Cave Slang

Compiled by Tom Moss, Edited for the WWW by Joel Laws

Air Rappel - an accidental fall down a pit.    

Armchair caver - one who talks about caving more than going underground.

Modern version is the 'virtual' caver.

Baby Hog - a not-so-long coil of rope to be carried through a cave. See Hog.

Babysitting - referring to those cavers who can cave one day of the weekend, while they look after the kids for the other day.

Bang - explosives

Beady Eye - A candle

Bide - carbide

Biner - carabiner

Birth Canal - that passage which reminds you of some certain part of the female anatomy.

BNC - Big-Name Caver (usually complimentary, but sometimes connotes self-styled, or a speleopolitician).

Bomb Box - army surplus ammunition box explosives are packed in for transport through a cave.

Bomb Proof - (1) suitable natural rig point 2) any belay which has a vast overkill of security, or any sort of shoring or other equipment whose safety in no doubt.

Booty - virgin cave passage. See Scoop.

Bottomed or Bottomed Out- reaching the lowest point of a vertical cave.

Brain Bucket - helmet.

Carbide Assist -refers to "encouragement" of a caver (esp. slow cavers) in a crawlway by a close following carbide caver.

Carbide Pig - a length of knotted car inner-tube used for carrying carbide in caves. Also known as piglets (if made form bicycle inner-tube - often pink.)

Cardboard Caver - a caver who turns around at the first sign of wetness - so that his/her layers don't delaminate.

Ceiling Burner - belt-generator carbide lamp with vertical flame.

Cell - almost any electric light, but particularly its battery pack.

Chair Sucker (rope sucker, stove sucker, etc.) - one who use someone else's gear while the other person is preoccupied with something else. "I got up to get something to eat and someone sucked my chair!"

Chest Compressor - a crawl that cannot be negotiated by an individual without exhaling.

Chicken Loops - ankle slings incorporated in a vertical systems so foot stirrups cannot come off if the climber hangs upside down.

Craps Out - passage ends

Cratering - too fast a rappel ending with to quick a stop. "Put a knot in the end of the rope or ya' might crater."

Cave Burritos - the containers of fecal waste, normally tripled-bagged in Ziplocks, removed in one's pack form a cave.

Chemical Persuasion - explosives

Cow's Tail - (1) a very short loop of 15-20cm strap from the sit-harness. (2) A much longer safety loop, so that the krab at the end is just about at the arm's reach. This is what early SRT protagonists in the UK called a "Claude loop" after Jean-Claude Dobrill who first pioneered their use in Europe.

Dangle - strap used to hang packs out of the way below your feet while on rappel.

Death March - particularly gruelling caving trip

Eardip - water passage that gets so low that you must drag one ear on the ceiling, while the other dips below the water.

E-Caving - one who experiences caving electronically. Usually via a computer, E-Mail, the Internet, BBSs, etc.

E-Caver - one who spends more time E-Caving than actually going undergound.

Entrance Fever - when a caver is anxious to get out of the cave.

Gobbler - expedition-style waist-mounted carbide lamp generator, because of the rate at which carbide is consumed. 

Gnar (also Knar) - a narrow passage which has popcorn or other features which catch on packs and tear clothing.

Goes - the report on a lead that says it continues.

Gorp - "Good Ol' Raisins and Peanuts" - popular cave food.

Grunt - a rugged and challenging caving trip requiring some extra effort.

Hardware - refers to 'biners, racks, figure 8's, ascenders, bolts, etc. -- the metallic paraphernalia of vertical caving.

Hog - a log coil of rope to be carried through a cave.

Hydrothermia - hypothermia from being submerged in water, or from hanging on rope in a waterfall.

"Little black rocks to make fire" - Calcium Carbide.

On Point (On Station) - comment to let instrument reader know you are ready for survey measurement reading.

Pig - (1) See Carbide Pig. (2) a hauling container made form two-gallon plastic bottles with their bottoms cut off, filled with whatever, and then jammed together and taped or tied securely. Useful for tethering to your leg to drag gear through lots of crawlways. (3) generic term for anything which is bad tocarry thru a nasty cave !!

Pitch - the most commonly used term for a vertical drop 

Pot Holing - What cavers in Great Brittan refer to when they enter caves with vertical entrances.

Safety Loop - a length of rope which connects your top ascender to the sit harness in case the chest/seat ascender fails.

Scoop - (1) speleobopping through cave passage instead of surveying it, therefore ripping off the virgin passage some other caver would have to survey later. (2) to discover virgin cave, no negative connotations.

Sherpa - person who carries loads of gear for someone else or to supply a latter effort.

Squeeze - (1) a tight spot or constriction. (2) SpeleoBabe

Spelunk - (1) The sound made by a caver hitting the bottom of a pit. See Air Rappel. (2) The sound made by a caver walking through water 1 to 1.5 feet deep.

Spelunker - person who goes into caves without proper equipment or the desire to learn/practice proper safety/conservation techniques. Example: When five people go spelunking, everyone has well-worn tennis shoes, two might have flashlights, one claims to know about the cave, and none in the group has a helmet. The word spelunker comes from the sound one makes when they slip, fall, and land in a pool of water - SPEEE-LUNK!

The difference between a Spelunker and a Caver is: Cavers rescue Spelunkers!

Sporting - statement to imply positive images of a challenging, wet, muddy, less than easy cave. "Its a sporting cave!"

SRT - (1) Single Rope Techniques. (2) Solid Rubber Trussing.

Tight Spot - a squeeze.