UMOC Caving Guidelines

General Guidelines

1. Trips must be led according to University of Massachusetts Outing Club Trip Guidelines and adhere to all regulations involving Trip Leaders and Co-leaders.
2. Caving trips will be regarded as Horizontal or Vertical trips, following specific guidelines for each type of cave.
      Vertical caves are defined as any caves which utilize vertical equipment at any point during the trip, not limited to: rope ladders, cable ladders,
ropes, ascenders, belays, rappel devices, cables, and bolts. Hand lines and other non-essential aides are not included in vertical equipment.

All Caves

1. A Trip Leader, not on the trip, emergency contact/callout person must be established during planning of the trip with the provided UMOC trip emergency contact sheet. Name of the cave, location, time of arrival, expected time leaving the
cave, and a reasonable call-out time should be given. Agree what to do if the group does not return on time, including a time to consider the trip an emergency if no call-out has been received. Have the available emergency numbers ready at both
the cave and to the callout person.
2. Trip leaders must explain caving safety and emergency procedures to participants prior to entering the cave. Trip leaders should be familiar with the passage layout of the cave, including
escape routes, danger areas, and points of interest (formations, geology, etc).
3. All participants (including leaders) must carry, on their person, 3 sources of light (at least 2 electric, not carbide) and at a minimum one complete set of extra batteries.
Trip leaders should carry a minimum of two extra light sources and extra batteries in a waterproof container.
4. Appropriate water and food should be taken for the trip.
5. Helmets must be worn at all times. Wear a helmet that meets UIAA standards, and buckle the chinstrap.
6. Participants should wear non-cotton, synthetic/quick-drying clothing. In most cases multiple layers and long-sleeved/legged clothing should be worn.
7. Weather must be known for the caving day and flash-flooding risk should be investigated.
8. The caving party should always move as a team, never allowing the group to separate. In general one leader should stay towards the front of the group while the second should stay in or near the tail of the group.
9. Leave-no-trace guidelines must be rigorously followed (see below).
10. Use discretion when the group is changing. Find a private, sheltered spot.

Leave-no-trace Guidelines

1. Avoid disturbing cave organisms or their environment.
2. Pack out everything you bring with you, and any trash you find.
3. Do not damage formations or other surfaces in a cave.
4. Avoid touching all formations, as they may fracture or oils from the skin may alter and damage the growth processes.
5. When established trails exist, stay on them to help keep other areas of the cave pristine.
6. Do not damage the cave, surface, or property of a cave, including fencing, streams, sinkholes, trails, and entrances.

Take nothing but pictures,
Leave nothing but carefully placed footprints,
Kill nothing but time.

Vertical Caves

1. Vertical caving trips must follow all regular UMOC caving guidelines as well as the following.
2. Vertical caving trips must have, at minimum, one competent and UMOC approved vertical caving trip leader in attendance. The co-leader can be a caving trip leader, or training co-leader.
3. A Vertical Caving Trip Leader will be approved to lead vertical UMOC caving trips by being voted upon by a 2/3 majority at a UMOC officer and activity chair meeting, after demonstrating
the following skills and techniques to the caving activity chair:
   a. Caving anchors (both natural and artificial).
   b. Belay techniques including the use of conventional belay devices and rappel-racks.
   c. Rappel techniques including the use of figure-eights, rappel-racks, and other rappel devices, demonstrating full lock-offs with every device.
   d. Ascension techniques including the use of prusiks and ascenders, and demonstrating quick-attach safety methods and passing knots.
   e. Change-over rappel/ascension techniques from ALL above discussed gear.
   f. Limited self-rescue and vertical rescue techniques including C-pulleys, lower offs, and various ascending knots.

Additional Information Resources

1. National Speleological Society (NSS), 2813 Cave Ave., Huntsville, AL 35810, United States. www.caves.org.
2. A Guide to Responsible Caving. National Speleological Society. Huntsville, AL: Slaton Press. 2003.

University of Massachusetts Outing Club Caving Explanation
Jeremy Rathfon, November 13, 2006.
Caving or spelunking is where people go underground to explore the horizontal
and vertical passages of cave systems in the dark. Caves are explored for
many reasons, but mainly sport or scientific study. The sport caver has
been known as a spelunker, but most cave explorers prefer to be called cavers.
Speleology is the scientific study of the cave environment. One who studies
caves and their environment is called a speleologist.
    Many caves are damp and muddy, although some are dry and
dusty. Caves may contain walking sized passages, crawlways, constrictions, or
tall narrow canyons. Often they contain streams, lakes, waterfalls, pits, or
domed ceilings, and some caves are subject to flash flooding. There are many
things to view in a cave including the passages, formations, water, and organisms.
A responsible caver knows the inherent dangers and risks of caving, and also how
to treat the cave and its surrounding environment with respect.

Equipment Concerns

• Helmets: Helmets must be worn at all times. Wear a helmet that meets UIAA standards, and buckle the chinstrap. Your helmet protects your head and offers a mount for your lights.
• Lights: In organized caving every participant should carry three light sources (at least 2 electric, not carbide). Trip leaders should carry a minimum of two extra light sources and extra batteries in a waterproof container.
• Clothing: Caves tend to be cold, so dress warmly. Wet clothes keep you colder than dry clothes, so avoid getting wet. Except in the driest, warmest caves, avoid wearing cotton clothing, because it absorbs
and retains more water than synthetic fabrics. Polypropylene, nylon, and polyester tend to be more abrasion-resistant, absorb less water, dry more quickly, and retain heat better than natural fabrics.

Instructional Concerns
• Trip leaders must explain caving safety and emergency procedures to participants prior to entering the cave. Trip leaders should be familiar with the passage layout of the cave, including escape routes, danger areas, and points of interest (formations, geology, etc). Participants on ladders or steeper climbs should be belayed.
• Check the weather forecast before entering a cave.
• Formations: Water containing dissolved minerals seeps through the rocks, creating formations, or speleothems, on the floors, ceilings, and walls of caves. Speleothems include stalactites, stalagmites, helectites, draperies, pearls, flowstone, rimstone, and columns. Speleothems grow slowly, sometimes for thousands of years, and because of changes in weather or surface drainage, some are no longer growing at all. A single careless touch or malicious gesture can destroy what may have taken thousands of years to form, and once damaged or destroyed, speleothems may not regenerate at all. Take special care to avoid damaging speleothems. Stick to designated trails and avoid scraping hanging speleothems with your helmet.
• Organisms: The variety of life in a cave is small and more fragile than most life on the surface. Avoid disturbing a cave’s inhabitants and treat them with respect. Staff should choose suitable caves and times to visit a cave that will not interfere with the wildlife of a cave.
      o “Troglobites”, cave-dwelling organisms that spend their entire lives in caves, include fish, salamanders, crayfish, insects, and spiders. Some troglobites have no skin pigment and are blind. Troglobites cannot live outside a cave, and their survival may be threatened if the cave environment is damaged or altered. Water pollution, visitor traffic, trash, flooding, and a change in air patterns and temperature contribute to disturbing a cave’s fragile food-wed and ecosystem.
      o “Trogloxenes”, animals that make their homes in caves, but return to the surface to feed include bears, packrats, snakes, raccoons, swallows, moths, foxes, and of course bats. Bats play large roles in surface ecosystems as well. Most bat species are insect eaters, and can eat up to 1/2 their body weight in insects each night. Bats are also important pollinators of night-blooming plants, including bananas, cashews, mangos, figs, eucalyptus, and balsa. Fruit-, pollen-, and nectar- eating bats are essential to the survival or the rain forests through pollination and seed dispersal. Inside caves, bats give birth and rear their young in the summer and hibernate in the winter. Conscientious cavers avoid important bat caves in the winter to protect hibernating bats, and in the summer to protect mothers and young.
• Vertical Caving: Vertical caving---using ropes to descend and ascend pits---involves special skills and special equipment. Seek vertical caving training from a competent instructor before doing rope work in a cave. Avoid using unknown ropes, slings, and ladders you encounter underground. Free-climbing a rope hand-over-hand is not recommended, as it is highly unsafe.
• Use discretion when the group is changing. Find a private, sheltered spot.
• Leave No Trace: Leave the cave and the surface cleaner than you found it. Cause no damage to the cave, terrain, or property. When established trails exist, stay on them to help keep other areas of the cave pristine.
• Top Cover/Callout: Notify a non-caving trip leader of your caving plans including name and location of the cave and the estimated time of return. Agree what to do if the group does not return on time. Have the available emergency numbers ready at both the cave and the callout.

Participant Concerns

• Hypothermia: If the temperature drops more than a few degrees, the body can no longer function properly. Carry extra clothing or something that can protect you from the cold.
• Falling: To reduce the risk of falling, one should avoid jumping and uncontrolled sliding down slopes, wear proper footwear, check and discard any faulty or worn vertical equipment, and obtain proper training. Wear boots that have good tread to help avoid slipping on rock and mud.
• Falling Objects: Injury caused by falling objects are best avoided by always wearing a helmet, stay clear of the base of drops and climbs, and securing all items of equipment so that they will not drop on cavers below. Beware falling objects while caving. If a rock is dislodged or gear is dropped yell “ROCK!” to warn others below you.
• Other Hazards: Groups can become lost easily. Having properly trained staff with previous knowledge of the cave and the route avoids this problem. Some caves are prone to flash floods. Again having previous knowledge of the caves and avoiding flood prone caves during high water times is necessary.

Environmental Concerns

• Avoid disturbing cave organisms or their environment.
• Pack out everything you bring with you, and any trash you find.
• Do not damage formations or other surfaces in a cave.
• Avoid touching all formations, as they may fracture or oils from the skin may alter and damage the growth processes.
• When established trails exist, stay on them to help keep other areas of the cave pristine.
• Do not damage the cave, surface, or property of a cave, including fencing, streams, sinkholes, trails, and entrances.

Ethical Concerns

• Playing tricks on one another in the dark must be strongly discouraged.
• Trip leaders should be prepared to help participants who experience claustrophobia, by providing them with strategies for dealing with this.
• Participants should never be forced into caving (challenge by choice).

This page was last updated on Tuesday, 13-Nov-2007 19:26:51 EST

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