CDS vertical mini-workshop

Hello, here's a quick briefing on the CDS vertical mini-workshop that the Florida Speleological Society is hosting on Sunday. It’s going to be at Warren Cave, in north Gainesville, about an hour and a half from Live Oak. We can go over vertical techniques with everyone on rope in the open, and we would like to provide the option of a guided hop into the cave afterwards of two to four hours, to the Sand Room and Crystal Crawls.

Warren cave is technical; it has a couple of what my climber friends call grade 5,5 climbs. You may free climb these 40' fissure cracks but you must be on rope. It’s like a climb on a gym rock wall. Prior experience is good. After the climbs, you can drop your vertical gear and crawl for literally days...

Be sure to bring a helmet, 3 lights, your climbing harness, and knee pads. Bring your vertical gear if you can. We will have limited extra gear. Cheap LED headlamps work great, and a pack for your water is wise. I won’t go in without power bars.

Signup sheets, waivers, and directions are going to be at the FSS booth. We are going to have ten spaces on the signup sheet but could go a little over. Ask us if you have any questions. we wont mind a few hand prints, they come with the crawling :D

Cheers,
Dave

I am very interested in this, my caver friends won't teach me since dry caves don't seem to thrill them as much as wet ones anymore... would you recommend this workshop for a caving wannabe who has read the "Basic Caving" book and has rock climbing experience?

It would definitely be a good start. You will meet people there that can tell you where to go next for more education.

Yeah - rock climbing experience certainly helps. Come on by.

Elbow pads arn't a bad idea, either. BW uses elbows and knees cut from old wetsuits. they work great.

My wife and I are interested in the workshop. Could someone please forward the contact #'s and names. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Jason

Unfortunately, I wont be able to make it to this... do you guys have an email list I can sign up for the next time something like this rolls around?