Serious-scary aid climbing fall! Caving photo trip report

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WBraun

climber

Nov 14, 2009 - 06:35pm PT

Yikes !!!! but so cool.

I read the part about the fall and all the stuff breaking.

You guys were so lucky. Good thing too.

I hate all these obituary threads ......

Erik Sloan

climber

Nov 14, 2009 - 06:50pm PT

Outrageous Pete. Thanks!

Reilly

Mountain climber

Monrovia, CA

Nov 14, 2009 - 07:28pm PT

So cool, lol. Since it rains pretty frequently in that
part of the world how do you know you aren't gonna be
drowned when you're down there for days? It does happen it seems.

I'm glad you can read those topos! :-)

'Pass the Pitons' Pete

Big Wall climber

like Ontario, Canada, eh?

Topic Author's Reply - Nov 14, 2009 - 09:12pm PT

Hey, thanks guys. Your responses make all the effort [about a half-day] worthwhile. Cheers!

There is at least one section of our route to camp that floods to the roof from time to time, as evidenced by the flood debris stuck to the ceiling. From what we can tell, this doesn't happen very often. The backlit photo of Black River was taken after several inches of rain had fallen the day before, and that section of the cave doesn't really flood.

Plus, there is more than one route to where we're going. There are upper-level routes that are high and dry all the time, like Petrified Wood Passage for instance. While Petrified Wood is a pleasant stroll down a clean and dry walking passage, you have to go through a miserable little mud crawl that gets you slimed head to foot. So we usually take the lower-level route which follows the water, because it is easiest and cleanest. We get wet to the waist at one point, but by the time we reach camp we have steamed off pretty much. Plus the lower-level passage offers the easiest travel, with not too much crawling.

Now there are other parts of the cave that you really don't want to be in when it rains! Here's a photo of the south end of Roppel in Logsdon River.

It doesn't take a lot of rain to flood this place, that's for sure. What you see is what you get - for two frickin' miles! The passage is uniformly four feet high, that really annoying height that is too high to have to crawl, but too low to walk comfortably. So you stoop-walk. For two miles! The water is anywhere from swimming depth to ankle deep.

One time we were down this river when it rained on the surface. We didn't check the weather forecast - our bad. When we finished what we were doing, we returned to the river, to find it flooded to the roof. We tried twice to get out, pushing the passage for a hundred feet or so starting with about six inches of airspace, down to that magic number of about 2 1/2 inches of airspace [nose to the roof, and don't make waves!] where you realize you're not gonna make it. We were soaked to the neck, of course, and had to retreat to higher ground, try to dry out, and wait it out without going hypothermic. We tried again eight hours later, got soaked once more, then gave up. We were now well overdue, and our rescuers were aware that we were flooded in. "We might as well wait til they come get us, which they'll do as soon as the water drops." So we spent a cold night shivering, until we heard the shouts the next day of our first response team.

"Are you OK?"

"YES!"

"What do you need?"

"We need warm clothes, food, water and carbide!"

"We have all four!"

"Woo-hooooooo!"

Once we got out of the river, we could smell the hot choco wafting down the passage before we reached our "rescue crew".

I wrote a pretty detailed trip report, so if y'all are interested, I could copy and paste it in. It's pretty long, though.

We only go down the river if we know the forecast is good. If there is a chance of thunderstorms, we find another objective. You wouldn't want to camp down river, because you can't reliably predict the weather four days in advance. The response time of the river is fairly fast. The bad news is that if you're in that two-mile-long section and it thunderstorms, you're probably toast. The good news is that if you do get flooded in, like we did, the water level drops fairly quickly. I think we were only stuck 33 hours.

Sheesh.

WBraun

climber

Nov 14, 2009 - 09:18pm PT

Pete

You should have your own TV show.

tom woods

Gym climber

Bishop, CA

Nov 14, 2009 - 11:08pm PT

Thanks for the post Pete! I read every word.

Bob J, I'm with you on the claustrophobia. Though there was a phase there when I built myself up to head into those Santa Cruz Cave a few times. They get pretty tight. I'd go in four feet come out, then go in ten, and come out, after awhile, as long as there was no one in front of me or behind me, I could do it. Crazy thing, being crazy.

I've always wanted a rope gun for the harding slot so I could layback the thing. I've also never done Steck Salathe for the same reason.

Fritz

Trad climber

Hagerman, ID

Nov 15, 2009 - 12:41am PT

Pete: A "gripping story!" Thank you for sharing the adventure.

Are some of your people wearing "drysuits"?

Here's to "Cheating Death!!"

Jan

Mountain climber

Okinawa, Japan

Nov 15, 2009 - 01:49am PT

Great report!

I used to explore old mines around Aspen with my father who was a geologist. A lot of people would probably be afraid to ski Aspen mountain if they knew how hollow it was. We had no ropes and used carbide head lamps. They're cheap and you can tell the air quality from the color of the flame. In a few mines deep down there was little oxygen and we had to be careful. I can still remember the hideous smell of the carbide when we were mixing it up.

I agree that you should consider writing a book and I'll read any trip report that you post!

Truly an ST gem.

Studly

Trad climber

Nov 15, 2009 - 10:44am PT

Great Trip report Pete. What an experience! Caving scares me because I'm claustrophobic but I still like to do it. I'm scared of heights to, and I guess thats one of the reasons climbing is so much fun.
I take the kids caving and climbing whenever we can get out. Here is one of our local caves that is quite a journey packed into a afternoon jaunt, only about 1/2 mile long, with squeeze passages, tubes,big rooms, mazes, and fresh water. In winter you have to wear a wetsuit and waterproof light and swim the last 20 feet out underwater because... you don't want to have to reverse this squeeze tube coming up as have seen people have mental breakdowns trying to come back up it.
Edit: I realized this is a trip report thread, so if its not kosher to post pics of this other cave, I will take them off!

'Pass the Pitons' Pete

Big Wall climber

like Ontario, Canada, eh?

Topic Author's Reply - Nov 15, 2009 - 11:54am PT

Hey, great stuff! Don't have time to reply in detail right now, but for sure, bring on the caving photos! We're onto the next page right now so won't be overloading anyone's dialup.

Is that a lava tube incidentally? Has that look sort of, hard for me to tell.

Studly

Trad climber

Nov 15, 2009 - 12:21pm PT

Lava tube caves near Trout Lake, WA

OlympicMtnBoy

climber

Seattle

Nov 15, 2009 - 01:56pm PT

Thanks Pete! That was a great TR! Caving is something I would love to be able to do more of, if only my friends weren't quite as claustrophobic or I knew more cavers in western WA.

Keep the fun caving/climbing pics coming everyone!

'Pass the Pitons' Pete

Big Wall climber

like Ontario, Canada, eh?

Topic Author's Reply - Nov 15, 2009 - 02:21pm PT

Actually, the two most prolific cavers in Roppel caving BOTH live in Washington State right now. Jim Borden is our cartographer, and James Wells was along on our previous camping trip over Labour Day.

Mighty Hiker

climber

Vancouver, B.C. Small wall climber.

Nov 15, 2009 - 02:55pm PT

A nice, and different, TR. Thanks!

Do cavers have websites and such? SuperCaver or something? Just curious, for those of us wanting to read and learn more.

Any sign of Tom, Becky or Huck down there?

Gobee

Trad climber

Los Angeles

Nov 15, 2009 - 03:16pm PT

Wow, dark tight places and falling, are worst nightmare. I get claustrophobic in my tent, and the Harding slot!
Nice TR, Pete!

scottpedition

climber

Nov 15, 2009 - 04:32pm PT

Thanks for the detailed write-up; that's an amazing adventure and a great story. Glad you were in *just& the right place at the right time!

I enjoy a good cave as long as it doesn't get too tight. Took the kids to the end of the[url=" http://www.fs.fed.us/r3/coconino/recreation/peaks/lava-river-cave.shtml"]Lava River Cave[/url] near Flagstaff. A bit of scrambling down the entrance, then a mile-long sidewalk to the end. Wild to find ice in July when it's 90 deg outside. A great adventure for a group of six year olds.

As for crawling through long, tight spaces where you have to inhale to pass and ... how'd you put it? "nose to the roof, and don't make waves!", I don't know how you do it, but more power to ya!

Scott