the alaskan caver with the tiny gypsum curls extruding from the floor "the first gypsum...
TRANSCRIPT
Volume 30, Number 4 October, 2010
THE ALASKAN CAVER
Volume 30, Number 4 October, 2010
Special SNOWHOLE IssueSpecial SNOWHOLE Issue
THE ALASKAN CAVER
The Alaskan Caver, Volume 30 No.4 page 2
Front cover: The rigging of Snowhole: Pete Smith sits at the entrance (See article beginning on this page). Photo by Kevin Allred.
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Snowhole!, by Mark Fritzke ---------------------------------------------------- page 2Snowhole Technical Report, by Kevin Allred ------------------------------- page 5Glacier Grotto Membership List ----------------------------------------------- page 6From Our Conservation Chairman ------------------------------------------- page 71992 photo of Snowhole ------------------------------------------------------- page 8Map of Snowhole ---------------------------------------------------------------- page 10
TABLE OF CONTENTS
My teeth chattered incessantly as I hunkered against the muddy crawl. As my boots deflected the icy breeze, I wondered "Where is this wind going?" It kept flipping pages of Kevin's survey book, and I couldn't share his cheery fascination with the tiny gypsum curls extruding from the floor "The first gypsum formations found in an Alaskan cave!" 12-hours into exploring and surveying 600-feet down a series of waterfall pits and snow cones, squeezing through the 'The Stripper' (where I had to strip off my fleece layer and harness to stuff down a sinuous crevice), we made a mid-pit pendulum through a shower into this wind tunnel. Now my feet turned into numb stumps and cold gnawed away at my resolve until I had to move, to escape the evil wind!
I lurched in jerky spasms down the crawl, slid on dusty mud around a corner and up a windy slope to the brink of a black chamber animated by a spattering waterfall. We only had a 30-foot tail left on our 600-foot rope, too short to probe the pit, but I had to get away from the wind! I clung to an overhang and hunched into a pocket, traversing the slope on my knees with my heels dangling over the void, until I could stab a toe onto a muddy ledge. I emerged into the top of a 30' diameter chamber and kicked steps up a crumbling mud ramp hovering over blackness. The ramp led through a keyhole slot, where water trickled from a crevice into the pit. "But… where did the wind go?" At the base of the ramp, a crawlway lured me down a cracked-mud floor until I slithered under a row of muddy stalactites and wisps of my breath streamed into the unknown. I was no longer shivering, so I returned to the pit and tossed mud plates to assess the drop… a 25' pit … followed by a waterfall shaft. Kevin and I surveyed to a pink flag on a stalactite at the brink of the pit, and headed back to the surface.
That was July 1992, and the wind emerging into that gaping pit haunted me for the next 18 years, more intriguing than any of the 100 southeast Alaska caves I explored in 1991 and 1992. Kevin, Aaron Gissburg, and David Ek returned in 1993 to pursue a across the pendulum pit, where they rappelled a pit and pushed horribly muddy and wet Curmudgeon Canyon, where they surveyed to a miserably tight constriction. Since then, nobody has returned to Snowhole, so the mystery lingered on in my Alaska dreams. Finally, Johanna Kovarik began organizing a trip to nearby Blowing in
“SNOWHOLE!"July 2010, by Mark Fritzke
THE ALASKAN CAVER
EDITOR: Carlene AllredGeneral DeliveryTenakee Springs, Alaska 99841hm: 907 [email protected]
GLACIER GROTTO OFFICERS
PRESIDENT: David LovePO Box 240812Douglas, AK 99824-0812
VICE PRESIDENT: Kevin AllredGeneral DeliveryTenakee Springs, Alaska 99841
SECRETARY/TREASURER:David LovePO Box 240812Douglas, AK 99824-0812
CONSERVATION: Steve LewisPO Box 53Tenakee Springs, AK [email protected]
TONGASS CAVE PROJECT:
Steve LewisBox 53PO Tenakee Springs, AK [email protected]
Kevin AllredGeneral DeliveryTenakee Springs, Alaska 99841hm: 907 [email protected]
Pete [email protected]
THE ALASKAN CAVER (ISSN 0735-0481) is the periodic publication of the Glacier Grotto of the National Speleological Society (NSS).
Back issues are available from the Glacier Grotto secretary for $2.50 each. Materials not copyrighted by individuals or by other groups may be used by NSS publications provided credit is given to the author and to The Alaskan Caver. Opinions are not necessarily that of The Alaskan Caver, the Glacier Grotto or the NSS. The editor welcomes contributions such as letters, trip reports, cave reports, photos, cartoons, stories, cave maps, etc.
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The Alaskan Caver, Volume 30 No.4 page 3
SNOWHOLE, continued from page 2
Our camp in the polje (huge doline) up on El Capitan Peak.Photo by Kevin Allred
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the Wind Cave for July 2010, and Kevin and I took the opportunity to col laborate with her. Blowing in the Wind Cave is Alaska's longest ‘a lp ine cave’ , with over a mile of parallel rifts and canyons.
I was so excited to explore a great cave with m y A l a s k a buddies Kevin Allred and Pete Smi th . I a l so wanted to see all the changes on Prince of Wales Island, a 200-mile long island just west of Ketchikan at the tip of southeast Alaska.
I flew into Ketchikan airport on July 2 and took a ferry across the 1/4-mile strait (made famous by "The Bridge to Nowhere") to Ketchikan. There I met Kevin with a big bear hug and we embarked on a 3-hour ferry Prince of Wales Island, where we met Pete. As we drove 100-miles north through high speed blind corners, I could see forests recovering from a 50-year onslaught of logging that ended 12 years ago. We saw several bald eagles and black bears fishing at a stream darkened by thousands of tightly packed salmon, and a fish ladder jammed with
.4,000 jostling and jumping fish.
Drizzling rain and foggy mist awoke us to a typical SE Alaska morning, so we donned rubber boots and rain gear, drove to the edge of a clearcut and backpacked two loads of gear up to the El Cap doline. The one-mile hike takes two hours of desperate clinging and clawing up steep slopes where every step is repulsed by chest-high brush and sloppy mud. When I slip, insidious devil's club vines are there to inject spines into my flailing hands, and I practice the graceless art of "falling with a heavy pack without getting hurt".
We meander up a mossy sinkhole karst as hulking spruce and hemlock trees emerge from the foggy mist, and follow 23 years of flagging fragments through a zigzag maze of steep sinks, gullies and lingering snow patches. Traversing the rims of 20-foot deep sinks mantled with dense brush and stout trees, we crest the 800-foot climb into 1/2-mile diameter El Cap doline and slosh down into a spongy meadow bursting with wildflowers. We set up our tents between rivulets flowing down into a giant clogged drain. Johanna Kovarik and her gang (Erin Lynch, Mark, Andrea Croskey and David Ochel) arrive in our soggy paradise.
Another rain-soaked dawn greets us, but Pete, Kevin and I are highly motivated to get underground.
Pete and Mark are rigging Snowhole. The entrance is the grike on the left. Photo by Kevin Allred.
The Alaskan Caver, Volume 30 No.4 page 4
Mark is drilling a hole for another rebelay.Photo by Kevin Allred.
SNOWHOLE, continued from page 3
Pete peers on ahead through his own foggy breath. Photo by Kevin Allred.
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We hump our gear 1/3-mile up to the cave, and anchor a 650-foot rope at the brink of the gaping crevice at the entrance. I begin by trundling several loose blocks into the depths and rappel slowly while scanning the walls for loose rock.
As I descend the rift into blackness, cold misty air rises to greet me, and I am sniffing adrenalin; after an 18-year hiatus, I am back! I drag endless coils of rope behind me and arrive at a chockstone ledge about 100-feet down, and Pete comes down with "The Pig", a Pelican case with Johanna's Bosch roto-hammer. We select an optimum location for a re-belay, and Kevin rappels down as I drill and set a 3/8" stainless bolt. Our team operates like clockwork; when I finish drilling, Pete trades the drill for a hose to blow rock powder from the hole, bolt and hammer, hanger and wrench, and locking carabiner as I tie a figure-9 knot and clip the rope.
I rappel past a snow funnel as the shaft flares, and I marvel at the expanse of marble falling into blackness below. Water has sliced and polished bands of calcite crystals suturing breccia-blocks of marble crisscrossed by faults and volcanic sills… exquisite, but I had no time for photography.
I landed on a 12-foot deep pile of rotting snow in a spacious 30-foot diameter room. Below, an icy funnel drops into a dead bottom pit at -428', so I stayed clipped and pulled out enough slack rope for Pete's rappel, then reeled the diminishing pile of rope into a treacherous looking drip-hole.
When Pete and Kevin arrived, and Kevin and I agreed we had never seen so much snow here. Previously (in 1989, 1992 and 1993) there was a small snow cone and most of the floor was rocky. Now I could step over to a rock crest that was formerly a short climb. The other side drops into a rift and down 4 more pits. series. Two segments of a massive 3-foot diameter by 25-foot tall pinnacle have collapsed against the far wall and now bridge and hover over the next drop. It was too big to fail, so we tied a giant double bowline knot around the base of the pillar. I checked a refrigerator-size block spanning the pit that I had wrestled with in 1992 to see if it was still firmly lodged.
I peeled off loose slabs below me as Pete fed rope from above and arrived at a floor, 50-feet down the rift and utterly vulnerable to rock fall. Knowing this, they delicately traverse the same pit without beaning me and we set another bolt for a drop traversing over a tight canyon. I slant down the top of the keyhole to avoid the crevice below, and intersect a tiny in-feeder as it cascades and disappears into the
The Alaskan Caver, Volume 30 No.4 page 5
By Kevin AllredTongass Cave Project
National Speleological SocietyNovember 3, 2010
zone where mud has accumulated on all surfaces. A short muddy crawlway becomes too tight in 50 feet. A second pit (50 feet) has a very unstable lip requiring much cleaning and several rebelays to avoid the trickle waterfall and rubble.
At the bottom of the fifty foot pit a muddy horizontal passage heads east to end in about 50 feet at a muddy dig with a minor echo. Near the end are spectacular displays of hundreds of mud hoodoos up to one inch high resembling cedar needles. About 20 feet from the beginning of this passage is a side branch that heads northerly 150 feet to become very tight and wet with a slight draft.
Back at "18 Year Old Itch", an exposed traverse leads past the entrance of a crawlway and diagonally across an exposed steep muddy slope with many protruding chert nodules. One can continue past a small waterfall to a vertical fissure that soon becomes too tight. A strong draft issues from this fissure.
The crawlway near "18 Year Old Itch" extends northerly 150 feet overlying one of the lower passages described above. The crawlway exploration and survey ended at the brink of a spacious pit estimated at 70 feet deep with a draft. The pit is likely to intersect the underlying passage beyond it's constriction.
An updated digital map of the cave was drawn by Carlene Allred.
MANAGEMENT RECOMMENDATIONS
Snowhole still might be extended significantly if the muddy zone could be penetrated. Extreme caution and a wide margin of safety are in order during exploration of this challenging cave.
On July 5, 2010, Pete Smith, Mark Fritzke, and Kevin Allred entered Snowhole and rigged it with a 650 foot rope. Rebelays were set in the following places:
1. Stainless bolt partway down the initial drop at the bottom of a sloping snowy ledge.
2. A rebelay was tied around the base of the Leaning Pillar.
3. Another stainless bolt below the Pillar at the beginning of a traverse at a snowy landing.
4. Another stainless bolt partway along the traverse to keep the rope out of a tight fissure.
5. Another stainless bolt at the top of the next fissure/pit.6. Another stainless bolt at the top of The Stripper.7. Another stainless bolt at the end of the previous
exploration at "18 Year Old Itch".
Some observations on the trip were:
1. There was much more snow and ice in the cave than observed in all the visits before.
2. The formerly noted gypsum needles had disappeared; apparently re-dissolved.
3. A stash of several coils of rope just inside the lead from the pendulum below The Stripper had been partially covered with rubble from a ceiling collapse; presumably from frost wedging.
The Stripper was a real concern to us, as we were older and less flexible. We felt it was prudent to use micro-blasting technique to enlarge the constriction. This widened the most constricted part, but it was still challenging to come back out of. It would be difficult, if not impossible for an injured caver to exit through this.
At the end of the previous survey at "18 Year Old Itch", a 20 foot pit drops into a large gallery with several dikes and sills intersecting from many angles. This whole area of the cave appears to have been a flood/backwater
SNOWHOLEPrince of Wales Island, Alaska
Preliminary Report #349Addendum to #10, 108, and 170
The Alaskan Caver, Volume 30 No.4 page 6
Kevin & Carlene Allred 2525 Fourth Ave. Ketchikan, AK 99901 [email protected] 16730RE &16389FR
Jim Baichtal PO Box 19515, Thorne Bay, AK 99919 907-828-3339 33277
Carl Bern 127 22 W. Virginia Ave, Lakewood, CO 80228 303-763-5097 40752
William H. Bowers 305 S. Bartlett Cir, Wasilla, AK 99654 12088RL
Melanie Brown 4439 Mountainside, Juneau, AK 99801-9562
David Bunnell PO Box 879, Angels Camp, CA 95222
UAS Caving Club c/o Cathy Connor, Environmental Science Program, Dept. of Natural Science, University of Alaska-Southeast,
11120 Glacier Highway, Juneau, AK 99801
Jansen Cardy c/o 633 Cromwell Ave, Rocky Hill, CT 06067 860-209-7789 50665
Kevin Casey, Association Libonaise d'Etudes Speleogiques PO Box 31, Mangourieh, al-Metn 1253 2010 Lebanon
Torsten Ernst 907-209-1546 [email protected]
Dr. William R. Halliday 6530 Cornwall Ct, Nashville, TN 37205 [email protected]
Dr. Thomas J. & Nancy Hallinan 1617 Wolverine Ln., Fairbanks, AK 99709-6628 6329RL &6367FL
Dr. Timothy & Julia Heaton 65 North Shore Drive, N. Sioux City, SD 57049 [email protected]
Gwen Herrewig 2545 David St, Juneau, AK 99801 907-240-3306 [email protected]
Tom & Dawn Heutte PO Box 276, Cass Lake, MN 56633-0276 41719 & 27414
Patricia Kambesis 177 Hamilton Valley Rd, Cave City, KY 42127 270-773-4990
Lorraine Landis & Kent Carlson 4497 Jade Court Middleton, MD 21769 301-371-7135 30124
Col. David Klinger, N.W Caving Rep., PO Box 537, Leavenworth, WA 98826 509-548-5480 10583RL
Kurt & Christine Kondzela PO Box 210931, Auke Bay, AK 99821
Johanna Kovarik PO Box 19514, Thorne Bay, AK 99199 262-932-8681 [email protected]
Andrea Kraskrey 2065 S Zang Way, Lakewood, CO 80228 303-882-1115 54174
Aurah Landau 145 ½ Behrends, Juneau, AK 99801
William "Buddy" Lane and family 40 Hidden Brook Ln, Signal Mountain, TN 37377
Marcel & Connie LaPerriere 705 Lake St, Sitka, AK 99835
Steve Lewis & Rachel Myron PO Box 53, Tenakee Springs, AK 99841 [email protected] 30022RE
David Love PO Box 240812, Douglas, AK 99824 907-789-6833 [email protected] 38145RE
Dr. Daniel Monteith 720 Fourth St., Douglas, AK 99824 [email protected] 42837RE
Barbara Morgan PO Box 23203 Ketchikan AK USA 99901
Paul Moser 808 Old Harrison Ferry Rd, McMinnville, TN 37110 931-224-8705 50917
Dan Nolfi 107 Park Headquarters Rd, Gatlinburg, TN 37738 865-206-6921 58118
Heinz David Ochel 1616 West 6th Street Apt 239, Austin, TX 78703
Nick Olmstead & Molly Kemp PO Box 571,cTenakee Springs, AK 99841
John Punches 633 W Hazel St, Roseburg, OR 97471 541-957-5461 39211 RE
Diane Raab 830 N 9th Ave. , Tucson, AZ 85705-7743 520-327-3234 [email protected] 53101AS
Dr. Julius Rockwell, Jr 4548 Reka Dr., Anchorage AK 99508-3684 [email protected] 11308RE
Jeff Sbonek PO Box 16, Pt Baker, AK 99927
E. Topaz Shryock PO Box 35896, Juneau, AK 99803 [email protected]
Dr. G. Warren & Constance Smith 101 Ayyar Ct, Slippery Rock, PA 16057-2647 [email protected]
Gary Sonnenberg PO Box 22555, Juneau, AK 99802 907-523-9312 [email protected] 33648RE
Aaron Stavens 4401 S 301st Dr, Auburn, WA 98001
David & Rececca Valentine 11976 North Tongass, Ketchikan, AK 99901
Mike Van Note PO Box 26, Haines, AK 99827
Bruce, Char & Samantha White 192 Rasberry Ln. N., Ketchikan, AK USA 99901 [email protected] 46466RE
Mira Wilhelm
Southeast Alaska Conservation Council 419 Sixth St., Juneau, AK 99801 www.seacc.org
Whale Pass Community Library PO Box WWP, Ketchikan, AK 99950907-846-5226
Cave Conservationist [email protected]
GLACIER GROTTO MEMBERSHIPJuly 2010
The Alaskan Caver, Volume 30 No.4 page 7
HiCarlene, Here's an article on closure of caves in the
western US for WNS. Interesting and scary. We have to hope it doesn't get here----if it does, we'll be faced with a closure too, I'm sure. Hope they figure out what is going on and a way to ameliorate the problem soon.Steve.
PS here';s the link to this article:http://www.batcon.org/news2/scripts/newsletter.asp?newsletterID=72
WNS: Cave ClosuresThis statement was issued by Bat Conservation
International Executive Director Nina Fascione in support of the U.S. Forest Service decision on Tuesday (July 27) to close western caves.
With White-nose Syndrome threatening bats in the American West much sooner than e x p e c t e d , B a t C o n s e r v a t i o n I n t e r n a t i o n a l s u p p o r t s Tu e s -
day's emergency decision of the U.S. Forest Service Rocky Mountain Region to temporarily close all caves and abandoned mines on its lands in Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas. WNS has already decimated bat colonies throughout the eastern United States.
The fungus linked to this devastating wildlife disease reached Oklahoma and Missouri in May, putting western bats at imminent risk. States west of the Mississippi River had been spared the destruction of WNS, and wildlife managers had hoped the respite would last for a few more years. It did not.
White-nose Syndrome is the most severe threat ever faced by North American bats. More than 1 million bats have been killed by WNS since it was found in a single New York cave in 2006. Mortality rates at some hibernation sites have reached almost 100 percent, and species extinctions are increasingly likely. Top scientists are searching desperately for solutions, but they have found no means of curing or preventing this disease or even of slowing its disastrous spread.
The one-year closure of western caves is an effort to buy time to examine all options. In this crisis, the decision is reasonable and prudent. Simply waiting for WNS to arrive before taking decisive action is far too risky. BCI expects the Forest Service to work with all relevant partners, including cavers, to identify caves and abandoned mines that can be reopened safely and to ensure that caves harboring bats are completely protected. We urge all caving enthusiasts to respect these closures to help delay the introduction of WNS into these new areas.
Most scientists agree that the primary means of spreading White-nose Syndrome is from bat to bat, especially since many species migrate over long distances. But scientists also cite strong, if circumstantial, evidence for the unintentional spread of the WNS-associated fungus from cave to cave by humans. The Forest Service notes that spores of the fungus have been found on caving gear. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recommends very specific procedures for decontaminating gear and clothing after visiting caves. BCI employs these procedures throughout the country and urges everyone entering caves to do so.
White-nose Syndrome or the fungus associated with it has invaded 14 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces so far and has attacked nine bat species, including endangered Indiana and gray bats. All 25 hibernating bat species, more than half the 46 U.S. species, are clearly at risk from WNS. Its potential impact on non-hibernating species is unknown.
Bats play essential roles in maintaining healthy ecosystems and pay dividends to agriculture. On their nightly hunting forays, they eat enormous amounts of insects, including many pests that damage crops and forests. The loss of these bats will cause irreparable harm to our environment.
We at Bat Conservation International understand that this decision will inconvenience many users of these caves and mines, including recreational cavers. But the stakes are so high, with invaluable species at such grave risk, that an abundance of caution is necessary. We know this was a difficult choice for the U.S. Forest Service, but it was the correct one.
Executive Director, Nina Fascione, clarifies BCI’s position on cave closures.
In response to questions about Bat Conservation International’s support of temporary cave closures by the U.S. Forest Service Rocky
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F R O M O U R C O N S E R V A T I O N C H A I R M A N :
Bat Conservation TimesVolume 8, Number 7 - July 2010
(reprinted with permission)
WNS: CAVE CLOSURES, continued from page 7
This is a 1992 photo of Mark Fritzke rappelling down past the leaning pillar in Snowhole. The entrance drop continues down behind the pillar as a fissure separated with a septum from this landing where the photo was taken. The main rope was 500 feet long, and the coil Mark has was 100 feet, and used for drops below. In 2010, we ran the rope down the other side of the pillar. Photo by Kevin Allred.
Mountain Region, BCI Executive Director Nina Fascione said: “BCI is still promoting targeted cave closures rather than blanket closures as a general policy (per our position statement of February 16, 2010), but we also accept the reality that agencies must sometimes make management decisions for resources, even though their data are incomplete. In such cases, an abundance of caution can be justified when the stakes are as high as they are with White-nose Syndrome. We understand that cave closures can impact cavers and other users, but we hope everyone
can work together to achieve our common goal of stopping this devastating disease so we won’t have to face such challenging decisions in the future.”
© Bat Conservation International, Inc., 2010. Absolutely no rights of distribution by sale or other transfer of ownership or by rental, lease or lending, preparation of derivative works, or reproduction, in whole or in part, is granted. Bat Conservation Times™ is a division of Bat Conservation International Inc.
The Alaskan Caver, Volume 30 No.4 page 8
The Alaskan Caver, Volume 30 No.4 page 9
gaping crack below. We set another bolt and I wiz down, going faster at the bottom to get out of the shower, and drag the last 100-feet of rope down a 15-foot drop into an alcove away from wetness.
A 12-inch wide crevice guards the next pit. We set our fourth bolt and hammered chert ledges before scraping along the floor drain into the crevice. After 10-feet of struggling to go down, I know this will be much harder to climb out, and I emerge into the 35-foot waterfall shaft to zip down another wet rappel. I scramble off a 10-foot ledge to get out of the spray and de-rig, then huddle in a dry corner munching nuts while Pete and Kevin come down.
Here we face 'The Stripper', a 10-foot long sinuous crevice constricting into a desperately tight squeeze. Kevin drills a deep hole into a protruding corner, inserts a .223 caliber shell and hammers it with a nail…"Boom!" As the smoke cleared we admired the results; yes, much better.
We thread the last 50' of rope down the crack and Pete slithers through the tight but no longer desperate constriction, until he emerges on a narrow shelf at the brink of a 30-foot pit. The bottom goes nowhere, but midway down he pendulums through a shower and into a hole in the wall. Alas, here in the wind tunnel we stumble upon a several coils of rope Kevin stashed here in 1993. We haul some down the crawlway to the mysterious pit that stopped us in 1992 where my writing on pink flagging still waves in the wind. There is no anchor point, so Kevin and I body belay Pete as he slides over the edge and rappels 25' down, then reports there is no wind descending the next 50-foot waterfall shaft. How weird; where does the air go?
Excited to be pushing the cave again, we exit up the pit series. Going up 'The Stripper' has been reduced to a mere 5-minute thrash, but at the top of the next shaft I bungle the entry into the next squeeze. I leave my pack clipped to my harness while shredding it through the crevice over my left thigh, but suddenly a strap and mini-biner fail and I can feel the pack rolling off my leg and falling back down the pit…"Thud!" Pete calls up "Hey, you want this thing?" More squirming and groveling gets me up and out of the crack, where I can assist Pete when he shoves my errant pack through. As I ascend 600-feet of rope to the surface, a ratty old cord to my foot sling stretches and fails, and I am tying a knot while swaying in a drizzling shower.
At the surface we are greeted by a twilight evening as we happily scramble down karst slopes back to camp, where Johanna's crew has arrived and greet us with a bonfire and "Smores"! Our July 4 fireworks is the smoke chasing us around the fire and we chow down Pete's hearty homemade spaghetti sauce.
On Monday, Johanna's crew, Kevin and I climb past Snowhole and up to Blowing in the Wind Cave. Kevin and I bop along the upper level over several pit series to a lead at the far end. Erin and Kevin and I GPS some entrances and significant karst features.
On Tuesday, Kevin, Pete and I gear up for a trip to the bottom of Snowhole. We quickly drop the big pits, 100', 220', 45', 50', 140' and slide down the crevice entries to the 40' waterfall, 'The Stripper", and the 15' pendulum pit, and set a bolt for the 25' drop, and begin our survey.
Over the next 7 hours we survey 700 feet of passage. As I follow Pete down the drop I pluck off a large slab perched on a sloping ledge and it crashes to the floor. Pete is alarmed I may have damaged the rope, but I think I missed and the rope is OK.
Kevin comes down and we probe a crawling lead before analyzing the next pit. A huge pile of unstable rock is perched above the brink, so we trundle off everything we can, but then it becomes a bigger funnel for debris and the underlying layer of muddy sand is unprotected from the water cascade, and the vertical mud walls begin to liquefact and collapse spontaneously. I carve further into the slope until I have a catch basin to capture the mud slides and we can safely drop the pit without getting nailed by a falling rock. I redirect the rope away from the lip using chert nodules on the wall, and begin to rappel. Again Pete warns me to check for damage to the rope, but everything is so slimed with mud I just want to get down the pit. Pete follows and notices a sharp kink in the rope I missed.
At the bottom there is very little airflow, but a muddy keyhole canyon leads off. We climb over a septum and slime into a muddy tube going down, and a tiny stream emerges from the floor and flows amid mud braids. The passage constricts to a muddy tube and I am caving in Alaska, but it feels like "Missouri mud" at 34 degrees!
I jam myself into a slanting pancake and listen to the stream fall into a small chamber, but with little air flow and no digging tools, we "LFAG" (Left For Another Generation) the lead. We survey the only side lead down a hand and knees crawl with some narrow walking passage before the passage squeezes through a sub-human rift and a half-submerged 6" high squeeze with slight airflow… LFAG!
Oh well, now I know where the cave goes, and the elevation of this muddy passage is controlled by a non-carbonate layer.
(Kevin mentions that they also left a spacious pit lead with air flow for another generation).
SNOWHOLE, continued from page 4
The Alaskan Caver, Volume 30 No.4 page 10