12/30/06

Sinnitt-Thorne

There were 12 people on the annual post-Christmas caving trip, this year done in conjunction with GROSS Grotto. The people on the trip were: Kevin Keplinger, Justin Keplinger, John Barth, Bob Griffith, Mary Davis, Alan Carpenter, Carl Werntz, Rocky Parsons, Jeff Stutler, Jason Jesteadt, Jerry Jesteadt and Doug McCarty. They went to the Waterfall Room and up the Silo into the Big Room. They did not go through the connector to Thorne Mountain Cave.  

12/27/06

Christmas Party

The folks at the grotto Christmas partyt were Carl Werntz, Donna Ford-Werntz, Shannon Wentz, Bob Griffith, Mary Davis, Alan Carpenter, Chris Carpenter, Jenna Carpenter, Joann Carpenter and Doug McCarty. A good time (I believe) was had by all.

11/24/06

Adopt-a-Highway

Alan Carpenter and Doug McCarty were the only ones who showed up at Bowden this time. They got 3 bags of garbage and 8 tires.

11/21/06

Simmons Mingo

by Llew Williams

     On Tuesday 21st of November Bob Griffith and I met in Fairmont for a trip down to Simmons Mingo Cave for some pre-Thanksgiving caving. Bob kindly volunteered to drive. We arrived at the owner's farm around eleven to sign in and get the key for the gate. It was a beautiful sunny day and there was snow on the ground on the shady side of the hills. There was no sign of the owner or his dog so we headed up to the cave. We were almost there when the owner and his dog showed up. He was bouncing up the dirt road in his old Chevy truck with his dog following. It was deer season and he was checking out who was on the farm. We chatted for a while and he backed up to let us get into the field in front of the cave.

     We suited up and were in the cave around 11:30. We headed straight down to the PSC passage. Well as straight as you can go in Simmons Mingo. This involves crossing a huge room and navigating a couple of hundred feet of breakdown, first down, then up, then down again. This was our first trip into the PSC passage so we were being careful not to get lost. I put down pieces of survey tape at every intersection so that I could pick them up on the way out, Hansel and Gretel style cave navigation. We were all over that passage for a couple of hours. We identified at least two passages that connected back to where we started and climbed down into a couple of lower levels until we were stopped by dead ends or un-scalable pits. At one point I followed a passage and found some survey tape! My color too! Then I realized that I had made a circle and was back in an earlier passage. We were getting real familiar with the section but were frustrated and a little tired. Finally I had to try one more trip out to the farthest section of the passage. I knew there are small arrows scratched in the rock in this passage, if only I could find those I would know I was in the correct lead. I crawled up a passage that I bypassed before and there they were. Another 50 feet of walking passage and it squeezed down to a small tube leading down at a 45 degree angle. It was moving a lot of air and the passage showed that it had a lot of traffic in the past. It sure looked good, but Bob and I were getting tired and we knew that we still had about a 2 hour trip back up to the entrance. So we decided that this was a good time to turn around. We are sure that on our next trip we can come right to that point and continue on into the big passages beyond. I can't wait. Maybe in January.

     We emerged in late afternoon sunshine after 5 hours inside. We both agreed that our knees hurt and that we were hungry. Bob suggested CJ Maggies in Elkins. We signed out at the owner's house and headed up there for an excellent dinner. 

11/18/06

NYDC

Brian Masney, Dave Riggs and Jason Thomas surveyed 250 feet in New Years Day Cave. They pushed beyond the end of the survey and followed the main lead into a narrow 20' high canyon that is only traversable through a small belly crawl at the top over exposure. If one falls, one falls into a wedge situation. Everybody who has been in the cave agrees that rescue at that point is impossible. Dave pushed it until his common sense told him it would be insane to go further. This trip was so rough that Jason's coveralls were literally ripped to shreds. See full trip report here

11/11/06

Elkhorn Mountain/Sites

Brian Masney, Mary Schmidt, Dave Riggs, Bob Griffith, Rich Finley and I'm not sure who all else did a trip to Elkhorn Mountain in the morning and Sites in the afternoon. See Brian's pictures here

10/28/2006

 Tucker County Survey #2

Kevin Keplinger and Doug McCarty went into the Blackwater Canyon on this rainy. windy day in search of Blackwater Cave and Blackwater FRO, but found neither.

10/21/06

Bridge Day

The Monongahela Grotto had the only team from WV that rappelled from the bridge this year. People associated with our grotto who rappelled were: Brian Masney, Dave Riggs, Mary Schmidt, Bob Griffith, Mary Davis, Jason Thomas, Melissa Parker, Rich Finley, Jill Pyle and Don Ferguson. To see photos click here. 

10/21/06

Tucker County Survey

Alan Carpenter, Jay Smart and Doug McCarty GPSed and photographed the following karst features in the Blackwater Canyon for TCSS:  Spruce Lick Insurgence, Sponge Rock Resurgence, Limerock Cave, Swords Edge Cave, Trickle Hole, Spruce Lick FRO #1, Razors Edge Cave, Spruce Lick Picnic Lunch Cave, Spruce Lick Overlook Cave s #1, #2 and # 3, Spruce Lick FRO #2, Spruce Lick FRO #5 and Spruce Lick Sink (FRO # 4). Jay found two previously unknown (to them) features--a double insurgence in the creek bed and a resurgence on the right side of the hollow. They also discovered that Trickle Hole and Spruce Lick FRO #1 are connected, making them a single cave.

10/5/06-10/8/06

TAG Fall Cave Trip

Brian Masney, Dave Riggs, Mary Schmidt and Judi Wasilewski went to the TAG, but were too busy caving to actually make it to the Fall Cave In. They went to Ellison's Cave, Cagle's Chasm and Neversink. Brian took some great pictures. To see a few of them click here. To see a whole set click here.

10/6/06-10/7/06

Shavers Mountain Survey

Rocky Parsons and Doug McCarty dye traced the water in Gross Grotto Quarry cave to Three Springs Run cave. The next day, joined by Jeff Stutler and Bill Good, they dug in Gross Grotto Quarry Cave

!0/5/06

Harr #2

On Thursday afternoon, Doug McCarty, Bob Griffith, John Barth, Art and Pam Dodds, Burt Price, Randy Landis and a friend of Bob's whose name I forget went to Harr #2

9/30/06

NYDC

Brian Masney, Dave Riggs, Bob Griffith and Greg Springer did a push trip to try to connect NYDC and Druid. After the rock on rock squeeze, the group decided that they weren't feeling up to the torturous trip to the the back of the cave and they aborted. Bob summarized his NYDC experience by saying, "This cave sucks. It sucks in more ways than one would think one cave could suck. It's a veritable smorgasbord of suckiness... but I've gotta see the Whack-A-Mole passage." 

To read Dave's trip report click here. To see Brian's photos of this trip (and other NYDC trips) click here

9/23/06

VAR

Dave Riggs was the only one who went. He missed the business meeting. He said it was wet and dreary. He did Clover Hollow. To read his trip report, click here

9/16/06

Tucker County Survey

Brian Masney, Dave Riggs, Mary Schmidt, John Barth, Kevin Keplinger, Justin Keplinger and Doug McCarty were at TCSS on this day. Brian, Dave and Mary went into the long cave we are surveying and pushed several leads to the bitter end. The rest of us went ridgewalking in the nettles up Garber Hollow (Hickory Lick) in the Blackwater Canyon. 

8/30//06-9/4/06

OTR

By my count there were about 25 Mon Grotto associated people at OTR  It was a rainy but enjoyable weekend. Some of the caves visited by Mon Grotto folks this weekend were Shavers Mountain, Carpenter Swago, Simmons Mingo, Cassell, Stillhouse and The Sinks of Gandy

8/19/06

NYDC/Druid

Brian Masney, Aaron Bird, Bob Kirk and Mike Kistler broke through some more bad passage in NYDC and are now in walking passage. They surveyed a little more than 500 feet of virgin passage. NYDC now has 3040' of surveyed passage.

8/19/06

Tucker County Survey

Kevin Keplinger and Doug McCarty utilized an aluminum ladder to survey a high lead in a cave, and the found twin insurgences in the stream bed of a major local stream.

8/13/2006

Adopt-a-Highway

Alan Carpenter, Carl Werntz, Bob Griffith and Mary Davis did the Adopt-a-Highway on old US 33 at Bowden. It had recently been mowed. They picked up four bags of garbage.

8/5/06-8/6/06

Hellhole

Brian Masney and Dave Riggs surveyed in Hellhole this weekend.

8/4/06-8/06/06

Shavers Mountain Survey

Barry Horner, Rocky Parsons, Ralph Hubbard, Jeff Stutler, Richard Hand, Bill Good and Doug McCarty showed up for the Shavers Mountain Project this weekend. Rocky and Doug (wearing wet suits), with five to nine inches of breathing space between the water and the ceiling dug a 10 inch high trench through about 40 feet of water-covered sandy mud, muddy sand, rocks and cobbles and broke into the long-silted in main passage of Shavers Mountain Cave. Then, with Barry on the outside and Rocky, Jeff and Doug on the inside, they almost completed digging out a bypass passage that will be about 15 feet long and won't get silted in. The group also did some digging in the G1 dig and surveying in Panther Camp Cave. 

7/28/06-7/29/06

Simmons Mingo

Llew Williams showed up at Simmons Mingo on Friday night. He did a solo trip to the bottom on the PSC Passage and dropped down to the main stream passage. Climbing back out, he met up with John Barth at 7:30pm and they camped near the mouth of the cave. It was air conditioned and the bats removed all the bugs. Dave Riggs and girlfriend Judi, Bob Griffith, Mary Davis, one of Bob's students--Rachel all rendezvoused with Llew and Bob at the gas station/store in Valley Head the next morning. They headed in around 11:00 and rigged a cable ladder. Because Rachel was not dressed for wet caving, the party aborted the trip and exited the cave. 

7/15/06

Tucker County Survey

Brian Masney, Dave Riggs, John Tudek, Jay Smart, Justin Keplinger, Kevin Keplinger and Doug McCarty showed up for the survey. They split into two teams with Brian, Dave and Jay going to the last survey station in the cave and the other four focusing on leads near the entrance.

7/11/06

Barton Cave

Brian Masney, Dave Riggs, John Barth, John Tudek and Doug McCarty did a beginner's trip into Barton Cave on this Tuesday evening. Unfortunately, our beginner's mother became ill and she had to skip the trip. We therefore turned the trip into a photo trip, did the cave and then went back to Morgantown and ate Mexican food.

7/8/06-7/09/06

Hellhole

Josh Keplinger, Brian Masney and Dave Riggs all participated in the Hellhole Survey. Josh got the worst of it, with an extended stream crawl. 

7/03/06

Druid Cave

Brian Masney and Aaron Bird did a trip into Druid today to install bolts and new ropes at the first five drops--in anticipation of a connection with New years Day and a through trip. A great trip report with photos can be seen here.

6/17/06

Tucker County Survey

Kevin Keplinger and Doug McCarty showed up at Tucker County. Doug didn't feel well, so they aborted the survey for the day.

6/12/06-6/13/06

Cave Biota Study

Bob Griffith and Dave Riggs helped Dr. Daniel Fong of American University and Dr. Horton Hobbs of Wittenberg University on a biology study, cataloguing invertebrate cave fauna. They took them to Beaverhole Upper, Maiden Run #2, and Maiden Run #1 and Beaverhole Lower.

6/10/06

New Years Day Cave

Aaron Bird, Jason Thomas, Dave Riggs and Brian Masney surveyed 1,009.56' of passage, which puts the cave at 2,499.06' of surveyed passage. The passage still goes with strong air but it is small and awkward.

6/10/06

Celebration of the Outdoors

Bob Griffith, Mary Davis and Doug McCarty represented the grotto at the Celebration of the Outdoors at Coopers Rock today. Bob gave his excellent caving slide show and they took nine people into Coopers Rock Cave. Afterwards they did a vertical demo and let people try ascending the rope. It was a good day.

6/2/06-6/04/06

Shavers Mountain Survey

Barry Horner, Rocky Parsons, Ralph Hubbard, Bill Good, Jeff Stutler, Richard Hand and Doug McCarty showed up for the survey weekend. Work was done in Shavers Mounmtain Cave and the G1 dig site

5/27/06-5/29/06

Tennessee Caving

by Brian Masney

     We had a large turnout at TAG this past weekend: Rich Finley, Jill Pile, Jason Thomas, Melissa Parker, Dave Riggs, Judi Wasilewski, Bob Griffith, Mary Davis (both showed up on Monday), Ryan Ellers, Garth Dixon and Brian Masney.

     We stayed in Fall Creek Falls State Park in Central Tennessee on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. We visited three caves: Rumbling Falls, Conley Hole and Mystery Falls.

     At Saturday, we went into Rumbling Falls. We split into two teams: Jason, Brian, Dave and Judi comprised the first team that went in to get everything rigged. Later in the day, the derigging team (Rich, Garth and Ryan) came into the cave. Rumbling Falls has a 70' entrance drop. You continue upstream through walking passage. There are two 20' drops along the way. You continue upstream and the passage eventually becomes a hands and knees crawl. It eventually becomes a belly crawl in the stream. At this point, I was thinking: "Why did we come here? We have this kind of stuff back home!" It eventually opens up a little bit and it requires several climbs, crawls, chimneys, cussing, etc. to continue through the passage. You eventually cross a drainage divide. At this point, the passage slowly starts to get a little bigger. You walk a short distance and you come to the Rumble Room. It is 5 acres in size and there is a 201' rappel to the top of the breakdown. This is the biggest known underground room in Tennessee and it is big enough to fit the Louisiana Superdome in there.

     On Sunday, everyone went to Conley Hole. The cave is about 9/10 of a mile from the parking area. The first half mile is easy walking through a field. The rest of the hike requires bush whacking through the woods to find the cave. There isn't a trail to the cave. Luckily I had good GPS coordinates to the pit or else we wouldn't have found it. The entrance to the pit is 20' in diameter and it really opens up about 50' from the top. The pit is about 186' deep.

     On Monday, everyone went to Mystery Falls. This pit is 286' deep and it is the deepest known pit in Tennessee. The cave is gated and it requires a permit to visit the cave. There is about 100'+ of horizontal passage that leads you to the top of the 286' pit. The pit is highly decorated and it really bells as you get closer to the bottom.

     All in all, the entire trip went really well. We had too many people in the pits though. This made some of the trips really long. Next time, we need to split up into smaller groups.

     Here are some photos that I took at the trip:

     http://www.flickr.com/photos/masneyb/sets/72157594151214335/

     Special thanks to everyone that helped out with the photos.

5/27/06-5/28/06

Simmons Mingo Trip

by Llew Williams

     Thanks to some excellent directions from Tom Hay I knew how to find the cave and the landowner. I arrived at the owner's house at about noon. The grass was uncut and tools and farm machinery lay all around the house. Tom had told me that there was a  register on the porch to sign if no one was home. I wasn't sure that the house was still occupied until I spotted a really unfriendly looking dog on the porch. I was reluctant to go up and see if the register was still there. There was supposed to be a combination lock on the gate and the combination was supposed to be in the register. I drove up the rocky lane next to the house and there definitely was a locked gate. Not a combination lock though. I knocked on the door of the cabin next door to see if someone could tell me if the owner was still around. No one was home there either. I decided to hike up the valley to see if I could find the cave and I would come back later to see if I could find the owner. I knew that I was at the right place since the mailbox had his name and it looked like it was still in use. It was raining so I drove back down the main road to change into my rain gear and plug the cave coordinates into my GPS. 

     When I came back up the lane about half an hour later there was an old truck in the driveway. After some shouting and a lot of barking by the evil looking dog the owner emerged from the house. I explained that I wanted to visit the cave. The owner is such a nice guy. He showed me the register and the key to the gate. He keeps the key on the front porch for cavers to use! We had a great, wide-ranging conversation about caving, farm animals, motorcycles and country music, though I had to shout a bit to be heard. He is 75 years old and plays mandolin in a country band. He had a gig in town the next day for the annual Homecoming celebration. He brought out his collection of cave photographs that people have given him over the years. His collection includes a picture of his father in Sharps Cave in about 1929. He explained the need to keep the gate locked because, "Sometimes people go up there and take things that don't belong to `em". "Not cavers though, cavers are ok". I asked him if I could camp next to the cave and he said sure thing. I grabbed the key and headed up to the gate in my truck. I unlocked the gate and returned the key to its place on the porch. 

     The road was muddy from the rain and I was a little worried about my wimpy two-wheel drive truck, but the base was rocky and solid. I made it to the meadow below the cave with no trouble. Once again, Tom Hay's directions came in handy because I knew just where to stop. I jumped out and sure enough at the top of an over grown hay field was the cave opening. It was about 150 feet from the road and the hay field was a really excellent campsite. Secluded, beautiful, and I was serenaded by dozens of birds singing their spring songs.  And a cave 50 feet my campsite with a nice little spring on side, it  doesn't get much better than this. 

     I set up my tent and I was all moved in by 3. I moved my cooking gear up into the mouth of the cave so I could make dinner out of the rain. I cleaned out a little bowl in front of the spring to collect water and put in a Diet Pepsi to cool. Two Phoebes had nests inside the entrance and I felt bad about disturbing them when they were obviously feeding babies. 

     Now I have always said that I would never go caving alone. But here I was at a cave at 3 in the afternoon during a rain with nothing to do. I inspected the entrance drop. It looked a little difficult and some one had left a rope rigged to a log there. It was maybe 30 feet and I wasn't quite sure how I should rig it. I sure wasn't going to use the rope that was there. I decided not to do it. I felt so virtuous for about 10 minutes. Here's the responsible adult,  choosing to not go caving alone. I decided to look around the  entrance area and when I came back out I noticed that there was a  crawl into some breakdown that looked like it would bring me to the back of the pit. Maybe I could see a better way to rig it. I worked  my way in and down and it brought my out on the back of the pit about half way down. From there I could see plenty of hand and foot holds  to free climb it and with the rope hanging next to me getting to the  bottom was easy. So much for the responsible adult. 

     I went back the truck and put on my caving gear. I took only an ascender to make it easy to climb out. I entered the first big room  and it just went down and down. I spent about an hour in there  looking around and identifying the way out. I scaled the breakdown  on the other side and got into the next room. This is a big cave. I  decided to head back out and I noticed that someone had placed two  reflectors to make it easy to identify the climb out. I was sweating  from all the climbing. I reached the top of the second slope and I spent a couple of minutes traversing back and forth across the  breakdown trying figure out why I couldn't find a way to continue  up. I knew I was close to the entrance because of a familiar rock  ledge. I thought, boy, am I going to feel silly if I am lost this close to the entrance. Then I looked up. Duh, the reason I couldn't  find any way to continue up was that I was standing at the bottom of  the drop. I climbed out easily. I cooked dinner in the mouth of the cave. After dinner the rain stopped long enough for me to take a walk up the road past to empty cabins. It sure was beautiful country. 

     The next day I met Doug McCarty the gas station store down the road,  and we returned to the cave after I stopped in the store and bought some dog treats in case we had to negotiate with the ownher's evil looking dog. The dog  wasn't around so we signed the register and headed up to the cave in  my truck. We got in around 11 and agreed that we were going to take our time and look around since both of us were new to this cave. We took Tom Hay's excellent directions and the maps from the Randolph County Survey. We worked our way across the entrance room and kept heading high into the back of the cave. It was mostly walking passage with a lot of big breakdown. We new that we needed to find register rock to find the way to the PSC passage and the big trunk portion of the cave. We passed some signatures from 1947. After a while we worked our way through a wide belly crawl and squeezed out into a really huge room. We took a rest and decided that it was the Attic Room and that we needed to go back and find the Register Rock. We spotted it on the way back. We knew that the passage that we wanted was behind and below it. We started working our way down through big breakdown blocks. As Tom Hay's instructions said, "It's  like being an ant in a jar of gravel." I started ripping of pieces of survey tape and marking every intersection. It was getting complicated and tight. We worked and squeezed our way down into the breakdown. Finally we recognized a landmark from Tom's directions, the flat wet drippy rock, and we knew we were near the bottom and the beginning of the PSC passage. We came out in a series of rooms with passages going off in several directions. We checked out a couple and found some big drops and finally a small drop into a big passage with a soggy etrier left in place. Both Doug and I agreed that we  didn't want to try that etrier. We decided that this was a good introduction to Simmons-Mingo and we knew how to come back to this spot with a short rope and some more vertical gear next. We headed back up into the mazy breakdown and collected my survey tape as we went, Hansel-Gretel style. It sure was satisfying to know the way up. After a couple breathers we exited after about 4 hours. We both agree that this is a big cool cave and we can't wait to come back and  see some more of it. We are thinking about another trip in July. Maybe camp for the weekend and do a couple of caves. Maybe Simmons and Bradshaw Run. We signed the register and I still couldn't get the dog to come close enough to get a treat so I left a couple in the yard and we headed off for Momma's Kitchen and then home. 

5/20/06

Tucker County Survey

Kevin Keplinger, Justin Keplinger, Brian Masney, Llew Williams, Michael Kinese and I did a photographic trip in Harr #2 Cave. Pictures will be posted soon. 

5/14/06

Harr #2 Cave

 Scott Davis, Kevin Keplinger, Justin Keplinger and I rendezvoused with the new owners of Harr #2 to give them two full-sized copies of Alan Carpenter's beautiful map of the cave; to give them a copy of the WV Cave law; and to take them into their cave. Barry Baumgardner was with us too, but he didn't go in the cave with us. This cave is on private land and is closed.

5/13/06

New Years Day Cave

Jason Thomas, Dave Riggs and Bob Kirk pushed through the nasty back section and cleared the blocking rock and crawled into virgin territory. They may have connected with Druid.

5/5/06-5/7/06

Shavers Mountain Survey

This weekend: Barry Horner, Rocky Parsons, Bill Good, Jeff Stutler and Doug McCarty showed up on the mountain. Rocky and Doug dug in G1 on Friday evening. On Saturday, Barry, Rocky and Jeff dug in Shavers Mountain Cave (while Doug went to the WVaSS meeting). Sunday, Rocky and Barry dug in G1, while Doug, Jeff and Bill pushed into a room in Panther Camp Cave where Doug rappelled into into virgin territory. Unfortunately, it was a dead bottom enlarged joint. But there is still another virgin drop in there.

4/29/06

Spring VAR

Brian Masney and Dave Riggs represented the grotto at Spring VAR. A trip report will be forthcoming.

4/29/06

Adopt-a-Highway

Alan Carpenter, Bob Griffith, Mary Davis and Doug McCarty were the Adopt-a-Highway crew this month. We were joined by John and Krista Jett, and by Tony Hooks and his son T.J. We picked up many bags of garbage and then did an intro trip to Bowden. Tony is planning on joining the grotto.  

4/15/06

Tucker County Survey

Brian Masney, Dave Riggs, Josh Keplinger, Justin Keplinger and Doug McCarty participated in the survey this month. Kevin Keplinger planned to join them, but got diverted into doing search and rescue for a lost hiker in Otter Creek. Once in the cave, Josh and Justin scouted ahead for a possible second entrance while Brian, Dave and Doug surveyed they surveyed 310 feet  for an total of  6338.86 feet of passage. Josh and Justin report that the cave just keeps going. Next month those inclined will camp on the Dry Fork on Saturday night. 

4/1/06-4/02/06

Shavers Mountain Survey

Eleven people and two dogs showed up on the mountain this weekend: Barry Horner, Rocky Parsons, Jeff Stutler, Bob Alderson, Linda Tracy, Richard Hand, Susan Posey, Carley Posey, Ralph Hubbard, Bill Good and me. The dogs were Sam and Muffin. The high lead in County Line Cave was followed to the bitter end, and we dug at G1, Ralph's Sink and G6. We also attempted to GPS some cave entrances, but the satellites did not cooperate.

3/25/06

Tucker County Survey

Kevin Keplinger, Justin Keplinger, Brian Masney, Dave Riggs and Doug McCarty showed up in Parsons for the survey, but Kevin wasn't feeling well, so the survey team in our current project cave consisted of Brian, Dave and Doug. In a 12 hour trip, they surveyed 420 feet of passage. for an unofficial total of 6024 feet of passage. The main stream passage is still going. 

3/17/06-3/19/06

TAG

Bob Griffith and Brian Masney joined Jeff Lydic and other members of the Cleveland Grotto in TAG. They did Cagle's Chasm, Green Well, Neversink and Pettijohns. They were going to do Ellisons, but it was too wet.

3/12/06

Vertical Practice

Bob Griffith, Mary Davis, Llew Williams, Brian Masney, John Barth, Dave Riggs, Rocky Parsons, Sandy Parsons and Doug McCarty braved the torrential rain and did a vertical practice session in the Crevices--sandstone cliffs and crevices near Rock Lake. Bob and Dave are going to TAG next weekend with some Cleveland Grotto folks and needed the practice. Sandy was the only sane one in the party. She stayed in the truck. We rigged three ropes and two bolts. We rigged one rope as a rebelay, another as a deviation. The 3rd rope was just hanging there. Rocky felt bad about Sandy waiting in the truck and left before he got to practice, but everyone else did rebelays, deviations and changeovers in the pouring rain. It was wet. It was cold. But it was a good day--and the bolts and hangers are still set so we can use them again.

3/3/06-3/5/06

Shavers Mountain Project

Six people showed up at Shavers Mountain Survey this weekend: Barry Horner, Rocky Parsons, Susan Posey, Ralph Hubbard, Bill Good and Doug McCarty. On Friday, those that were there took checked some of the caves for air flow (Panther Camp Cave was blowing). They then hung out at the bar (a new feature) at the Alpine Lodge, then went back to the cabin and built a nice fire in the fireplace. Saturday morning they went to Frosted Ash Cave. Barry and Susan dug at the back of the cave while Rocky, Ralph and Doug resurveyed a section of the cave that needed it. The dig went nowhere. Frosted Ash is done. We went back to the cabin, took hot showers and went the the lodge to get something to eat. Sunday, Ralph left and Bill joined us. We went to Panther Camp Cave. Barry, Rocky and Susan went to dig in the passage beyond the Mesa Room. Bill and I went to the end of the traverse to survey a virgin crawlway. We chimneyed up a dome to avoid the traverse and dug in the mud at the end of the traverse instead of surveying. We found-----another drop. We didn't have an extra rope, so we left it for later. Maybe its a dead bottom dome--or maybe it will lead to the mother lode--the stream passage that we know exists. The cave is still going.--and mud is everywhere.

Here are links to some pictures
Bill at the start of the traverse:
http://users.adelphia.net/%7Ez9links/PCAMP3-5-06.htm

What you are traversing across (to the left):

http://users.adelphia.net/%7Ez9links/PCAMP3-5-06a.htm

Bill at the far end of the traverse. 
http://users.adelphia.net/%7Ez9links/PCAMP3-5-06b.htm

2/25/06

Sharps Cave

Today, Brain Masney, Dave Riggs, Bob Griffith, Islam Younis and Doug McCarty were joined by 4 new cavers: Bobby Davis and Travis Rafil, two high school students who contacted us and expressed an interest in caving. Bob brought a pharmacy student, Rachel Forest, and her boyfriend, Nathan. They were also joined by Julie Hall, Missy Strickler and Sue Knotts of the Parkersburg Area Grotto. Brian and Doug were both experimenting with new photo techniques, but everyone was very patient with them. They went to the clay sculpture area, to the waterfall, and then back to the Brain Room. We came upon a large group of Pittsburgh Grotto folks in Catfish Hall. We all posed together for one massive group picture. The pictures can be seen here

2/18/06

Tucker County Survey

Kevin Keplinger, Justin Keplinger, Brian Masney and Doug McCarty went for a joint photography/survey trip in our current project cave. The survey ended about a mile into the cave, and the cave is still going as walking passage. We only got 155 feet of very zig zag survey because of the photography and because we were getting very short shots. 

2/4/06

Shavers Mountain Survey

Four people came to the project this month--Jeff Stutler, Rocky Parsons, Bill Good and Doug McCarty. Although it poured rain in the morning, we had a beautiful (in a February sort of way) day. We worked on both the G1 and G2 digs. A great deal of rain has fallen since we last dug in G1, so a great deal of wet dirt and mud had come down into the sink and filled the hole. We dug what was easily more than 50 buckets of dirt and rock out of there. Will it go or will it be Hamster Highway? We'll find out for sure next month. Other things that happened--Bill put an instrument in Panther Camp Cave to measure temperature changes over time; Rocky found a key he had lost three months ago; and just as I was sneering at the weather forecasters for being so wrong, it began to pour buckets of cold rain and sleet, so we bailed out at about 4pm.

2/4/06

Ukrainian Cavers Missing

Four Ukrainian cavers were are dead or missing in an avalanche in the Gudauta area of Abkhazia (an autonomous republic on the shore of the Black Sea). Rescuers have found the body of one of the four cavers. Harsh weather has made continued rescue attempts impossible, so the search has been called off for now. It will be resumed in two to four weeks. 

1/21/06

Tucker County Survey

Jason Thomas, Josh Keplinger, Scott Taylor and Doug McCarty surveyed in our project cave today. Bob Griffith and Islam Younis were also with us in the cave. They surveyed 200 zig-zagging feet of passage at the end of the I survey. 

1/7/06

Tucker County Survey off-weekend

Five people  went to Tucker County on this Saturday: Aaron Bird, Dave Riggs, Josh Keplinger, Kevin Keplinger and Brian Masney. They walked and did a surface survey on the land of a cave owner and checked out a couple of the caves on the property. 

1/7/06

Shavers Mountain Survey

Four people came to January's  Shavers Mountain Survey--Barry Horner, Rocky Parsons, Bill Good and me. We worked on the G1 dig--a sucking hole about 30 feet up from the bottom of the limestone. After pulling rocks out for a while, Bill wriggled his way into an eroded joint 3 feet high by 3 feet wide. It was plugged at both ends--so that means more digging. After we left G1, we went to Panther Camp Cave and dug out a hole we had previously missed right inside the entrance of the cave, opening a new lead. for pictures go here