It has been a while since I've gone "caving" so it was nice to have an opportunity to tag along on someone else's recreational trip. Also uncharacteristic for my cave trips we could drive right to the entrance of this one! The entrance pit was more formidable than I expected with a vertical wall above the dripline and two sketchy downclimb routes on loose exposed slopes. After a fair bit of scouting Lukas and I found a reasonable route down and rigged traverse and handlines for the others. We deliberately spaced everyone else out so that no one was ever in the rockfall path of someone else. This took quite a bit of time for something that would have taken me but a couple minutes myself, but it was worth being cautious. Eventually we all made it into the impressive 35m-wide passage that descended steeply over loose angular breakdown.
The void was enormous and seemed endless despite being only a little more than a hundred feet long! The others slowly picked a safe route through the breakdown while I took up the tail. I enjoyed photographing the reflected golden light fading into the darkness. I brought my DistoX2 and used it to create a quick backbone survey of the cave on the way in.
At the end of the main passage the ceiling met the floor. Lukas and Suhei scouted onward through the breakdown, finding a route to another room. This one has some nice crossbedding and occasional gypsum flowers. It was a dry and dusty cave. Though more leads existed downward, this room made a logical spot to take photos before turning back for the entrance.
We made it back up without incident. Plotting the survey measurements later revealed the cave to be 215m long and 120m deep, notable but as usual not as extensive as I thought when I was in the cave! It was a neat and different cave; thanks to Lukas for letting us tag along.
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| Plan sketch |
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| Profile sketch |
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