We grabbed another 452 feet of cave surveying last weekend. It was cold outside, but awesome inside (if you have a stomach for tight places)! I can't stop thinking about this cave, it's driving me crazy. We have three good leads right now that need to be surveyed, and a fourth crawl way that needs to be cleaned up. One of the leads has a set of bolts and an old rope rigged, as a traverse across and a visible 15'+ deep pit we couldn't see the bottom of, so vertical gear will be brought on our next survey. If you are not vertical, that is okay as the other leads are horizontal. As stated previously, the cave does require some low belly crawling, but nothing extremely tight. Ken was concerned he might not fit before we started the trip, but he had no problems. Our next survey date is currently undecided, but it will be in April although I'm not sure I can wait that long. If you're interested in joining us please don't hesitate to talk to me about participating. There will be an email on the mailing list and a date will be posted on the Google calendar when we make a decision. If you don't want to survey, but have an interest in digging, there is also an interesting digging option in a section of the cave we opened up on our trip last November.
Tanya's house was awesome. She was a very gracious host, but don't leave your sleeping bag out on the floor while you go caving. Bad things will happen. I learned this the hard way.
Weather: Cold, snowy – expecting this Dave and I both drove our 4wd vehicles
Data Recorded in Marion:
Saturday – High 33 Low 12, wind gusts up to 40mph, snow fall up to three inches. Brrrrrr!
Sunday – High 27 Low 11, less windy, and sunny so it felt much nicer. Most snow gone.
Here's some data and pics for your enjoyment:
The shell pics were taken by Martin Groenewegen and the pics outside the cave were taken by Matthew Weiss. These ceiling fossils are densely clustered in this layer and continue in the walls and ceiling off in an un-surveyed direction.
DATA SUMMARY for : 11Feb2012
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Number Of Surveys= 2
Number Of Stations= 44
Included Shots= 43
Total Surveyed= 451.8 Feet 137.7 Meters 0.09 Miles
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DATA SUMMARY for : All Survey Dates in ColdSink
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Number Of Surveys= 6
Number Of Stations= 95
Included Shots= 94
Total Surveyed= 1291.6 Feet 393.7 Meters 0.24 Miles
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On this trip were myself, Ken W., Dave D., Ava P., Tanya M., Martin G., and Matthew W.
Sunday myself, Ken, Dave, Ava, and Tanya did an easy trip and surveyed Dillman cave netting something around 160'. Martin and Matthew left for home that morning. Ken will be doing the cartography. After finishing in Dillman Cave, we did a quick fun trip across the valley to Dillman Saltpeter Cave. Dave Dugid recently finished the map for that cave, so before visiting either cave the map was delivered to the landowner.
