Lava tube! Laaavaaa tuuuuuuuube

[gement]

Washington State has one of the best publicly accessible lava tubes, Ape Cave.

I'm going! Along with J and corivax, who is kind enough to drive

Comments

[thewronghands]

Yes! I have excellent ones and I am interested in people I like not dying. Do you prefer headlamp, handheld, or both? How much battery time do you need?

[gement]

Huzzah! I hoped that you in particular would respond to this one.

I'd like to use both, and we'd like to try the upper cave (estimated at 2.5 hours) and are all in crap shape. Is four hours of battery life a thing?

I also wasn't sure whether the two light sources is to have on at all times or so you have a backup. And they rent lanterns, which opens up whole new questions about what different kinds of lights one might use in a cave and to what effect; any thoughts on that?

Finally, no food in caves. I get and respect why that is necessary. How do you as a person whose body has pretty tight operating requirements, deal with "no food during this long and athletic activity" regulations?

[thewronghands]

Do you need to outfit your whole party, or just you? I can definitely outfit just you, I may not be able to do everyone. I have one good handheld, one giant handheld a la Maglite, and one good headlamp. (I used to have a second good headlamp but I killed it GoRucking.) When are you going

[gement]

Excellent. I am going on Sunday the 17th, so we have a good week to work things out.

I'm scrounging another headlamp from arjache, so with yours we will have at least two.

As I consider the flashlight situation in my house insufficient, I'd like to buy a few handhelds on principle. (And possibly even a lantern? It seems like it might be handy in a power outage.) If you have recommendations, please do have opinions at me.

Caving is self-guided and the tube is wide enough for traffic both directions, so I can turn back if necessary. It sounds like you do pack food, just well sealed at the bottom of your gear so you can eat as soon as you get out? Or just as soon as you get back to your car? I should be fine by any rational standard, I just have food security baggage and like to know my options.

[gfish]

Someday I want to host a secret party in the middle of that at like 5 in the morning. DJ, lights, the works.

[gement]

I'm there.

(Kompressor break your glowstick! Kompressor eat your candy!)

[caladri]

Kompressor reference! The second one I've encountered this month! Swoon.

[randomdreams]

I take it this isn't the Mercedes supercharger system?

[randomdreams]

My reasonably extensive spelunking experience says: HELMET. hardhat. hardshell bike helmet. Something. I don't care how large the tube is. You hit your head a lot underground. Duct-tape flashlight to side. Lanyard on flashlight in your hand for the three thousand times you'll drop it.

Does the food prohibition stretch to water bottles? because gatorade isn't as good as food but it's better than nothing.

[randomdreams]

note real headlamp is way better, but duct-taped flashlight got me through more caves than I can count.

[gfish]

Hrm. There are only a few sections where the ceiling is low enough you could clonk your head, iirc, but it's not a terrible idea. The big fear I had doing the upper section was just a twisted/sprained/broken ankle, since you're climbing over piles of wet and slippery boulders most of the way. One wrong move and it would suddenly become a very bad day.

But I have 3 Attoparsec-branded hardhats, if you want to borrow them. :)

[randomdreams]

Within the confines of the largest single underground room in Colorado, I've hit my head so hard that even with a helmet I saw sparky things that weren't supposed to be there.
The lava tubes I've been in have been vastly friendlier than my usual speleological encounters, but, man, all it takes is one misjudged move.

And yeah, twisted ankles can be potentially deadly. Again, advantage lava tube, since EMT's can usually get in there and get you back out.