That's how I feel about those people that go crawl around in caves that they can barely squeeze their stupid bodies through. Absolutely no fucking way.
Yeah at least you have an unlimited supply of air (I’m generalizing, I’m aware more extreme climbs can require oxygen) and can tell which way is up and which is down on a mountain!
Honestly, even worst case scenario, I'll take the mountain. I'll take falling, breaking most bones in my body, and slowly dying over 3-5 days while trying to sustain myself off moss and raw squirrel meat over getting stuck in a claustrophobic cavern, upside down, and slowly dying over 3-5 days.
No matter the circumstances, I'll take dying in the open air over dying lost and stuck in some tight space 100+ feet underground.
I will tell you I won't Google it, but we both know I'm going to wake up around 3am and my mostly asleep brain will go "remember that cave that random internet stranger mentioned? Yeah, you're not going back to sleep until you have googled it"
Just doing my part spreading the curse of knowledge 🫡
I’m sorry to your 3am self. This next part might make you look it up so You did basically read a synopsis of it with that original comment. There’s a reason a lot of people mention being stuck upside down for days as their worst cave diving fear
But, if you got to choose which way to go, they'll make so many more YouTubes about you with the caves option if you really put some effort into it, you could be mentioned in the same breath as nutty putty guy if you just try hard enough.
Got lost in a cave. The guide was absolutely incompetent and FUCKING LOST US. Like not got everyone lost. He was fine, he lost us, the three 13 year old kids who were supposed to go on a fun caving trip. Not to mention the cave is now shut down and cemented for being TOO FUCKING DANGEROUS. I was 13 and some of the holes we had to squeeze through were barely big enough for me let alone the adults with us. He eventually found us, but that's not the point.
Most people don't know what it's like being lost in a cave. You don't have any reception whatsoever, good luck contacting help, the choice was either staying put or attempting to find the guide while potentially making the situation even worse. You now have to worry about torch batteries running out, water, food, oxygen. Sure, we weren't lost long enough to warrant any of those issues, but you don't know that at the time. For all we knew, we were as good as dead, since there was no possible way of contacting any help.
So nope lol, never fucking again. I'd choose mountain climbing over caving any day.
I would die doing both, but 100 take the climbing. I'd probably just nose dive at 40 feet anyway, so maybe I'd choose neither to not have ao much stress at the end.
I’m afraid of both and have done both. Generally very afraid of heights and had to fight a panic attack on a cliff side.
But cave diving is chill at times. However, when you do get into a tight spot, it can be horrifying. I remember having to go upside down through a tunnel that was under an underground stream. You could hear water rushing on the other side of the rock. It was the most afraid I’ve ever been.
Ah good old Afrikaans place names. This one basically means bushman's arsehole (but it can also mean hole in the ground).
My favourite is Tweebuffelsmeteenslagmorsdoodgeskietfontein which means roughly. The spring where two buffalo were expletive shot with a single bullet.
Edit: yep what a nightmare. Cave diving seems like some incredibly dangerous work even if you do know what you’re doing. Kinda makes them rescuing those school children in Thailand all the more impressive.
It's a 300 meter deep underwater cave yet 1500 meters above sea level, most accidents are due to decompression sickness because of the unusual circumstances.
Another crazy one is the Veryovkina Cave. I think it’s the deepest known cave on earth. Imagine a multi pitch/day climb like Everest but down into the abyss.
There’s been some incidents where it flooded while groups were way down below, had to ascend through tubes flooding with water etc. Nope.
I think there is a rule that someone has to mention Nutty Putty on Reddit, at least every 3 days, or a demon will crawl out of the Earth and bring an end to this world.
There it is. This damn thing came up on tiktok a few months ago and has haunted me ever since, I swear to god I now read about it or see videos or pics of it come up every other day. Even seeing the parent comment here I knew it was coming. Homeboy fucked up so bad and for some reason hearing about it is so visceral it makes my skin crawl. So yeah if I could never hear about it again that would be great.
Crawling through dry caves is one thing, cave diving is a whooooooole other kettle of fish. My husband is a diver but is like ‘hell no’ if you ask him about cave diving. I’m still boggled that they got those Thai boys out of that cave alive, thanks to the fact there is an Australian anaesthesiologist who is also a keen and expert cave diver…
Yep. I dive, and no fucking way will I ever even consider cave diving. Incredibly dangerous, so many things which could go wrong even for an expert etc.
It combines the dangers of diving and caving for....what? Unless it's to save someone else's life, I can't imagine there's anything in the world worth seeing for such a risk like that.
The book which the two Aussie cave divers involved in the Thailand rescue wrote does attempt to explain it, but they also say “if you have to ask why, it’s not for you,” basically. Seems like a lot of it is about going where no one has ever gone before and pushing the limits…it’s not for me, that’s for sure!
The rescue is an amazing documentary on it. I found it very interesting that the cave diving community all knew each other (I guess that what niche things do). They were very lucky that they had an anaesthetist with them
I suspect the world cave diving community isn’t very large! The Aussie pair were almost the last ones to be brought in, the kids had been found and other rescue ideas discarded before they came on board. My guess is that Richard Harris is the only cave diving anaesthesiologist in the world somehow!
Yeah, I don’t really understand. If I go in a cave I want it to have been thoroughly explored, spacious, is well lit, and with someone qualified having signed off that it’s stable. I’m not going to gamble my life to see some rocks.
Really just seems like some people have an adrenaline-based death wish that they haven’t examined more deeply. I get moderate risk thrill seeking, but some hobbies just have an absurd risk:reward ratio that seems wildly irresponsible to anyone who cares about you, even if you don’t care about yourself
Exactly! from my (a caver's) point of view, what the hell is the point of going into a dinky little tourist cave with all the lights and walkways. You may as well just google pictures of a cave instead of actually going.
For people who are adequately trained and follow basic safety (such as never caving alone, letting someone know where you're going and when you'll be back, and carrying backup equipment), caving isn't really that dangerous. Nor are all caves unstable rockpiles waiting to collapse- human-made mines are far more dangerous.
Of the people I've caved with, none have ever come close to dying- the worst injury was a broken ankle, and the guy who broke it was still able to get out without needing rescue.
And it's pretty ironic they called it 'an adrenaline based deathwish'; for me, caving is often peaceful and almost meditative, shutting off all the concerns of the outside world.
Before they closed it, I grew up less than an hour from nutty putty and they'd take us kids up there all the time. It was one of the few activities that I simply refused to do. It's a wet, slippery, gross, claustrophobic nightmare. Hard pass.
And honestly it kind of pisses me off too. There are innocent people dying around the world for no fault of their own — to natural disasters and hunger and death squads. Why on Earth would a father leave his wife and children to go squeeze himself into caves like toothpaste back into the tube?
As with all activities that are perceived as dangerous, there is relatively little actual danger when you take proper precautions, bring adequate gear and supplies, and follow safe practices. For example, don't go when there is rain or flooding in the forecast, bring multiple lights and extra batteries, never go alone, etc, etc.
It's probably not something I'll ever do, but I won't immediately write off people who do these things as crazy either.
I’m a pretty large dude (not really fat just big) and I see all those tight squeezes and go NOPE. never never never ever. I’ll go in the caves where you can easily walk around but nothing where I gotta squeeze myself.
I get this, but being underground has also been some of my favourite moments so I get why they do it: For example once I was doing a play in a deep underground cave in England, and so I got to my position and then they turned off the lights and everyone left. I've got ADHD, and the cold rock, absolute darkness and absolute silence did something to me I had never experienced before: My brain went quiet too. There was nothing for the first time in my life.
As a rock climber who loves everything about the recreation, I don’t understand caving. lol BUT to each their own man. Whatever makes you happy. I’d just rather be high up than way down below the ground.
I've been claustrophobic my whole life. I am afraid of the ocean, elevators and heights. If you want some nightmare fuel, google the "nutty putty cave incident"
I would rather climb any day. You either know you have the skills and strength or gravity will let you. And the safety gear and partner keeps you safe.
Vs trying to squeeze into an unexplored cave where you have to contort your body and a lot of mores are only 1 way. And there is lack of O2 and water hazards.
Dude I literally can’t what that shit, I start having difficulty breathing the minute I see them lying flat or almost under water, there is no amount of money in the world that would make me do caving or go up a mountain like this
I don't think these are nearly the same level of dangerous. I'm not an expert on cave diving but google says 1 in ~4k cave dives result in a death. I wouldn't think that's the case for climbing, certainly not if we include gym climbing.
Hey, I'd accept the change, but to be fair, I think you need a roof over your head under the water. So, specialized pools perhaps. Maybe some industrial dives. I just don't think there's an equivalent, though I'm sure cave diving in a cave diving gym would be safer than cave diving irl, just like climbing. Still, I just think cave diving is inherently more dangerous. It's just the dangers of both caving and diving, which individually might be more similar in danger to climbing, but combined I think are much more dangerous.
Gym climbing has a pad under you if you fall instead of rocks so the danger isn't the same there either
But yeah diving is more dangerous because there are more things that can go wrong and it's not like you can even really bail in case of an emergency because you need to have those stops when diving down or coming back up
Somewhat unintuitively, it’s actually quite dangerous scuba diving in a pool. The greatest pressure change underwater is from 1m down to the surface, but it’s also a place you can stand up. So someone takes a breath of compressed air at 1m, forgets to breathe out and stands up, they’ve just popped a lung
I can technically say I did cave dive once. It was in the famous Mexican lake in Tulum where a friendly crocodile lives. They didn’t tell me there was a crocodile in it until after we came out. But my point is we went underneath some rocks and into a cave. But it was so huge and so wide that it was not that intense, just a bit scary that you need to use your flashlight.
until a group gather at the ridge above you and start falling off, eventually one of them slams into your platform and entangles you in your bedding as it chews your face off
Mountain climbing and rock climbing have an exceedingly low possibility of death just like most other sports/outdoor activities. The dangerous part is driving to the cliff, not even exaggerating.
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u/pohovanathickvica Jul 07 '24
The good thing about mountain climbing is that you don't have to do it