As said over and over again, the Grotte des Emotions is extremely muddy
and the lower levels of the cave flood regularly up to 20 metres
high. We have experienced that the water/and or mud are very
aggressive for all metal gear that is left behind in this part of the
cave.
We have at two occasions had problems with brand new INOX ladders
that were left in the cave for +/- 3 months. The
(aluminium) shrinkings that kept the bars in place, were so corroded
that the bars slid down the inox cables, making the ladders
unusable. In this case, an electrolytic corrosion between
the inox cable and aluminium shrinkings was accelerating the
process. But throwing ladders away after only 3 months of
use, is not very affordable for a small caving club!
Especially karabiners made from zicral detoriate very rapidly.
Within less than a year they have become totally useless. This is
really amazing. We have other caves, such as Bois de waerimont, where
zicral karabiners have been used for fixed ropes as well. After 6 years
of service, they still do not represent any danger at all.
But Grotte des Emotions is different. See some examples
below.
These examples are the living proof that:
- you should never, ever, have trust in a fixed rope that disappears
into the darkness of the ceiling of a gallery or aven... it could be
fixed on rotten karabiners.
- you should never, ever use zicral karabiners for fixed
ropes. At long term, you might kill someone that way. Only use
steel ones, and if possible inox ones.
I can not explain why the water and mud in this cave attack all metal
so quickly. The PH of the mud is 7, which is quite neutral!
EXAMPLES FROM GROTTE DES EMOTIONS
EXAMPLE 1: A series of 12 karabiners
was purchased in 1995 (manufactured in 1994) and put into
to cave for a period of no longer than 12 months. Then
they were replaced by steel "maillon rapides "
Unfortunately, we had to thrown away all of
the karabiners. As the picture clearly shows, they were already
partially "eaten" by the cave!
NB: the screw of the karabiner has been
removed afterwards.
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Example 2 (front view ) : in Sept 1997
two divers passed the terminal sump of the cave and made a 12
metre high climb there. They left a fixed rope there, attached
to two good karabiners.
Six years later, in December 2003, we continued the
exploration. When climbing up the rope, I suddenly fell down 3
metres, luckily without any injuries. The karabiner had broken.
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Example 2 (back view ) : as you can
see, the karabiner has been destroyed to the core by
corrosion. No wonder it broke as soon as some load was put
onto it.
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Example 2 (detail view ) : quite
amazing, isn't it, after only six years?
But more amazing was the fact that I only fell
down 3 metres, while I was already 5 metres up the rope.
How come? Because, the second karabiner resisted and held
my fall. Look at the following picture for this
"magic" karabiner
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Example 3 (front view ) : unbelievable,
isn't it, that this thing held my fall? Now this is the
difference between an oval (example 1) and a trapezium
shaped (example 2) carabiner! Anyway, after 6 years in the
cave, this thing is as rotten as the other one.
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Example 3 (back view ) : the back side
of this karabiner - in fact, WHAT is the BACK or the FRONT
side anyway ;-) |