Pit cave


A pit cave, shaft cave or vertical cave—or often simply called a pit and pothole or pot ; jama in Slavic languages scientific and colloquial vocabulary —is a type of cave which contains one or more significant vertical shafts rather than being predominantly a conventional horizontal cave passage. Pits typically form in limestone as a result of long-term erosion by water. They can be open to the surface or found deep within horizontal caves. Among US cavers, a pit, usually referred to as a 'pitch' in UK English, is a vertical drop of any depth that cannot be negotiated safely without the use of ropes or ladders.

Pit caving

Techniques

Exploration of pit caves requires the use of equipment such as nylon kernmantle rope or cable ladders. The specialized caving techniques of single rope technique are common practice and the preferred method of pit exploration for cavers worldwide. SRT involves the use of 8–11 mm nylon static rope and mechanical descenders/ascenders.
Vertical caving is a specialized sport that should be undertaken only after acquiring knowledge of, and expertise in, proper vertical caving equipment and its use. For obvious reasons, vertical caving is more dangerous than "horizontal caving". Vertical caving requires an understanding of ropes, knots, anchors, abseiling/rappelling devices and ascending systems, and techniques for passing rebelays, deviations, knot passes and changeovers. Experienced cavers are typically knowledgeable in self-rescue techniques such as rigging pulley-jammers and doing pick-offs.

History

Pit caving was pioneered by the English geologist John Beaumont who gave an account of his descent into Lamb Leer Cavern to the Royal Society in 1681. French caver Édouard-Alfred Martel first achieved the descent and exploration of the Gouffre de Padirac, France, as early as 1889 and the first complete descent of a wet vertical shaft at Gaping Gill, in Yorkshire, England, in 1895. He developed his own techniques using ropes and metallic ladders. In the 1930s, as caving became increasingly popular in France, several clubs in the Alps developed vertical cave exploration into a recognized outdoor sport.
During World War II, a team composed of Pierre Chevalier, Fernand Petzl, Charles Petit-Didier and others explored the Dent de Crolles cave system near Grenoble, France. It became known as the deepest cave in the world at that time. The lack of available technical equipment during the war forced Chevalier and his team to innovate and develop their own. The scaling-pole, nylon ropes, use of explosives in caves, and mechanical rope ascenders can be traced historically to the exploration of the Dent de Crolles cave system.
In the late 1950s, American caver Bill Cuddington further developed the single rope technique in the United States. In 1958, two Swiss alpinists, Juesi and Marti, teamed up, creating the first rope ascender, known as the Jumar. In 1968, Bruno Dressler asked Petzl, who worked as a metals machinist, to build a rope-ascending tool, today known as the Petzl Croll, which he had developed by adapting the Jumar to the specificity of pit caving. Pursuing these developments, in the 1970s Fernand Petzl started a small caving equipment manufacturing company. The development of the rappel rack and the evolution of mechanical ascension systems, notably helped extend the practice and safety of pit exploration to a larger practice by established cavers.

Notable pit caves and underground pitches

Europe