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Challenging Geocaches


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Hmm, that's a toughie, choosing a "most".  But I'll nominate Roche á Perdrix which pushed my limits physically.  It's at the upper edge of what I'm comfortable attempting (1100m / 3600' vertical), and the group I was with set a blistering pace that had my heart pounding.  We climbed the first half of the vertical in just an hour before taking a break.  Psychologically, I was glad I wasn't last in the pack, only the second-last.

 

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The FTF felt mighty fine.  You remember the challenging ones, and they deserve the favorites.

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13 hours ago, Viajero Perdido said:

Hmm, that's a toughie, choosing a "most".  But I'll nominate Roche á Perdrix which pushed my limits physically.  It's at the upper edge of what I'm comfortable attempting (1100m / 3600' vertical), and the group I was with set a blistering pace that had my heart pounding.  We climbed the first half of the vertical in just an hour before taking a break.  Psychologically, I was glad I wasn't last in the pack, only the second-last.

 

bb8a2204-93f3-47be-9a24-4083414bb9a5_l.j

 

The FTF felt mighty fine.  You remember the challenging ones, and they deserve the favorites.

Did you have a safety harness?

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8 hours ago, Chrisy123 said:

Did you have a safety harness? 

 

No.  Our group went up the "scramble route", which is mostly a steep hike with some bits of hands-on scrambling.  There was no climbing gear in our party, though one of us (me) did wear a climbing helmet for part of the way, because we passed under cliffs with risk of rock fall.

 

We had another group - part of the same club at the same camp-out - that took a more direct route straight up the mountain.  They had full climbing gear.

 

Edited by Viajero Perdido
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My most challenging, both physically and mentally was a FTF on a kayak required cache. Very windy day, we couldn't stay in the boats, were getting thrown against the rocks, and I really thought that might be the end for me. After the two hour drive home, I swore I wasn't going to leave the safety and comfort of home for at least a month! I was incredibly relieved to be back home. 

 

 

 

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Geocaching with 2 kids under 5yo here, so nothing overly challenging. But we did find an excellent cache not so long ago which was a locked ammo tin with approximately 200 keys to try to open the lock ?? only to get through all the keys to discover the actual key isn't in the key pile, it's hidden elsewhere (LOL!) once actual key was found and tin was opened we then discovered another lock to get the actual cache out of the tin so had to go through all of the keys again (and I kid you not... The very last key I tried was the one to open it!) so clever and funny! 

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11 minutes ago, koalabinski said:

Geocaching with 2 kids under 5yo here, so nothing overly challenging. But we did find an excellent cache not so long ago which was a locked ammo tin with approximately 200 keys to try to open the lock ?? only to get through all the keys to discover the actual key isn't in the key pile, it's hidden elsewhere (LOL!) once actual key was found and tin was opened we then discovered another lock to get the actual cache out of the tin so had to go through all of the keys again (and I kid you not... The very last key I tried was the one to open it!) so clever and funny! 

Now that sounds mentally taxing!

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The one that always springs to mind when I think of the most challenging caches I've done is Broken Silence (GC6MT5R). Getting to the vicinity of GZ is tough enough, with a hike of some 3km along an undulating ridge followed by a daunting descent to a lower ledge and from there along a few hundred more metres to where the point ended in a narrow neck with vertical sides dropping some 50 metres to the valley below and, at the end of the neck and separated by a small gap, a column of rock upon which sat the cache. My sense of balance is impaired by an inner ear condition, meaning I tend to fall over a lot, so I'm not good with heights if there's nothing to hold onto. After overcoming my terror, I crawled out along the neck, pausing half way along to settle my nerves and convince myself that it was going to be easier to keep going than turn around, finally finding a blessed foot-hold at the end which made crossing the leap of faith onto the column a little less frightening. Talk about pushing myself out of my comfort zone!

 

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That photo probably doesn't do it justice, so here's one looking back along the neck from GZ.

 

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I've done some tough ones.  The one that sticks out in the last couple years was Option #4.5, because I sank way, way deeper in the mud than I thought I would when trying to get it, like up to my hips.  The tide might have been way out at the time, but that just meant that I would have had that much longer to wait before it came back in and I was in even more trouble.  I don't know if it would have come in over my head, or if I would have had a refreshing brackwater bath before the crabs stopped being scared of me and started thinking about dinner options.

 

I made it out OK, and it was funny enough in hindsight that I could leave a lighthearted log.  But I was getting really exhausted trying to pull myself out of that muck, and I was definitely running scenarios of what to do next if I hadn't been able to extricate myself.

 

I certainly earned every point of that difficulty and terrain rating.  And though I enjoyed my time caching the Tidewater, I am OK with the fact that I don't have to cache in salt marshes in our new location.

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Depends how you define difficult! :D

I've had a number of difficult tasks, physical and mental, but if I were to define it by discovering, and pushing beyond, my limit at the time, it would be my climb of Kristinartindar in Iceland.  I've done the climb to GCD which was pretty extreme in hot weather, and the desert hike to GCWD13, but this climb to GC2D5CP was early winter and 1100m ascent for a 9 hour round trip hike. It was the last couple hundred meters where the cold, height, and slope caught up to me. Literally taking few and fewer steps between stopping for break and almost deciding to giving up. But so close to rounding the summit, I inched to the end and made it. SO glad I didn't give up and head back. Also quite glad I went sufficiently prepared. Now I know what I can do, and what I can do better. I blogged the day as well, with a tracklog and stats.  HIGHLY recommended adventure!  I really wish I'd taken move video...

Edited by thebruce0
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So many challenging caches, both terrain and difficulty.  For many years, I focused on high terrain caches, and was lucky enough to have two local cachers who placed 8-12 stage caches requiring rappelling, climbing and crawling in underground locales that were dicey.  12 hours of hiking, rappelling, climbing and crawling, and bang, a smiley!   Good times, and mostly 5/5 caches.

 

One cache comes to mind as a favorite from a physically challenging perspective, is Psycho Urban Cache #13 - Impossible! Give Up Now!, https://coord.info/GCY72P.   The cache is on top of a pillar in the Potomac River, and we got to the top the first time using a home-made potato gun to string a line that we used to pull a climbing rope up and over; this was done from a canoe in the current.  The second time, we used a 6' arborist slingshot, also from a boat, and the third, and most fun, was traditional rock climbing up the side, dodging PI and pricker bushes.  What a blast.  This picture is of me, cleaning the protection that Dutch placed ahead of me, nearing the top of the first pitch.  We treated it as a two pitch climb.  After we got on top, we dropped three ropes for our friends to climb using RADS or Frog equipment.  We had such fun planning and executing each trip; such satisfaction completing such an unusual cache.  A real experience.

 

I treasure each trip we made; this picture as taken on July 16, 2011, with prior trips each of the previous summers.  I posted many pictures on the cache page for each adventure; what great fun!

 

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It really is about the experience, and not about the numbers...

 

Clancy's Crew

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The most mentally challenging caches that I've found would have to be some of the Venona puzzle caches. But those were designed to be solved by multiple people working together, and my contributions to the solutions were minor at best.

 

The most mentally challenging cache that I solved on my own was probably M4. That is still one of my Favorites because of the way the puzzle was created (which is apparent only after you've solved it).

 

The most physically challenging group of caches I've done were probably the EarthCaches and virtual cache that I did at Pinnacles National Monument (since renamed Pinnacles National Park); that hike was a total of 12.5 miles, with lots of elevation change, plus scrambling through the caves at one point. The most physically challenging single cache was probably Lagoon Tour, but mainly because I did the whole thing in a pedalboat, with my wife and a 70# dog going along for the ride.

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18 hours ago, TeamRabbitRun said:

I vote for koalabinski.

He's caching with two kids under 5!

? Cheers! My 4yo was 'helping' with the key cache and put all of the keys I'd already tried back in the box with the keys I hadn't tried ?‍♀️ and I carry a squirming 12kg toddler everywhere with me in the front pack. 

 

Forgot to mention, we recently made it to GC804ZR - DGS - Dirty Centroid. And didn't even get dirty (because it was - 1.3 degrees and the mud was frozen ?) I've been wanting to get to this cache for quite some time, but I'm embarrassed to say that I was a little scared ? got there and back without issue though! 

Edited by koalabinski
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