[trip] Hellhole MDR Surveys

This weekend was my first trip of this season into Hellhole. I drove solo from Morgantown on Friday night, arriving at the new GVKS fieldhouse (version 3.0) at 11:30pm. I was promptly hit up for cash by Miles, then he gave me a "tour" of the cave via lineplots and survey sketches, filling me in on our tasks for the week. Two teams were to head back to the MDS survey from last week; one team would survey the virgin pits which were discovered there (Yvonne Droms, Mark Minton, Heather Levy), one team would survey the horizontal leads (Miles Drake, Rick Royer, myself - Dave Riggs). I hung my hammock from two suitable trees behind the fieldhouse and spent a large part of the night listening to dogs (coyotes?) howling and barking in the distance.

At the ungodly hour of 08:00, I groggily opened one eye just in time to catch Heather sneaking up on my hammock with a very large stick, apparently trying to wake me up as if I were a piñata. We promptly left for breakfast, opting to try the 4-U Restaurant with the thought that they were open and quick (we were half right).

An hour later, we were at the cave and gearing up. Rick and Heather rigged the entrance, and the vertical team dropped in and headed on their way. Our horizontal team rappelled in and started traveling at approximately 10:15. We headed down the Corkscrew, down the 90 foot "rappel" (which Miles and Rick arm-wrapped, I chose to use my microrack instead), through Bob's Big Break Borehole, and turned right to the JD Rotunda drops.

I visited Hells Kitchen last year, and don't remember taking the same route which we took today. We encountered the vertical team waiting for us after losing the way on. Miles led us through a series of stoops and crawls, over a 6 foot deep incision in the floor, and we turned sharp left and up instead of out over a pit (EAS?) with a good echo. An 8 foot climb-up popped us out into a junction room with several leads going off from it.

After a quick break, the six of us headed to Hells Kitchen, then up through the dry, gypsum-encrusted FRK and SPN surveys. Yvonne pointed out a crevice in the floor at the SPN survey where dropped rocks appear to bounce down for many tens of feet. The SPN passage kept getting smaller and smaller until we were finally popped out into a deep but narrow canyon passage, MDS. I believe that it took us around 4.5 hours to get back to this section.

Our team started surveying a lead at MDS28, a sloping bank of rather large cobbles up and to the right of the main canyon. We called the survey MDR (Miles, Dave, Rick). The passage first got rather low, and then opened up to a vertical-walled chamber 15 - 20 feet high, 6 feet wide and 20 feet long. I climbed up to check a potential high lead and a good fist-sized hand hold came loose and bounced off my head; this high route was too tight, but we would later survey this upper level from another lead.

We surveyed down into a canyon slot in the floor, Rick and I both trying several ways before finally squeezing our way through. We were in a small breakdown chamber walled by a delicately-balanced slope of large cobbles and breakdown debris. An enlarged vertical joint in the floor dropped at least 8 feet, but several minutes of hammering opened it up enough to see that it'd be a mining project to push it for little gain.

From the "big" chamber, we followed a second canyon lead up over more cobbles to a tall and narrow canyon. Rick did an impressive squeeze/climb up over a surfboard-shaped rock to an even higher, vertical-walled chamber. We did a survey shot through an impassable crevice rather than try to survey up the climb. From this higher small chamber, I climbed up to peer into another even higher passage, which was walled by terminal breakdown and cobbles. MDS28 lead killed, approximately 160 feet surveyed.

We headed back out into the main MDS canyon and proceeded to knock rocks down towards the unsuspecting vertical team below. At their request ("NOOO ROOOCKS!") we halted until they could take cover, then leapfrogged them to check out a low, tight lead up at the canyon ceiling. Though discontinuous with the previous lead, we called the entire day's survey MDR. Rick headed in to scope it out, and discovered (as per Miles's intuition) and very nice pit. I headed in next with our 50 foot tape, dropped it down and could see that it was too short to reach the bottom (my estimate was 60 - 70 feet deep). Hmmm. We interrupted the other team, swapped our 50 foot tape for their 100 foot tape, and Miles crawled in to tape the pit - 51.5 feet. Hrmph. Lead killed, approximately 70 feet surveyed (mostly vertical).

It was at this point that I noticed something particularly odd about Rick. Every time that we'd take a short break, he'd dig into his modestly-sized pack and produce a roast beef sandwich. He appeared to be on his 6th or 7th sandwich of the evening, with no end in sight. I'm not sure which was more impressive - his appetite, or his "bottomless" pack.

Our group back-tracked further along the main MDS canyon to MDS14, where the canyon meanders low and takes a different route than the higher canyon level. We surveyed downstream through the narrow and frequently-awkward lower canyon. This passage meanders very regularly and very tightly, our shots averaged about 9 - 10 feet per bend. The passage was very dry, and gypsum crystal was abundant on much of the walls. We were forced down to floor level, stooping, and generally confined to a small space. Shot after shot, the meandering canyon was relentless, eventually pinching so narrow that a rather modest-sized piece of breakdown prevented us from continuing. Miles, from the upstream direction, climbed up to the ceiling, where fragmented rock rained down on us from above. He was unable to continue on at this level. We shot 15 stations for around 125 feet, lead killed.

We communicated with the vertical team, below us on the SRT level, and tried to work out a plan for derigging their pits and give them directions to head out. Communication problems abounded, and it was eventually decided that we'd abandon our final lead and follow them out. We descended one of their pits, rigged with 9mm PMI on a bouncy webbing runner. The rope rubs at two spots near the top, and should probably be padded if it is to remain rigged.

After a ledge traverse and a bit of boulder hopping, we were quickly back to the junction room - having cut out the entire KNF, FRK, Hells Kitchen area - a nice time-saver. We headed back out towards the JD Rotunda climbs and followed our route towards the entrance. At the 90 foot slope, Miles and Rick took the bypass climb, while I ascended the slope - we reached the top at almost exactly the same time. I'm not a fan of the bypass climb, and was feeling pooped at this point.

At the entrance room (around 4am), we found that the vertical team had already ascended, and the North team (Bob, Jo, Cullen) was now starting to exit the cave. I needed a rest before climbing out, so we let them climb first. A 10-minute nap completely refreshed me, and Rick and I frogged out quickly after Bob and Jo had reached the top, leaving Miles to ascend out last. I was topside by 05:15, just as night was turning to dawn. Since Brian's "lost in borehole" photo team was still in the cave, I opted to stay at the entrance until they had exited. I waited patiently for them (with both eyes closed) until they emerged after 07:00 Sunday morning, helped them derig the ropes, and we went to breakfast again at the 4-U (where both Brian and Mary fell asleep at the table). I drove to Spruce Knob to get the WV highpoint, where I took another nap before driving back home to Morgantown.

We surveyed around 350 feet, killed 3 leads, and were underground for approximately 19 hours.