
Exploring a massive cave labyrinth hidden under Borneo - howard941
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2019/03/exploring-a-massive-cave-labyrinth-hidden-under-borneo/
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mwexler
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossal_Cave_Adventure](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossal_Cave_Adventure))

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LeonB
Also reminds me of this “simple puzzle” [http://wiki.secretgeek.net/a-simple-
puzzle](http://wiki.secretgeek.net/a-simple-puzzle)

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keypusher
Caving is a great adventure, there are unique challenges from many disciplines
including bouldering, fixed rope ascending/descending, logistics, navigation,
cartography, first aid/rescue, communication, psychology, leadership, etc. You
tend to spend a lot of time in cold, dirty, cramped spaces, but the rush of
exploration and gravity of danger make it quite exciting and rewarding too. I
found the camaraderie to be fantastic, there’s local clubs all around the
world and the community is pretty small and tight knit, it tends to draw a
somewhat unusual group of individuals. Perhaps how rock climbing or scuba
diving felt in the earlier days, pushing your limits doing something that most
people find pointless and/or terrifying.

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Shivetya
Very nice article.

Question, if spending the night in the cave system, long hours, what are the
rules for human waste? Do they have to bring it all out? I noticed they talked
about putting down cable holds and such so that got me thinking, what rules do
they operate under when in such environments?

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kirrent
Caves are reasonably biologically inert once you get a bit deeper in simply
due to the lack of sunlight. If you leave waste down there, it'll stay there
for a long time and have a relatively large impact on the fragile cave
microbiota. It's polite and considered responsible to pack it out, though on
more hardcore expeditions it's not always possible to take all your urine back
with you.

On the other hand, bolts don't tend to have any long term environmental impact
apart from their presence and are already only placed when necessary anyway.

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sohkamyung
For those who are interested, here is the main link to the Mulu National Park,
which is where the caves are located [1]

Disclosure: my family visited Mulu National Park a few years ago and it was
amazing. We didn't visit the pinnacles as it was too physical for a family
with a young kid but we did explore (with guides) some of the publicly
available cave areas, including the one showing the profile of Lincoln's head.

The caves are as amazing as the article describes and more. And I will never
forget some areas where the guano was so thick that the smell of ammonia was
nearly overpowering. :-)

[1] [https://www.mulunationalpark.com/](https://www.mulunationalpark.com/)

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theoh
"Sarawak Chamber was so big, Mad Phil explained, that it almost certainly
contained new passages—particularly in the roof, where no one had ever
searched. Although it’s tempting to think of caves as similar to mine
shafts—tunnels that slope relatively straightforwardly down—natural caves are
nonlinear and expand and contract according to the movement of rocks, the
meandering of water, the work of chaos.

Concepts of “up” and “down” assume subtler meanings underground, where
directions can be utterly inverted over a few million years. If someone is
exploring the down part of the cave, another caver might try looking up. And
up was Mad Phil’s specialty."

I've done some caving and I'm pretty sure that the situation here is that
there may be stream passages that once exited into the chamber through the
roof. They probably no longer carry water, or they would already be obvious.

For, example, the caving term for a vertical shaft that is discovered from its
lower end is "aven", and it doesn't imply that the whole landscape has been
turned upside-down by geological forces.

[http://www.speleogenesis.info/directory/glossary/?term=aven](http://www.speleogenesis.info/directory/glossary/?term=aven)

"aven

1\. A hole in the roof of a cave passage that may be either a rather large
blind roof pocket or a tributary inlet shaft into the cave system. A feature
described as an aven when seen from below may equally be described as shaft
when seen from above, and the naming of such a feature commonly depends purely
upon the direction of exploration. Many avens close upwards to impenetrable
fissures but may still be important hydrological routes; few caves are without
them. In parts of France, aven is equivalent to the British term, pothole [9].

2\. (French.) A vertical or highly inclined shaft in limestone, extending
upward from a cave passage, generally to the surface; smaller than an abime.
Commonly related to enlarged vertical joints. Compare cenote; natural well;
pothole.

3\. (British.) A vertical extension from a shaft in a passage or chamber roof
that tapers upward rather like a very elongate cone [10]. Compare dome pit."

"Vadose" is another technical term that applies to the regime of erosion in
which water is trickling down towards the water table. That's obviously
something that can very much happen in the rock above the ceiling of the
chamber. (Vadose erosion is usually contrasted with phreatic erosion, which
refers to tunnels which are literally dissolved through the rock below the
water table.)

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e40
The visuals in the article are amazing. Thanks for posting.

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notahacker
Looks even better IRL (and you can tour a lot of the caves without specialist
equipment, or even good shoes...)

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pugworthy
Having grown up in the 60's listening to the "Death of Floyd Collins", some of
those tight fit cave pictures are sort of trigger-worthy.

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adrianN
You shouldn't read this here then:
[http://www.angelfire.com/trek/caver/](http://www.angelfire.com/trek/caver/)

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pvaldes
Precious photos, but no Gollumjapyx smeagol were found

