Bogley

RedRoxx · Joined: 07 Jan 2007 Posts: 170 Location: Tucson Az

My boyfriend and I had my first encounter with bad air in a cave. We had been in this cave before, but the summer monsoons down here had been fierce and a lot of the caves in this area took on water, silt, pine needles etc.
We figured the rotting vegetation and back up in the cave system created the CO2 we encountered.
This was a great lesson in know your gear. This cave had a nasty hip hugger stand on your head entrance, then about a 35 foot rap from a crack into a pit that belled out at the bottom. I went first and upon entering a narrow area down from there started noticing I seemed to be breathing pretty hard for such little effort. Brian was down and checking out a usually slimy mud crawl to see if it was blocked. We removed a few small rocks from the passage and I was feeling quite bad by this time. Less than a couple of minutes I am sure.
Brian looked at me and asked if I felt ok, I said I felt strange and short of breath. He said, "It's bad air, if we go deeper it will be worse. We need to get out of here."
Well, try getting your ascending gear and get on rope let's say after you've had more than a few shots of Tequila and have a chest cold. I felt like I had sausage fingers and my poor brain was trying to process putting the ascenders on the rope and frogging my way up. I swung about like a pendulum, Brian was busy trying to get himself together to belay me at the start or tie on a pack for some weight like we usually do.
It seemed like it took me forever to get up there and off rope. Brian made it up but forgot to put on his helmet and rung his bell pretty good on a rock horn. Fortunately no open wounds.
We both got out and seemed to recover quickly but I got a killer headache for about two hours.
We'll wait until spring to return to this cave.

Moral of the story. Know your gear and know when to get out.

hank moon · Joined: 16 Mar 2007 Posts: 1442

guh! glad you guys got out alright. very dangerous situation, esp. with the tightness. good on you for knowing when and how to reverse.

jumar · Joined: 02 Dec 2005 Posts: 2040 Location: Lehi, UT

Yo, that's an eye opener :eek2:

mills mania · Joined: 21 Oct 2008 Posts: 23

wowzer I didnt even really think about that kind of thing happening in caves! Good call on backing out when you did and thanks for the story now I will watch out for that kind of thing more often

DiscGo · Joined: 07 Nov 2006 Posts: 6210 Location: Provo

You are officially more hard core in my book for having had and shared this experience.

Don · Joined: 20 Feb 2006 Posts: 2178 Location: Happy Valley

Wow. Scary. Glad you handled it. Thanks for sharing.

I have yet another reason to fear and avoid caving. :2thumbs:

ExpUt · Joined: 30 Jul 2007 Posts: 270

Do cavers ever carry an air detector? I use one on occasion when exploring abandoned mines, I was inside of a mine here in the Wasatch Front when my freind and I started getting a bit lightheaded and short of breathe. I think we exacerbated the situation by getting somewhat nervous. Both of us invested in mining air detectors (4 gas) following the ordeal. Truth be told I need to spend more time getting comfortable with the unit, your experience really drives that home.

jumar · Joined: 02 Dec 2005 Posts: 2040 Location: Lehi, UT

I never have, but for some caves it would be useful.

RedRoxx · Joined: 07 Jan 2007 Posts: 170 Location: Tucson Az

Brian has encountered bad air in caves before, but only a few in about 30 years of caving. He also explores old mines and has had several experiences in there also. Cavers using carbide lamps used to go by the quality of the flame, but that has been proven a little unreliable.
A few years ago two cavers dove a sump in a cave that is well known down here, came up on the other side to a pocket of bad air. They did not use any scuba type equipment, the sump was short. One guy got out, the other one died.
I've been in quite a few mines too, short of the normal "old" or stale odors haven't had any problems. I should write about the time we were rapping over a 3200-3600 foot deep pit and had some problems, but that wasn't bad air. That was sheer terror. Another thank god for good rope and gear.

Will check into the mine air detectors. Thanks for that tip.

bigrockman · Joined: 18 Sep 2008 Posts: 30

The four teens that died in Gollum's Cave above provo a fews years ago died from bad air in the back room of the cave. The water levels were high at the time which stopped the air from circulating into that room. When they tried to swim out, there simply was not enough oxygen in the air for them to make it. When I swam the 20 ft. or so to that room there was only a few inches of breathing room, but even then we could tell the air quality was not great.
http://utahcaves.blogspot.com/search/label/Gollum%27s%20Cave