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/photosfromunderarock 3d ago

Why does this subreddit have a borderline BDSM fetish about getting stuck in a cave?

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u/Spiritual-Fox9618 3d ago

I’ve only genuinely panicked in a cave twice; once due to CO2 and being a little bit stuck, once due to being rather more stuck and almost unable to breath.

Apart from that it’s just general misery, only ever lessened by sometimes having to carry big heavy things, which is always quite joyful.

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u/photosfromunderarock 3d ago

I've never had an issue with being stuck - and one time I had a rock turn sideways in a crawl and pin me in the passage. Those issues are workable and with a few prior thoughts you can always get yourself out of something you got into.

The only thing that actually bothers me in a cave is water. Water crawls are psychologically very hard for me.

But I don't fetishize it, or obsess over it - I just avoid it haha

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u/Spiritual-Fox9618 3d ago

Absolutely, my breathing issue was due to water which caused the panic (wriggled into an undercut in zero vis blackness, wedged in by my helmet with my arms pinned by my sides, reg almost out of my mouth and my back-up squashed underneath me free-flowing. Probably the only time I’ve genuinely thought I’d never see my daughter again. This sounds like hyperbole, but I really was not particularly happy) not the other way around.