Caves aren’t necessarily the friendliest of places for an adventure, at least for those looking for a casual trip like that of hiking in the forest.
Part of it comes from the environment itself. Unlike forests, which allow one to explore without intense knowledge and gear, caves aren’t as forgiving.
It’s because caves are built in such a way that make them feel a little suffocating, especially to the claustrophobic: Having a ceiling above you at all times and being surrounded on nearly all directions by a hard surface. This means that people start fearing things that they won’t usually fear in open ground: Falling rocks, for instance, are now an unlikely but still potential threat that can cause the paranoia of unwitting explorers to shoot up. Then there’s even the possibility of a cave in occurring behind you.
Even in beginner-friendly caves, these threats are still present, as unlikely as they are, and can be enough to deter most people from caving outright.
But by far, the most common threat and problem that people run into while caving is getting lost.
Caves don’t necessarily have a single path to follow. In fact, many of them can branch out into different paths, and those paths can branch out into even more paths, some of which can shift in direction suddenly, even giving the impression that you’re going back. Enough combinations of both will leave even the hardiest explorer without any indicators on hand confused.
What then should one do if they ever get lost in a cave?
Don’t panic
This seems like such simple advice, yet important to emphasize nonetheless. For the unprepared, such a situation can cloud their judgement. When they realize that they might be lost, they panic, going through multiple passages in a desperate attempt to find their way out. Unfortunately, doing this will simply increase their chances of getting lost even more, as the exact path they took to get to their current location can be quite obscure.
Instead, take a deep breath and calm down. You still have (hopefully) all of your necessary caving gear with you, which means your chances of survival and getting back out alive are already high. Ingenuity and improvisation tactics will be your best friend here, alongside your knowledge of caving in general.
Sit down and wait
No, we’re not telling you to just give up. In fact, unless you have a sense or a hint of where the exit might be, you’re better off just sitting down and waiting for help to arrive. Seriously, cave rescuers are really good at their jobs, and they are able to successfully rescue most cavers. If you are absolutely uncertain, it might be better to hunker down and wait for help to arrive. Going off in search of the exit when you don’t even know where it might cause the rescue effort to take longer than it would, since you accidentally went deeper into the cave.
But how will the cave rescuers know where you are? Screaming for help would be a dead giveaway that you need help, but your energy and resources are limited, and you may end up tiring your throat before the rescuers reach your position, or at least reach a part of the cave within hearing distance of you. For alternative ways of grabbing the attention of your would-be rescuers, you can use rocks by hitting them with each other. The sound will also likely travel much farther than your voice, though it might be a bit hard to discern from afar at first whether it’s a human making those noises or if it’s just the environment. Still, having more options is better than sticking with only one.
Manage your resources
If you’ve decided to hunker down, this is the perfect time to change clothes. You’re going to be conserving your energy as much as possible here while you wait. If you still have food and drinks with you, consume some of them to give your mind some breathing room, but don’t consume all of them since you’ll need them later if you still aren’t found. Make sure to also conserve your light sources: Batteries are limited, and if you run out of light, you truly will have no other option than to wait for help to arrive. Moving around the cave in total darkness is too risky, and you can easily get injured or worse.
Use the environment and your equipment to your advantage
If you might have an idea of where the exit of the cave might be, you can cautiously go through different passages to hopefully find more familiar territory, or a path that eventually leads to the exit.
You can do this by using items that can mark locations and paths that you have already traveled: Paper, fabric, even the wrappers of your snacks can help tell where you have already been and where you have not so that you don’t waste your time entering places that you may have already gone through. If you don’t have any of these, then you can use the rocks in the cave instead: Set them up in a mini-formation of sorts, done in such a way where you can instantly tell that you were the one who made this.
You may also potentially feel a breeze or an air current, which dramatically helps you locate a passage that potentially leads to the exit. You can use the flicker of a lighter to make it easier for you to see if you want to make sure that you actually felt a breeze.
If you’re tired, use your clothes or bag to prop yourself up. It’s usually much better than laying on the ground, due to how cold the ground can get. Indeed, hypothermia is very much a big threat here, and making sure that your body is properly warmed up is key to making sure you don’t catch it.