It depends a _lot_ on the cave - some caves are pure horizontal crawling with equal effort in and out - but the worst case is pure rappels where you may literal

It depends a _lot_ on the cave - some caves are pure horizontal crawling with equal effort in and out - but the worst case is pure rappels where you may literally do nothing more than lightly hold onto the brake end of the rope for an hour while you descend, followed by a grueling climb straight up. On top of that, the efficiency of ascending gear varies wildly: if you use an inappropriate setup - quite common with climbers who have no prior experience caving - you may be working 10x or more harder than someone with an appropriate setup. Basically the problem here, is the typical way climbers climb a rope is only suitable for very short climbs of 30-40ft, because you end up applying the force at a big angle relative to the rope; rather than pushing vertically up you wastefully push sideways. The vastly more efficient setups/equipment that cavers use allows you to push almost directly up while climbing up the rope.