AnAppleSnail
Location: Charlotte, NC Gender: Male
ALL the flashlights!
| | | | Re: Draining Techniques <Reply # 32 on 9/24/2010 2:28 PM >
| | | Posted by cowtownclimber I did my first draining this weekend and learned one thing. That is a serious leg workout.
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Yep! Someone used to (creepily often) ask me how I stay in shape since I don't jog anymore. I took them draining and they stopped asking that...
I told myself I would just take a peek since I was alone. |
Fat chance!
In I went, just going to take a peek. I went at least a mile and maybe closer to 2 down that one and never did see any sign of it ending. It started as a square and then turned into a round tunnel that gradually got smaller and smaller. Not knowing how deep this thing went and being by myself I decided to head back and save the rest for another day. By the time I got out of there my thigh muscles were on fire. It was a lot of fun though. |
That's normal for drains - they usually do just get smaller as you go upstream. But not always...
Any other tips you guys might have, especially safety related, would be awesome for a total drain n00b like me.
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Clasping your arms behind your back in drains you have to stoop in helps keep your spine straight, avoiding some back pain. Bend at the hips instead of the knees, and take frequent breaks (There's a way to squat in a pipe, dry and relaxed, maybe leaning to one wall). In a drain tall enough to stand upright in, drainwalk. 3 steps on one side, step across the water, 3 on the other. So:
L |\/| R|\/| L |\/| |\/| R |\/|L |\/| R L |\/| R|\/| L |\/|
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That keeps your ankles from being turned out all the time, and keeps you out of the slime.
Drain Safety: Check the weather. If you die from a drainflood due to local rain, you asked for it. Be alert for trouble. Listen for things - a manhole KA THUNK is ok, but if it keeps going there's a problem. Sudden rushing water, increases in flow, or changes in the wind can be problems. Check yourself too - suddenly rising heartbeat or breathing indicates low oxygen. Fuzzy thinking does too. My rules: Mostly common sense. Still, Check the weather. How far away do you check it? Know the terrain. Are you creeping up a major flood basin? How far away can rain fall and soak your shoes? If nobody's with you, make sure someone will come looking for your mangled corpse within a few hours of your planned exit time. This should be a reliable friend. No airflow, don't go. If you can't feel wind in the pipe then you KNOW there's not a supply of fresh air. Decay and breathing alone can make the air dangerous in still pipes. Check drain condition. Corrugated metal pipe floors (with holes in them) can let go, dropping you ankledeep into jagged metal. That hurts! Boots are a plus. Same goes for stuff washed into the drain, like shopping carts, barbed wire, logs, snakes, and so on. Listen. There's a particular sound for "Gushing torrent of death" and "garden hose output from 8' in the air." Either one is worth noticing. Also other sounds matter. Listen to what your body's telling you. In some places it'd take a specialist medevac crew a few hours to get to you, assuming you can even get phone signal. If you can't go any further and get out under your own power in reasonable safety, turn back until your'e ready. If you do this (Call emergency services for a dangerous rescue because you were unprepared) then hang up your drainshoes and go be a tourist. Pay attention. If you DO hear signs of a drainflood, you have to get out of the water's path. Know how far back you passed a ladder or other place to be up above the water. Gambling on an upstream escape is no good. HOPEFULLY a surprise drainflood won't fill the system, so you'll just perch on a ladder for a while. Lights. How many flashlights do you bring? Bring more. When I go alone, I bring 2 or more good lights with good batteries. You can do a drain in the dark, but it's not recommended or particularly safe. The flashlight should be waterproof to at least a few feet to cover vicious splashing and small dropping, and be sturdy enough to be dropped by accident. Bring more than one anyway. (Here I sit in a computer lab with 4 flashlights on my person >.>) Small lights are brighter than you'll need these days. Otherwise it's pretty much like a hike, except for the scenery. Bring food/water, first aid kit, and know vaguely where you're going (or just how to get back). [last edit 9/24/2010 2:34 PM by AnAppleSnail - edited 1 times]
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