Caving

Chapter 1: The Vertical Mindset: What This Book Covers and How to Use It Underground

The first time I stood at the lip of a pitch and looked down into a black that had no bottom, my heart was doing something I did not approve of. The rope was rigged. The anchors were bombproof. My gear was racked and checked twice. None of that mattered. What mattered was that my brain was screaming a very old, very loud warning about holes and falling, and I had to learn to have a conversation with that voice instead of obeying it.

That conversation is what this book is about. Not just the knots, the torque specs, or the rope math—though those are all here, in exact numbers, because you will need them in the dark. The real subject is the mental model that lets you approach a pitch the same way every time, whether it is a 12-meter drop in a weekend cave or a 90-meter shaft with two rebelays and a deviation. You need a system. This book is that system, written down, with the numbers filled in.

What You Will Be Able to Do When You Finish This Book

Let me be specific about the end state. After you work through this book—and I mean actually work through it, not just read it in your living room—you will be able to walk up to any pitch in any cave and do the following without hesitation:

• Survey the pitch from the