| Heavenâs Gate Pt. 1 |
| Saturday, September 28th 2002 - Ralph Powers |
| Location: Heaven's Gate Cave Trip Leader: Vern Bowden On Trip: Thomas Haskett, Shawn Gooch, Vern Bowden, Ralph Powers You read the âPart 1" and say to yourself, oh no! Ralph written another l-o-âg article again. Well, someone has to make sure that the newsletter doesnât end up being just a cover and a couple of sheets. If we all write articles based on our caving trips or points of view then consideration to write more concise articles would be taken into, and the newsletter would be more interesting to read. Anyway, I was told about this particular trip which involved a new cave found around Tony Grove area. I was definitely up for it especially when told it involved a deep pit. Tom and Vern spent the night at our apartment in Logan. Rob Cranney wanted to go but he already committed to leading a U.S.U. trip to Providence cave that same Saturday. Had a âspudnutsâ breakfast, (potato flour doughnuts) during the drive up the canyon to the TG parking lot where we waited for Shawn. He arrived in due time and we began our hike. Twas long but not too difficult. I was repeatedly asked to compare it to the hike to Spanish Moss. Spanish is definitely harder than this hike, even on the steep portions of the trail. But this one was longer, by several miles. Shawn and I shared the carry of his 300' length rope during this trek. Along the way we saw much unexplored karst. Several sink holes and several very large depressions which indicated ceiling collapses somewhere beneath them. Something to explore a couple thousand years from now. Along the hike Vern stopped and showed us a small cave he found while looking for this big pit. It had a nice, small room and a deer skull decorating one corner of it. Vern said that when he first found this cave and saw the skull he thought that it may been a cougar den. I was seeing evidence of another resident. There were small, very fresh droppings scattered throughout the cave and entrance. We found out what was making itâs home. Vern was the last one out of this cave and cheerfully said that there was a porcupine in one small side passage. One of us handed him his camera and he took a few shots, hoping that theyâll turn out. I had never seen one in the wild and went back in to take a look. It was a beautiful animal I thought. He/she (?) just sat off in one corner of a low crawl space and didnât move. I gotten a good look and then backed out when I saw how my lamp was blinding the creature. Really neat. Vern calls this one Skull Cave since he wasnât sure if it had been previously discovered or not. We came to one large sink that immediately reminded me of Nielsenâs entrance sink. However this was all there was of it. I was assured by Vern that the one we were going to was just over the next rise. That was good, I was getting tired and ready for lunch. We got to the pit and oh boy what a pit. The entrance had a diameter roughly the same as Pink Lime Pit, but looking down (carefully) we could see that it was much deeper. We took our time to rig the rope on one of the several trees surrounding the edge and had our lunches and got our stuff together. Shawn was first down followed by Vern, then Thomas then myself. As I passed the pitâs edges I was blown away by the sheer size of the room. By my best guess it was roughly 100 feet across and a good 150' tall. The rappel ended up being about 180' leading down to a snow cone that is familiar to Nelsons and Jim Peck cavers. Slide down this cone to the break down and off rope with a loud whoop of sheer caver joy. What makes this pit absolutely fabulous is the ray of sunshine that literally beams into the pit and shines a spot on the wall. At one point the spot we agreed was in the shape of a bat. There was also a 20' tall pillar of snow and ice just below the sunspot. This pillar had obviously formed, melted and reformed and reshaped over the years, remarkably beautiful. We searched along the pitâs walls for any possible leads and found a couple down climbs that lead nowhere. Shawn and I got the ropeâs end moved over to one far corner to drop down a good looking lead. Shawn said that it too was a dead end. I had guessed that the floor we were standing on was all break down and snow/ice. The actual depth of the room would probably never be known and if there were continuing passages then they would be a long time in being found. There was one more gaping hole at the opposite end where we were and it was the one that Vern said was blowing air. The pit had been visited many years before which was how Vern found out about it. We were going to find that lead which was blowing air, which we hoped would lead us to more cave. Since there was only 15' feet of rope left from the main line we added a portion of Shawnâs 300' by short roping it and connecting it to the end of the entrance rope. Shawn was the first one down and moved out of the rock fall zone. The drop off was littered with loose rocks of various sizes. So we all had to be careful of how we were moving about as the edge sloped down towards the small alcove which Shawn was now in. I spied a part of the slope that had the fewest rocks, unfortunately it had the most snow/ice. Good for Shawn bad for me as I didnât have crampons, not that they were really needed here or anywhere else as long as one is careful where they step. We made it all down safe and began exploring. Thomas found a small alcove and called us over. Getting into it would require climbing up the side of the wall and getting into the opening that is along the ice. At first Tom had to squeeze and grunt then back out and removed some gear, again and voila he was in. He poked around for a few moments then announced that it didnât go but invited us in anyway. I was next, ignoring Tomâs suggestion of removing my ascent gear before trying. It wasnât necessary, as Iâm skinnier. Tom and I got Vern and Shawn to give us their cameras so we could take shots of them negotiating the entry. A little poking around here and there we saw that the entire lower portion was only the top of yet more breakdown and ice and what we were walking on up above us was still another layer. The neatest part of the whole trip was when I ascended out to the main level of the pit and waited for the others. The sunbeam coming into the room was angled much steeper than before and clouds provided the special effects. I lay on my back looking up at the sunbeam and enjoyed the sight. Suddenly the beam faded out to nothing. After a long pause it came back illuminating the whole room again. We rarely turned on our lights here. At one point I was watching the spot of sunlight on the wall and was treated to a neat effect when a cloud passed in front of the sun and the spot moved along the wall until it faded out. As Thomas and the others climbed out of the lower section of the pit they were treated with these wonderful light displays. I thought of several Utah caving photographers that would fall in love with this pit. It would mean however playing porter to several tons of photographic gear so that each would have a chance to do their own experimenting with f-stops and shutter speeds. Once all of us were out of the lower section I was elected to ascend out first. Climbing up the snow slope wasnât as bad as it was say in Nielsens or even Jim Peckâs. There were several good foot holds and the angle wasnât as steep as the aforementioned two caves. Still it took me a good ten to fifteen minutes to make it all the way out. Within half an hour all of us were basking in the sunshine and discussing what to do next. Survey I said. It was agreed. It was also agreed to keep our helmets on about this pit until we got it surveyed. Since it was just a pit I felt that it could be done in an afternoon. The rest of the area cries out to be ridge walked as there is so much potential here for another deep pit/cave. Hiking back, we went towards White Pine Lake instead of the way we came. En route we found two more likely cave/pits that were earmarked for later exploration. |