BLUE RIDGE GROTTO of the
NSS
Meeting Minutes
Jersey Lily’s; Roanoke, VA
January 17, 2020
Attendance:
Susan
Burr, Chair |
David
Socky, Vice Chair |
Marian
McConnell, Secretary |
Trish
Geiger, Treasurer |
MarySue Socky |
Carl
Cornett |
Lynn Ott |
Jeff
Huffman |
Doug Feller |
Karen
Kastning |
John Fox |
Bill
Walker |
Kristy
Sullivan* |
Jason
Delafield* |
Dave
Wickersham |
Jen Suggs
(Subscriber) |
|
|
*Guest
1. TRIP REPORTS:
a. 11/16/2019: Maxwelton Cave, WV. This was a BRG
Grotto trip which included David Socky, Jeff Huffman, Bill Walker, Lauren
Appel, Doug Feller, Susan Burr, Jacob Whitlock, and Mystic Miller. We took the
horizontal route down to Cover Creek. At
the big flowstone formation, some of us climbed up via the nails above the
flowstone. We then went down the Kings Hall waterfall (slightly tricky climbs
to get down), and then down Cover Creek stream passage. Climbed up into Room 21
where we had lunch. We then went a little further into the cave where the
12-foot nuisance climb is located. Went
back via the upper passage which is the trade route to Sweetwater. It was a
good, fun 5.5-hour sport trip.
b. 11/19/2019: Lowmoor Cave, VA. Participants included
David Socky, Ed Saugstad, Dave Collings, Bill Koerschner, and Joe Zokaites.
After making it through Charlies Dig, we split up into two teams. Ed and I
dragged Dave’s drill and straw stuff and made the climb up into the sandstone
breakdown room. I had to rig some webbing so Ed could climb up. There were two
tight spots on the climb up between questionable boulders, but nothing moved as
we got up to the lead. As it turned out, we didn't need the drill or straws. We
were able to dig out the floor which was rock and dirt. We used a pry bar, a
spade, and our feet. It took about 2 hours before Ed was finally able to get
through, headfirst. But, the first thing he said was "Oh, I just found a
survey station". Damn. Then I knew exactly where we were. The second
breakdown room which was close to the one we had dug in. Oh well. Ed and I then
surveyed the way through, making the connection with 44 feet in the book. We
then got our stuff and headed over to the other dig. This dig was at the end of
a low passage. The other team had dug about 10 feet and where pulling out
pucky, sticky mud. It was really hard digging, but good progress could be made.
We got totally covered in the sticky mud. We dug for another 2 or 3 hours and
headed out about 5:30pm. The total amount dug was about 15 to 20 feet. Still
going with really good air. We could see down the passage a good 15 feet, but
the space between the ceiling and floor was about 4 to 5 inches, the whole way.
Lots to dig yet. We got out of the cave about 6:30pm and went to Penny's for
dinner.
c. 11/23/2019: Windy Mouth, WV. Participants included
David Socky, Rob Wardell, and Marissa Loftus - team 1. Nick Socky, Joe
Calderone, and Silas Springer - team 2. We went into the cave on Friday
evening, entering the cave about 8 pm. The water levels were low, but going the
low route I did get my feet a little wet. It took us 2 hours to get to camp.
Turned out there were only 5 sleeping pads, so Nick took the hit and slept on
the 'misery pad' - a thin closed cell foam pad. We surveyed the stream passage
under camp that evening while the other team did a short loop just before the
Waterfall Room. After a snack, we finally crawled into bed around 1am. We got up at 8am and were on our way to
towards the Shattered Ladder climb and the upper levels by 10am. The way to our
lead was challenging, with the long crawlway above the Shattered Ladder being
the worst. All the leads were fairly close together. Nick took our team to the
start of our lead, a continuation of the nice walking passage. We surveyed
nearly 20 stations of nice passage before it finally ended. We then headed back
to the other leads where we ran into Nick and his team. He told us which leads
to do, so we chose what sounded like the best one. It was a hand and knees
crawl with mud and water, but actually not bad. We got another 33 stations for
around 53 stations total. Our total
footage for the day was 984 feet. With Nick's team, the total for the weekend
was a little over 2000 feet! We got back to camp about 11pm where we had
dinner. A lot of BS and finally to bed around 1am. Up around 8:30am, breakfast,
pack up, and a quick trip out in 1.5 hours. We were out by noon to a nice sunny
day. Good trip.
d. 12/7/2019: Lechuguilla Cave, NM. This was a
weeklong camp trip in Lechuguilla to an area called the Far East. Participants:
Nick Socky, David Socky, Irina Eftimie, John Lyles, Simeon Warner, David Lyons,
and Aria Mildice. We entered the cave 12/7/2019 (Saturday) around 10:30am. We
finally exited on Saturday, 12/14/2019, at about 4:30pm. We surveyed every day
from Sunday through Friday - for six days in a row, with each day averaging
around 12 hours (including 3 hours of travel time). We got a total of 6700 feet
surveyed, about 2500 feet was new, and about 400 or so was virgin.
e. 12/23/2019: Windy Mouth, WV. Participants included
David Socky and Bill Koerschner. Surveyed the upper level of First Canyon. Bill
and I put the new survey of Windy Mouth over 15 miles by surveying 607 feet
that day.
f. 1/11/2020: McClungs Cave, WV. Participants included
David Socky, Carl Amundson, Chris Coates, and Rob Wardell. We went into
Lightner Entrance at about 10:30am using my rope for the entrance. It was
cloudy, but not raining. It was supposed to rain a bunch in the afternoon or
evening. We made it to the end of the SOD (Swing of Destiney) survey in
Chocolate Ave and got started surveying about 12:30 pm. Our survey designation
was WFD for Warm Freakin Day, since it was over 60
degrees outside, and this was January. We got to the climb up into 3rd Breakdown
in about 9 shots but surveyed to the end of the stream passage. Into the 3rd
breakdown, we climbed up high and then after a little bit of belly crawling, we
surveyed a simple 6 to 8 foot wide tube with a mud floor for a looooong way. We ended up surveying 2275 feet in 50
stations. We still have a long way to go before getting to the Meat Grinder.
Plus, we skipped a lot of the complicated stuff in 3rd breakdown. We finished
up about 9pm, had a snack, packed up and headed out. We decided to try and find
our way out via the Rimstone pool passage, Sandy Way, etc. But we kept running
into dead ends. We finally decided to go out the way we had come in. It was a
good thing, though, because when we got out at 11:00pm, it had quit raining.
Apparently, it had only stopped at 10:45pm or so. When we got to the short
climb where our vertical stuff was, we noticed that the water sounds were a lot
louder. The short little crawl before the tight pop up hole was now a
full-fledged stream, and the entrance room below the 2nd drop was now raining!
We got soaking climbing up the flowstone. The climbs weren't too bad, just
drippy. But outside was dry and warm. It was 60 degrees out at 11:00pm! Good
12.5-hour trip all around.
g. 12/7/2019: Grand
Caverns, VA – Jen, Trish, and MarySue went to the
Caroling event.
h. 1/10/2020: Windy
Mouth, WV – Jason Delafield went with Nick Socky, Nikki Fox, for a photo
trip; killed some leads 40’ under virgin passage.
i.
1/11/2020: Jason Delafield missed a ride to McClung’s
but got on a trip to Maxwellton, WV where he surveyed 400’ feet of
virgin canyon passage.
j.
This
month’s trip 1/18/2020 will be to Porter’s
Cave, VA with Susan Burr (instead of Haynes Cave WV); meet at HROM at
8:30a. She was able to get permission from the landowner.
2. TREASURER’S REPORT (Trish
Geiger) –
Cave Bucks 31.64
Conservation 91.01
Equipment 133.87
General 3,426.94
TOTAL $3,683.46
3. COMMITTEES -
a. Newsletter “Carbide Dump”
– great issue! Keep sending in art, photos, articles.
b. Membership – As of now we
have 38 members and 5 subscribers. Dues are due to Trish Geiger, Treasurer.
c. ROCKS – Working on
Lowmoor.
d. Safety & Techniques –
Is there interest in Dano and Marian offering a
Catawba Murder Hole Cave rappelling day in the daylight cave? Yes; perhaps in
the Spring. Marian also wants to set up some solar panel lights in the daylight
cave to see if they will glow at night.
4. MEMBERSHIP PROPOSALS –
Jason Delafield submitted his letter, indicating his interest in joining,
commitment to cave safety and conservation, and desire to “lower the average
age of Blue Ridge Grotto members.” Tabled until next month for vote. David Socky is his sponsor and MarySue seconded it.
5. OLD BUSINESS –
a. All 2019 officers were
voted in again for 2020.
b. Bylaws – When Dave was
doing the annual IO report for the NSS he discovered we had not updated and
sent in our new Bylaws to Paul Willis; this has been taken care of.
c. 70 BRG Christmas cards
were mailed out, 2 were returned.
6. NEW BUSINESS –
a. Al Steward “Fossil #1” is
now living at Cave Spring Place (retirement community) on 3585 Brambleton Ave,
Room 307. He appreciates visitors. He just celebrated his 90th
birthday.
b. We need to decide on our
cave donations for 2020, such as to ACCA, MAKC, WVCC, NCRC, Virginia Cave
Board, WVCCS, WVACS, etc. A list will be published in the Carbide Dump and we
will vote on recipients and amounts next month.
c. Our BRG website domain
name costs $20/month which David Socky has been paying out of his pocket – we
need to pay that with BRG funds.
d. Cave Bucks was
traditionally a way for us to donate $1 for each cave visited which could help
us donate to non-profit caving organizations; but that seems to have fallen to
the wayside – we need to remind everyone and educate the new folks about this
opportunity. The equipment fund
traditionally was for people borrowing our helmets and lights and equipment to
donate a suggested $3 each time to help replace equipment when needed. This also needs to be shared with all. Don Anderson started this back in the 1990’s.
e. See email re Virginia
karst and groundwater “call to action” for critical Virginia state budget
amendments to fund new karst, cave, and water protection employees. Deadline is
Monday January 20th!
f. Jason asked if the
sledgehammer he brought to the meeting belonged to anyone there? Dave said he thinks it belongs to Martin
DiLeggi.
g. Jason reminded everyone
that NCRC (National Cave Rescue) training Levels 1 and 2 will be in March; he
has submitted his application; which costs $250. He asked if there were any
scholarships available through BRG for this and similar training? It was suggested he check with RASS (Richmond
Grotto). BRG does not have this but individuals are welcome to make
private donations (which some did).
7. ANNOUNCEMENTS:
a. Please submitted written
cave trip reports to the Secretary; preferably via email to marian.mcconnell@gmail.com.
b. The next Virginia Cave Board
meeting is February 1st at the Vinton Public Library at 11am. Marian
is a member and will be attending. The public is welcome.
c. The next BRG meeting is
February 21st at Jersey Lily’s.
d. There will be a Sinkhole
Conference in Puerto Rico in April.
8.
PRESENTATION: Excellent
slideshow of Dave and Nick Socky’s trip to Lechuguilla
Cave, NM.