[Rockhounds] Abandoned mine exploration

Mon Mar 8 21:33:11 PST 2021

Yes, I figured it was a few decades ago, but the same situation does keep
happening to people when they're away from cell phone range.  And sometimes
the extra time is a killer.  
Of course, a satellite messenger or phone won't do anyone a lick of good if
caught inside a mine!  You need to have line-of-sight to satellites.

-----Original Message-----
From: Rockhounds <rockhounds-bounces at rockhounds.drizzle.com> On Behalf Of
Paul van den Bergen
Sent: Monday, March 8, 2021 7:37 PM
To: Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock and gem collectors
<rockhounds at rockhounds.drizzle.com>
Subject: Re: [Rockhounds] Abandoned mine exploration

Hi Linda - now days that is a given - but this was the early 90's...

On Tue, 9 Mar 2021 at 13:24, <linda at middleearthminerals.com> wrote:

> It's also a good idea to consider investing in a satellite text messenger.
> Then a 30 km jog to a phone might not be needed.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rockhounds <rockhounds-bounces at rockhounds.drizzle.com> On Behalf 
> Of Paul van den Bergen
> Sent: Monday, March 8, 2021 5:20 PM
> To: Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock and gem collectors 
> <rockhounds at rockhounds.drizzle.com>
> Subject: Re: [Rockhounds] Abandoned mine exploration
>
> I am perhaps my own worst enemy when it comes to 'stupid things' like 
> old mines and natural hazzards.
>
> I have to remind myself that I'm not the only one at risk - inevitably 
> someone will insist on putting themselves at risk to attempt to 
> recover my body - my wishes in that regard are moot since i'll be 
> dead, but  that's not what I want...
>
> so...
>
> always let someone know where you are going.
>
> The rule of three is very sensible - two friends were on a hike when 
> one of them crushed his ankle - his friend had to abandon him for a 
> 30km jog back to a phone then helicopter trip back to the slope where 
> he was left alone waiting...
>
>
> On Tue, 9 Mar 2021 at 10:01, J. R. Hodel <jr50wv at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > I watched a couple more of his videos, it's pretty interesting to an 
> > old rock-hound. My late rock-hounding buddy Danny Kebles would have 
> > loved it, would have wanted to do it so bad!
> > But the second video I watched he was solo, in a mine by himself, 
> > going across 50-90 year old wooden floors around ore chutes, etc. So 
> > very dangerous, if you hurt yourself, you're probably dead before 
> > they
> find you.
> > Because no one appears to know in advance where he's going underground.
> > First thing they teach cavers is "never go underground alone!"
> >
> > The people I went caving with had a 3-person team rule, that way an 
> > injured person would have someone with them while the third person 
> > went for help. Maybe the tradition with abandoned mines is "you're 
> > on
> your
> own?"
> >
> > Otherwise he seems like a guy who enjoys going into abandoned mines 
> > more than he's a mineral collector. A collector would have a rock 
> > pick with (and probably other rock-hounding tools like chisels etc), 
> > and containers for any specimens they wanted to bring out, as 
> > opposed to his
> hip pocket.
> >
> > The one time Danny and I went out west to spend 3 weeks 
> > rock-hounding in Colorado and Wyoming, we found our way to an 
> > abandoned mine, about half-way up a mountain side north of Bonanza 
> > CO, with a talus slope to climb up to get to the adit. There was an 
> > old cable hanging that they had used to man-trip up and down, and for
ore.
> > But once we were up there and knew there was a mine, we had no 
> > lights, and no helmets. So we dug through the tailings around the 
> > mine face, I still have a couple of nice rocks from there. Finally I 
> > looked up from the rocks at the sky, which was suddenly dark gray 
> > billowing clouds, soon in late May it started snowing hard before we 
> > got off the mountain. "Uh, Danny, maybe we need to get down off this
mountain now?"
> >
> > My little Ford Ranger had a lot of tools and supplies under the 
> > topper, so we had pretty good traction, and made it to our friend's 
> > mountain cabin where we were staying between rock-hounding trips.
> > Built a fire in the stove late in the evening. Stopped in Salida for 
> > dinner on the way home. I will always wonder what if we had lights 
> > and helmets, what would it have been like in the mine? What kind of 
> > rocks would we have found? What would the weather have been like 
> > when we got
> back out?
> > I miss Danny, he was struck with Pick's Disease, which is a 
> > hereditary dementia, and died relative young in a VA nursing home. I 
> > don't go out collecting much any more, partly because I'm 70 now... 
> > & partly because Danny isn't here to poke me awake. Also Covid, of
course.
> > You all take care, best of luck with finding great rocks!
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>
> --
> Dr Paul van den Bergen
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--
Dr Paul van den Bergen
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