Main Drain Cave

October 14-15 2005 - Duane McCully

Trip Leader: Dave Shurtz/Peter Hartley On Trip: Dave Shurtz, Harrison Holden, Rob Stilmar, Peter Hartley, Cami Litchford, and Duane McCully Rob Cranney, Tami Jensen, and I originally drove up to Tony Grove together to do what was advertised as a beginner vertical trip. However, upon arriving at the campground, we found Peter and Cami planning an intro trip into Main Drain. Dave Shurtz had publicly advertised a survey trip on the utcavers e-group and apparently that was what precipitated this trip. After some discussion, Rob volunteered to lead the beginner vertical trip alone so that I would have the opportunity to go with Peter and Cami. In the morning we all met at the parking lot where there were really three separate trips departing: Rob's beginner vertical trip, Peter's Main Drain intro trip, and Dave's Main Drain survey trip. After being delayed at the parking lot facilities, I hiked up with Dave where we enjoyed conversation about Utah caving and the Tony Grove Project. Upon arriving at the cave, the survey people went down first. The survey team consisted of Dave Shurtz, Rob Stilmar, and Harrison Holden. Peter, Cami and I followed them. In order to expedite the rappels, the decision was made to not rig the second rebelay until the last person went down. Sometime while the group was rappelling, the rope swung across a sharp edge and was badly cut. Peter isolated it with a knot while he was rappelling down and rigging the rebelay. This appeared to be a result of having not rigged the rebelay originally. Such events are nerveracking while dealing with a 270' drop. After climbing Ryan's climb, an approximately 50' climb, the next drop is Leaky Faucet pit. I believe it is in the 250' range. There are either two or three rebelays counting the minor traverse to the bolt at the top; I don't remember. Except for a couple of small drops, the rest is walking passage to the next big drop: Frayed Knot Pit. As seen by the photography of Brandon Kowallis, cave pearls, flowstone, and draperies abound. We turned around at the top of Frayed Knot Pit. After hiking down, root beer floats were enjoyed by all at A&W. Or was I was the only one that had one?