Post by Brad Tipton on Oct 14, 2008 20:49:11 GMT -5
I took the day off Friday for a trip to my favorite multidrop cave. Over a thousand cavers were descending upon TAG for the annual fall event and I agreed to lead a group from Virginia to Thunder Hole to kick off the weekend festivities. Beth and I met Will, Nikki, Chris and 4 of Will's friends in Kimball. There we consolidated vehicles, dropped one lady from California off at the library, and carpooled our way to Little Coon Valley.
Once parked, we began to suit up and gear up. Most of Will's Virginia friends looked woefully underdressed for a wet multidrop, yet they were young and strong, full of excitement and anticipation. I figured youth would prevail and their intensity would surely see them through to the bottom and back. The others, Chris, Nikki and Will are all experienced cavers whom I have caved with recently, and Beth, while still learning, has proven that she can hang with the guys no problem. Once everyone was ready we hiked straight up the mountain to the 80 foot entrance pit.
Thunder Hole is a short, wet multidrop cave with 5 pits (80, 22, 48, 95, 66)dropping 460 vertical feet in less than 2,000 feet of cave passage. Typically, every pit in the cave is extremely wet year round. The last five years of drought has caused Thunder Hole to lose a lot of it's intimidating water volume. In the 90's I can remember hearing the water falling into the entrance to the cave long before I was close enough to see the pit. During my first trip to Thunder Hole in 1996, I remember the 80 foot entrance drop was a real gully washer and the 2nd pit had so much water funneling down the narrow passage towards the edge that I was afraid of getting washed into it. The miserable crawl between the 2nd and 3rd pit was moving so much water we were afraid of drowning. On this day, some twelve years later, the first three pits were barely drippy.....
I rigged the entrance while everyone was preparing to rappell. I gave Chris and Nikki the 50 foot rope for the 2nd pit and directions to find it. Suddenly, Nikki realized that she forgot her rappel rack at the truck. We decided, with such a large group, that we could pass a rack to her at each drop. With that crisis averted, everyone proceeded to rappel. Beth and I brought up the rear and we soon caught the tail end of the group at the 2nd pit. The "Flash Flood Drop" was anything but that.....a little trickle still somehow managed to get us rather wet. At the bottom of the pit the miserable crawl begins and the whole gang was eager to get at it, leaving Beth and I behind.
Once we passed through the keyhole where the stream crawl begins, caver traffic reached a sudden stand still. I called ahead thinking Will was leading the way, but some floks had taken the dry crawl to nowhwere and the others were skeptical that the low stream crawl was the way on. I assured them it was and we began plowing our way forward once again. Midway through the stream crawl I could sense the momentum of some folks slow.......wet, miserable ass, belly crawls on river rock tends to have that affect on some. Shortly, we popped out into stooping passage which terminates at the 3rd drop. We had to wait a while on the ropes because Will had them and he was at the back of the line due to his detour down the dry crawl.
When Will caught up I rigged the 46 foot drop. Chris rappelled first and was sitting at the bottom of the pit when the 2nd guy (sorry name escapes me) rigged in to follow. Out of the corner of my eye I see a large rock dislodge from above me and Will jumping back from the edge of the pit. My initial thought was "Oh shit! Did the bolts just fail?". The 100 pound rock crashed on the lip and fell down the pit with a resounding boom. Once the smoke cleared and dude was still rigged in to a standing line, I inspected the ledge and realized that he had pulled a loose rock down from above the rig point. We concluded he pulled it down using it as leverage. The rock incident further deflated the waning morale of a few in the group and the discussions of routing were in the works.
Beth, Nikki and I rappelled the 3rd drop and continued the short distance to the top of Neptune Well. This 95 foot pit is always wet and I wanted to get it rigged and proceed forward so the group could get spread out a bit more for the return trip. Once word spread that the remaining two drops would be wet I believe Will had a discussion with the other half of the group about turning back. Meanwhile Beth, Chris, Nikki, Remington and I continued to the bottom of the cave. Beth and I went ahead to traverse the 1,000 feet or so of canyon to the top of the final drop. I was just finishing rigging when the other three caught up to us. The five of us bounced the 66 footer which was a little wet, checked out the sump just to say we did and started our journey out.
At the top of Neptune Well we ran into a group coming in. Johnny and Marty were in this group of six cavers and we sat and chatted for a while. I pulled my rope and rigged theirs for them after Beth came up. They had already de-rigged our rope at the 3rd drop and had it coiled and ready to go for us. Neptune Well was Beth's first climb in a wet pit and she managed quite well. I was concerned she might get cold with such a large group slowing the pace, but she never did. She also negotiated the wet rappels without incident and solo, which I haven't allowed her to do until just recently. I believe she has become quite capable of managing her rappels and climbs without the need of my oversight.
We decided to go ahead and climb the 3rd pit and proceed back through the misery crawl without waiting on the others since we already had all the ropes de-rigged and coiled. By the time we reached the 2nd drop I could hear the other three laboring through the crawl behind us. Beth and I hauled all the rope up to and out of the entrance pit just before Nikki, Chris and Remington caught up. Once everyone finished the last climb of the day, the day itself had come to an end as the sun sank behind the mountains.
When we arrived at the trucks we couldn't resist giving the others hell for routing on us and leaving all the rope for us to haul out. One guy even left his dry bag behind stuffed with gear for Chris to haul out from the 4th drop. Our group concluded that the others weren't ready for serious TAG adventure and we denounced them for their supreme wimpyness. Overall, we had a great trip and hopefully I left the Virginia folks with at least a good story to tell their friends. Good times were had by all.
Once parked, we began to suit up and gear up. Most of Will's Virginia friends looked woefully underdressed for a wet multidrop, yet they were young and strong, full of excitement and anticipation. I figured youth would prevail and their intensity would surely see them through to the bottom and back. The others, Chris, Nikki and Will are all experienced cavers whom I have caved with recently, and Beth, while still learning, has proven that she can hang with the guys no problem. Once everyone was ready we hiked straight up the mountain to the 80 foot entrance pit.
Thunder Hole is a short, wet multidrop cave with 5 pits (80, 22, 48, 95, 66)dropping 460 vertical feet in less than 2,000 feet of cave passage. Typically, every pit in the cave is extremely wet year round. The last five years of drought has caused Thunder Hole to lose a lot of it's intimidating water volume. In the 90's I can remember hearing the water falling into the entrance to the cave long before I was close enough to see the pit. During my first trip to Thunder Hole in 1996, I remember the 80 foot entrance drop was a real gully washer and the 2nd pit had so much water funneling down the narrow passage towards the edge that I was afraid of getting washed into it. The miserable crawl between the 2nd and 3rd pit was moving so much water we were afraid of drowning. On this day, some twelve years later, the first three pits were barely drippy.....
I rigged the entrance while everyone was preparing to rappell. I gave Chris and Nikki the 50 foot rope for the 2nd pit and directions to find it. Suddenly, Nikki realized that she forgot her rappel rack at the truck. We decided, with such a large group, that we could pass a rack to her at each drop. With that crisis averted, everyone proceeded to rappel. Beth and I brought up the rear and we soon caught the tail end of the group at the 2nd pit. The "Flash Flood Drop" was anything but that.....a little trickle still somehow managed to get us rather wet. At the bottom of the pit the miserable crawl begins and the whole gang was eager to get at it, leaving Beth and I behind.
Once we passed through the keyhole where the stream crawl begins, caver traffic reached a sudden stand still. I called ahead thinking Will was leading the way, but some floks had taken the dry crawl to nowhwere and the others were skeptical that the low stream crawl was the way on. I assured them it was and we began plowing our way forward once again. Midway through the stream crawl I could sense the momentum of some folks slow.......wet, miserable ass, belly crawls on river rock tends to have that affect on some. Shortly, we popped out into stooping passage which terminates at the 3rd drop. We had to wait a while on the ropes because Will had them and he was at the back of the line due to his detour down the dry crawl.
When Will caught up I rigged the 46 foot drop. Chris rappelled first and was sitting at the bottom of the pit when the 2nd guy (sorry name escapes me) rigged in to follow. Out of the corner of my eye I see a large rock dislodge from above me and Will jumping back from the edge of the pit. My initial thought was "Oh shit! Did the bolts just fail?". The 100 pound rock crashed on the lip and fell down the pit with a resounding boom. Once the smoke cleared and dude was still rigged in to a standing line, I inspected the ledge and realized that he had pulled a loose rock down from above the rig point. We concluded he pulled it down using it as leverage. The rock incident further deflated the waning morale of a few in the group and the discussions of routing were in the works.
Beth, Nikki and I rappelled the 3rd drop and continued the short distance to the top of Neptune Well. This 95 foot pit is always wet and I wanted to get it rigged and proceed forward so the group could get spread out a bit more for the return trip. Once word spread that the remaining two drops would be wet I believe Will had a discussion with the other half of the group about turning back. Meanwhile Beth, Chris, Nikki, Remington and I continued to the bottom of the cave. Beth and I went ahead to traverse the 1,000 feet or so of canyon to the top of the final drop. I was just finishing rigging when the other three caught up to us. The five of us bounced the 66 footer which was a little wet, checked out the sump just to say we did and started our journey out.
At the top of Neptune Well we ran into a group coming in. Johnny and Marty were in this group of six cavers and we sat and chatted for a while. I pulled my rope and rigged theirs for them after Beth came up. They had already de-rigged our rope at the 3rd drop and had it coiled and ready to go for us. Neptune Well was Beth's first climb in a wet pit and she managed quite well. I was concerned she might get cold with such a large group slowing the pace, but she never did. She also negotiated the wet rappels without incident and solo, which I haven't allowed her to do until just recently. I believe she has become quite capable of managing her rappels and climbs without the need of my oversight.
We decided to go ahead and climb the 3rd pit and proceed back through the misery crawl without waiting on the others since we already had all the ropes de-rigged and coiled. By the time we reached the 2nd drop I could hear the other three laboring through the crawl behind us. Beth and I hauled all the rope up to and out of the entrance pit just before Nikki, Chris and Remington caught up. Once everyone finished the last climb of the day, the day itself had come to an end as the sun sank behind the mountains.
When we arrived at the trucks we couldn't resist giving the others hell for routing on us and leaving all the rope for us to haul out. One guy even left his dry bag behind stuffed with gear for Chris to haul out from the 4th drop. Our group concluded that the others weren't ready for serious TAG adventure and we denounced them for their supreme wimpyness. Overall, we had a great trip and hopefully I left the Virginia folks with at least a good story to tell their friends. Good times were had by all.
