[imagesource: YouTube / Caveman Hikes]

For some in Washington and Oregon, getting stuck between a rock and a hard place is completely desirable.

Squirming through underground lava tubes and getting wedged between tiny tree casts is not just an opportunity for a philosophical lesson for these cave hikers.  It’s also an extremely fun adventure.

Stripping down naked and getting scraped by sharp, rough, lava-made basalt rock on your way out of a Pacific north-west cave is just another day for 15-year-old Jacob Sanders and his 46-year-old military veteran uncle, Calvin Sanders.

Their claustrophobia-inducing caving excursions have actually gained serious traction on YouTube, reported The Guardian.

Here’s one with a trigger warning alongside the title “The worst claustrophobic caving you will ever see”.

Calvin can barely move his head from side to side and his fellow caver has to chip away at the rock to unwedge himself from a particularly excruciating spot:

Their YouTube fame is not at all that’s driving their hobby, though:

Jacob and Calvin agreed that even if no one watched their YouTube videos, they’d still be exploring the hundreds of local underground lava tubes and tree casts of southern Washington and Oregon, created by past eruptions from nearby volcanoes such as Mount Saint Helens.

They both grew up hiking, and sometimes their family chose caves over waterfalls to visit along the way. But after the Covid-19 pandemic hit, the infrequent hobby transformed into an obsession.

For Calvin, at least, the videos are a way to challenge himself physically, mentally, psychologically and creatively.

For Jacob, dwelling in caves is an awesome if not terrifying challenge:

“When I first went in caves, I was terrified,” Jacob admits, adding that initially, he would always let his uncle go first, just in case someone or something unpleasant was around the corner. But now, that uncertainty about what’s ahead delivers a rush of excitement and wonder.

Here’s a video showing Jacob being put headfirst through a 15-centimetre-by-25-centimetre hole, only to thoroughly enjoy the cavern inside and then get pulled out “Superman-style” by his arms:

To be clear, this sort of adventure is not for the faint-hearted.

People have been known to die after deciding to wiggle around underground.

Like 26-year-old medical student John Edward Jones, who got stuck in a passageway in Utah’s Nutty Putty Cave in 2009:

Despite valiant efforts to rescue him over the course of 28 agonizing hours, Jones died there, leaving behind his pregnant wife and young child. His body was never retrieved, and the cave was sealed to prevent anyone from meeting the same fate.

Ahrlin Bauman, chairman of a cave hikers society in Washington called the “grotto”,  said that the trick for a successful caver is to be completely calm and patient.

“Sometimes if I’m in a real tight spot, I’ll just lay there and relax,” Bauman said, once even taking that calmness to the extreme by falling asleep.

There’s definitely a philosophical lesson in that.

Just rest your weary head and body when you need to, and you’ll be free – or something like that.

[source:guardian]