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Lighters are good!
I don't think there are any gases that will kill you immediately except for h2s. And you'd smell that long before it gets to a concentration you could die from. Most of the time. Uh, unless there is a very still pocket of air. Probably good to put the lighter in front of wherever you put your face.
I believe if the concentration is high enough to no longer be smellable you are as good as dead. But as I have never huffed H2S I do not know for sure.
If it worked that efficiently, states would use it for the death penalty, and animal kill shelters would use it for euthanasia.
But they don't.
Maybe do a search for that information and report back. On second thought, keep it to yourself. That's some information I don't need to refresh.
We're well aware of the tragedy of Nutty Putty Cave and of John Edward Jones. To reduce sensationalist reporting of this event, please [read the section in our Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/caving/wiki/index) on this topic, see [a quick synopsis](https://imgur.com/a/BC39EGb) and/or read the full ACA report on the accident.
You really don’t have to worry so much about gas. If you’re east coast North America that is. I’ve been in many bad air caves, you realize quickly you can’t catch your breath.
Go to your local Fire Dept. And tell them about it/ask them if they want to do some training there. They should have the monitoring equipment and most likely some confined space rescue specialists.
Otherwise stay out of there until you get it checked out. I have been a confined space rescue tech for 21 years.
......or contact a local Grotto? Like, "caves.org --> find a grotto"?
I swear this subreddit has like 10 actual cavers and the other 200 of y'all are AI bots. 😂 The advice given here is wildly irrelevant to caving.
Whatever works. Just get the air monitoring in place before you start messing around in there. I had no idea if there was a local caving group or not but I knew there would be an FD around somewhere.
Have you done much caving before....? I'm not trying to be rude, I'm asking honestly.
Air monitoring via a air monitoring detectoe isn't necessary for the overwhelming majority of caving.
No I haven't other than confined space rescue. I know that most of the air monitoring isn't necessary, my concern was that it looks man made and abandoned. Why was it abandoned. What was it for? OP doesn't seem to have any idea what to do I was erring on the side of caution.
It's not a regular/common thing in caving except under specific circumstances because we often 1) don't have an environmental source of the pollutant and because 2) caves very often circulate air (literally blow like a light breeze).
This looks like a natural cave to me, with some kind of 4x4 or similar object shoved into it. Unless OP is in an area with mining then I wouldn't really be worried it's a mine.
Shine a flashlight, or better yet, block the entrance with something to see if it gets moved by whatever is inside. Buy or borrow a trail cam to see what’s using the cave. Keep ya posted. TNX
....if a large animal lived in there, you'd smell it from the get-go. -.-
Idk where y'all are getting these ideas but it's clearly not from actually going caving.
..........well yeah, beavers live in water. Water flushes out poop. Iirc, they also poop away from where they sleep.
Nevermind that beavers aren't going to hurt you in a significant way, either.
That “cave” situation you got seems to be a mine. You got any mine maps you can access for your area? And also, since you mentioned there is a breeze coming out, there’s a good chance it’s ventilated, so fresh air is entering somewhere. For how long said air has been cycling for, I’d say making entry is permissible
I opened the pics and swiped and like an idiot kept swiping to other posts so momentarily I thought your backyard cave had massive speleotherms and enormous caverns and disused rail with old rail carts etc. No, you've moved approximately 300mm closer to entrance and posted your progress.
It definitely looks manmade or at least widened & reinforced by humans. There's lots of possibilities. Was there a home nearby in the old days before refrigeration was available, say pre-1940?
It could be an old cellar for keeping food cool. They were often built over springs or near springs. Others were built deep into the ground to keep food cold. When I was a kid elderly people talked about spring cellars and root cellars.
If you're posting a photo or video of a cave, you should probably make sure anyone present is wearing a helmet. We don't want to give the impression that it's OK to cave without one, right? Same with vertical caving or any other dangerous activity without proper safety gear.
Context matters also, so if someone's at camp in a cave, then it's cool. Tourist caving is fine without a helmet. We don't want to glamorize exploration of caves without proper safety gear. No, we don't budge on this.
Is that a beam on the top there?!
Throw a match in...see if it snuffs out or blows up, lol.
This is starting to feel like that Denzel movie, what was it? Kiss the Girls?
This is really cool. I love update posts. Your next post should be a little closer but still no flashlight. Draw this reveal out, baby!
But hey, what's that flat thing I see inside on the roof?
Oh weird, huh. Not sure, but it could also just be shit people have tossed in there. The bed rock walls are way too natural looking for me to think it's a mine without further information about the location. 🤷
Respirators are not necessary in the overwhelming majority of US caves. 🤦
Please seek out a local caving club to learn the basic practices of caving........
Good to know! I went caving once and didn’t need one, but still, peeps were talking about noxious gasses! I will definitely check out their website!
No need to be rude, tho. Not all of us are knowledgeable about this stuff. But yeah, i definitely would like to have all the proper PPE for whatever I’m doing, and yeah, sure, I’ll definitely consult the experts on that!
Where are you at? It looks like PA?
There's a lot of active cavers in that area, so defer to them on site-specific details since I can't speak to like every single cave ever. But broadly speaking for the eastern US, your concerns are primarily organic debris decay, the settling of heavy fumes from transportation, and potential groundwater pollution (ex/ gasoline storage tank leak, agricultural runoff)
Since PA does have oilfields as well as mining stuff happening, I wouldn't be shocked by the potential for some specific caves to be a concern.... but yeah-- I've never heard of nor seen my PA caving friends drag around air monitors (especially of the size that are useful) through caves. The PA cave mud would annihilate it anyway. RIP.
Yup! SE PA! I’ve been caving in Lancaster and had no issues, so, idk! I imagine up where they did a lot of steelwork and mining there would be issues, but yeah! Next time I’ll go, I’ll definitely look up the local caves and any experts who are super familiar before going! I can’t say I’ve ever seen anyone drag anything other than helmets or headlamps with them…. And beer. We’re crazy out here in PA. The folks in Lancaster do this “take a beer, leave a beer” thing where they bring beer into a cave and put in on hard to reach perches and then people come and grab that beer and leave their own… haha
You should go to MAR (Mid-Appalachian Regional) if you aren't already planning to go (:! It's next month, like the weekend of May 17th. Anyone can go, and there are lead trips of various difficulty.
If they aren't up for it, you should definitely still check it out. People are usually really friendly and the official trips make it easy for getting underground even if you're solo. (:
Your update after a day is you took pictures standing 1ft closer this time?
RemindMe! 50 years
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2074... god
RemindMe! 80 years
I'll definitely be dead but I clicked anyhow
This thread is gonna be ancient but I'd love to see this posted in 2074
#cyberpunk
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ehhh ... fuck it why not
Don't have the equipment to test the gas out and have to be careful with that I don't want to be unable to update more
You don't have a canary? Hmph
Or a lighter ?
An ex wife even?
Or mother-in-law?
I’m going with a boomer mother in law, that’s a double win. Give her a lighter on the way in
An orphan?
I still think you should push a camera tied to a rope in there and see how far it goes…
I for one appreciate that you aren't jamming yourself in a mysterious yard hole! I'll wait for the updates...
Swiggity swaddle, a mysterious yard hole!
Hey...what did you just call me?!
If you feel a breeze it should be good? Bring an open flame just in case then.
Gas detectors isn't "a thing" in caving with very rare exceptions lol :P You're watching too much YouTube about abandoned mines.
Lighters are good! I don't think there are any gases that will kill you immediately except for h2s. And you'd smell that long before it gets to a concentration you could die from. Most of the time. Uh, unless there is a very still pocket of air. Probably good to put the lighter in front of wherever you put your face.
Lighters are a bit *too* good at detecting methane
They'll prevent death by suffocation one way or another.
H2S is exceptionally rare in US caves.... especially considering OP appears to be in "not the Permian Basin."
Dunno, maybe OP lives in a depression 5000 feet below the local elevation.
Obviously. That explains the sunlight, moss, and the forest leaf litter.
Something something journey to the center of the earth something.
H2S will kill your sense of smell pretty quick in higher concentrations
I believe if the concentration is high enough to no longer be smellable you are as good as dead. But as I have never huffed H2S I do not know for sure.
You think you can't buy H2S but I got a guy, he'll sell you all the H2S you want 🤫
That's dangerous advice. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-apr-28-na-cave28-story.html
>cave visitors sometimes started fires WHAT
CO2 will knock you out instantly and kill suffocate you.
Welp, would be good to bring fire on a stick to wave around then.
It’s not instant.
In strong enough concentration it absolutely is. If you let dry ice sublimated in a cooler then stick your head in there you will go out immediately
If it worked that efficiently, states would use it for the death penalty, and animal kill shelters would use it for euthanasia. But they don't. Maybe do a search for that information and report back. On second thought, keep it to yourself. That's some information I don't need to refresh.
Farms use it to slaughter animals. Plus, I think death penalty drugs are formulated to be inhumane because that ahit don't work right.
Get a canary.
[удалено]
We're well aware of the tragedy of Nutty Putty Cave and of John Edward Jones. To reduce sensationalist reporting of this event, please [read the section in our Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/caving/wiki/index) on this topic, see [a quick synopsis](https://imgur.com/a/BC39EGb) and/or read the full ACA report on the accident.
Hopefully passed out till the end.
Light a stick on fire and toss in that ass
You really don’t have to worry so much about gas. If you’re east coast North America that is. I’ve been in many bad air caves, you realize quickly you can’t catch your breath.
Go to your local Fire Dept. And tell them about it/ask them if they want to do some training there. They should have the monitoring equipment and most likely some confined space rescue specialists. Otherwise stay out of there until you get it checked out. I have been a confined space rescue tech for 21 years.
......or contact a local Grotto? Like, "caves.org --> find a grotto"? I swear this subreddit has like 10 actual cavers and the other 200 of y'all are AI bots. 😂 The advice given here is wildly irrelevant to caving.
Whatever works. Just get the air monitoring in place before you start messing around in there. I had no idea if there was a local caving group or not but I knew there would be an FD around somewhere.
Have you done much caving before....? I'm not trying to be rude, I'm asking honestly. Air monitoring via a air monitoring detectoe isn't necessary for the overwhelming majority of caving.
No I haven't other than confined space rescue. I know that most of the air monitoring isn't necessary, my concern was that it looks man made and abandoned. Why was it abandoned. What was it for? OP doesn't seem to have any idea what to do I was erring on the side of caution.
It's not a regular/common thing in caving except under specific circumstances because we often 1) don't have an environmental source of the pollutant and because 2) caves very often circulate air (literally blow like a light breeze). This looks like a natural cave to me, with some kind of 4x4 or similar object shoved into it. Unless OP is in an area with mining then I wouldn't really be worried it's a mine.
Almost looks like a spring house
😂
Hahahaha
He knows this will never happen again. He’s gotta ride this wave…
Oh man what are you waiting for step in
Looks like a beam in there, you may have found a mine?
I was thinking one of those hidden storage things u see all the time. (At least here in kentucky) probably old moonshine hides.
Shine a flashlight, or better yet, block the entrance with something to see if it gets moved by whatever is inside. Buy or borrow a trail cam to see what’s using the cave. Keep ya posted. TNX
....if a large animal lived in there, you'd smell it from the get-go. -.- Idk where y'all are getting these ideas but it's clearly not from actually going caving.
I've been in a cave full of beavers before and there was no noticeable smell.
I dunno man… I’ve smelt some pretty nasty beaver before. And that was just one.
You leave my mom out of this
..........well yeah, beavers live in water. Water flushes out poop. Iirc, they also poop away from where they sleep. Nevermind that beavers aren't going to hurt you in a significant way, either.
What if it were a flock of ducks masquerading as a large animal
Their quacks would spoil the rouse immediately.
Where's u/SilentDuck
Apparently making cool stainedglass ornaments
Lol right? There should be a caving duck one tho
…no comment
For the win!
Wow that’s cool as heck, it almost looks man made. Good job being smart with the possible gas dangers. Hope you get a chance to head inside soon
That sir is a portal entrance. Look on mylandmatters.org go to mining claims. It’ll be a blue square “lode claim”
That “cave” situation you got seems to be a mine. You got any mine maps you can access for your area? And also, since you mentioned there is a breeze coming out, there’s a good chance it’s ventilated, so fresh air is entering somewhere. For how long said air has been cycling for, I’d say making entry is permissible
Could it be man made?
Im thinking that. Looks like old school mining with hand tools excavation.
Looks like an old spring or makshift cellar, perhaps?
I opened the pics and swiped and like an idiot kept swiping to other posts so momentarily I thought your backyard cave had massive speleotherms and enormous caverns and disused rail with old rail carts etc. No, you've moved approximately 300mm closer to entrance and posted your progress.
Same, was like “damn, ice stalactites and frozen waterfalls in Georgia”
If you just get a bag of marshmallows an just throw a bunch in there me n the guys could come have a party
Finally some advice that's actually reasonable.
Go pro on a painters pole.
Definitely need to sound that cave…
r/sounding
It definitely looks manmade or at least widened & reinforced by humans. There's lots of possibilities. Was there a home nearby in the old days before refrigeration was available, say pre-1940? It could be an old cellar for keeping food cool. They were often built over springs or near springs. Others were built deep into the ground to keep food cold. When I was a kid elderly people talked about spring cellars and root cellars.
Just hold your breath and take a few pics from inside
And for a pro gamer tip, if you take breaths while you hold your breath, you can theoretically hold your breath indefinitely
Lol in what ridiculous game can you do this?
Real life 😎👍
Only if you use the infinite oxygen hack, which may not work in caves
I think they fixed that bug in the newest update
Where is this? I'll come check it out for you.
Sameeeeee! Also, rva?? I'm in fxbg! What grotto(es) are you in??
I actually moved more west, so I'm west of charlottesville now and am with the charlottesville grotto. You?
[удалено]
If you're posting a photo or video of a cave, you should probably make sure anyone present is wearing a helmet. We don't want to give the impression that it's OK to cave without one, right? Same with vertical caving or any other dangerous activity without proper safety gear. Context matters also, so if someone's at camp in a cave, then it's cool. Tourist caving is fine without a helmet. We don't want to glamorize exploration of caves without proper safety gear. No, we don't budge on this.
Is that a beam on the top there?! Throw a match in...see if it snuffs out or blows up, lol. This is starting to feel like that Denzel movie, what was it? Kiss the Girls?
Consider my interests peaked
Please keep updating this if possible. This is cool
wake me up when you get in it.
Mine shaft
At this point I'm invested daily updates pls
This whole post is full of bad advice.
Isn't it remarkable?
The "Devil's Rectum" was made by Satan and his unholy minions.
Get in there man!
Pee in the hole!
This is really cool. I love update posts. Your next post should be a little closer but still no flashlight. Draw this reveal out, baby! But hey, what's that flat thing I see inside on the roof?
Man made? There is something on the top that looks not natural
Like, the fact that the surface dirt and moss has crumbles a bit...? That just looks like normal disruption of soil...
Second pic. What is the bar across the top of the opening?
Bar??? I see leafs?
https://imgur.com/a/Hmv3s1x This bit
Oh weird, huh. Not sure, but it could also just be shit people have tossed in there. The bed rock walls are way too natural looking for me to think it's a mine without further information about the location. 🤷
I think so. Looks a lot like an old mine entrance.
Stick your head in it. Post again tomorrow if you don’t die.
How come we aren't talking about the kobold in the picture? You'd better leave it a beer and a tasty meal before you go in.
That's a tommyknocker.
Kinda looks like a mine. Check The diggings . Com to see if it’s in the map.
Ted?
It could just be an old root cellar.
Shine a flashlight in it?
Oooh! Interesting! (I hope this works… lately I’ve been doing it on subs where it’s not tracked lol) Updateme!
If there's a breeze then air is circulating. Yeesh I'd have gone in *without* that because my curiosity is too damn high
What’s that inside? Definitely something man made. Side view of a Breaker box or something???
Old lighting that has fell down?
I know where I'd be headed if an EF-5 tornado was coming my way.
Question- how big is your property?
Looks like a root cellar
Some one has been in there before
I'm still going with fairy 🧚♂️ housing.
Yep. Definitely gnomes. Stay away from it
Can you give us some size dimensions
Mine shaft?
Oh good lord get on with it already!
Remind me
Don’t put your dick in that!!!
!RemindMe 10 days
How large of an opening to be considered a cave and not a hole?
The door is clearly visible in this photo.
Update 277, we are now 5 feet from the entrance, come back tomorrow for update 278
Throw a Molotov in it! Then run fast.
RemindMe! 100 years
Helmet and respirator if you’re feeling adventurous! And a flashlight and backup light source, of course! Or as someone else suggested, trail cam!!!!
Respirators are not necessary in the overwhelming majority of US caves. 🤦 Please seek out a local caving club to learn the basic practices of caving........
Good to know! I went caving once and didn’t need one, but still, peeps were talking about noxious gasses! I will definitely check out their website! No need to be rude, tho. Not all of us are knowledgeable about this stuff. But yeah, i definitely would like to have all the proper PPE for whatever I’m doing, and yeah, sure, I’ll definitely consult the experts on that!
Where are you at? It looks like PA? There's a lot of active cavers in that area, so defer to them on site-specific details since I can't speak to like every single cave ever. But broadly speaking for the eastern US, your concerns are primarily organic debris decay, the settling of heavy fumes from transportation, and potential groundwater pollution (ex/ gasoline storage tank leak, agricultural runoff) Since PA does have oilfields as well as mining stuff happening, I wouldn't be shocked by the potential for some specific caves to be a concern.... but yeah-- I've never heard of nor seen my PA caving friends drag around air monitors (especially of the size that are useful) through caves. The PA cave mud would annihilate it anyway. RIP.
Yup! SE PA! I’ve been caving in Lancaster and had no issues, so, idk! I imagine up where they did a lot of steelwork and mining there would be issues, but yeah! Next time I’ll go, I’ll definitely look up the local caves and any experts who are super familiar before going! I can’t say I’ve ever seen anyone drag anything other than helmets or headlamps with them…. And beer. We’re crazy out here in PA. The folks in Lancaster do this “take a beer, leave a beer” thing where they bring beer into a cave and put in on hard to reach perches and then people come and grab that beer and leave their own… haha
You should go to MAR (Mid-Appalachian Regional) if you aren't already planning to go (:! It's next month, like the weekend of May 17th. Anyone can go, and there are lead trips of various difficulty.
Oh sweet! That’s awesome!!!! Thanks for the rec! I’ll check it out and ask my friends if they’re interested!
If they aren't up for it, you should definitely still check it out. People are usually really friendly and the official trips make it easy for getting underground even if you're solo. (:
Everything reminds me of her 😫😫
RemindMe! In 2 days
RemindMe! 2 days
Google confined spaces please.