Joining ICDS - In Cave Digital Survey

To join ICDS http://www.incavedigitalsurvey.com just email me mark@cavediggers.com and tell me something to indicate you are a caver and not a hacker and I will sign you up and send you your login info.

Thanks, Mark

Inexpensive video lighting $12

This light idea was put together a few video trips ago by Chris Beare and works fantastic. The rechargeable 1 million candlepower spotlight($9.97) can be found at any Lowes or online here http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&lpage=none&productId=227293-50584-FT-SL-01 The plastic bowl is some cheap Glad... bowls that come in a pack of 4 I think for a few bucks that fit perfectly on the front of the light and secured with some tape. Inside the bowl at the front is a small round cutout piece of a Walmart bag to difuse the "spotlight" with the sides of the bowl left clear. 2 or 3 of these work fantastic! http://www.cavediggers.com

This video http://www.hdhathomes.com/tours/601_tourb.html was filmed using these lights and a Aiptek A-HD+ Camera......I have more footage I will post soon that was shot using these same lights but filmed with a MinoHD which did even better in lowlight than the Aiptek.

Mark Passerby, Cavediggers.com

Re: minimum diameter for nylon cordelette

I use 6 mil for multipitch. Even factored onto it once at a hanging belay. I'm not dead.

Re: I went caving this weekend

tncaver wrote:Wyandottecaver,
Nice poem and nice story. I hope we get to hear more.

Yup, a good one for sure and I've no doubt there's a lot more tellin' before that tales done.

Re: minimum diameter for nylon cordelette

You're a smart guy - look up the specs.

Figure out the MBS/MSWL for your particular nylon cordelette setup (single/double, knots, wet cord, etc), and decide for yourself. Am I missing something?

Re: The Longest Cave- loved it!

Cool cvr602. Nice story. I wish the caving organizations here in TN were as friendly, as the CRF was to you. Most caving organizations in my state are too suspicious of every one to offer friendship so readily as the CRF did for you.I will have to say that Mark Joop invited me on a CRF trip into Cudjo Cave one time and I declined. I appreciated his offer very much, but I'm just too old to go on a hard core trip that deep into a cave these days. Mark, where ever you are,thank you for that offer. I'm sure The Longest Cave is an exciting historical read. I should read it sometime.

Re: industrial self-belay with Shunt

NZcaver wrote:Yes, it was me and Hank Moon who both mentioned it. See this post and the ones Hank posted before it.

Thanks for the valuable info!

NZcaver wrote:I'm not sure if rope access techs usually attach the Shunt to the same rope they are rappelling on, or to a separate self-belay rope. Either should work, but maybe industry standard require it to be on the belay rope? Or since the Shunt can be a single or double rope device, maybe both?

Probably not both. Petzl specifically prohibits using the Shunt on two ropes that can be under different tensions, that is, separately anchored ropes (and also prohibits use on ropes under the same tension but of different diameters, as when tying together two ropes of different diameters for a rappel).

Does anybody know the reason for this prohibition, by the way? I can see what the diagram is indicating with regard to ropes of different diameters--the thicker rope prevents the Shunt from engaging sufficiently to grab the thinner rope, and you could fall as though the thinner rope weren't even there. But what's wrong with having a shunt on two separately anchored ropes?

Re: minimum diameter for nylon cordelette

Yes, I have used 5mm Spectra for rigging. But I am specifically inquiring about the minimum safe diameter for a cordelette.

Re: built in flash effect on slave unit and photo quality

NZcaver wrote:I repeatedly make excuses not to carry a tripod with me

captnemo wrote:I also, often decide not to carry a tripod since it takes up extra space/weight and time to set up.

Me too, but then I get to a spot where I say, “DANG! I wish I brought my tripod!”

FW wrote:... use fiber optics to point the light towards the slave strobe. You could also use a small mirror.

I think that's a good setup for underwater cases but not too practical where multiple slaves are 10 or more meters from the camera.

Re: built in flash effect on slave unit and photo quality

I block all the light from the on-camera flash, and use fiber optics to point the light towards the slave strobe. You could also use a small mirror.