Re: [Texascavers] book review: Twelve Miles from Daylight

[Stefan Creaser via Texascavers]

If anyone wants one then perhaps Crash can get them with a bulk discount at 
'Convention?

-Stefan

-Original Message-
From: Texascavers [mailto:texascavers-boun...@texascavers.com] On Behalf Of Jim 
Kennedy via Texascavers
Sent: Wednesday, June 21, 2017 2:18 PM
To: texascavers@texascavers.com
Cc: Jim Kennedy <cavercr...@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Texascavers] book review: Twelve Miles from Daylight

They are available from the authors here at the NSS Convention for only $44.95. 
I bought mine on Mindy.

Jim

Mobile email from my iPhone

> On Jun 21, 2017, at 11:36 AM, Mixon Bill via Texascavers 
> <texascavers@texascavers.com> wrote:
>
> "Twelve Miles from Daylight: Fort Stanton Cave and the Snowy River 
> Discovery." Edited by Pete Lindsley and Lee Skinner. Fort Stanton Cave Study 
> Project, Placitas, New Mexico. ISBN 978-0-939748-83-9. 9 by 12 inches, 
> softbound, vi+306 pages+foldout. $54.95.
>

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Re: [Texascavers] book review: Twelve Miles from Daylight

[Jim Kennedy via Texascavers]

They are available from the authors here at the NSS Convention for only $44.95. 
I bought mine on Mindy. 

Jim

Mobile email from my iPhone

> On Jun 21, 2017, at 11:36 AM, Mixon Bill via Texascavers 
>  wrote:
> 
> "Twelve Miles from Daylight: Fort Stanton Cave and the Snowy River 
> Discovery." Edited by Pete Lindsley and Lee Skinner. Fort Stanton Cave Study 
> Project, Placitas, New Mexico. ISBN 978-0-939748-83-9. 9 by 12 inches, 
> softbound, vi+306 pages+foldout. $54.95.
> 
> For too many years, Fort Stanton Cave has been in the shadow of New Mexico’s 
> Lechuguilla Cave, the subject of several books, one published in three 
> languages and one a trilogy of e-books. This new large-format book should go 
> far to redress that. Since the 1950s, organized cavers have extended the cave 
> to over thirty-one miles of passage, including the amazing Snowy River 
> Passage that runs eleven miles north-south and gives the overall line-plot on 
> a topo map an extent that appears to dwarf famous caves that are in fact 
> longer. There are color photographs on most pages, including over thirty 
> full-page ones. Simple maps of parts of the cave clarify the geography. While 
> there is a lot of other information, the bulk of the text consists of trip 
> reports by a large number of authors, which should enhance its appeal to 
> cavers.
> 
> There have been significant delays in exploration caused by a persnickety 
> owner for such things as environmental assessments, but overall the BLM seems 
> to have been reasonably accommodating. In the early years, efforts focussed 
> on long and arduous digs in the old part of the cave that resulted in its 
> considerable expansion. Things changed dramatically on September 1, 2001, 
> when a dig led to the discovery of the Snowy River Passage, largely walking 
> and in places providing plenty of obvious good leads. The passage gets its 
> name from the layer of white calcite that coats the floor of the stream bed 
> for its entire length. The passage proved not all that easy to follow. To 
> avoid soiling the Snowy River, parties had to change from dirty to clean 
> clothes every time they had been forced to walk on mud banks or breakdown by 
> some obstruction, and eventually even small, fast parties of young and fit 
> cavers were making “day trips” over thirty hours long; sometimes they 
> returned with over a mile of new survey. The project was eventually given 
> permission to establish a campsite near the far end of exploration, but it 
> has been used only twice.
> 
> Perhaps the most impressive single accomplishment in the book is the digging 
> and shoring of a new and safer access shaft to the Snowy River. This is over 
> forty feet deep, and 222 cavers are credited in an appendix with helping in 
> the effort.
> 
> The several people credited with checking and proofreading have done a good 
> job, and the text is clear and mostly free of errors. The layout is garish 
> and ignores some common standards. The reader will have to dodge the numerous 
> and often lengthy sidebars in some of the early chapters, but later chapters 
> are better organized. Don’t ignore the sidebars, though. They contain a lot 
> of historical information, impressions and reports by many cavers, and 
> science notes. The most important event in the entire book, the discovery of 
> the Snowy River Passage, is buried in a sidebar at the end of chapter 6. The 
> photographs are well selected and well prepared, although I wonder whether 
> some of the colors are not exaggerated. Appendices include a glossary and an 
> index that is thorough but lists people by their first names.
> 
> As this is written, based on a final PDF of the book provided by Pete 
> Lindsley, the cave has been closed by the BLM because of white-nose syndrome, 
> and anyway travel in the Snowy River passage has been forbidden for the past 
> couple of years because the steam is flowing and it is feared that the 
> calcite floor will be too delicate when wet. It is not yet clear how much of 
> the time the stream flows; this is not the first time that has been seen. The 
> government also doesn’t want cavers to push beyond its property lines. I kind 
> of hope they have and are just not talking about it. In any case, we’re sure 
> to eventually hear a lot more about this spectacular cave. Meanwhile, buy 
> this book.
> --Bill Mixon
> 
> Nature is a hanging judge.
> 
> You may "reply" to the address this message
> (unless it's a TexasCavers list post)
> came from, but for long-term use, save:
> Personal: bmi...@alumni.uchicago.edu
> AMCS: a...@mexicancaves.org or sa...@mexicancaves.org
> 
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> 

[Texascavers] book review: Twelve Miles from Daylight

[Mixon Bill via Texascavers]

"Twelve Miles from Daylight: Fort Stanton Cave and the Snowy River Discovery." 
Edited by Pete Lindsley and Lee Skinner. Fort Stanton Cave Study Project, 
Placitas, New Mexico. ISBN 978-0-939748-83-9. 9 by 12 inches, softbound, vi+306 
pages+foldout. $54.95.

For too many years, Fort Stanton Cave has been in the shadow of New Mexico’s 
Lechuguilla Cave, the subject of several books, one published in three 
languages and one a trilogy of e-books. This new large-format book should go 
far to redress that. Since the 1950s, organized cavers have extended the cave 
to over thirty-one miles of passage, including the amazing Snowy River Passage 
that runs eleven miles north-south and gives the overall line-plot on a topo 
map an extent that appears to dwarf famous caves that are in fact longer. There 
are color photographs on most pages, including over thirty full-page ones. 
Simple maps of parts of the cave clarify the geography. While there is a lot of 
other information, the bulk of the text consists of trip reports by a large 
number of authors, which should enhance its appeal to cavers.

There have been significant delays in exploration caused by a persnickety owner 
for such things as environmental assessments, but overall the BLM seems to have 
been reasonably accommodating. In the early years, efforts focussed on long and 
arduous digs in the old part of the cave that resulted in its considerable 
expansion. Things changed dramatically on September 1, 2001, when a dig led to 
the discovery of the Snowy River Passage, largely walking and in places 
providing plenty of obvious good leads. The passage gets its name from the 
layer of white calcite that coats the floor of the stream bed for its entire 
length. The passage proved not all that easy to follow. To avoid soiling the 
Snowy River, parties had to change from dirty to clean clothes every time they 
had been forced to walk on mud banks or breakdown by some obstruction, and 
eventually even small, fast parties of young and fit cavers were making “day 
trips” over thirty hours long; sometimes they returned with over a mile of new 
survey. The project was eventually given permission to establish a campsite 
near the far end of exploration, but it has been used only twice.

Perhaps the most impressive single accomplishment in the book is the digging 
and shoring of a new and safer access shaft to the Snowy River. This is over 
forty feet deep, and 222 cavers are credited in an appendix with helping in the 
effort.

The several people credited with checking and proofreading have done a good 
job, and the text is clear and mostly free of errors. The layout is garish and 
ignores some common standards. The reader will have to dodge the numerous and 
often lengthy sidebars in some of the early chapters, but later chapters are 
better organized. Don’t ignore the sidebars, though. They contain a lot of 
historical information, impressions and reports by many cavers, and science 
notes. The most important event in the entire book, the discovery of the Snowy 
River Passage, is buried in a sidebar at the end of chapter 6. The photographs 
are well selected and well prepared, although I wonder whether some of the 
colors are not exaggerated. Appendices include a glossary and an index that is 
thorough but lists people by their first names.

As this is written, based on a final PDF of the book provided by Pete Lindsley, 
the cave has been closed by the BLM because of white-nose syndrome, and anyway 
travel in the Snowy River passage has been forbidden for the past couple of 
years because the steam is flowing and it is feared that the calcite floor will 
be too delicate when wet. It is not yet clear how much of the time the stream 
flows; this is not the first time that has been seen. The government also 
doesn’t want cavers to push beyond its property lines. I kind of hope they have 
and are just not talking about it. In any case, we’re sure to eventually hear a 
lot more about this spectacular cave. Meanwhile, buy this book.
--Bill Mixon

Nature is a hanging judge.

You may "reply" to the address this message
(unless it's a TexasCavers list post)
came from, but for long-term use, save:
Personal: bmi...@alumni.uchicago.edu
AMCS: a...@mexicancaves.org or sa...@mexicancaves.org

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