CAVING GEAR

Cave overalls
Cave packs
TruLight LED cave light
Caving ladders

Caving harnesses are described on their own page elsewhere.

Bulmer Cavern: since its discovery in 1985, the underground cave system of Bulmer Cavern in Kahurangi National Park has been explored to a surveyed length of over 50 kilometres. One of the longest and deepest caves in the Southern Hemisphere, the Bulmer cave system has been the main testing ground for Aspiring caving equipment for over 20 years. Designs have come and gone in the search for the most durable and functional designs and materials - the end result is the toughest and most functional caving gear available.

Aspiring Enterprises has long been involved in supplying high quality caving equipment . In 1985 we introduced our first oversuits, which gave New Zealand cavers another option to the choices then available - using cotton workers' overalls, or making your own. Cave packs, harnesses and abseil racks were added shortly after. We can now supply most items of equipment required for New Zealand caving.

Cave overalls

In past days of New Zealand caving all serious cavers had access to a sewing machine and the ability to stitch together some cordura to make a pair of overalls - usually not very successfully, as sleeves would fall off, knee pads would drop out, and seams would fray on the first few trips. Such industry is largely a lost art now, as we have been supplying cordura oversuits for 15 years to New Zealand cavers.

Aspiring Enterprises' cave overalls are made from a 1000 denier cordura. This is the most durable material that can be found which is practical to wear. Over the past 10 years, we have developed considerable expertise in stitching to avoid premature failure of the overalls by seam failure. All seams are double-stitched with a heavy thread, with extensive back-stitching on the reinforcing patches at the bum and knees. There is an inside chest pocket on the left side, and 8 mm-thick foam pads inside the knee patches.

The design is intended to minimise abrasion points, so the overalls have raglan-style sleeves and no outside seams. At the same time, they are as wearable as possible for a garment that is made out of cordura.

OVERALL SIZE CHART

The first letter represents the trunk size - small, medium, large, XL - the second is the leg size - short, medium, or long. Measure trunk while seated as the difference in height between collarbones and the seat surface. Leg length is inside leg, crutch to ankle bone. These sizes are general guidelines only. The best way of ensuring a good fit is to try on a friend's before ordering. We have a good hit rate with sizing, but occasionally it doesn't work and we are always happy to either refund the payment or try another size.

TRUNK 55-59 60-64 65-69 70-74           LEG         60-64 S/S       65-69 S/M M/S     70-74 S/L M/M L/S   75-79   M/L L/M XL/S 80-84     L/L XL/M 85-89       XL/L

Overalls are made to a standard fitting in each size, and are intended to fit loosely on an "average" build. If your build is different they will not fit so well. For medium size overalls, the maximum hip size that they will fit is about 100 cm.

When specifying overall sizes please let us know your height as well, which will help us to confirm that we are making the correct size.

Please allow two weeks for manufacturing cave overalls, as they are not normally kept in stock.

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Cave packs

Aspiring Cave Packs have stood up remarkably well to the most demanding New Zealand caves over the last 20 years. We continue to improve these successful designs, with the object of making ever better caving packs. Usually the first part of a cave pack to wear out is the base, so we have use a very tough rubber material on the base of the standard pack. Our Standard Cave Pack is sufficiently large for major trips in vertical Nelson caves. We also have a Small Cave Pack for shorter trips where spare clothing and SRT gear are not usually carried, which is ideal for most North Island and Westland trips. The Small Cave Pack also makes an ideal rope bag for a 50 metre rope.

The general features of Aspiring cave packs are:

• Tough 650 gm/sq metre PVC material
• Heavy duty webbings and cords
• Carrying handles and haul loops
• Two 12 mm eyelet drain holes
• Webbing reinforcement at wear points
• Heavy duty rubber base

In addition our Large Rope Bag is tough enough for caving, and is suitable if large amounts of rope need to be hauled underground. Also we have made various designs of packs for commercial cave operators to suit their particular needs.

Generally cave packs are white. Recently we have introduced some variation by adding yellow or red to the top and bottom sections of the standard cave pack. This is useful for distinguishing your own pack on expeditions.

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TruLight LED cave light

We are consulting on the development of a sophisticated new LED light for caving called the TruLight. This has been trialled on a nine-day expedition at Mt Owen and will soon go into production. The LED headset will be manufactured by a specialist electronics company in Christchurch which has designed the circuitry and the housing. Aspiring Enterprises will manufacture a small fabric battery pouch which fits the back of a helmet.

The light unit will house two unfocussed broad beam 1 watt Luxeon LEDs capable of 94 lumens output, as well as a focussed beam with a 12 degree lens. This combination of focussed and unfocussed light has been found to give the best illumination for caving. Lack of peripheral light makes it hard to see foot placements and passage detail clearly, while having a good beam provides a view of the passage ahead and gives the confidence to move quickly through the cave.

Each of the beam types - the flood and the focussed - has separate three-position switching. For general caving in moderate sized walking passages, sufficient light is provided with the focussed beam on low setting and flood on medium. On these settings the light will provide about 15-16 hours of light. In large passages more light may be needed and medium focussed beam and high flood settings may be required. On these settings the battery will run for about 6-7 hours.

The battery is a 3-cell Lithium-ion 3.6 watt assembly, with a life of 1.8 amp-hours. A charger is supplied with the light, and a 12 volt solar charger is an optional accessory.

The unique feature of the TruLight is the integrated backup system. A spare single-cell battery which is housed in the same battery pouch runs one unfocussed LED on low power. In the event of a failure of the main light, this gives sufficient light to exit the cave, or if the main battery runs out of power this enables easy battery changes. It is also a useful feature for underground camping, as little light is required around a camp and a spare battery can easily be carried to provide over 30 hours of low light. The backup system runs its own LED and is completely separate from the main light in both the wiring and the electronics, and so constitutes a second independent light source.

The TruLight will be available by mid-2008.

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Caving ladders

Ladders can be made in any length, but standard lengths are six metres and nine metres.

Note that we do not usually stock caving ladders, and there is typically a three week delay from ordering these.

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Copyright Aspiring Enterprises, revised 5 March 2008.
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