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kvmapr
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Post subject: Kimble Pit - January 2005
 Posted: Feb 04, 2005 - 02:38 AM
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Joined: Jun 16, 2004
Posts: 224
Status: Offline
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Kimble Pit
1-08-05
Barry Horner
This project had been put on hold for about six months due to all the other things happening in the valley and the holidays so Yvonne Droms and I were eager to get back to work on the Graham’s Crack. Not that eager though that we didn’t get into the cave until after 12 o’clock. We had a plan to head in and get started and Bill Stone would come in later with his drill so we could get a lot done in one trip.
Packed heavy with tools, rock remover, and Yvonne’s smorgasbord we made our way down to the crack in good time. As I started into the passage I soon realized why I had not missed the cave that much. Every time we had taken someone new to work with us we heard the whining of how the passage needed to be larger. All the way in I kept telling Yvonne that everything looked smaller then I had remembered. By the time we got to the last so called room before the face I was whining that we needed to make more room through the passage. She was not going to be the one to complain but was very agreeable. Then we both remarked on how Bill was not going to like the trip in.
After a breather I crawled ahead to look at the face and refresh my memory. Just getting to the end convinced me that we needed to back up a little and widen the passage. We spent most of one battery and about two hours of time remodeling when I finally heard the familiar muffled thrashing and groaning of a man trying to be a groundhog. Bill was on his way in and we listened to him for what seemed to be 15 to 20 minutes. We kept working, back and forth with Yvonne at my heels. I was almost out of power when Bill showed up.
Bob Alderson, Barry Horner and Miles Drake on an earlier trip to Kimble Pit. Not the steam venting from the entrance
The work we have done up to now was just to make things more comfortable to maneuver to the face and back out with gear. Now with fresh batteries from Bill we were off to the races. I was gladly offering the face to Bill or Yvonne but they were both content to sit or lie in the back and wait for the breakthrough. Since the debris all goes down the body sucking crack in the floor there is not much to do as a team but pass stuff back and forth.
I worked on a corner in the left wall that was a huge bulge in the passage. This took several trips in and out of what I had made “more comfortable”. I was wishing that the battery would die so we could head out for my forearms were turning into hamburger.
After three trips to the face I could get around the corner to get a look at what glory was ahead. As I slid in and looked out of the top of my helmet I could see a passage going straight for about 15’ with a 2’ wide shelf on the right that was only 6 to 8 inches high and a 6 inch wide crack on the left going down to the bottom. Not good at all! This was making for a discouraging day. I passed on the news and we stopped a minute to reevaluate. Yvonne wanted to get a look at what was so bad so I let her by and as she was crawling up I told Bill to listen to the change in her voice as she looked in. The next thing we heard was “Oh No Barry”.
Yvonne had been looking at a crack junction in the floor that we had passed over and thought it may be another option. I let her squeeze by to look at the face and as her hopes dropped to we decided to make the joint big enough for her to get down and check for another way on. We had just enough power left to widen the crack and soon she had the chance to save the day. She passed over me again and Bill, who was stuck in the rear all day getting cold, and I, now for the first time in over 100’ of work, waited behind Yvonne as she pushed her way on. As she fought her way to the bottom of the crack she had to dig through all the rock that I had dropped down. In only a few short minutes it was found that this too was hopelessly too tight.
So until next time the cave wins again! We packed up and headed out which now makes more pain as everything you push with is sore to the touch. Yvonne and Bill let me go up the rope first and then they flew out in 15 minutes each. Half the time it took me. The trip was 10 hours long. |
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posted by KVMAPR
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