 |
| Author |
Message |
kvmapr
|
|
Post subject: Memorial Day Cave Trip Report - Widening the Puppet Buster
 Posted: Dec 07, 2004 - 11:05 PM
|
|
Joined: Jun 16, 2004
Posts: 224
Status: Offline
|
|
Memorial Day Cave Trip Report - Widening the Puppet Buster
by Yvonne Droms
Yesterday 12/5/04 Lew Carroll and I went to MDC with the objective to widen the Puppet Buster in some strategic places to make it a bit more comfortable to travel through with big packs. We entered the cave with three heavy packs: my camp duffel for next weekend, some of Bill Stone's bolt-climbing gear for the in-cave camp this week, and Lew's super heavy pack full of batteries and his own drill. Lew and I worked as a team to get the three packs moved forward through the constrictions and various drops. It was not easy, but we got them to the Puppet Buster in about two hours. I had never been in MDC, so it was nice to see this new cave.
Once at the Puppet Buster, we left Bill's gear bag at the bottom of the 50-foot Drop, knowing we could only handle one pack each. Lew went in with his big duffel and I followed with mine. Lew started doing some enlargement work with varying degrees of success, and so after a while he continued to the end of the passage in order to put in two bolts at the top of the 125-foot drop. Bill had suggested we hang the gear there for them to pick up on their way to camp today. Lew got the bolts installed but he did not have a wrench, so the nuts are not fully tightened.
On a recent trip Pawel Skoworodko works his way through the Puppet Buster in Memorial Day Cave on his way to the 125' drop into Columbia Canyon - photo by Mark Stover
I thought that pulling my rotund camp duffel through the keyhole passage would be easier than pushing it, since I have a tendon problem in one elbow, so I did the second half of the Puppet Buster in reverse. That worked pretty well. The large 12-liter Darren Drum in my duffel kept the pack from falling into the crack. When I got to Lew, I realized I could not pass him my pack: there is not enough room for the pack to be squeezed by me... so I had to search for a place in the Puppet Buster where that would be possible. I finally managed to belly crawl over my pack and so Lew hung it on the new bolt for me to pick up on Friday morning when I go to Camp.
Lew worked at enlarging the passage some more for another couple of hours, at which point we decided to leave. We divided up his heavy batteries and drill between our two packs and started out of the cave, exiting at 10:00 pm after an 8-hour trip. We returned to the fieldhouse where Bill and Andi Hunter and Pavo Skoworodko had been organizing gear all day for their weeklong camp. Bill mentioned that Pete Penczer had stopped by to ask which dome Bill was planning to climb. When Bill said he was thinking of climbing the dome where Paul Gillis's picture showed a very high lead, Pete answered that that is the dome he intended to climb. So Bill's crew will work on some other lead, probably the dome above the Hunter Traverse.
Pete and Bob Zimmerman were to enter this morning and stay till Tuesday. Lew, Bill, Andi and Pavo were tentatively planning on going in this afternoon, for the entire week. I hope everyone has a successful trip! Mark Stover, Robert Monczka and I (and possibly Mike Frisina) are going in on Friday morning for three days. I can't wait to get to camp to find out what has been discovered this week!
Yvonne |
_________________
posted by KVMAPR
|
| |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
FAQ
Search
Register
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
