QuestionQuestionReplyMany, many stories come to mind. All were exciting and/or funny in some way. The most exciting had to do with the discovery of brand-new cave. It's hard to choose, but I'll pick two that will probably fit your readership.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Lead | Possible passage, sometimes grim, that may lead to virgin cave. |
| Virgin cave | Untouched cave never explored by humans. |
| Push | Usually applied to a lead that will require significant physical/mental effort to explore. |
| Pit | Vertical cave, always requiring ropework and special training. Cavers also use the word drop. |
| Bounce | The practice of "doing" a pit: a rappell down, followed by a climb out using a climbing system. |
| Breakdown | A boulder pile; an in-cave collapse that takes place at some time in a cave's development. |
| TAG | An acronym that cavers use to refer to Tennessee-Alabama-Georgia. |
In the summer of 1990, a fellow caver named Keith Filson asked me to accompany him to a cave in a neighboring Tennessee county. I won't mention the name of the cave, in order to keep hordes of people from running out there and bothering landowners. Keith had several leads in this cave that he wanted to push.
One lead turned out to be a rough belly-crawl about 100 feet long. Because of the sharp rocks and fancy maneuvering the crawlway required, we started to refer to it as the Agony Crawl. To be in the crawl was to be in agony. After the hundred feet, we arrived at a crack in breakdown that Keith could squeeze through but I couldn't.
Keith is a very thin person, even for a caver! We've measured places that he's squeezed through that turned out to be 6 inches tall! So it's no surprise when he can get through something that other people can't.
Once on the other side, Keith found himself standing in virgin passage that was 40 feet tall and 20 feet side. Huge, considering the crawl we had come through.
Cavers dream of a moment such as this.
Keith wanted to take off down the passage as fast as possible to see what lay beyond, but quickly realized that he was the only one who could get through the crack. If something happened to him, no one else could get to him for a rescue. His caving experience was revealed by his using common sense in an exciting moment that all cavers dream of. He diverted his attention to finding an alternate route in which I (and other people) could come through.
After looking around, we finally located a spot close by that we were able to dig open. After two hours of digging, I finally stood by Keith in the new passage.
We moved down the passage, which was soon filled with large boulders that made travel difficult. It looked as though the passage was ending, and we would have to turn around. We climbed back and forth slowly, our hearts sinking.
All of a sudden, it opened up. Blackness was in front of us. We had emerged in a large room.
"Gosh!" I said, not expecting to find a large room. As we walked into the room, our feet sank down 2 inches in the untouched dirt. Beautiful gypsum crystals glistened in the light emitting from our helmets. In the distance, we could hear the sound of running water. It was virgin cave! And lots of it!
As we explored, we found many virgin passages leaving the room. It seemed that new cave was everywhere!
We explored about a half-mile of easy virgin cave that day. We finally reached a point where we had to turn around and leave. There was more cave to explore, but we had told a friend that we would be out of the cave around 8:00PM and to expect a call by 9:00PM. We got out of the cave and drove straight to his house to tell him the news. We arrived at his house at 8:59PM!
Later, the Gosh Room (named for the first word ever spoken there) section was surveyed and the room was found to be 230 feet long, 50 feet wide, and up to 60 feet high -- almost as long as a football field. This turned out to be the largest room found yet in the cave. And Keith and I were the first ones to explore it.
Another story that comes to mind was my first trip to a really big pit.
Cavers routinely negotiate drops while exploring, and the most common drops in TAG are anywhere from 10-150 feet. However, cave exploring in TAG has revealed some very unique pits : Surprise Pit, (437 feet), Incredible Pit (440 feet), and Fantastic Pit (586 feet). Imagine a pit that is over 50 stories deep... Pits this deep require special vertical techniques not used in "normal" drops.
My first big pit was Surprise Pit. While travelling to the cave, I tried to get a mental picture of a pit that is over 40 stories deep. I really didn't know what to expect. Prior to this time I had done several other pits up to 200 feet deep. I had specially prepared myself for this one, which I knew would be altogether different.
Of the cavers in our group, two had been there and had bounced the pit previously. They knew the experience of our group, and knew we were up to the task.
The pit itself is about 300 feet inside a cave. You must walk down a stream passage until you reach the edge of the pit.
When we arrived, the pit looked just like any other pit I had seen. "Watch this..." one of the cavers said. He picked up a rock, and threw it into the pit. Everyone instantly got quiet, and listened.
I never heard it hit.
Picking up a bigger rock, he threw this into the pit as well. After what seemed like an eternity... BOOM! That boom was very, very far away. Surprise! I saw how the pit received its name.
What a thrill it must have been for the first cavers to explore this pit! I wondered what they found at the bottom...
After our rope was rigged, one of the cavers that had visited the cave earlier rappelled into it. After about 15 minutes, he told us via walkie-talkie that he was on the bottom. (Walkie talkies had to be used because you could not make out what a person was saying, since he was so far away. )
I was the next person. As I rigged into the rope, I could tell this was going to be an altogether different experience from what I had done before. There was so much rope in the pit, I found it heavy and hard to manage. Imagine holding the end of a 500-foot rope that is hanging free. It probably weighs around 30-40 pounds.
It took me about 15 minutes to complete the rappell. The caver on the bottom had turned out his light so I could get the feeling of rappelling in darkness. The walls of the pit had belled out, and I couldn't see them anymore. I looked down. The rope disappeared below into darkness. I looked up. Again, the rope disappeared into darkness. It was as if I was all alone in space, and the rope was my lifeline. Whenever I shouted, my voice echoed for quite a few seconds. I continued my descent carefully and cautiously, all the time wondering what was below...
When I could finally make out the floor of the pit emerging beneath me, it seemed as if I had been rappelling an endless rope. A huge rockpile made up the floor, and a huge waterfall landed at one side of the chamber. Impressive! I finally disconnected from the rope, and waited for the next person to come down.
The climb out was just as exhilarating. With a few rest stops, the climb took around 35-40 minutes. We all left late that night, tired but still awe-struck at the size of the pit.
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