Over The Edge Page 10

Sprit fen
Columbian

Caves

Caves exist exclu-
sively in Limestone
areas. The very best
caves in BC are
located on
Vancouver Island,
but this is the second
best area in the

province to go cav-
ing. There are many

caves in the Rockie
mountains, The
Cariboo Mountains
and McGregors. The
biggest cave in the
area is 4.5 km, which
is in the top 15
largest Canadian
caves. Another local
cave has an 828 foot
vertical drop, this is
the deepest straight
drop north of Mexico.

Dangers

of Caving

The biggest danger
that comes with cav-
ing is the tempera-
ture. The mean tem-
perature in Canadian
caves is 3-5 degrees
Celsius. Thus even a
broken ankle can be
dangerous.

very
When explorers stop
to rest the humidity,
the cold floor, and the
cold walls quickly
drain heat away from

the body. Good
waterproof clothing is
vital to stay comfort-
able and safe while
caving.

Club Feature: Caving

by Jeremy Fung

The caving club is a group of 25 core members
who go caving. What is caving? According to
Bob Rutherford, the President of the Caving
Club, caving is visiting and exploring caves. It
sounds quite difficult, but after talking with Bob
for a while, | found that anyone can go caving.

The caving club
members range
from absolute
beginners, all the
way up to about
5 expert cave
explorers.
Members = are
happy to teach
newcomers
about the various
techniques and
necessities to
get in to caving.
The club owns all
of the necessary
beginning equipment.

The club members visit easy caves where the
most difficult maneuvre would be to climb over
a few rocks, and they visit difficult caves that
only extremely fit spelunkers can go. Several
club members are planning a trip that involves a
drop of over 800 feet, and spending a night in a

SPORTS & CLUBS

How Loud is Your Car?

Kevin Milos
So how loud is your
car? Raw decibel-wise

of course. You could
have found out at the
unofficial dbDragrace

which came to Prince
George at Custom Car
Radio last week.

The dbDragrace is an
international car audio
competition which takes
place in twenty-eight
countries around the
world. dbDrag’s
Canadian representa-
tive, and partial devel-
oper, Mike Depez
claims that the unique

thing about the dbDrags
is it's surprising similari-
ty to a conventional
speed drag race. There
are two lanes, each with
a set of lights ranging
from green (lowest deci-
bel range), through yel-
low, to red (highest
decibel range). The
record for the interna-
tional dbDrags is 172.2
decibels. Considering
that 190 decibels is the
rough range of a rocket
launching pad, that’s
damn loud.

Concise com-

cave where the temperature will likely be no
warmer than 3 degrees celsius.
Prince George is an excellent location to join a
caving club as there are many caves within 3 or
4 hours travelling distance. Most of the caves
take around an hour to drive to and another
hour to hike in.
The equipment

~~

lis: ;

October 26, 1998

case, the frog devices are used. These devices

work best when the rope is free hanging, which

means it is not touching any of the cave walls.

To get involved you can contact Bob
Rutherford at brutherford@mail.canfor.ca or
561-4434. Dan Stapinsky at 563-5163. Trevor
Joyce at 614-1414.

used in caving is:
warm waterproof
clothes, good
gloves, a helmet,
a head lamp, a
spare lamp, and
a flashlight. For
more — technical
areas of caves
ropes, repelling

puters measure the
exact decibel rating
through microphones
placed in the cars by
technicians. The mea-
surement is based pure-
ly on raw decibels and
pressure fluctuations
inside the vehicles inte-
rior. For this reason, it
isn’t uncommon to see
people spotting the
vehicles and holding the
windows in order to pre-
serve precious pres-
sure. It could mean the
difference between first
and second place.
Each __contes-
tant pulls into a lane,
gives Mike the thumbs

devices, and frog
devices
needed.
ropes used in
caving differ from climbing ropes. The caving
ropes are called static rope and the give in them
is only 2% compared to 40% for climbing ropes.

When it becomes necessary to climb in caving,
the explorers will generally climb without the aid
of ropes. However longer climbs are usually
going back up out of the cave system and in this

are
The

up, and they have
forty seconds to
make their systems
crank out as many
ear-shattering deci-
bels as they can.
Apparently at the
big finalists compe-
titions, “...it isn't
uncommon to see
amp’s burn out,
subs blow, voice
coils crack, and
even fans going
through hoods
since the twelve or
so alternators pow-
ering the system
are stressing the
belts to their limits.”

How does