Post by Brad Tipton on Nov 19, 2007 23:31:53 GMT -5
On Sunday, I met John and Brian who brought a cast of thousands from Nashville for an easy multidrop cave in Viola, Tennessee. Brian was late as always.....I know he was lost......he always gets lost. 
Once everyone had consolidated into 3 vehicles we headed south towards the metropolis of Viola, population 11, which was doubled when we rolled into town. Rebel Cave was the goal for the day.
The cave entrance is located on top of a small mountain at the very edge in a fairly large sinkhole. A short entrance drop of about 40 feet leads to a large multilevel canyon with holes in the floor in every direction. There is a good bit of upper level caving to be done by traversing around pits and straddling deep canyons. We decided to drop down the canyon through a good sized hole in the floor which drops about 50 feet. John and I rigged a 150 foot rope to the 2 bolts provided for this drop while the horde of others continued to rappell in from the surface.
Once on the bottom of the 2nd drop, we were essentially on the floor of the canyon. Looking up I could see all the holes in the floor above right where we had been walking. Basically the entire entrance level of the canyon is wedged breakdown that didn't fall all the way to the bottom. There were many side leads and a few wet domes that looked to be over 100 feet high. Following the canyon for a couple hundred feet and up a short slope we reached the 163 foot pit. This pit is broken by a ledge about 15 feet down and it's best to rebelay off the bolt on the left wall to provide a much cleaner drop into the pit. Once I rigged the rebelay, I allowed some of the lesser experienced folks to come down and I provided support as they passed the ledge. Everyone did quite well and once Brian showed up on the ledge I took my turn to rappell the big drop.
The 163 foot pit was huge. Half the folks on the bottom had Sten Lights and the pit was lit up like the 4th! One fellow brought his photo gear with flashes and strobes. He could really light up the pit with all that gear. I noticed that across from the rebelay ledge there was a continuation of the canyon with possible high leads. I couldn't tell if they had been explored or not from where I was perched. There could be more drops further down the canyon. At the bottom, the cave continues into some large rooms. In the back of the largest room is a tall dome pit with lots of flowstone and a 30 foot tall stalagmite pillar. I believe John said there was another short pit and some nasty, slimy, crawling passages at the bottom.......not my cup of tea.......so I routed back to the big pit.
When I returned, the horde was making good progress clearing out of the 163 footer. The ones remaining sat and took pictures with the big flash and told tall tales. By the time we had all reached the surface, it was dark and I was hungry. On the way off the mountain in the trucks we got lost. Then we found the right way, but the other two truck loads of cavers didn't follow us and they got lost. We had to go back up the mountain to find them while John was on the cellphone trying to direct them off the mountain. An hour later they finally showed up and finally we were off. Buffoonery!
Once everyone had consolidated into 3 vehicles we headed south towards the metropolis of Viola, population 11, which was doubled when we rolled into town. Rebel Cave was the goal for the day. The cave entrance is located on top of a small mountain at the very edge in a fairly large sinkhole. A short entrance drop of about 40 feet leads to a large multilevel canyon with holes in the floor in every direction. There is a good bit of upper level caving to be done by traversing around pits and straddling deep canyons. We decided to drop down the canyon through a good sized hole in the floor which drops about 50 feet. John and I rigged a 150 foot rope to the 2 bolts provided for this drop while the horde of others continued to rappell in from the surface.
Once on the bottom of the 2nd drop, we were essentially on the floor of the canyon. Looking up I could see all the holes in the floor above right where we had been walking. Basically the entire entrance level of the canyon is wedged breakdown that didn't fall all the way to the bottom. There were many side leads and a few wet domes that looked to be over 100 feet high. Following the canyon for a couple hundred feet and up a short slope we reached the 163 foot pit. This pit is broken by a ledge about 15 feet down and it's best to rebelay off the bolt on the left wall to provide a much cleaner drop into the pit. Once I rigged the rebelay, I allowed some of the lesser experienced folks to come down and I provided support as they passed the ledge. Everyone did quite well and once Brian showed up on the ledge I took my turn to rappell the big drop.
The 163 foot pit was huge. Half the folks on the bottom had Sten Lights and the pit was lit up like the 4th! One fellow brought his photo gear with flashes and strobes. He could really light up the pit with all that gear. I noticed that across from the rebelay ledge there was a continuation of the canyon with possible high leads. I couldn't tell if they had been explored or not from where I was perched. There could be more drops further down the canyon. At the bottom, the cave continues into some large rooms. In the back of the largest room is a tall dome pit with lots of flowstone and a 30 foot tall stalagmite pillar. I believe John said there was another short pit and some nasty, slimy, crawling passages at the bottom.......not my cup of tea.......so I routed back to the big pit.
When I returned, the horde was making good progress clearing out of the 163 footer. The ones remaining sat and took pictures with the big flash and told tall tales. By the time we had all reached the surface, it was dark and I was hungry. On the way off the mountain in the trucks we got lost. Then we found the right way, but the other two truck loads of cavers didn't follow us and they got lost. We had to go back up the mountain to find them while John was on the cellphone trying to direct them off the mountain. An hour later they finally showed up and finally we were off. Buffoonery!
