This has been the subject of some discussion among some of my caching friends of late. It's not really bothered me much until I've started creating more complex or dangerous caches myself. I've begun to form an opinion recently and I'd like to share my thoughts.
Caching in a group (or a pair) makes the hobby a lot more fun. In fact, the social interaction is what really makes it worthwhile for me. It's doing something as a team, with a group of mates, with your girlfriend. I'm not suggesting that group caching should be limited or stopped in anyway. It's exactly how I get my kids out for a walk of a weekend. We regularly head out and, together, collect a circuit of caches. In fact, the kids argue robustly over who gets to find the cache and who gets to put it back afterwards! We all claim the cache as 'found' even though, probably, my four year old grabbed it from behind the tree.
Clearly, I have no problem with group caching and everyone should be able to claim and log the find, right?
Right. Except that there are a number of caches where that's just not appropriate. Since the frosts have receded and the nights have grown longer, I've been heading out to collect a number of tree climb caches. I've even set one myself. These tend to be rated as fairly low difficulty (you can see it in the tree), but with a high terrain level. You don't need special equipment, but you do need to be able to climb the tree, hold on while signing the log with one hand, and get down again uninjured.
I don't believe that it is fair to the cache owner - or moreover the person who risks life and limb to retrieve the cache - for everyone in the group to claim the find unless they too go up the tree. I agree that this means that not everyone will be able to log the find, despite having walked just as far as those who do manage it. This is the point of high terrain caches, of course: to test the mettle of the finder. If you can't get up the tree (or under the bridge, or balance on the rafters, or abseil out of the tower...) then you can't log the cache.
This is the way we have decided to behave while hunting high terrain caches. If I can get up the tree, but Katy can't, then I log it and she doesn't. End of story.
But here is some grey area thinking: What if a cacher climbs up and touches the cache? In a pair, can one collect the cache, they both sign it and then the other places it back? How does this work for larger groups?
The same might be seen to be true for very difficult to find caches. We've found a few that have kept us working on them for ages. Sometimes, multiple visits have been needed to the cache site before we've finally unearthed it. Should we both log the cache when, technically, only one of us found it? We both looked just as hard as one another and one essentially got lucky. When caching with friends, it's not very easy to find a challenging cache, sign it and place it back without your friends spotting you! And I know that I tend to shout "Got it!" before I've even thought about it...
The other other challenging area is puzzle caches. Should everyone have to solve the puzzle before they get to log it? I'm tempted to agree with this premise, but in reality it rarely happens that way. Most often, Katy has the time to solve the puzzles (part time worker, see...) and I provide an extra pair of eyes at the cache site. Not always, but most often. Should I be logging these?
I'm interested in starting some healthy debate on this subject, so please feel free to comment below.
