20101128 Caves of the Mojave

davantalus · Post by **davantalus** » Wed May 25, 2011 3:45 pm

Not very San Gabriels - but I threw together this little video and wanted to share.

Over Thanksgiving weekend a buddy and I visited some caves in the Mojave desert with members of the Southern California Grotto. We had an amazing trip trying to both get dirty but keep the cameras clean. The first cave in the video really demonstrates how people thoughtlessly destroy these beautiful underground places.

Link because I can never remember the embed code.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ossTJb25HRA

Enjoy!

Post by **Hikin_Jim** » Wed May 25, 2011 4:13 pm

Cool stuff!

HJ

P.S. Nice eispiraten sticker.

cougarmagic · Post by **cougarmagic** » Wed May 25, 2011 5:34 pm

http://www.banffcentre.ca/mountainfesti ... ns/film/#2

hvydrt · Post by **hvydrt** » Wed May 25, 2011 5:52 pm

That is a great video, well done.

davantalus · Post by **davantalus** » Wed May 25, 2011 9:11 pm

Hikin_Jim wrote: Nice eispiraten sticker.

"Neis piraten?"

Hey what do I have to do to get a few of those UK ones. I'm a dual citizen us/uk. Also need one for the new EIS axe! Next season I'm so in.

cougarmagic wrote: http://www.banffcentre.ca/mountainfesti ... ns/film/#2

Hahaha! Give me another year or so then those guys are going -down-.

hvydrt wrote: That is a great video, well done.

Thanks.

Post by **HikeUp** » Wed May 25, 2011 10:06 pm

Excuse the claustrophobic noob question, but how the heck do you find your way out of those places? Do you leave a trail of bread crumbs?

Also do you check for the air quality? Is a canary one of the 10 essentials?

Really great video editing and all that.

edit: pretty cool that there are registers to sign down in there.

davantalus · Post by **davantalus** » Thu May 26, 2011 12:10 am

HikeUp wrote: Excuse the claustrophobic noob question, but how the heck do you find your way out of those places? Do you leave a trail of bread crumbs?

Haha! Well, first it's easier than it looks in the video. Second, if you truly are turned around you can generally detect a "trail" where the rock underfoot is discolored or worn. Of course, if you're in a virgin passage, then you're out of luck and should have probably flagged the route.

HikeUp wrote: Also do you check for the air quality? Is a canary one of the 10 essentials?

Haha! Not as big a problem in caves (here) as it is in mines (here). Some bad air is contributed by wood burning or rotting which makes mines somewhat more likely to be dangerous. Caves, (generally) formed by water will also move decent quantities of air through the same passage.

HikeUp wrote: Really great video editing and all that. Pretty cool that there are registers to sign down in there.

Thanks! In the last cave, there was apparently a register area that you can get into but not out of - in order to sign it you need a buddy to pull you back out. (and if you go into the small passage feet first you can't reach down to grab the register).

Post by **Taco** » Thu May 26, 2011 2:50 pm

VERY COOL VIDEO!