In Georgia, I went with well trained cavers from my school. We belly crawled through a slot so small I had to turn my head sideways to fit. It was cold, wet, and very scary. I have rarely felt as much relief as I did upon emerging.
When my friends went spelunking and invited me to go, I told them I'd take a rain check. Maybe the risks are negligible, but every one of my alarm bells goes off.
Instant panic attacks. I guess I’m claustrophobic?
The closest freaky / claustrophobic experience I remember was during a hike upon entering into a train tunnel…for some reason…it was pitch black dark.
Once we were probably half way in I realised how insanely idiotic we were for going in. Then I realised the tunnel was really much longer than we anticipated, the light at the end became tiny. There was probably manholes in the side we could jump into if needs be but it was hard to see.
Two things were going through our minds, do we hide in man holes and go slowly, or run? We ran ! Of course my friend hurt his ankle So I was hobbling out of there with him over my shoulder.
I never remember how relived I was we made it out. Not long after, a train came around the corner quite fast, would’ve been a horrible tragedy.
Bring in that tunnel when a huge freight train was in there wouldn’t have been very enjoyable to say the least.
(If there was a room known as the "Aggie Art Gallery," on the other hand... well, that's the cave I'm referring to.)
When going into small spaces sometimes people enter a bad mental spiral of: feeling a bit squished, have a doubt that maybe the wall/ceiling moved, tense up further etc etc.
It is a weird mental thing because this cave has likely been largely this way for a looooooong time. It wasn't waiting for you to come along... but such are mind games.
People tended to crack more as you get tired. Physical fitness helped as well as being comfortable with your gear.
Rope stuff was easy enough and fun, though a bit tiring.
Your subconscious mind only partially understands the concept of rope and safety it brings, and being few tens of meters above ground puts out some very real emotions and fear of death out, especially when protection placement is quite apart. But you still have equipment that can handle easily 2 tonnes of static load and few of you in worst possible dynamic fall.
There's one worse, though...
About 30 years ago I became trapped in an alpine cave in a way very similar to Floyd Collins, when a football sized piece of marble fell from the ceiling about 30 feet into a virgin body sized phreatic tube I was exploring.
It landed on my ankle, pinning it so I couldn't move forward or back, and the passage was so tight that I couldn't move my free leg to dislodge it, and yes, Floyd Collins entrapment was the first thing I thought of.
Thankfully, I had two things in my favor, one was I had a caving partner on the surface who knew where I was, and I could communicate with, so if I couldn't self rescue she could hike the 5 miles back to a road end and get help (no cell phone service back then).
And two, I was an experienced caver, so I remained very calm, and kept working my free foot in order to attempt to dislodge the rock pinning my ankle, and after about 10 minutes I was able to somehow with great effort, shift the rock enough that I could move deeper into the cave.
I crawled forward another 15 feet to a pit about 20 feet deep that I was able to free climb into so I could turn around and head back out, and was able to push the rock ahead of me and I got out just fine.
It didn't phase me one bit, as I'd had much more serious life threatening events in caves previously (almost "flat rocked" in Lechuguilla Cave, NM), but I was well aware that it could have been a serious situation as it got down into the 20's at night in that location, so hypothermia was a real possibility.
The lesson here for non cavers is, don't explore caves alone, especially if nobody knows where you are, and get proper training before doing so, from a local "grotto" (chapter) of the National Speleological Society https://caves.org/ .
BTW, I've been hanging out at /. since it was "Chips and Dips".
And I have a beard, but not a neck beard.
This place is more like the "old" /. and I like it here.
Thats gonna be a no for me dawg
Are you a professional caver or just someone who likes to do it. The places you mentioned seem like a place that a novice would not be.
It's mostly hard core cavers who do the majority of cave exploration, surveying/mapping and biological/archeological inventory in caves around the world.
Almost all of us are volunteers, and arrange our lives around caving, not our jobs, it's a passion that consumes us.
Before retiring from caving due to health issues, I caved with the best of the best for years, and none of us were/are "adventure seekers", not even close, we are pragmatic, calm, and seriously experienced in cave exploration, as opposed to those who are untrained casual cave explorers (what we call "spelunkers", i.e. flashlight cavers).
Kudos to you and the work you and like-minded individuals put into exploring and mapping these systems.
It seems like they are neither!
The problem was that I tagged along on one of their fun trips rather than taking a class, so the difficulty was not calibrated for me. Even so, while it pushed me mentally, it wasn’t physically dangerous.
I appreciate your concern though.