What to Wear When Caving

First let's start with what caving means. A lot of people ask me the difference between caving and spelunking, so let me clear this up! The definition of Spelunking is the hobby or practice of exploring caves and while that does sound like the definition of caving it's not fully the same. I identify as a Caver because it's more than a hobby or practice for me, and many cavers like me, it means so much more to me since it's a part of my family outings, vacations, and friendships. I am an experienced caver and us cavers have a joke going around that is "Cavers save Spelunkers!" Second, let's get to what we have to know about the cave to figure out what to wear. I wouldn't wear the same thing caving in New York than I would in Tennessee. Caves stay the same temperature all year round and that temperature depends on where in the world the cave is! The average cave temperature in Minnesota can range from 37 to 57 degrees, in Tennessee it's a cool 56 degrees all year long, and in New York it could be 32 degrees or below. My most common outfit choice while caving is wearing wool socks, leggings (nice thick ones), a flannel with a t-shirt underneath, gloves, my cave suit, which is water resistant, and a helmet with a headlamp on it. If the cave is colder, or a wet cave, I will wear a wetsuit under my cave suit. If the cave is warmer, like in Tennessee, I will just wear thicker water resistant cargo pants and a T shirt. I always like to be as safe as possible and sometimes caving has a lot of crawling and climbing, so I always wear good knee pads and sometimes elbow pads. Finding good pads isn't always easy since regular ones are too tight, and ones made just for cavers are expensive. My mom and brother are smart and have the knee pads sewn into their cave suit, but sewing cave suits requires very thick needles and some sewing skills. I wore the struggle suit a lot and went through a lot of duck tape to be comfortable, but as I am growing older and growing up, I needed to make sure I wore better cave gear. Starting from the bottom is fun and full of cool bruises from my experience, and struggling with borrowed gear at first helped me to enjoy what I have now. Now boots all depend on your comfort and what you prefer. I have hiking boots that have more traction and are better to wear for dry caves and climbing, but I also have a pair of Welly's that are great for wet caves and keep my feet dry and my cave suit tucked in nicely. Finding what gear you need is trial and error and honestly takes time and figuring out what works best for you, that includes your rappel gear. Adjusting your gear is a necessity especially when rope and bungees go bad over time and lots of use. What you wear doesn't matter as much as what you pack in your cave pack. You could be caving in a t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers since every cave is different, but having things like water, an extra light source and batteries, snacks, and extra gloves are necessities. I like to pack extra things like socks and gloves in case they get wet because I get cold very easily and if anything would happen, keeping my hands and feet dry is key to staying warm. Other people have their own ideas of what they need in a cave, like my leader that took us to Mexico always carries around a poop kit in his cave pack because sometimes nature calls while we are underground and its not good to go to the bathroom in caves since it messes with the cave life and bacteria. You always want to prepare for anything to happen since caves are dangerous places and you never know what could happen. Most cave leaders know the cave and its history, so if it's still an active cave they wouldn't take you through it, or would let you know what not to touch. There are spots in caves where the owners want to preserve formations or keep people away from dangerous spots like sketchy edges or drops. There was a cave that my brother and I were helping map and the entrance was an old mine shaft and it wasn't fully settled, so we had to crouch and make sure we didn't touch the ceiling or layers of rock could fall. It wasn't difficult or something that could kill us, but it would injure us and possibly ruin the entrance to a beautiful cave. Every cave is different in many ways and being as prepared and safe as possible is the most important thing, but also to have fun! Prepare for the worst and expect the best!