Tweet
I've had a number of people ask me how to get started in mine exploring. I've put down some of my thoughts based on my experience as an underground explorer. Some people will tell you that the way that they rig their gear, set an anchor, or descend a rope is the ONLY correct method. Nonsense. There are many ways to approach each task as long as safety is the first consideration.
Feel free to add your thoughts of how you approach mine exploring.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I think quite a number of us agree with "Stay Out, Stay Alive" for the general public because abandoned mines by their very nature are dangerous places. The guy out riding around in his Jeep and drinking beer decides to explore a mine using his cell phone as a flashlight is just begging to get hurt or killed. Not much different than someone strapping on scuba gear and trying to teach himself to scuba dive. Might be successful, might not. On the other hand, experienced explorers with the proper gear evaluate the risks and act accordingly.
So what are the dangers? Of course there is the danger of collapse. It's rare, but on more than one occasion we have heard rock falls in the mine as we explore. There is also the danger of bad air. It's a very real danger that has taken quite a few lives. You generally can't tell you are in bad air until it's too late. A properly maintained and calibrated gas meter can provide a bad air warning. Wooden sub-floors are always a danger. Deep winzes are often planked over then covered in dirt. We've been in places where we realized that we were walking on a sub-floor 100ft above the next level down. There is a very high probability sever injury or death if it collapses. Getting lost in a mine can be a danger, but it's really not likely. Most mines branch out as you go in, so finding your way back out is usually pretty obvious. That said, the risks are manageable with a bit of experience and common sense. We've all heard of people being killed in old mines, but I've not heard of an experienced mine explorer who has. The incidents I've heard of are unprepared people wandering into an abandoned mine or getting too close to a vertical shaft and falling in.
So how do you get started?
I hate to start with gear, but let’s get it out of the way. I’m going to just list out what I think is important and talk about a couple of specific items in greater detail.
GEAR
helmet
headlamp
backup headlamp
hand held light
spare batteries
gloves
knife
water
small 1st aid kit
50 feet of 1” webbing for a hand line
2 or 3 carabiners
whistle for signaling
compass
p95 dust mask (optional)
knee pads (optional)
rain suit (optional)
gas meter (optional)
SPOT personal tracker (optional)
HELMETS
We wear helmets for a number of reasons. First off they protect us when we smack our head on overhead rocks. They protect us to some extent from falling rocks. Even a small rock falling from a hight can do a lot of damage. There's no real protection from a large rock fall. Lastly they provide a mounting platform for our headlamps.
As a new explorer there are a lot of options for a helmet depending on your budget. If you have the money, then of course I would recommend a climbing helmet. Now days most climbing helmets have clips around the outside to hold a headlamp strap in place so it doesn't slide up and fall off the helmet. A good helmet should cost anywhere between $50 and $100. If money is tight or if you don’t want to invest until you are certain you like underground exploring, there are other options that will work as well. Bike helmets, skateboard helmets, and even construction hard hats will work although they won't necessarily provide the same protection as a climbing helmet.
I started exploring by mounting a headlamp to my bike helmet. It looked a little silly but it got me going at no cost since I already had the helmet and a headlamp. The down side of bike helmets is that they have lots of air holes to keep you cool when riding. Unfortunately those same holes let in dirt and provide less protection from falling rocks or other sharp objects. A skateboard or snowboarding helmet will work as well. They will lack a way to securely mount a headlamp. Some folks buy headlamp clips from a climbing store, or you can drill a couple of small holes to run wire-ties through to hold the headlamp strap in place.
Hardhats have a couple of problems, though they are easy to overcome. First, most hardhats in the US do not have chin straps. That means if you look over the lip of a deep shaft, you could easily lost your helmet and your headlamp. Maybe not a huge problem if you are on the surface, but if you are way deep in a mine it means that you might be in real trouble. So how do you fix that? Head down to REI or other camping store and look for some narrow nylon webbing and a release buckle. An online resource for all kinds of webbing, snaps, buckles and the like is www.strapworks.com Next you have the problem of mounting your headlamp. Again, wire ties or clips. (Google search “helmet headlamp clips”)
HEADLAMPS AND FLASHLIGHTS
When you go underground your headlamp becomes a piece of life support equipment. No different than a parachute for a sky diver or a breathing regulator for a scuba diver. That sounds pretty dramatic but it’s really true. In all but the most simple mine, losing your light would leave you stranded in the mine waiting for rescue. Once you have crossed a winze (deep shaft) or climbed up a ladder, you no longer have the ability to safely find your way back to the mine entrance without light.
So why am I going on and on about lights? Well some people think that one light is as good as the next light. They think that if they find a 5 pack of lights at Walmart for $10, that they are ready to head underground. They may be fine around the house or in the glove box of their car, but not for underground! This is one place you need to invest some money in a quality light that is built to a higher standard.
Here is what you need. One headlamp mounted to your helmet. This is your primary light and needs to be the best you can afford. You should also have a backup light mounted to your helmet. This can be a second headlamp, or a handheld flashlight wire tied to the helmet. The reason we have two mounted to the helmets is to ensure that even if your primary light fails, you have a back-up that allows you to still use both hands to climb or descend a ladder or other obstacle.
In addition to your helmet lights, you should have a handheld flashlight that you can carry in your pocket or backpack. There is a saying, “Two is one, and one is none.” That’s why my procedure is that three lights is the minimum to head underground with.
Before you go out and buy lights, I suggest you do a bit of research. www.candlepowerforums.com is a good resource. Two suggestions: First, find lights that use the same battery type. That keeps you from having to keep track of different sized batteries. Second, go rechargeable. When I started out I had lights that used CR123A batteries and that got really expensive over time. Now I run lights that use 18650 batteries and I have a charger that runs from my car battery for multi-day trips.
TECHNIQUE & EXPERIENCE
- Make certain that you let someone know where you are going and when you expect to be back. I use a SPOT tracker to broadcast my location before entering a mine. That ensures that emergency personnel don't waste time trying to figure out where we are
- Wear appropriate protective clothing. I recommend long pants, long sleeves, over the ankle hiking boots and gloves
- Wear proper exploring gear including a helmet and multiple lights, and spare batteries
- Gain experience by starting with smaller, easier mines. Then move to larger, more challenging ones
- Find local explorers to go with. Going solo gives you no margin of safety
- Learn a few basic knots: bowline, figure 8, clove hitch, and butterfly
- You can use a GPS and camera to document the location of mines and keep track of which photos come from which mine. First, take a picture of your GPS showing the lat and lon before you take any photos of the mine. That way all of the pictures after the lat-lon photo are of the same mine
RESOURCES
- www.mojaveunderground.com (old information but some good threads)
- www.undergroundexplorers.com (tons of good pictures)
- aditnow.co.uk (British based site, but interesting pictures and discussions)
VERTICAL EXPLORING
Being able to rappel and ascend ropes opens up your exploring possibilities. It also weeds out 90% of the casual explorers leaving you with less traveled, more pristine areas to explore. That said, there is a significant amount of gear and training required before heading underground with ropes.
If you are even considering doing vertical exploring, read through these 10 tutorials. Not all of it applies to mine exploring, but caving and mine exploring have a lot of technique in common.
- www.cavediggers.com/vertical (outstanding set of 10 tutorials on vertical caving)
‘On Rope’ is a great book if you really want to learn a lot about underground technique. It’s not cheap, but you can find it on Amazon. Probably the best technical book that I’ve found.
Become proficient at rappelling and ascending above ground before heading into a mine. I strongly recommend finding an experienced mentor to help you learn the proper techniques.
FINDING MINES
Finding mines to explore can be quite easy in some parts of the country and quite difficult in other parts. We find mines three different ways.
First, we get in the truck and head out into the desert. We don’t just drive blindly around. We head to areas that have historically been mining districts.
The second way is to get on Google Earth and start looking for tailing piles. They are usually pretty obvious and we copy down the lat / lon so we can go explore in person.
Lastly, the USGS has a Mineral Resources Data System that is a database of old mining claims. I have extracted the mine location coordinates and created a file for each of the west coast states. The file is opened in Google Earth and displays a color coded push-pin at each mine location. Yellow pins indicate gold mines, blue pins indicate gemstone mines, red pins indicate placer gold, and green pins are everything else. I will post those state-by-state mine files in the near future.
Joanne
Feel free to add your thoughts of how you approach mine exploring.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I think quite a number of us agree with "Stay Out, Stay Alive" for the general public because abandoned mines by their very nature are dangerous places. The guy out riding around in his Jeep and drinking beer decides to explore a mine using his cell phone as a flashlight is just begging to get hurt or killed. Not much different than someone strapping on scuba gear and trying to teach himself to scuba dive. Might be successful, might not. On the other hand, experienced explorers with the proper gear evaluate the risks and act accordingly.
So what are the dangers? Of course there is the danger of collapse. It's rare, but on more than one occasion we have heard rock falls in the mine as we explore. There is also the danger of bad air. It's a very real danger that has taken quite a few lives. You generally can't tell you are in bad air until it's too late. A properly maintained and calibrated gas meter can provide a bad air warning. Wooden sub-floors are always a danger. Deep winzes are often planked over then covered in dirt. We've been in places where we realized that we were walking on a sub-floor 100ft above the next level down. There is a very high probability sever injury or death if it collapses. Getting lost in a mine can be a danger, but it's really not likely. Most mines branch out as you go in, so finding your way back out is usually pretty obvious. That said, the risks are manageable with a bit of experience and common sense. We've all heard of people being killed in old mines, but I've not heard of an experienced mine explorer who has. The incidents I've heard of are unprepared people wandering into an abandoned mine or getting too close to a vertical shaft and falling in.
So how do you get started?
I hate to start with gear, but let’s get it out of the way. I’m going to just list out what I think is important and talk about a couple of specific items in greater detail.
GEAR
helmet
headlamp
backup headlamp
hand held light
spare batteries
gloves
knife
water
small 1st aid kit
50 feet of 1” webbing for a hand line
2 or 3 carabiners
whistle for signaling
compass
p95 dust mask (optional)
knee pads (optional)
rain suit (optional)
gas meter (optional)
SPOT personal tracker (optional)
HELMETS
We wear helmets for a number of reasons. First off they protect us when we smack our head on overhead rocks. They protect us to some extent from falling rocks. Even a small rock falling from a hight can do a lot of damage. There's no real protection from a large rock fall. Lastly they provide a mounting platform for our headlamps.
As a new explorer there are a lot of options for a helmet depending on your budget. If you have the money, then of course I would recommend a climbing helmet. Now days most climbing helmets have clips around the outside to hold a headlamp strap in place so it doesn't slide up and fall off the helmet. A good helmet should cost anywhere between $50 and $100. If money is tight or if you don’t want to invest until you are certain you like underground exploring, there are other options that will work as well. Bike helmets, skateboard helmets, and even construction hard hats will work although they won't necessarily provide the same protection as a climbing helmet.
I started exploring by mounting a headlamp to my bike helmet. It looked a little silly but it got me going at no cost since I already had the helmet and a headlamp. The down side of bike helmets is that they have lots of air holes to keep you cool when riding. Unfortunately those same holes let in dirt and provide less protection from falling rocks or other sharp objects. A skateboard or snowboarding helmet will work as well. They will lack a way to securely mount a headlamp. Some folks buy headlamp clips from a climbing store, or you can drill a couple of small holes to run wire-ties through to hold the headlamp strap in place.
Hardhats have a couple of problems, though they are easy to overcome. First, most hardhats in the US do not have chin straps. That means if you look over the lip of a deep shaft, you could easily lost your helmet and your headlamp. Maybe not a huge problem if you are on the surface, but if you are way deep in a mine it means that you might be in real trouble. So how do you fix that? Head down to REI or other camping store and look for some narrow nylon webbing and a release buckle. An online resource for all kinds of webbing, snaps, buckles and the like is www.strapworks.com Next you have the problem of mounting your headlamp. Again, wire ties or clips. (Google search “helmet headlamp clips”)
HEADLAMPS AND FLASHLIGHTS
When you go underground your headlamp becomes a piece of life support equipment. No different than a parachute for a sky diver or a breathing regulator for a scuba diver. That sounds pretty dramatic but it’s really true. In all but the most simple mine, losing your light would leave you stranded in the mine waiting for rescue. Once you have crossed a winze (deep shaft) or climbed up a ladder, you no longer have the ability to safely find your way back to the mine entrance without light.
So why am I going on and on about lights? Well some people think that one light is as good as the next light. They think that if they find a 5 pack of lights at Walmart for $10, that they are ready to head underground. They may be fine around the house or in the glove box of their car, but not for underground! This is one place you need to invest some money in a quality light that is built to a higher standard.
Here is what you need. One headlamp mounted to your helmet. This is your primary light and needs to be the best you can afford. You should also have a backup light mounted to your helmet. This can be a second headlamp, or a handheld flashlight wire tied to the helmet. The reason we have two mounted to the helmets is to ensure that even if your primary light fails, you have a back-up that allows you to still use both hands to climb or descend a ladder or other obstacle.
In addition to your helmet lights, you should have a handheld flashlight that you can carry in your pocket or backpack. There is a saying, “Two is one, and one is none.” That’s why my procedure is that three lights is the minimum to head underground with.
Before you go out and buy lights, I suggest you do a bit of research. www.candlepowerforums.com is a good resource. Two suggestions: First, find lights that use the same battery type. That keeps you from having to keep track of different sized batteries. Second, go rechargeable. When I started out I had lights that used CR123A batteries and that got really expensive over time. Now I run lights that use 18650 batteries and I have a charger that runs from my car battery for multi-day trips.
TECHNIQUE & EXPERIENCE
- Make certain that you let someone know where you are going and when you expect to be back. I use a SPOT tracker to broadcast my location before entering a mine. That ensures that emergency personnel don't waste time trying to figure out where we are
- Wear appropriate protective clothing. I recommend long pants, long sleeves, over the ankle hiking boots and gloves
- Wear proper exploring gear including a helmet and multiple lights, and spare batteries
- Gain experience by starting with smaller, easier mines. Then move to larger, more challenging ones
- Find local explorers to go with. Going solo gives you no margin of safety
- Learn a few basic knots: bowline, figure 8, clove hitch, and butterfly
- You can use a GPS and camera to document the location of mines and keep track of which photos come from which mine. First, take a picture of your GPS showing the lat and lon before you take any photos of the mine. That way all of the pictures after the lat-lon photo are of the same mine
RESOURCES
- www.mojaveunderground.com (old information but some good threads)
- www.undergroundexplorers.com (tons of good pictures)
- aditnow.co.uk (British based site, but interesting pictures and discussions)
VERTICAL EXPLORING
Being able to rappel and ascend ropes opens up your exploring possibilities. It also weeds out 90% of the casual explorers leaving you with less traveled, more pristine areas to explore. That said, there is a significant amount of gear and training required before heading underground with ropes.
If you are even considering doing vertical exploring, read through these 10 tutorials. Not all of it applies to mine exploring, but caving and mine exploring have a lot of technique in common.
- www.cavediggers.com/vertical (outstanding set of 10 tutorials on vertical caving)
‘On Rope’ is a great book if you really want to learn a lot about underground technique. It’s not cheap, but you can find it on Amazon. Probably the best technical book that I’ve found.
Become proficient at rappelling and ascending above ground before heading into a mine. I strongly recommend finding an experienced mentor to help you learn the proper techniques.
FINDING MINES
Finding mines to explore can be quite easy in some parts of the country and quite difficult in other parts. We find mines three different ways.
First, we get in the truck and head out into the desert. We don’t just drive blindly around. We head to areas that have historically been mining districts.
The second way is to get on Google Earth and start looking for tailing piles. They are usually pretty obvious and we copy down the lat / lon so we can go explore in person.
Lastly, the USGS has a Mineral Resources Data System that is a database of old mining claims. I have extracted the mine location coordinates and created a file for each of the west coast states. The file is opened in Google Earth and displays a color coded push-pin at each mine location. Yellow pins indicate gold mines, blue pins indicate gemstone mines, red pins indicate placer gold, and green pins are everything else. I will post those state-by-state mine files in the near future.
Joanne
I probably could help you out on some good mining advice. I probably cant offer much more advice on exploring the mines since i do or have done very little exploring other than what Joanne has already stated in her posts.
Comment