Joined: Jun 16, 2004
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Digging in Coon Cave
Yvonne Droms
(This article was first published in the WV Caver)
After a copious breakfast graciously served by Chef Tom in the kitchen of his cozy cabin at the Germany Valley Karst Survey field house, Tom Barton, Rick Orben and I got ourselves motivated to brave the frigid, snow-covered world outside. Since the temperatures on this January morning were in the single digits, we put on our caving gear before we even left the house. It sure beats putting on stiff coveralls and frozen boots in knee-deep snow next to the car!
The road through the woods was barely discernible, and some of it was covered with more than a foot of snow. Tom's truck fought its way valiantly up steep inclines, plowing through the snow, backing up, trying again, until it conquered the hills and got us most of the way to the cave. Unable to go any farther, we grabbed all our gear and hiked the rest of the way to the entrance, recognizable from a distance by its plume of steam rising from the snow.
We had a lot of gear: about five ropes of various sizes, one cable ladder, three webbing etriers, a large drill, three sets of twin 12 V batteries for the drill, all our vertical gear, and our personal packs. What an expedition! Tom rigged an etrier to a tree and disappeared down the 15-foot-deep entrance fissure. We threw the ropes into the hole, then used the etrier to lower the rest of the equipment down to Tom before we followed him down.
The fissure becomes tighter about 10 feet below the entrance. We squeezed through and landed on top of all our gear. Everyone grabbed three or four things and we progressed along the passage for a short ways until we arrived at the next obstacle. A narrow crawlway brought us to a 15-foot free downclimb, where again we had to pass all the equipment. Following that we tackled another etrier downclimb into a little dome. Right after, we arrived at the first 50-foot pit, which started as a steep, muddy slope.
Rick Orben crosses the traverse along the 50 foot deep pit in Coon Cave. - photo by Y. Droms
Tom rigged the cable ladder there, which would greatly facilitate our ascent on the way out since the slope was very slippery. He also rigged a rope so we could rappel down instead of using the cable ladder. We put on our vertical gear and repacked our duffels. Tom rappelled down to a narrow ledge about 12 feet lower, then traversed across to a passage off the side of the pit. I followed him down as far as the ledge, locked off my rack, then Rick lowered all the gear towards me, and I passed it onwards to Tom around the corner.
After Rick and I joined Tom in the side passage, we continued on, bypassing a 20-foot pit, then skirting around a 50-foot one on a very narrow path consisting of footsteps carved in the mud alongside the left wall. A traverse line was rigged there, so we clipped into it with our cowstail. That made us feel a lot safer, because it was a long way down! just as we had crossed that safely, we realized we had left the long rope at the top of the cable ladder. Duh! I volunteered to go get it. Tom asked me to bring the extra webbing we had stowed there too.
When I came back, with the coil of rope wrapped around my body so I'd have my hands free for the various maneuvers, Tom asked for the webbing to start rigging the last pit. Hmmm. I'd forgotten that detail. Duh again! Luckily I had some emergency webbing in my pack, and Tom used that to rig to a natural bridge above the drop. Rick belayed Tom while he rigged, since he was precariously perched on a slippery wall right over the pit. Mission accomplished, we unrolled the rope, clipped it into the webbing, and for good measure we backed it up to a big stalagmite farther back, just in case the bridge was actually made of mud instead of rock...
Off Tom went, rappelling into the pit. We heard him maneuvering down below, and eventually he yelled that he was off rope. I followed, and after rappelling for about 20 feet down over a crumbly, undercut formation
curtain, I saw his light across the void in a side passage in mid-pit. He had rappelled lower down and climbed up the pre-rigged rope leading to that passage. From his stance, he was able to use my rope to pull me towards him, so that I could take the direct route. This cave sure was a fun jungle-gym!
When Rick came down the pit, as soon as he got below the undercut formation, a piece of it broke off, landing on his helmet and scaring all of us. He was fine, luckily, and so he joined us in the niche. After chimneying up a narrow canyon, we finally arrived at our destination: a steeply inclined passage that got progressively tighter until it was just body sized. Tom asked me to go in first, since I was the smallest of the team. This is where Kevin Flanagan and his group had last been digging. I started down feet first and let gravity take over. After about 20 feet or so, I went around a 90-degree curve to the right.
Looking over my shoulder behind me, I could see some largish rocks blocking the passage, but there was a bit of space above them that would just allow me to slither through. After another 4 feet, the fissure narrowed down to about 6 inches wide. Here was the dig. Tom appeared around the corner above me, and so I slid backwards over the rocks and into a vertical slot just large enough to accommodate me. Tom suggested I try to break up the rocks with the sledge hammer, so we could remove the pieces and make more room. He passed me the heavy sledge and I worked for a while at chipping chunks off the two rocks.
Tom requested a rope from Rick above, and I tied it to one of the rocks. Still, I was not strong enough to lift it over the other rock, especially not with only room for one arm ahead of me, so Tom and I switched position after a while. Easier said than done! It was less than spacious in that tube. A few acrobatics later, Tom was in the hole, applying superior male strength to the task of convincing the rock to crumble. And crumble it did, enough for us to remove large chunks up and out of the tube. Tom would place them on my outstretched feet, I'd scoop them up towards my hands, pass the rocks over my body, then tie them to the rope above me, so that Rick could drag them up the slope and stow them away.
Finally Tom requested the drill and battery packs, and set out to widen the passage ahead. A steady draft brought the dust of the rock powder towards us. Every now and then I'd look expectantly at Tom's progress, trying to peek around his body, which was blocking the view. The passage ahead of him went steeply down, and through the narrow crack, it seemed more and more that a stream passage was visible ahead. It looked like a T-intersection, with a cobble floor. Knowing we were close kept us going, and Tom worked at widening until he ran out of battery power.
We had left the spare drill batteries at the top of the last 50-foot pit, across the pendulum traverse... It was getting late, Tom was chilled from his forced immobility and from the constant drips of water falling on his overalls; besides, the way out would be rather time-consuming in this roller-coaster cave... So the decision was made to leave a good lead to the next team: great air, great potential, and only four feet to go, what a treat! We packed up all our gear and wiggled upwards in the tight tube to the more spacious area where we had left our vertical gear. We shuttled the packs down the chimney climb to the niche overlooking the pit.
Tom got on the upper rope and started frogging while Rick held the rope below him so he would not go swinging into the pit too hard. I did the same for Rick, and also held him away from the large, protruding formation that had dumped debris on him on the way down. After Rick safely arrived at the webbing anchor above, I got on the upper rope and used the lower one to control my pendulum into the void. My heavy, tethered pack followed me nicely and did not get wedged below me while I went over the crumbly formation. Good pack.
We decided to leave that pit rigged for the next team, saving ourselves the trouble of dragging out that heavy rope by the same token... The two battery packs were also cached for the next dig team. Much lighter now, we continued upwards, collecting etriers and cable ladder and ropes as we derigged them on our way out. Rick was leading the pack now, and his help hauling gear up the various climbs was greatly appreciated. The traverse followed by the climb up the cable ladder went well, in spite of the awfully muddy conditions. We all managed to get our vertical gear totally caked with mud. As a matter of fact, my upper ascender would only work when thumbed shut at each step. What a mess!
The rest of the trip out was uneventful. The long etrier at the entrance drop proved invaluable by providing us with handholds to help us squeeze tpwards through the tight crevice. One by one we emerged into the frozen world above. Rapidly derigging the last etrier, we bee-lined for the car through the deep snow. I was glad to have remembered to untie my shoe laces before getting out of the cave. We arrived at the car frozen solid and hurried to remove our coveralls and boots so that we could jump into the delightful warmth of the car.
Our 8-hour visit to Coon was an enjoyable vertical workout and a productive dig trip. I can't wait to find out what's on the other side of that windy crevice. Miles of borehole, no doubt! |
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