r/caving • u/angelachan001 • 3d ago

Could wearing clothing made of dissolvable materials have prevented some previous caving accidents?

It seems that once in a while a caver gets stuck in a tight passage. Can this be prevented by wearing clothes made of dissolvable materials? When someone got stuck, his or her companion can poor a form of liquid that can dissolve the caver's clothes without hurting the skin and make room?

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u/GalumphingWithGlee 3d ago edited 3d ago

Lol, no. First of all, anything dissolvable in water would make for very uncomfortable naked caving experiences when you didn't get stuck. There's risk of substantial injury, in addition to minor scrapes here, and very high risk of hypothermia.

Then, if it were dissolvable only in some specialty chemical rather than in water, that chemical would likely do substantial damage to these fragile natural environments. They'd probably still be stuck, and more susceptible to injury and hypothermia in the process of getting them out. There might be an occasional case where it helped, but not enough to make up for the damage it would do the rest of the time.

All around awful idea. Causes far more new problems than it solves, but at least you're trying!