Ice Cave
Wayne County, Ky
June 21, 2008
Bill Walden wanted to continue the survey of Ice Cave. Sounded like a good thing to do on a hot day. We parked along the tree line at the edge of the pasture on Saturday morning, Bill, John Cassidy, Harry Goepel, and I. Packs and ropes were slung on backs and we trudged up the trail through the woods to the top of the ridge. There, just as Bill had promised, was a great big hole in the ground, fluted walls dropping to the breakdown blocks 15 feet below.
Bill and Harry surveyed around the edge of the pit while John and I rigged a rope and cable ladder for the drop. A black vulture flew, disturbed, from her nest somewhere below.
At the bottom of the entrance drop, huge boulders lay jumbled around expectant holes that opened to greater depths. We followed Bill down one side of the breakdown pile into the larger entrance chamber of the cave. Bill had two survey objectives – finish the survey on this level of the cave and also survey down at least one of several pits to possible virgin territory below.
John joined Bill for the upper level surveying while Harry and I rigged around a large slab of breakdown that projected over the edge of the deeper of the pits. We backed up to another breakdown boulder and ended up with a nicely balanced system that pleased us both.
Harry descended first and then we taped the drop. 52 feet. While I sketched Harry explored and found the bottom of one of the other pits we had been looking at. He also pulled some rocks out of a crack and found the cave continuing down another 20+ foot drop into a nice room. After I rappelled we surveyed around the bottom of the pit room and then up into an area of several nice little dome rooms, one of which continued up for quite a distance. Later, while I was sketching, John appeared some ways above the bottom of this pit and dropped a tape to tie in with our survey.
The cave deserves its name. I am accustomed to caving in Texas so any cave up here is going to feel cold, but even the veterans say this cave is colder by 10 to 20 degrees than it ought to be. Historically, the cave did contain ice formations but we didn’t see any. No formations of any kind, really. The impressively fluted walls made up for this.
Harry and I ended the day by surveying into the continuing lead and taping the next drop at 23 feet. We didn’t have any rope with us to go down and check it out. We climbed out of the cave to the late afternoon heat. Headed back down the ridge, looking at several interesting sinks on the way.
Thanks for a good and productive trip, Harry, Bill, and John.
