Our second trip since breakthrough and wouldn't you know it, we didn't bring enough rope. The 101 footer that I brought was enough to get down two drops, but after a short piece of borehole passage the third drop stopped us for the day. Good air though, and good leads left to push. Check out the illustrated report for more details.


Tom Barton and Devin Kouts with virgin borehole in the back ground, Shovel Eater Cave - photo by Rick Orben

After twenty years of on again, off again attention a recent spate of trips to the dig face in Shovel Eater cave have finally bourne fruit. A nice drop of 40 feet with two more pits estimated at 50 feet each were the reward for eighteen consecutive trips of hard rock digging. See the illustrated report on the PSC website and check out the photo album for pics of the new cave passage.


Miles Drake on the first drop discovered in Shovel Eater Cave - photo by Mark Passerby

An excellent demonstration of persistence in the face of unknown possibilities exists below the wooded flanks of North Fork Mountain here in Germany Valley. It's called the "Shovel Eater Dig" and it has kept a team of hard digging cavers on tenterhooks for almost two years. On March 26th Tom Barton, Mark Passerby, Lee Passerby, David Crenshaw and Devin Kouts all made the 4x4 schlep to Shovel Eater and put in another full day of rock removal and crevice following. Will this commitment pay off? We'll just have to wait and see.


Tom Barton works the dig face in Shovel Eater cave. See more photos from the dig's history in the Shovel Eater photo album.

The intrepid Pawel Skoworodko from Speleoclub Warsaw (or Speleoklub Warszawski), Poland first met Mark Stover and Robert Monczka while helping out on the Bill Stone expedition to Cheve in Mexico last year. Pavel was such a cool guy that Mark and Robert invited him to the States for a couple months of caving and fun. It turns out that Pawel has a great photographer's eye and after returning to his home country he posted some of his Germany Valley photos to Speleoklub Warszawski's gallery. Incidentally, while Pawel was in action in Memorial Day cave last November and December a virgin canyon passage bypass that he pushed was named in his honor, the Polish Loop.

Lewis Carrol and Pawel Skoworodko return from Memorial Day Cave, Germany Valley, West Virginia

Andrew Medley took a few of his chums to bop and crawl around in a perennial favorite here in Germany Valley, Harper's Pit. They took lots of pictures and I must say, what a nice looking bunch of cavers. Hope they'll come back to the valley for a visit, then we can show them around to some of our other favorites.


Andrew Medley and friends are ready to climb out of the Harper's Pit entrance drop - photo credit - Andrewmedley.com

And they thoughtfully put together a very attractive photo album to tell the tale of their trip. Enjoy it here.


Joann Smith guides in Memorial Day Cave

On March 12th Tom Barton, Rick Orben, Jim Gildea and Barry Horner returned to Shovel Eater to continue the dig effort beyond the small break through reached in our effort two weeks prior. While they dug, I was taking in the warm temperatures of Napa Valley, too far away to participate, but wishing them well all the same.

By the end of the day they had knocked a lot of rock off the right hand wall (going in) and widened the breezy crack in the floor enough that they could get in a half body length. To summarize, the air still blows very strong from the crack, and they now have a respectable echo returning from the depths of the crevice. We could be getting close to another breakthrough soon.

Peg's MDC Trip report is online in the Central Ohio Grotto's newsletter COG Squeaks and photos from her trip are available here

Ava and Peg in MDC

The largest gathering of diggers ever (six all told) descended upon the snowy flanks of North Fork Mountain to pursue the dig in Shovel Eater cave. Known since the 1980's as an airy lead, Shovel Eater is now developing the reputation of a cave that only slowly gives up its secrets. See the big news from this latest effort at: A Breakthrough (of sorts) in Shovel Eater



Profile of the dig in Shovel Eater cave after the weekend of February 26, 2005 (not to scale) - copr. Devin Kouts