I cannot remember any one crawl that stands out as the worst to me, but
working in Ft Stanton Cave, GypKap, McKittrick Hill and Lechuguilla Cave
all have memorable low and difficult crawls. In FSC, the dig I started
in Helictite Hall with Aaron Stockton was pretty tight at first. It got
better and we mastered the technique of using drag sleds to lower the
floor soil and have some breathing room, for over 70 feet horizontally
over a few years. Another low one was with on a 2008 survey with Donald
Davis and Janice Tucker, near the termination of Promise Passage above
Don Sawyer Memorial Hall. Perhaps the lowest of all was the dig I pushed
at the north end of Metro. We were past the tree roots and very close to
surface, trying to find a route, leaves, air. It was such that only one
hand could be ahead, and helmet off, peeking ahead to see if it was
worth continuing. At the end I could only take photos with one hand and
review them to see what was ahead.
There is one memorable dig near McKittick Hill that requires similar
technique. The good news is that all of these have fill dirt that can be
pushed and pulled away, so there is little real risk of getting stuck,
only psychological impact.
The dig that others did to reach the lower level of KFFC is quite
impressive, and a show stopper for some cavers.
In Lechuguilla, some of the tightest crawls seem to have opened the best
discoveries in years. Getting up to Oz a few years ago, was built on a
low crawl I made in 2007, opening the Emerald City gallery. One lead in
there was named Mutant Baby Birth Canal, and Jen Foote, myself and
Heather Levy are the only cavers who would survey through it. We were
eating dirt throughout. One particularly exciting crawl was up 50 feet
through a 40-55 degree inclined pancake layer in the Far East. I didn't
think it would go, but there was a faint air, and everyone was already
beat up and resting at the bottom room, when I decided to check out the
crack in the ceiling. 30 minutes later I came back panting, having broke
out into LaGrange Hall and what would later be known as the Northeast
Corridor, heading towards Manhole Cave. Yet, it was a horrible tight
crawl/climb that gave many caver fits. In the Far West end, a room named
Christmas in August (near Zanzibar and the entrance into Promised Land)
has a crack up in the ceiling. There was an enlarged solutional hole
that went steeply up into thick slimy ferromanganese residue. I went
back three times, in different years, when I would regain nerve to push
it as it had potential... Last time was in 2011 when I took Lech-newbie
Jewel-veteran Adam Weaver and convinced him of said potential,
direction, location, angle. He pushed more than I would, and I could
hear him simpering above, cursing as he couldn't see anymore, and
backing down. We finally marked it 'too tight'. One last story about the
west, past Zanzibar I crawled up another loose chimney into Zombie Zoo
late one night. Off of this, we had a very difficult survey into
International House of Pain. Pendants of sharp eroded bedrock poked into
our stomachs, and I pushed ahead while the rest of my team snacked and
talked. I think i covered about 20 feet in 30 minutes. This was heading
off the map to the west, so location was great. I returned years later
with Adam and he, Brian Kendrick and I surveyed to the bitter end, where
it was too tight to continue. Air was evident, doggone it.
These are the kind of memories that would give a claustrophobic
nightmares. But there are some of the finest memories too, as some of
them really went. I don't turn down low crawls, ugly chimneys, and mud
and water that look bad. But sometimes I regret going into them, at the
time. Later, they seem to draw me back, as if there was some undone
crack or hole that would be the key to continuation. Usually it is a
figment of an active imagination, stirred up by poor memories.
John Lyles
On 3/10/14 7:00 PM, Michael Lorimer wrote:
I would like open up a new discussion thread. We have all had many
wonderful caving experiences, some of them bordering on the fantastic.
I would like to start the ball rolling with crawlways. How about
writing something about your best or worst crawlway experience? The
good, the bad, the muddiest, the most horrible, the funniest. You name it.
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