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Starnes Cave
January 17, 2009
By
Melanie Stern

We picked a lovely day to go caving. It was only the COLDEST day since Paul and I moved here from Maine. We woke up to 0.7 degrees (BUUUURRRRRR), layered and set off on a great adventure. Paul and I met up with Mike and his friend David, Harry, Larry, and Robbie at the Park and Ride behind 7-Eleven on 460 in Forest at 8:30 AM and headed towards the Bedford YMCA to meet Chuck. We arrived at the parking spot of Starnes Cave at around 10:30 and made quick time of getting geared up. No one wanted to be out in the cold for any longer than necessary.

We made our way through the fields as the curious cows followed us. By the time we made it to the entrance of the cave we were anxious to get inside where we knew the temperature would be much warmer.

Right away we noticed Mike was having a problem. He had lost so much weight in the past year and didn’t realize how the cold was going to affect him. He reacted in a pretty serious way. He began showing signs of moderate hypothermia. He was experiencing severe vertigo as he was coming down the first big drop into the mouth of the cave. The rest of the group went and set the cable ladder for the next big drop and Paul and I stayed with Mike. We sat him down on a pack, wrapped him in some extra clothing and a baclava. Paul got out a space blanket and I got under the blanket with Mike to add some extra body heat. His hands were like ice cycles. Harry came and helped with Mike and after a bit we got him to lie down because the vertigo was so bad and he was feeling nauseated. At that point I was starting to get very cold too so Paul told me to go on down into to cave and catch up with the others.

I went down into the first pit of the cave and made my way until I saw light ahead from the others. We spent a short time deciding which direction we all wanted to go. I had wanted to come back to Starnes for one reason. As noted in our Dec 06 Starnes cave trip report, three of us had negotiated the climb to an upper ledge but could not proceed without rope. I had wanted to come back with rope and check this section out further. Larry, Robbie, and David decided to head towards the waterfall and Chuck and I chose to go back to the upper ledge. We looked at our watches and planned to go for 30 minutes and then turn around and head back to the intersection. As soon as Chuck and I headed off I realized that I needed new batteries in my light and I had left the cave pack up with Paul. I went back and had Paul throw the pack down to me. Chuck teased me about being the wife of the grotto president and not being prepared with my three sources of light.

After putting in new batteries we headed off to the left toward the upper ledge. I fell once on my backside in the slippery mud. The muddy climb was as I remembered with the nice little finger holes to help along the way. Once we worked our way across the upper ledge, Chuck tied off some webbing and we went down the first pit. Chuck went first to test the webbing and of course he made it look like a piece of cake. I, on the other hand, was quite thankful for that webbing when I hit a very slick mudslide at the end of the line. I had to hang on for dear life with my newly functioning weak arm and work my way to the right.

We found another little drop that we had to chimney down and then a nice walking canyon passage to another drop. I chose to sit that one out while Chuck went ahead to explore a little further. Without more rope it would have been difficult for me to go any further. After a few minutes he turned around and came back. By this time it had been 30 minutes so it was time for us to head back to the intersection and meet the others.

We got back to the mud slope and I heard Paul’s whistle. Mike was feeling better so Paul and Harry managed to get him into the cave where it was much warmer. Paul and I then made our way over the large breakdown towards the waterfalls. We ran into Harry and Mike just before the waterfall and I sat and waited there with them as Paul went on to the waterfall. I was pretty exhausted and sore at that point.

We were all pretty much ready for Mexican food by now so we made our way back to the entrance. That is, after I made a wrong turn and Paul, Mike, and Harry followed me. We did finally find our way and Mike was first up the cable ladder. I started to follow and quickly realized just how exhausted I was. I thought I could do the climb up the chimney to the left without using the ladder. That wasn’t happening. I found a resting place while Paul went on up the ladder. Then I tried. I made it to the lip and then couldn’t get my footing on the ladder. Paul and Mike made great sport of my struggle as they hoisted me up like reeling in their prize fish. But then my hips got stuck! It was quite funny as they pulled from above and Harry pushed from below to free me.

Thankfully we all made it out and Robbie’s truck was waiting for us so we did not have to make the long walk back to the parking spot. We changed and left with the decision that once again we would have to come back with more rope and try this one again.

Before going for our traditional Mexican meal, we made a stop for the group (excluding myself) to check out the fence at Pig Hole and then tried to check out Mountain Lake where “Dirty Dancing” was filmed, but ran into a thick ice patch across the road so we turned around and went to Blacksburg for food and fellowship. This time we can say it and really mean it, "We cheated death one more time".

Melanie Stern
James River Grotto