• AeonFelis@lemmy.worldEnglish
    302·
    23 days ago

    Sorry, but no thanks. If I wanted to see a disappointment I’d just get a mirror.

  • citrusrx@lemmy.worldEnglish
    21·
    23 days ago

    If you’re in the mood to have a laugh at other people’s bad reviews, check out the Your Stupid Opinions podcast. They have covered at least one other national park that someone reviewed as “mid” as well as a ton of other hilariously bad reviews that range anywhere from sex toys to local psychics. I always enjoy passing the time on my way to work with these guys. Small town murder is also really good by them, haven’t checked out the crime in sports one yet though.

  • CptEnder@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    22 days ago

    The NPS Instagram account is one of the only reasons I still have an insta. They’re fucking hilarious.

  • Ibaudia@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    23 days ago

    I absolutely loved my visit to Mammoth and am planning on returning some day. They have a few different tours and I want to try some of the more challenging ones that take longer.

  • Sarmyth@lemmy.worldEnglish
    46·
    23 days ago

    Reminds me of the time I visited Penns Cave in PA. It was cool. It’s traversed by boat and part of the tour now is about how much damage running the tours over the century damaged the cave. It’s kinda meta.

    My favorite part is when they show you “the chimes” and talk about how tours used to tap them to make a spectacular noise during the tour and how they took millions of years to form but now they’re all broken because we are all dumb monkeys.

  • debil@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    22 days ago

    After binge-watching numerous caving incident videos, I’ve begun adhering to caving rule no. 1.

  • SirDerpy@lemmy.worldEnglish
    921·
    23 days ago

    Thirty years ago I spent three months as a USGS intern as part of a team taking depth readings on explored portions of caves.

    What makes Mammoth so cool is the huge size of the passages. But, I don’t think I’d have been nearly as impressed if I’d not spend three months mostly crawling through the tiny passageways that comprise the vast majority of most caves.

    Wyandott cave once ran a 12 hour 2 person + 2 guide tour into the tighter areas. If they’re still running that tour then I highly recommend it. At the time, it was damned near impossible to ever see a cave in that way unless you had a friend already hooked into the spelunking community.

      • Quetzalcutlass@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        23 days ago

        The first recommended video when I searched for them was this one. Very cool, and confirmed for me that even though I don’t have claustrophobia, cave diving is definitely not for me.

        • Death_Equity@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          23 days ago

          What they don’t always touch on is how long they are in those caves for. They will be in the caves for 5+ hours, with a couple hours where one guy is solo and squeezing through areas with no hope of rescue if he gets stuck.

          I am certain one of them is going to die in a cave after he went off alone and was crushed as he crawls under a breaking off flake or drowns when he gets turned around underwater. They don’t have any sort of gas detectors either and have ignored serious signs that they are not in an area with breathable air.

    • aramis87@fedia.io
      6·
      23 days ago

      Mammoth used to have wild cave tours as well, no idea if that’s changed during the pandemic though.

    • Chee_Koala@lemmy.worldEnglish
      19·
      23 days ago

      Damn, very cool, thanks so much for elaborating!

      I went to The Caves of Han and had a blast, and also went to some smaller natural caves. We have some divers in the family and I was well aware about the dangers and difficulties of exploring caves(systems) like this. Walking around on pathways with railings, lights and every comfort you need for walking through a cave, it sometimes felt surreal or weirdly conflicting.

      I did some guided underwater caving myself in coastal reefs in Egypt. There was a point where you had turn up from horizontal, slightly left, and about 45degrees back upward where you came from, with only the light you make with the divers light. This tunnel was just large enough to fit you with divers equipment, so basically a human sized hamstertube. and even though our guide was fantastic and dive prep was 10/10, that was intense.

      Cave exploring is super cool and very very dangerous and risky and unpractical, so it’s not hard to feel great awe when you see some caves like this ‘conquered’, knowing the effort it must have taken :-) .

      • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
        11·
        23 days ago

        so it’s not hard to feel great awe when you see some caves like this ‘conquered’, knowing the effort it must have taken :-)

        Mammoth Cave isn’t “conquered” – not by a long shot! They explored eight more miles of it for the first time just three years ago (and have apparently added six more without making the news since then, since the total is now 426), and estimate there may be another 600 miles yet unexplored.

      • SirDerpy@lemmy.worldEnglish
        131·
        23 days ago

        I did some guided underwater caving myself in coastal reefs in Egypt.

        I’ve been in tight caves, skydived and may soon buy an ultralight, climb without a rope (class 3ish) with fatal fall exposure, etc. I’ve managed to stay alive because of heavy risk assessment and mitigation efforts.

        Cave diving is a whole different category of risk. I’d never attempt it. As a hobby it’s certain death. Please say something about this in your post above.