, are permissable assuming they won't confuse or be demolished by other parties visiting the cave at the same time. Marking the walls is obviously wrong.

9: Decent lamp, mounted on a proper caving-helmet; mentioned again so you don't forget. Funny how the original reply omits this most obvious kit!

10: Membership of a proper caving-club so you can learn all this lot and enjoy your caving to the full.

Finally... daunted by that lot? Take up another hobby!