Caverdon's SMC Brake Bar

To travel the world and visit caches close to caves.  Pictures of the TB with a cave is much appreciated.  Even better if the TB is IN a cave!

I began exploring caves at a young age, and have loved them my entire life.  Starting in the 1980s I became serious about cave exploration and survey.  Vertical drops can be especially challenging and they require special gear to safely descend and ascend.

One of my first items of vertical gear for cave exploration was a rappel rack.  This device allows a caver to descend drops of hundreds of feet on rope using brake bars on the rack to adjust friction.  Up to the 1980s it was popular to use rappel racks with cylindrical aluminum bars.  While good for dissapating heat, aluminum bars would leave aluminum fibers on a rope after frequent use.  This would "dirty" the rope and would eventually cut down on the life of the rope as well.  Another concern was that a caver had to be careful to thread the rope through the cylindrical brake bars properly; if you placed a load on a rope that was threaded wrong, the bars would pop off the rack and a person could fall to their death.  Vertical technology advanced, and the aluminum cylindrical bars were soon replaced with U-shaped stainless steel brake bars that could also dissapate heat quickly, would last longer with no aluminum grit on the rope, and could not be loaded onto a rope incorrectly.

This TB is one of my old original aluminum SMC brake bars from my early years of vertical caving before I switched to the new brake bar type.  It has not been in a cave in decades, so I've decided to give it new life as a TB that would like to visit caves once again.

This TB wants to visit caves and caches close to (or in) caves!  I would appreciate any pictures!