The equipment needed for successful and safe travel underground includes these sturdy metal devices through which ropes are intertwined, with clips in different positions depending on whether the explorer is going up or down.

Abigail Mack is excited to describe her sport.

“It’s mountaineering in the dark,” she laughed, quoting an inside-joke. “It is going backwards in the dark with inappropriate footwear.”

Mack is a caver, and likes nothing better than exploring underground, supported by like-minded team members, relying on ropes and harnesses, all very aware that successful adventures have one criteria: “Safety is No. 1.”

Mack is restoring the Doupé building at Ilwaco’s main downtown intersection. While her “day job” is indoors amid the landmark’s dust and drywall, she is an avid outdoorswoman who loves hiking and cycling.

Beyond that, she spends several weeks each year traveling the United States, Mexico and Europe in search of caving challenges, joining teams whose leaders are featured in National Geographic and Forbes magazines.

“It’s the greatest fun that there is, because you are going to places that nobody has ever been before,” she said. “That’s the coolest thing! Sometimes it’s muddy and gross and hard. But then you go into giant shafts and see crystal-clear, turquoise water.”

Cool early class

Mack grew up in Colorado with the rugged Rocky Mountain National Park on her doorstep. While her older sister was a keen equestrian, family snapshots show Mack peeking out of basements. An admired middle school teacher found ways to incorporate scuba diving and caving into his science curriculum. “It was a really cool class,” she recalled.

She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in international studies from Colorado State University then went to law school at Ohio State University. Along the way, she picked up some proficiency in four languages, studied in Japan, at the University of Oxford, and conducted research in Israel.

In Columbus, she was associated for eight years with a nonprofit group that works to broaden housing options, partnering with governments on tax credit programs and other initiatives. For the past 10 years, her company in Colorado has owned, managed and developed residential rental, commercial and agricultural property in five states.

‘Know your limits’

A link with a member of a Peninsula family who had lived in Ohio brought her to Ilwaco for vacations and later the challenge of renovating the Doupé building. Its timetable has allowed her to continue her passion. She is preparing for a two-month trip to Mexico to explore some of the deepest known caves in the world.

Caving is sometimes labeled “spelunking,” although Mack said aficionados rarely use the word. The team element and the physical challenge are among attractions.

In Columbus, she had joined an outdoors group and discovered some skills members demonstrated during rock climbing dovetailed with sport caving, which she embraced.

“But it is a very different world from crawling around rocks and doing rappelling. It’s more like ‘Journey to the Center of the Earth.’” she said. Common media images of caves having narrow spaces aren’t a worry. “It is very rare that anybody gets stuck. You have to know your limits.”

30 days underground

Her caving buddies span generations and bond over shared experience. “The coolest part of caving is there is such a diversity of participants,” Mack said, noting someone once brought a five-year-old into a cave. “Some of the fellas are 70 and they are amazing athletes. There is such a diversity of professionals, because some things overlap, and you get arborists, scientists and wildlife biologists.”

Trips have broadened her knowledge of geology, biology and hydrology. “You don’t have to be a geologist to like rocks,” she said, cradling a souvenir of a striped sedimentary fragment.

Sometimes the hobby produces positive community benefits, identifying water contamination or highlighting the need to preserve habitat for important ecosystem contributors like bats.

Unsophisticated radios allow cavers to stay in touch with team members. On a 2021 trip she set a personal record, staying underground for 30 straight days, although she acknowledged that was unusual. “We were just working away in the logistics team, hauling supplies and exploring eight to 12 hours a day,” she said. “Boy was it fun!”

The intense physical exertion is fueled by beef jerky, ramen noodles with protein powder and hummus powder, dried fruit and plenty of cheese.

“It’s a great adventure,” Mack enthused. “Sometimes you are slathered in mud and miserable, but you form great friendships and you get to really trust the people you are with.”

‘You form great friendships and you get to really trust the people you are with.’

Abigail Mack, caving enthusiast