Word: caving
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Midway through the "Gunbarrel" in Knox Cave, New York, I tried to pull myself forward a little bit. There wasn't enough room, and my hand stuck in a crevice beneath me. As I pulled back to get it loose, my helmet cracked hard against the rock ceiling. Now both my arms were stretched straight in front of me, my legs straight back. The only way to get moving again in that tight space was to push myself with my boot toes, lifting myself off the ground with my elbows, gaining an inch or two each time...
This was my third trip to a New York cave, but many of the others were beginners. I could hear them twisting through the Gunbarrel behind me, struggling even more than I had. The tube is just wide enough to squeeze into and is perfectly smooth, so you can't use the walls for leverage. There's a legend that some skinny greased marvel once slipped through in a record 23 seconds, but I was lucky to have made it in under ten minutes. My coveralls were ripped and splattered with mud; but then, that was all supposed...
...With these rewards, cave exploring will never be a chic sport. But its devotees measure enjoyment in inches...
Many people who are thinking about taking the first trip, that "easy one," don't know exactly what the trip involves. Lots of tourists, driving through Virginia of Kentucky, have stopped to visit a commercial cave. For a fee, a guide takes you in over surfaced paths that wind around electrically-lit rock formations. You could get the impression that caving is much like that, but without the lights, crowds, or the admission charge--just wandering in awe through the crystalline depths of the earth...
...squeeze down into the fissure in the rocks the slot of daylight above your head narrows. Finally it blacks out completely, and only your lamp and the lamps in front of you light up the cave. But the muddy walls soak up what little glow there is, so that you can see clearly for only a dozen feet ahead. And the little circle of light shows up only dark brown on the walls and yellow in the puddles of slime. Beyond that, it's just black...