• Vej@lemm.ee
    99·
    1 year ago

    I’ve seen too many memes as of late. I really thought this would have been Saddam Hussein without reading this first.

  • SCB@lemmy.world
    729·
    1 year ago

    Brave people push boundaries so that less brave people can read things in books.

    Edit: I assume the people downvoting this obvious truth think I’m calling them cowards. I assure you I will be right there with you curled up reading books about caving. Fuck all that.

      • shastaxc@lemm.ee
        5·
        1 year ago

        Seriously. He could’ve shone a flashlight down there and seen it was a death trap before going down

        • Rockyrikoko@lemm.ee
          2·
          1 year ago

          I think he was already fucked. His only option was to keep going in hopes a section lay ahead big enough for him to turn around and start crawling out

      • Willer@lemmy.world
        3·
        1 year ago

        Brave people push boundaries, stupid people purposely shove their entire bodies into a hole and die expect to live

    • samus12345@lemmy.worldEnglish
      15·
      1 year ago

      Well, yes, but you can be brave and take precautions at the same time. He wouldn’t have died if he’d followed proper caving guidelines.

        • samus12345@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4·
          1 year ago

          “Because it’s there,” I assume. But if you’re gonna have a potentially dangerous hobby, you should at least be sure to take the necessary precautions before risking your life.

          • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
            1·
            1 year ago

            Like having a good life insurance policy that pays out even if you die doing something stupid? And maybe having a fake tooth filled with cyanide so you can go out quickly instead of dying of exposure?

      • WoahWoah@lemmy.world
        1·
        1 year ago

        And yet, here you are reading about it, reading others’ thoughts about it, and engaged in a conversation about it.

        Think of it like a book club.

        • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          Cause the internet loves idiots who get what they deserve for being stupid

          has nothing to do with bravery or boundaries.

  • Gigan@lemmy.world
    61·
    1 year ago

    Fun Fact: They never got him out, they sealed the cave with his body still there. Nutty Putty Cave is his grave.

    • Bathtubwalrus@lemmy.world
      18·
      1 year ago

      My god, my stomach hurts and my chest feels tight just from reading that. I went to Cave of the winds in Colorado a few years back and they had a smaller tunnel that you could crawl through to get a sense of what it was like. It was probably like 20ft long and big enough for the pretty hefty guide to get through. I got up to it and noped the fuck out.

  • AgentGrimstone@lemmy.world
    481·
    1 year ago

    I remember seeing a video of a dude exploring a cave and he was crawling through some narrow ass space tighter than under my bed. Why would one want to do this??? What if it was a dead end? How tf are you gonna turn around? Crawl backwards? I just can’t with any of this

    • MeatsOfRage@lemmy.world
      14·
      1 year ago

      How about this, there’s people that do this underwater. They take the tank off their back, push it out ahead of them. If they get stuck, they don’t have 27 hours to try and figure their shit out, they have a couple hours at best

      • dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world
        10·
        1 year ago

        That’s where I draw the line.

        Normal spelunking, minimal vertical work, the occasional belly crawl no smaller than a manhole. That’s actually a pretty good time. You get wet, dirty, have a few laughs with your friends, and then shake it off with some beers back at the campsite. No need to go aggressive with ridiculously tight crawls and/or 100’s of feet of vertical work, etc.

        Cave diving? Let’s take an activity where it’s very easy to loose track of time, and add SCUBA which requires time management down to the minute for your health and survival. Nevermind getting lost, disoriented, or wedged underwater somewhere. I get that this is very intrepid stuff, and the very distant corners of cave systems are being explored this way. But it’s a big no for me; the risk does not justify the reward, IMO.

        • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
          4·
          1 year ago

          SCUBA is even worse because any movement kicks up sediment, so that visibility quickly turns to nil. Cave diving has a very, very high mortality rate; BASE jumping is safer.

        • Gork@lemm.ee
          4·
          1 year ago

          Not to mention unexpected currents that can either smack you against nearby rocks or sweep you further downward in an uncontrolled manner.

  • Codex@lemmy.world
    36·
    1 year ago

    I love to watch caving videos: much better for someone younger and foolhardier than me to actually do the climbing and clambering with their gopros. I’ll continue to enjoy things like air, vast open spaces, and vicarious experiences.

    People take a lot of safety precautions now, reasonably, but every once in a while the cavers on YT will do something just stupid and it baffles me. “The water’s ice cold and up to my nostrils, but I really want to see where this tunnel goes! Going to turn my lamp and camera off for now to save battery, see you in a few hours!”

      • Codex@lemmy.world
        1·
        1 year ago

        Im a fan as well, their videos are excellent and they often do trips with other cavers, so you can find other small channels through them if people want more “cave content.”

        What trips me out is towards the end of each video where they’ll be like, “Alright, Brad is heading back so I’m going to wrap up too. We’ve been in the cave for 12 hours, probably a good time to head up.” 8+ hours of squeezing through cold, dark passages sounds like actual nightmares I’ve had!

  • The Barto@sh.itjust.works
    241·
    1 year ago

    God I hate the idea of that being your last days… Why do people just purposely wander deep into caves?

    • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
      7·
      1 year ago

      Honestly, they’re pretty neat. I’ve gone through tours of Mammoth Caves that require waivers, and they strongly recommend that you not take that tour if any part of you has a circumference of more than 42", because you won’t fit. There was a spot that was about 12" high, and 72-ish wide that you had to crawl through that took a sharp right; you had to take your helmet off to get through. But then you get out into this enormous cavern filled with rock formations that are seen by less 100 people/year.

      But if I didn’t know that that crack was passable, that I’d be able to get through or get back out again? Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck no.

      • Jax@sh.itjust.works
        31·
        1 year ago

        Maybe it’s because I live in a place with a lot of earthquakes, but I think I’m good off putting my head between rocks that could slightly shift and obliterate me.

        But I’m glad you enjoy it!

        • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
          7·
          1 year ago

          The Appalachian foothills in Kentucky are pretty geologically dead; there aren’t any fault lines anywhere close by. It’s about as safe as any cave network can be.

          I do recommend going to that are and taking some tours, especially in the middle of summer where you can see the inversion layer where the air goes from being 95F to 60F. Even the fully-accessible tours that don’t go through any tight spaces are pretty cool.

          • Jax@sh.itjust.works
            3·
            1 year ago

            I don’t mind going inside caves, I just won’t be squishing myself into any crevices that require me to take off my safety gear to get through.

            Granted, if it shifts your safety gear likely won’t do shit but still. I’ll stay in the bit of the cave where I can stand, or at least crouch/crawl.

    • volvoxvsmarla @lemm.ee
      21·
      1 year ago

      Honestly in some way he was lucky. There were people helping him and trying to rescue him and he could hear them directly and even see someone’s face at a point, they even gave him a radio to communicate to his wife waiting outside of the cave. He was comforted and had company and hope. A lot of other “explorers” or “adventurers” who die in freak accidents don’t have that much luck.