Identifying your reel/spool/markers in 0 viz

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

a true ZERO-vis exit, where you couldn't see a marker even if you put your face right up against it, seems unlikely.

Yup.

 

[jlcnuke]

I make my own markers with my initials embossed on them. Pretty easy to feel and recognize and almost 0 chance someone else is going to have the same modifications to a marker.

 

[Mr.337]

i know this is an older thread but another solution is a cheap engraver from harbor freight. I think i paid like $10 for a handheld one. It looks almost like a sauntering iron with a plug. engrave your details in there and it causes a textile difference in your markers. also if no one mentioned you could also put something like sandpaper on your markers and reels so you can't mistake that in zero viz as yours.

 

[halocline]

I cut some notches in my cookies and REMs. Whether or not I'll actually ever need to identify them by touch, who knows. Probably not. There is the rare possibility of total light failure, I guess, although a lot would have to happen to result in that. But, since it's not a problem to do it, why not? One thing that's nice is that it helps to identify my cookies a little quicker as I approach them on the exit. In my mind anything that makes cookie/REM identification more obvious, clearer, and easier is a plus.

 

[jadairiii]

Bare hands. I might be wrong but thought in 0 viz might be tough to see the name? Mind you I have messed around with a blackout mask in the pool with some markers and a line but I would guess a cave or wreck silt out or something of that nature would prove different.

First off, just listen to your instructor. That said, if it is a line arrow (properly installed), in zero vis, which means the SHTF, why even bother to pull it out?

As for cookies, purpose is to verify who's still behind you and who isn't. In complete zero exit, all you're going to do is feel how many cookies are still there, not specifically "who's" cookie it is. But your buddy should be on your leg in zero vis and you just grab a cookie, let buddy grab a cookie and keep heading for the door.

Now there is "zero vis" and there is "zero vis". I've been is some really zero vis in Mexico and Tallahassee caves and you can still see a little up close. And if your lights are completely gone, all of them, your computer will still light enough to see a cookie/marker. The only true zero vis you will encounter will be in Cave class with a blacked out mask.....