BLUE RIDGE GROTTO

Of the National Speleological Society (NSS)

Minutes - July 21, 2023 at 6pm; Jersey Lily’s in Roanoke

 

Attendance:

Nick Schmalenberger, Vice Chair

Marian McConnell, Secretary

Mary Sue Socky, Treasurer

Barry Ferguson

Helene Ferguson

Trish Geiger

Susan Burr

Lynn Ott

David Socky

Larry Manning

Jeff Huffman

Joy Manning*

Doug Feller

Wes Spangler*

Abby Mays*

Carol Cornett

 

 

*Guest

 

TRIP REPORTS:

 

Dave Socky:

 

6/17: Poor Farm, WV. Participants included David Socky + 40 or so other cavers. I was hiking with Dave Wickersham when I got call from Mary Sue about Doug Feller breaking his hip (it was his femur) in Poor Farm. We turned around and headed out. I met Mary Sue at Doug Fellers’ house. She brought my cave gear. Cheryl Feller and I then drove to Poor Farm. When we arrived, a doctor had just gotten to Doug. There were 10 to 15 cavers in the cave. Hunter and crew were using straws and hammers to make the crawl before the pit bigger. There was a team rigging the pit. There was the medical team for Doug. We waited outside for about an hour or so before 12 of us went in to be the haul team. We got to Doug in about 15 minutes. He was in about 500 feet past the pit. We waited until he was fully packaged and ready. I was assigned the job of finding and directing the specific route out. The 'extraction' went smoothly. Hauling him up the 20 foot pit went without a hitch. Dragging him out through crawl went well, but his face did get close to the ceiling. We started hauling at 7:15pm and he was out the entrance about 9:15pm. They took him by helicopter, with Cheryl, to Roanoke Memorial Hospital. I drove Cheryl's car back to their home. Mary Sue picked me up. It was about 12:30 am. What a day, especially for Doug.

[See Doug Feller’s article in the Carbide Dump. Marian will submit to NSS News with article and pics for possible publication.]

 

6/20: McClung Cave/Lightner Ent., WV. Participants included David Socky, Derek Bristol, Josh Williams, Lawrence Cen, Joyce Mok, Gandalf McNabb, Nikki Fox, and Rob Keith. The plan was to have two teams of 4 surveying in the Third Breakdown. As it turned out, Rob was a bit out of shape, so Nikki and Gandalf helped him exit the cave from the Champaigne Squeeze (with some added help from other WVACS cavers). The remaining five of us surveyed 12 stations, about 200 feet, in the Third Breakdown.

 

6/21: McClung Cave, WV. Participants included David Socky, Joe Zokaites, Allen Rush, Josh Williams, Joyce Mok, and Lawrence Cen. Through trip from Lightner entrance, north Freemen Ave, the Seven Fingers loop, Bat Bone Crawl, First Breakdown, and out the Entrance Canyon to the Historic Entrance. We got out right at 4pm. It was raining. Good meal by Jessica and Jamie Reep for Cave Camp.                   

 

7/4: Mammoth - El Ghore, KY. Participants included David Socky, Bob Alderson, Elizabeth Winkler, Emi Michael, Susan Hagan. Went in via an elevator and were in the Snowball dining room within minutes. We went down one passage to retrieve a ladder which wasn't needed anymore. Bob and I carried it back to an intersection just before the Snowball Dining Room. We then took another passage which led to the El Ghore passage, which Eli (Winkler) had been working on for a long time. We finished the survey of that passage, tying in to the Sillmans Room. The survey was nice and easy. It was nice dry, wide borehole, 12 to 15 feet wide by 15 feet high. Simple to sketch. Once we were done, we took the ladder to the elevator, but couldn't get it to fit, even though Eli thought they had taken it down that way. As it turns out, the ladder was taken in via the Carmichael Entrance. It was an easy 7.5 hour day with 1107 feet of survey.

 

7/5: Mammoth - New Discovery, KY. Participants included David Socky, Bob Alderson, Bill Koerschner. Other team: Hazel Barton, Megan Harder, and one other girl. We went in the New Discovery Entrance which was in a building located right were we parked. No miles of walking through the woods. Most of the route was through an old tourist trail in nice large walking borehole. Nice flat dirt floor with all the breakdown cleared away and the trail lined with rocks. It was a stroll through the park. After a while, the groomed trail ended, and we had to walk through borehole over breakdown and rocks. Oh, the horror. But then we got to an intersection with lots of breakdown. The way to our goal was on the right into a narrow, crawly stream passage. There was water and mud to crawl through. A couple of tight narrow sections, and then a constrictive squeeze through some breakdown. I was told I shouldn't have a problem at this spot, and I didn't. We had to take packs off, but there were no problems getting through. On the other side, the passage opened back up into a large intersecting trunk. Our lead was to the left where we tied into station PR66. There was a dome-pit complex on the left right away, which we surveyed. Then straight ahead, until we got to another side lead on the left. The 'A' Survey took off to the left and straight ahead was the 'B' Survey. We did the B survey first. It went up into a breakdown pile almost right away where we surveyed up high on the left first. This involved some steep hairy climbs. We left side leads on the right which probably connected to the right-hand lead way below. Climbing back down, we did the right-hand passage which got small within 40 feet or so. Bill did a solo survey in some really tight stuff, getting 3 or 4 shots before it got too tight. We then picked up the A survey. The stoop lead opened back up with a dome-pit on the left and a mud bank on the right. Bill crawled up a small drain and pushed it for 40 feet. It still goes, but it's small. We did 2 or 3 more shots and then called it a day since we were approaching the time to meet Hazel and crew back at the start of our survey. We all met as planned and the hike out of the cave was uneventful. It was an 11 hour trip with 830 feet of survey in the book.

 

7/6: Mammoth - Austin Entrance, KY. Participants included David Socky, Dan Lamping, Jeff 'Spike' Crews, Chad McCain, Joe Sikerski, Jen Sutherland, Cathleen Yung, and Nathan Curran. The hike to the Austin Entrance was nearly 2 miles from the old Crytal Cave office. Half was on a road and the other half was a small trail through the woods that went downhill a lot. Hiking back out was a pain in the butt. Some of the placenames included Brucker Breakdown, a ladder, and Crowbar Junction. The section of the cave was "Unknown Cave". Our team was to do route finding over and down the 'Poggly Shafts' (not sure of the spelling). We got down into the Gravely Crawls and found the lead that went to the Blue Tube and was a route down to the North West Passage. When we first started, after a short belly crawl, we reached a pit where there was a ledge around it on the left. But the ledge slopped into the pit and was scary enough that none of us wanted to do it. On the right was a little climb up and climb down where you could access a too narrow canyon up high and an overlook into the pit. Dan had looked at this, but I took another look. There was a low crawl space at floor level on the left which looked like it just went to another overlook. But I decided to have a closer look and found I could easily crawl out onto a rock and over to the other side of the pit. From there it was a simple climb down to the bottom. Yeah, we wouldn't be stopped in our tracks first thing! It took us several hours, but after several crawls and one other funky climb, we found our way down into the Gravely Crawls. The one other funky place was a pull up into a canyon, but then on the left was another traverse which went up and around to the right into a crawl. To the left was an exposed drop of about 15 feet. But there was a good handhold which allowed you to keep from slipping down over the edge. Getting back down was tricky because you had to go feet first without being able to see what you're doing. But the handhold was good, and it was easier to do than it seemed. Going out, I went first and spotted Dan and Spike down. Continuing on down the Gravely Crawls, it became obvious there were multiple levels. Some had been surveyed and some not. We found a waterfall, but no way to continue. Dan finally found the lead that went to a sign that said 'to NW Passage' and 'Blue Tube'. It was what he was looking for. There were no good survey stations to tie into, so we did a 'backbone' survey (no sketch) back to the start of the Gravely Crawls where there was an obvious station (T147 or some such). After doing this, we only had an hour before needing to meet the other group, so we headed out. Within 5 minutes of getting back to our meet place, the other group showed up. They had surveyed a bunch of really tight gnarly canyons. They had to do their own route finding too but accomplished most of their goal. The trip out was long and tiring and involved way too much stoop walk. It took us three hours to get out (3.5 hours to get in since we had more rest stops and photos). However, the majority of the trek was walking! It is just a long way!! The hike back up the hill was horrible and hot.

 

7/7: Mammoth - Great Onyx, KY. Participants included David Socky, Bob Alderson, Matt Mezydlo. Great Onyx is not connected to Mammoth yet. Great Onyx was Bob Gulden's favorite cave. We took the tourist trail to the pit that used to have stairs leading down to a lake where they had boat tours. There were two pits. The first was against the wall and was about 25 feet deep. The second was after about 20 feet and had a slightly overhung edge. It was a nice, easy 30-foot drop onto an old wooden platform. There was no lake, but water was flowing from a dome and going into a drain. There was a crawlway on the right, in water, that led to a waist deep pool and a dam and then another pit. But our lead was a tall narrow canyon further to the right. To get into the canyon, we had to climb up and squeeze into the narrow top. Within 25 feet the canyon got real narrow with two tight spots to go through. There was a lower crawl which I tried first and felt constricted and backed out. After discussions, I tried again and was barely able squeeze through. Again, in order to continue, we had to climb up to the ceiling to fit. Lots of sharp projecting fins with a narrow slot below where your feet would get stuck. Don't drop your pack. Belly crawl and squeeze. Bob and Matt were ahead, and I found a place I could sketch from. We did a whole 4 stations before Bob said he didn't want to continue. I agreed since it didn't seem to get any bigger. There was no room ahead for 3 cavers, so I stayed put. It was very painful getting out, but I had the better part of the deal as I didn't go as far as Bob or Matt. We went back up the pit and toured around in the rest of Great Onyx Cave. The rest of the cave was dug out for tourists. It was nice and easy and pretty cool. We exited around 6pm.           

 

7/7: Mammoth - Feil Ent Stans Well, KY. Participants included David Socky, Matt Mezydlo, and Tom Brucker. Tom wanted to show us a little bit of Stans Well through the Feil Entrance, owned by CRF. It was down the field from Hamilton Valley field station within walking distance, although we drove. A vertical culvert entrance with a ladder about 40 feet deep. We traveled perhaps 500 to 600 feet down a narrow twisty dry canyon until we got to a point we would have had to crawl. We went in around 9:30pm after dinner and spent a whopping hour. It was fun and a new entrance and area for me.

 

7/8: Mammoth - Colossal, KY. Participants included David Socky, Tom Brucker, and Megan Harder. Team 2: Elizabeth Winkler, Myka, Izzie, Tim, and Nathan. Another hike through the woods, about a mile and a half. The last part was pretty steep going down to the entrance. We got to a junction, about 15 minutes from the entrance when Myka started feeling sick. Bad headache and cramps. Eli gave her some pain medicine and then took her out. We continued into the cave. Our survey started with a wide muddy hands and knees crawl which opened into a dome pit. I sketched. There were no leads. We then did a side passage to the left which turned into the "Movie Theater Popcorn Passage". It was a small, but not tight, passage with narrow ceiling and floor channel and was covered in hard painful popcorn. It was very painful to crawl through. Lots of grunts, groans, moans, and cries of pain. Megan was able to turn around, but Tom and I had to back out. It was really awful. We then surveyed easier and dryer passages until it was time to meet up with Tim and crew. We went back to the intersection where Eli and Myka had left and took a tour of the larger sections of Colossal. Big dome-pits and large breakdown rooms and dry curving phreatic passages. Izzie and folk looked for sharks’ teeth and used a UV light. It was a fun little tour. The hike back was pretty miserable because it had rained so the woods were really wet. We got soaked, but at least it wasn't raining hard.  It was a 10.5-hour trip with 467 feet of survey.

 

7/14: Dry Cave, WV. Participants included David Socky and Greg Springer. We surveyed in the upper levels above the First Bypass way before the Blowhole. We followed the old 2000 survey and kept on running into the CED survey (Chris, Errol, and Dave). Greg sketched and I did cross sections. I didn't get too cold, although I did use a couple of 'body warmers'. It was a fun 11-hour trip with 586 feet of survey.

 

Nick Schmalenberger:

7/29 – Dreen Cave, WV for cave cartography map sketching class (during NSS Convention)

 

Mary Sue Socky:

7/26 – Fine Arts Salon Kiddy Cave during NSS Convention in Lewisburg, WV in the corner with kid pictures of Doug and Hazel Medville.

 

Trish Geiger:

7/14 – Lost World Caverns (off trail), WV – Trish, Nick Schmalenberger, Jeff Huffman and Larry Manning were on the rescue for Todd Handley who fell and received a serious leg/ankle injury from a falling rock. The Blacksburg Cave Rescue Team came, including 2 doctors who were able to provide immediate care. There were 40-60 responders. It happened at 3:45p and they got him out at 10:30p.

 

This Month’s Trip:

7/22 – Norman Cave, WV. Meet at HROM at 8:30a.

 

Next Month’s Trip:  TBA

 

BUSINESS MEETING:

 

Treasurer’s Report – Mary Sue Socky

 

 

Committees:

·         Newsletter – Great July issue. No issue in August. The issue with Nick on the cover won an Honorable Mention and Caver’s Choice at the NSS Convention!

·         Membership – Currently 56 members and 5 subscribers.

·         ROCKS – N/A

·         Safety & Techniques (Nick Schmalenberger) – There were 4 cave rescues in the past month:  Doug’s in Poor Farm, a self-rescue in McClung’s, a rescue in My Cave, and one in Lost World. This shows the importance of training and caving safely. Nick has been climbing at River Rock Climbing Gym on Wasena (where we have had classes before) and highly recommends it. He will be talking with his contacts there about possibly having another BRG class there at some time.

 

Membership Proposals:  None

 

Old Business:

·         Dave and Mary Sue will drive up and give Carol Bassett his Cave Owner award.

·         Vertical Training – See Safety & Techniques above.

·         Request from Larry Manning of Eastern Region Cave Rescue Team (ERCRT) for Virginia Cave maps. One of the top priorities of a successful cave rescue is to have a map of the cave. He said they have would they need from WV.  BRG had previously discussed his request since there are over 4,000 wild caves in Virginia, and it would not be practical to send all the maps; it would be best to have it be on a case-by-case basis for the cave where the rescue is located. Mike Futrell maintains the VSS database of Virginia Caves, but had also declined sending all the cave maps to Larry. It was suggested that when ERCRT is official and licensed, probably in the Fall of 2023, that a process be set up to get any map needed ASAP from Mike (with back-up; possibly Dave Socky) for the rescue. In some cases, it can mean the difference between life and death. Larry pointed out that for Doug Feller’s rescue in Poor Farm, WV; he was unable to get a copy of the map in a timely manner. [Note: it is a WV cave.]

·         Goodwin’s Cave – Mary Sue has not talked again with Jon Eisenzimmer; he is ok with BRG visiting the cave but he wants to unlock the gate. He also wants the cave designated as limited access; so if there are numerous requests, he may eventually let us have a copy of the key and manage it (like the previous owner).

·         Catawba Murder Hole Cave rainbow photo shoot – Marian is still working on this; Dano has been on travel and they need to devise a system to get the water and a “mister” to the cave, and pick a date.

·         Brick in Memory of Al Stewart – Mary Sue is working on this and will email Marian, Susan, Lynn with the specs for what we can put on the brick (how many lines and characters); e.g., “Fossil #1” with his name and NSS#.

 

New Business:

·         “Thank you” donation to Blacksburg Cave Rescue group for their help on Doug’s Rescue - Susan Burr motioned and Mary Sue Socky seconded that we donate $100. [Note: Lynn Ott also seconded but she is a Subscriber]. It passed unanimously. We may also consider adding them to our annual donation list, and also possibly add the new ERCRT to our list as well.

·         Mary Sue said Ernst Kastning told her that the family is planning a Memorial event for Karen, and he is working on an obituary for the NSS News.

·         Mary Sue returned a carabiner to Tommy Polson and he was grateful.

·         Marian mentioned some great movies and books about the Thai Rescue of the 12 Soccer boys and their coach – “13 Lives” (by Ron Howard) was streaming on Amazon, but is not in DVD format yet. “Aquanaut” by Rick Stanton is great, and paperbacks are available through Speleobooks (he gave a talk at the NSS Convention). She highly recommends “All 13” by Christina Soontornvat that has lots of color photos, diagrams, maps, and is very comprehensive. She will be writing a book review of this one for the Carbide Dump (and possibly NSS News).

·         There will be hybrid Level 1 and 2 Cave Rescue Training in mid-September per Larry Manning (2 weekends) by the Blacksburg Rescue Squad. There will also be an Orientation to Cave Rescue (OCR) in Winchester in October. Details TBA.

 

Announcements:

·         3 get well cards to sign – Carl Cornett (hurt leg/hip in bicycle incident), Nick Socky (knee surgery), and Todd Handley (injury in Lost World Caverns). We gave Carl his at the meeting, and Marian will mail the other 2.

·         Sympathy Card for Mr. Lockridge who passed away; the owner of Breathing Cave. Mary Sue will mail.

·         Healthy caving – don’t cave if you are sick.

·         Please send verified cave info updates for https://var.caves.org/index.php/conservation/closed-caves/closed-cave-list to Brad Blasé.

·         Winter closure dates for bat caves in West Virginia is September 1 – May 15. 

·         Winter cave closure dates for bat caves in Virginia is October 15 – April15.    

·         Lynn Ott:

 

2023 CAVER CALENDAR:

·         August 11-13 – SEKCI http://www.pinemountaingrotto.org/SEKCI

·         August 18 – BRG Meeting at Jersey Lily’s

·         September 15 – BRG Meeting at Jersey Lily’s

 

Program: “Cave of the Crystals” in Naica, Mexico

 

Meeting Adjourned about 8:40p.