Saturday, July 28, 2007

[trip] Hellhole Window Dome Death Climb

There were only 7 people in Hellhole this week, broken up into two teams - one team re-surveying the Shipp Room, and the second - myself (Dave Riggs), Miles Drake, and Kurt Waldron - heading to the North section of the cave to finish off the remaining lead, a sketchy climb at the Window Dome. Our crew rigged and dropped the Hellhole entrance pit and were on our way to the Flood Section of the cave by 12:00 noon.

We payed particular attention to the paleo-hydrology of the cave on the way in, noting flow from the entrance area towards Little Hellhole, as expected. Underneath Little Hellhole, but before the Drano Passage, we noted conflicting sets of scallops, likely from floodwater reversal (in my opinion) - several textbook ceiling pockets lend evidence to pressurized floodwater infiltration.

We made it to Window Dome and checked out the "Death Climb". My first response was "that doesn't look too difficult!". On closer inspection, this was a traverse of about 10 - 15 feet from the front "window" to the back of the dome, where there was no actual ledge to traverse, only a tiny slope of friable rock and mud. The pit is about 35 feet deep at this point, and lined with towering pinnacles of sharp limestone - Yikes!

Miles tied a rope around his waist, Kurt Waldron - Chairman of the NSS Safety & Techniques Committee - set up a belay with a munter hitch on the edge of the window, while I wedged myself in on the opposite side and set up a belay for Kurt. Like a cat, Miles skirted around the edge, the deafening sound of rocks and debris showering down into the bottom of the pit as each "foothold" crumbled beneath his weight. Moments later, he stood on the opposite side of the pit, and had tied the rope in for us to use as a handline. He checked out the passage, and called for us to cross so we could survey it.

Kurt, carrying both his own pack and Miles' pack, attached a few prusik knots to the rope and slowly crept across the traverse. Once he was safely across, I headed out, also attaching a prusik knot at Kurt's suggestion - I had started across with a munter hitch on, to arrest my inevitable fall into certain doom. I made it halfway across and decided that the traverse was too risky (especially considering that Miles had now shouted that the passage quickly ended up ahead), and decided to turn back, letting them do a two-man survey. Unfortunately, trying to turn around and head back looked even sketchier than the other option, so with some (gratefully appreciated) help from Kurt, I continued across the remainder of the traverse to the opposite side. Whew!

The opposite side of Window Dome is floored with massive amounts of flowstone, and a 2 - 3 foot deep rimstone dam sits at the top of the slope. A steeply-sloping passage, floored in breakdown and absolutely covered in mud, heads up to where it pinches out in 50 feet. A lower, meandering canyon passage tunnels beneath the upper passage, but splits in half and becomes too tight to follow without passage enlargement. This lower passage appears to flow away from Window Dome, not into it. Water comes in from the ceiling of the dome, but there was no apparent way to reach it from our vantage point. We surveyed the colder-than-usual passage - about 100 feet - and realized that we now had to traverse back across the pit.

While the "footholds" shrank with each step, we still managed to all make it back across without major incident. We tied our survey in to a known station in the big room and ate lunch. Our task completed without loss of life, Miles then gave us a brief tour of the North Fork Passage.

We climbed up the slope from the big room, being careful not to touch the rope which showers rock and dirt down from above. We headed through the Horseshoe Passage, checked out some locally-folded strata in the Raccoon Passage (along with some moldy old Raccoon scat), then headed back and dropped down a hole in the floor which led to an impressively-tall canyon - the North Fork Passage (which oddly trends South, not North). Miles sent Kurt and I up a small high lead to see "the thing"... there, in the middle of a nondescript, barren side passage, was an absolutely stunning helectite cluster - The Medusa. We continued on through a maze of breakdown and smaller canyon passages until we popped out at the bottom of what looked like a giant tectonic chamber, the Fault Room. We couldn't find any actual fault, but the far, high side has terrifying breakdown stacked 40 feet high to the ceiling.

Our trek out was without incident. Miles suggested that we check out the Delightful Dig/Crawl; much crawling ensued, with little delight. There was a great deal of bat activity through the Drano Passage and beneath Little Hellhole, making the crawl out quite exciting. The bats were especially active in and around the ceiling pockets. The other team had already exited by the time we reached the entrance room. Everyone climbed out by 01:30, we were derigged and on our way by 02:00.

13.5 hours underground, around 150 feet surveyed.

Saturday, July 14, 2007

[trip] Bradshaw Run, Dreen, Just Caves

This weekend, I left Morgantown late on Friday night and arrived at the Oildrum Falls campsite just after midnight. Doug McCarty, Llew, and Justin Williams were exhausted enough from their trip into the historic side of Simmons-Mingo Cave that I didn't wake them. There had been flash thunderstorms throughout the week in Morgantown, and I assume that the Elk River area had some precipitation as well. On Saturday morning, we met up with Doug Bell, Jesse Miller, and John Barth, and headed to Bradshaw Run Cave.

The entrance to Bradshaw Run was taking a good deal of water - much more than the previous time we'd visited the cave. I rigged the rope to a fallen tree outside, and then headed in. The top of the drop was lined with large cobbles and washed-in rocks. I kicked the most obviously-loose ones down, but the entire floor was covered with plenty more - great. We opted to rig the rope to a bolt on the left hand wall, which kept the rope from sweeping loose rocks down the drop. Water was pouring in from the ceiling in many places, and a soaker of a waterfall was flowing down and over the drop.

I rappelled 8 feet down to the ledge and placed a rope pad, then rappelled the rest of the drop - only 20 or so, but with the waterfall pouring down right over my head. Justin came down next, then Llew, until the three of us were all completely soaked and waiting at the bottom. Since this was to be Doug, Jesse, and John's first in-cave rappel, it was decided that we should probably pick something a bit drier for them. The trip was aborted. On the way out, one of the loose rocks dislodged from the top, bounced off the ledge and was sent flying a good distance out from the bottom of the drop - beware of the wide splash zone due to rocks bouncing off this ledge.

We took a quick detour - everyone driving their vehicles while soaking wet and in full vert gear - to check out Falling Spring Cave, which I think is one of the most amazing cave entrances in WV. Though there was no water flowing over the falls, the massive logs jammed into the cave entrance hint that this cave is not the place to be during a serious storm.

Our next stop was Dreen Cave. I rigged the drop immediately on the left-hand passage, which was nice and dry. This drop is an ideal beginner rappel - it's about 35 feet deep, is very easy to get on and off rope, and is a completely free drop with walls within reach if you need them. Everyone bounced the pit once or twice, with Jesse, Doug, and John getting their first in-cave rappels under their belts - they all did a great job.

At this point - around 3:30pm, Doug McCarty had to leave but the rest of us were still itching to get some more caving in. We headed to Just Cave for some more vertical action. Llew and Justin had rappelled Just before, but I had never - they helped me rig it, and I headed down first. The "pit" is a very long, but narrow vertical fissure. Until you reach the bottom, it doesn't bell out any more than 3 feet wide at its widest. We rigged to the side closest to the entrance, which gave us (unfortunately) the shortest rappel - perhaps 40 feet. Llew, Doug, and Jesse rappelled down as well, then Llew and I chimneyed through another vertical fissure to check out the rest of the cave. We went down a few tens of feet through breakdown, where everything was completely covered with mud and silt. A cave stream appeared, rounded a bend, and headed into some low passage, which we didn't bother following. There were some excellent crinoid fossils in the lower limestone, including a few arms.

We headed out, packed up camp, and Llew, Justin and I headed directly for Mama's Kitchen in Elkins for great hot meal. Mama's no longer has cave/caver photos on the wall, but instead has a large WV-themed mural which features at least two caves. We're already planning a return trip back into Bradshaw Run.