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Memorial Day Cave Survey - February 2005
by Ralph Hartley
Attrition: Trip report for the Feb 12 2005 Memorial Day Survey weekend
Ralph Hartley
Initial expected # of surveyors: 10
Actual # of surveyors: 3
Survey stations: ~35
Survey feet: ~540
In other words, a normal survey weekend in Memorial Day cave.
Initially there were going to be three parties, two going in on Friday and staying two nights, and one staying at camp Saturday night only.
Miles Drake, Rick Royer, Dwight Livingston, and I met at the Gateway at 5:00. One member of the other Friday group had canceled that morning for work related reasons. We hoped the other two, Scott Wahlquist, and Chris Woodley, would still come, but we did not remember their meeting time.
We must have just missed them, because they caught up at the 125' drop. When Miles and I had gone about 200' towards camp, and about when Chris should have been getting on rope, there was a series of loud bangs, as of something heavy falling.
We were rather relieved to hear that it was only his pack. Fortunately his vertical gear was not inside, but everything else, including his survey equipment, which would be unlikely to survive, was. It was a large pack, but it was never found. Hopefully, someone closer to the action can report on it, but they had to turn back.
The author Ralph Hartley sketches during survey in the northern passages of the entrance series in Memorial Day Cave
In the morning, as we were finishing breakfast, Miles started feeling sick. He ended up sleeping the whole day in camp.
The three of us remaining, continued the survey of Sunda Trench, a stream passage at the bottom of a pit near camp. We suspected that this might connect to a lead Dwight had marked "goes big" more than a year ago.
It did, but it wasn't as simple as that. First it opened out into a room (named "the Blue Room" after the sharpie that was being used to mark stations) were passage seemed to go in all directions.
We connected to W51, and then went back to clean up the other passages. Some leads ended up connecting to each other. The two most significant ones remaining were another stream coming from the East, and the combined downstream.
Downstream was sinuous, but not tight, canyon with occasional small rooms. It descended very steeply. We turned back at a hole that looked like it might be climbable, maybe 10' deep, but with a contortionist move at the top. There was a good echo.
Upstream was also very steep. It appears to continue as a 2x2 tube at ceiling level that we couldn't easily reach. There may be another way on through breakdown, but Rick had an "interaction" with one large rock that sapped our motivation to find out. The passage moved a *lot* of air, so unless there is known cave just ahead, someone might want to go back.
We arrived back at camp at about 8:00. Miles was still sleeping, but was feeling much better. The Saturday team never showed up (we heard later that they too had a work related problem).
We exited the cave about 3:13PM Sunday, after nearly 45 hours underground. |
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posted by KVMAPR
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