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limpingcrab
Trad climber
the middle of CA
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Topic Author's Original Post - Sep 21, 2012 - 11:15pm PT
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Off topic I guess, but caving was the reason I bought my first harness, rope, helmet, jumars and figure 8 so it's almost on topic.
Pictures... stories...close calls...tour caves...questions...ice caves... I know there are people on ST who like caves, so share something!
Palmer Cave, Sequoia NP
Jamaica 'mon
Minerak King, Sequoia NP
Breakfast Cave
I'll report this one to the park service once Sequoia gets a new cave specialist
I want to see where other people go! (and procrastinate school stuff)
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Don Paul
Big Wall climber
Colombia, South America
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Sep 22, 2012 - 09:20am PT
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My intro to climbing was caving too, when I was in school at Virginia Tech Univ. The whole area has tons of caves, it's near the new river gorge. Once even had a caving epic, we were in the cave 24 hours, twice as long as we'd planned. It was an enormous cave, with multiple rooms 50 feet high or more, connected by narrow spots to squeeze through, and is the only cave I've been in that had beautiful mineral crystals - nearly all caves get vandalized for these right away.
The cave, called the Newcastle Murder Hole (that's another story), had two 100' drops, one right through a waterfall. We had springy goldline rope, and prusik knots as ascenders - ascending the ropes took forever. On the way out we sent one guy ahead to call the cave club to tell them we were going slow but not to organize a rescue. No such thing as a cell phone so he had to drive back to town in his Dodge Dart. I was at the top of the waterfall waiting for Mike to ascend it. It took him an hour or more. I could not see him or hear because of the noise of the waterfall, but could feel his weight on the rope and it moved sometimes. Eventually he made it but was totally hypothermic and had to be told what to do. His brain had shut down. He watched me coil the rope, then we went up another small drop we'd fixed with slings, then another hour later back to the entrance. Mike was still hypothermic and not talking at all. We had dry clothes in the entrance, I took off all Mike's clothes and put warm ones on him. Once in warm clothes he began speaking again. Then ascended the other 100' drop to exit the cave. I never really took caving seriously until that trip, but it was a pretty serious epic. Luckily with modern ropes and jumars, it would be a lot easier, maybe even wetsuits for the waterfall.
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Plaidman
Trad climber
South Slope of Mt. Tabor, Portland, Oregon, USA
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Sep 22, 2012 - 09:38am PT
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I wrote up one of my cave adventures on my blog. I did this one during my 100 Days, 100 Miles, 100 Climbs adventure last year.
http://blog.oregonlive.com/climbing/2011/11/100_days_100_miles_100_climbs_14.html
I met Big Wall Rick for the annual event on his birthday of going into the Monster Cave near the Columbia River Gorge. I had been invited for several years but hadn't made the trip yet. I love caving and it fits in with the adventure theme of my project so I was excited to go and explore this cave.
We needed to get there at 11:00 am on 11/11/2011 and we were hoping to have eleven of us to enter the cave. We only had eight show up but we arrived at 11:11 am at the cave entrance and descended into the depths of Mother Earth.
This cave is a monster. In some sections you could fit four semi trucks two stacked on top of two others. The floor in places was smooth and covered in sand. I could see the traces of the lava that had made groves and lines in the sides of the corridors we walked by.
We got to the first drop. It was about 20 ft and we rappelled into it. Then we proceeded further into the bowels of the underworld. We walked for a great distance and came to the next drop. This one is about 70 ft. and is like descending into the abyss.
We walked further and in total I think we went about 1 1/2 miles into this cave. The last drop we did was the hardest, at least for me. It required traversing over and above a 70 foot pit, then up about five feet onto the edge of the pit to a ledge with another drop on the other side. I got a little freaked as I was not sure how my feet would stick on the wet walls of the cave. This move required some free climbing and the moves I thought were 5.8 scary with consequences. The mantra is climb and don't fall.
The last drop was about 40 ft. and we stopped at the bottom of this one as we had been in the cave for about 2 hours at that time. Now we needed to reverse what we had done. There are at least 2 more drops and we decided not to continue. I will have to go back and do them another time.
We started back the way we came. Now we needed to ascend the ropes we rappelled by using mechanical means. We use a rope tool called an ascender or sometimes called a jug or jumar. We all needed to be effiencent at this skill so we could get out.
As soon as one of us got to the top of the drop we moved onto the next one. I followed one of the guys out and we waited at the top of the first drop for a while. He continued on I decided to wait there for the others in case there was a problem and to let the others know that we had made it that far out.
I waited there for 45 minutes in the dark with no light. The only sounds were the dripping of the water in the cave. My optic nerve was playing tricks with my mind by showing me colors and light that did not exist. It was kind of like hallucinating and was entertaining in a weird way. I was in my own sensory deprivation chamber and meditated on several themes in my tomb in the belly of the earth. It was quite relaxing.
Eventually I saw lights in the distance that did not dim and we all gathered again. Proceeding out I encountered wetness on the outside and a skiff of slushy rain/snow was covering the ground. It had been a sunny beautiful day when we went in and now it was cold and gray. It was very odd and we felt like we had been in a time warp.
This has to be one of my favorite caves. It was big and interesting with a bit of climbing and tons of adventure.
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MisterE
Social climber
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Sep 22, 2012 - 10:05am PT
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Kartchner Caverns in Southern Arizona is stunning.
If you are ever at Cochise and looking for a rest-day activity, it is highly recommended.
Kartchner Caverns is home to:
one of the world's longest soda straw stalactites: 21 feet 3 inches (Throne Room)
the tallest and most massive column in Arizona, Kubla Khan: 58 feet tall (Throne Room)
the world's most extensive formation of brushite moonmilk (Big Room)
the first reported occurrence of “turnip” shields (Big Room)
the first cave occurrence of “birdsnest” needle quartz formations
many other unusual formations such as shields, totems, helictites, and rimstone dams.
http://azstateparks.com/Parks/KACA/index.html
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matlinb
Trad climber
Albuquerque
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Sep 22, 2012 - 10:32am PT
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Also a caver turned climber.
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Studly
Trad climber
WA
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Sep 22, 2012 - 11:59am PT
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The Plaidman is a square peg in a round hole. He had to come back out and take off most of his clothes to make the passage, it was not a pretty sight but at least the cavers now know whats up his kilt.
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Radish
Trad climber
SeKi, California
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Sep 22, 2012 - 12:43pm PT
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I miss Joel here in Seki! Thanks to him I have gone in alot of the caves and had some good adventures. I haven't done Palmer cave yet, it has been on my list for awhile. We were just up at Clough Cave yesterday, though we didn't have the key. My last really hard cave was the Kaweah Monkey Flower.
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Scole
Trad climber
Joshua Tree
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Sep 22, 2012 - 12:55pm PT
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Sep 22, 2012 - 01:00pm PT
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Mr E, ya forgot some awesome 'bacon' formations! It looked so good I could smell it!
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adikted
Boulder climber
Tahooooeeeee
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Sep 22, 2012 - 01:06pm PT
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When i was in school in Western NC we would go caving in Tennesee and Va on our rest/ rain days....i miss the days of gettn dirty all the time, Boone winters could be miserable but the caves were always a good relief.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Sep 22, 2012 - 01:10pm PT
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I thought Darwin said, "Man who caves while it is raining occupies a short branch of his family tree."
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pneame
Trad climber
Tampa, FL
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Sep 22, 2012 - 01:59pm PT
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limpingcrab
Trad climber
the middle of CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 22, 2012 - 02:16pm PT
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Awesome stuff!
My last really hard cave was the Kaweah Monkey Flower Radish. The last time I talked to Joel he told me that that cave had "more air movement than any other cave in the park" and that he hadn't yet surveyed the whole thing because nobody has dug through the rubble pile that the wind is coming from.
Is that the one? He pointed out and described where it was but I haven't been out to look for it.
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limpingcrab
Trad climber
the middle of CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 22, 2012 - 02:17pm PT
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you guys have been in some gnarly caves
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Radish
Trad climber
SeKi, California
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Sep 22, 2012 - 05:22pm PT
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That's the cave, below Milk Ranch. I went in with Ben and Joel and we took a 300' rope which we cut sections off of. They had been in there before. We went to the farthest place, rapping into a big sinkhole and juggin out the other side to get to a passage that ended up deadending. Lots of really tight squeezes and wet and muddy. Good times kinda. I was ready to not cave for awhile afterwards...It was and still might be explored to be the deepest cave in the park. We were thinking maybe 1700' or so....
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enjoimx
Trad climber
Yosemite, ca
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Sep 22, 2012 - 07:50pm PT
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Talk to Piton Pete. He loves hammering pitons in new caves, forever ruining their clean free climbing potential. J/k but his caving descriptions are pretty cool!
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Studly
Trad climber
WA
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Sep 22, 2012 - 10:43pm PT
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Sonic
Trad climber
Boulder, CO
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Sep 22, 2012 - 10:47pm PT
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Dig the first photo of Palmer. Ill see if I can dig up my photos of when I was there. Its quite a nice hike into it!
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Darwin
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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I've posted this in the Geology Quiz thread, but hope springs eternal:
How often do large bodies of calciferous rocks exist without caves?
I'm thinking of parts of the White Mountains NE of Bishop, CA? I don't know if there are caves there, but I found no evidence of them in my little bit of hiking around there. Is the explanation for no-caves as simple as lack of water to erode/dissolve the rock? I personally don't think so.
Anyone know Bill Franz(?) and Joe Garner from the old(mid '60s) San Francisco Grotto? Neither went on to climbing as far as I know.
Darwin
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