I'm reminded of the wisdom of the immortal Cave Carson quoted in Inside Earth #1: A SUMP IS GOD'S WAY OF TELLING YOU THE CAVE ENDS THERE
On 6/8/09 6:26 AM, "[email protected]" <[email protected]> wrote: > Well, we did it. And it may well have been the Last Honey Creek Cave tank > haul. Or, at least, I think, the last one I organize. > > I was among the last three to get out of the cave yesterday, coming out at > 9:00 a.m. after a 23 hour trip. Nine hours of that was spent in one place, on > a not-so-comfortable rocky mud bank, waiting on the two divers, James Brown > and Jean "Creature" Krejca. I tried to sleep, didn't think I did, but found > out later that I snored and people laughed about it, so I must have slept > some. > > I'll write a more detailed report tonight and post it here. I'll also commit > to writing a detailed review of the push of the upstream HS sump for an > upcoming issue of the Texas Caver. The upstream HS sump project has been > ongoing for the past several years. > > But here's the short version of last weekend's trip. About twenty (I'll have > an accurate count with names tonight) cavers > went in the shaft entrance of Texas' longest cave Saturday morning. Most had a > share of the load for the two cave divers, including four tanks, regulators > packed in Pelican cases, BCs, lead weights, fins, wetsuits, a camers, survey > gear, and a cave radio graciously loaned to us by Brian Pease of Vermont. It > took 5 1/2 hours for us to reach the beginning of the 1,435 foot long sump. It > took another three hours for the all the gear to be located in what pack and > unpacked, passed through the mud and gloom (in not so great air) to the divers > when they called for this or that piece of it, and for them to commence the > dive. > > The results were that James and Creature surveyed 1,000 feet of passage and > reached another sump. The cave radio transmission was not successful, in that > Kurt Menking, waiting on the surface over that part of the cave in the evening > dark, thought they were going to transmit about between 200 - 400 feet > upstream from the 1,435 foot long HS sump, but instead they trasmitted from > the second sump they reached, 1,000 feet upstream from the HS sump. However, > it doesn't really matter, because given that there's another sump, putting in > another shaft entrance into the 1,000 feet of passage they reached, won't get > us into the going air-filled cave we're hoping to reach. > > More tonight, > > Bill Steele > Irving, Texas > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > Visit our website: http://texascavers.com > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] > For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected] > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
