Neffs Cave

Saturday, January 7th 2006 - Duane McCully

Trip Leader: Peter Hartley On Trip: Peter Hartley, Brandon Kowallis, Duane McCully, Jake and Beth Moore This was really not such a good trip for me all the way around even though nothing ultimately bad happened. I started of the day by showing up to the parking lot without my pack. The trip home and back takes one hour. To my surprise, I ended up catching up with Beth at the Corkscrew; they were still on the way down. All of the time while I was caving I didn't really have very good cave legs. I was continuously slipping and nearly falling. We ultimately did make it down. This was my ninth time to the bottom. This was the first time for Beth and Jake. And now the fun begins; time to derig. The Goodros Pit rope and the short drop below that ended up in one bag. Jake and I ferried it up Devil's slide where Brandon then took it to the surface. After Peter carried the Devil's Slide rope up Freeway Pit, Jake and I got it to the base of the Great Pit. Peter then carried it up the Great Pit with great speed. The Devil's Slide rope bag then became my new friend from there to the surface. I had originally planned to only go about halfway down because I haven't really done anything that could be considered excercise since the middle of November. That, combined with hauling rope, made the trip out quite exhausting for me. It also highlighted another frog system training issue for me: learning to effectively use the Petzl Pantin ascender. I have only had it for a few months but it seems clear that its use should make climbing against walls much easier than traditional frog action. Having used a double-bungee system for ten years, I have to relearn many things that used to be reflex. At any rate, the four granola bars that I ate during the five-and-a-half hours of caving plus the hiking were, shall we say, spent. What we craved was something not too healthy and not so lean either. Yes, we went to McDonalds and we enjoyed it immensely.