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Date: 24 April 2004
Purpose: Biology, riffle survey and guano pile measurements
Leaders: Bill Gee, Lawrence Ireland
Participants: Lawrence Ireland, Matt Goska, Andy Isbell, Bill Gee, Stephanie Brady, Allison Sanders, Nila Vance, Derek Osborn, John Helme
Time in: 11:30am
Time out: 5:00pm
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The original goal of this trip was to split into two teams. One team was going to go to upstream Thunder River to do riffle counts while the other was going to go past the Second Water Barrier to label, count and measure guano piles. We had arranged to include State Fair Community College biology students, but their professor was suddenly unable to attend. We expected some of this trip’s effort would be spent introducing these new CCC members to the cave. In doing so we also expected to recruit some active bio-cavers. Five students from the college made the trip despite miserable weather. Later we learned that the work they did was part of a class assignment.
Friday evening Matt Goska and I went up the hill to rig the shaft with a top belay system. We had heard that none of the five students had any vertical gear or experience, so we planned to treat them as guests for the purpose of going up and down the shaft. We dropped one of CCC's ropes in the shaft, tied to a length of webbing at the top which was in turn tied to two carabiners and clipped to brackets on the tank. We rigged a prussik-minding pulley and a prussik loop to use as the up-belay.
Overnight Friday the area received some very heavy rain. When Matt and I went up the hill, the creek in the field was dry. Saturday morning it had about 12 or 14 inches of water flowing fairly fast. The weather was still drizzling. Because we did not know what conditions would be in Thunder River, we decided to get everyone into the cave, then investigate water levels. Depending on the water level, we would decide how to split the teams.
Everyone had arrived by shortly after 9:00AM. Lawrence Ireland, Derek and I had 4x4 trucks, so we drove everyone up the hill. Once inside the silo, we insisted everyone take a look down the shaft and see what they were up against. Despite explicit gear recommendations, most of students had cotton clothes and poor lights. We had to get creative about helmets, lights and harnesses for the five students. Fortunately Lawrence had brought a lot of extra gear.
We warned the novices about claustrophobia, exhaustion, and hypothermia, emphasizing that they should not attempt the trip unless they were absolutely sure they were up for it. Experienced cavers have been humbled by the likes of Carroll Cave. All five students wanted to go ahead with the trip anyway.
Before we started dropping the shaft, the four experienced cavers checked over the students' gear. The veterans packed extra batteries and polypro shirts, none of which were ever required.
Matt Goska put on his seat harness and rigged a backstay from himself to the ladder in the mezanine level. Andy Isbell went down first, then we lowered each of the five students using a rack attached to Matt. Lawrence checked harnesses at the top, Andy got them out of the harness at the bottom, and I helped feed rope. After all the students were down, the three of us rappelled in. We left the rope tied into the prussik and pulley for use on the climb-out.
Once we were in the cave, Lawrence gave an introductory talk about what we wanted to do and how to behave in the cave. He emphasized how difficult the cave is and to speak up if there were any problems with fatigue or cold.
We all went down to Thunder River just below the dig site. The river was running higher than I have ever seen it, at least two feet above normal. A riffle we measured back in March was now invisible because the water was so high. The river was also very silted up, making visibility zero. We weren't going to see anything in the river, so we decided to take everyone down to count guano piles. Once past the Water Barrier, we would split into two teams which would leap-frog each other doing counts.
About 12:00 we headed out to the Second Water Barrier. The trip was slow going due to the students being inexperienced in how to move in a cave. We noted all the C-survey markers from the survey trip three weeks before. Ben Miller is a survey animal! When we arrived at the water, Lawrence stopped and gave everyone a description of what was coming. He offered everyone a chance to back down. Nila decided to take him up on that offer. Andy Isbell and I were elected to escort her back to the ladder and get her out of the cave. Everyone else decided to go ahead.
Andy, Nila and I started back to the ladder about 1:15. We arrived there about 45 minutes later. Nila was not moving fast, but she was moving steadily. At the ladder she said she was able to climb on her own. Andy and I discussed signals, then I put on my harness and climbed the ladder. While I was doing that, Andy got Nila into a harness. Once at the top, I recovered my breath and checked the belay system. Everything was good to go. I gave Andy and Nila the "Go" signal and Nila started climbing. It took her 12 or 15 minutes to make the climb. She stopped several times to rest, but she made it on her own power.
After I got her out of her harness, Nila decided to walk down to her van at the school house. She had dry clothing there, and she lives just 3 miles from the cave. I told her our out time was planned for 6pm and asked her to drive by the school house at 8pm to see if anything was happening. If it looked like we were not out, she was to go talk to Greg Fry who is an old classmate.
I rappeled down the shaft as soon as Nila left. Andy and I decided to take a quick trip over to Thunder Falls just to see what it looks like in high water. We could hear the roar of the falls almost all the way to the ladder, which is unusual. We got through the shortcut passage and noted the water was very high and flowing very fast. I estimated between 1.5 and 2 meters per second in the fastest part of the stream. Andy and I decided that was too high and too fast to be safe, so we turned around and went back.
Meanwhile Lawrence, Matt and the four remaining students had measured eight distinct guano piles, stopping for lunch at a big quagmire in Carroll River. Only one, perhaps two, of these guano areas looked to be fresh, though all of them contained some life. Several spiders were found in a couple of the mounds, as well as millipedes, gnats and beetles. No salamanders or cavefish were found. It is important to note that they did not see any gray bats. The college students were helpful but seemed a little despondent. John took notes for Lawrence. Allison and Derek asked to borrow balaclavas during this slow-paced portion of the trip.
Andy and I made a medium pace down Carroll passage and through the Water Barrier. Just as we got out of the water at the end of the Water Barrier, we met Matt and the four remaining students coming back. They had had enough, especially Allison. Andy Isbell went on to help Lawrence finish measuring and examining the last guano pile while Matt and I escorted the four students back to the ladder.
We started back through the Water Barrier about 2:45. It was quickly obvious that Allison was getting very tired. She was stumbling around even on flat surfaces. I took the tail-end Charlie position with Allison just ahead of me. Stephanie was carrying both their packs. We stopped often for breathers. It was slow going.
During one breather Matt and I went down the cave 50 feet or so for a private conference. It was pretty clear that Allison was not going to get up the ladder on her own power. She might have trouble just getting back to the ladder. We talked about how to handle the situation and came up with a plan for rigging a haul system. When we rejoined the group, we tried to get Allison to take some water and carbohydrates. She managed to get some down but was complaining of being nauseated. She was sweating and shaking from fatigue. She said she was not cold. Her speech was not slurred, so I decided she was probably not hypothermic.
Getting back to the ladder was a big struggle for Allison. I thought for a while she might have to finish on hands and knees. She managed to get back on her own power. The effort took everything she had. She did not complain much, though I heard her mutter several times that she wasn't going to make it. We did not move fast, but we kept moving. As long as she was moving on her own power, I felt there was no great danger.
We got back to the ladder about 4:00pm. Matt and I explained the plan to the others. I went up the ladder first, then belayed John. I showed him how to run the belay system. He belayed Derek and Stephanie while I started to lay out a z-rig haul system. There is a 4:1 system pre-rigged in the tank and hanging from the pipe at the top. I considered using it, but I remembered the tangle it got into when it was first tested. We did not have enough experienced people to properly use it. Given that, I decided to rig a completely independent system.
I ran a piece of webbing between some anchors on the side of the tank. This had a prussik-minding pulley with a progress capture device on it. The rope ran over this pulley, through the arm hole in the big hatch and down the shaft. The big hatch was locked and we could not find a key, so we had to rig through the armhole. I left the original belay line in the shaft, using another of the CCC ropes from the silo.
My truck was parked just outside the tank in the perfect spot to be an anchor for the second pulley on the z-rig. That was a truly fortunate occurance. I had parked there because it was raining and I did not want to go far to the tank! The rope came back into the tank, around another pulley attached to the down rope by a prussik, then back out of the tank where we could haul on it. I had only two pulleys and needed three, so I wound up using a big maillon on the truck anchor.
We had just about got the rig set up when Matt came up the ladder. He explained that Lawrence and Andy had arrived back at the bottom and would make sure Allison was rigged in properly. To test the z-rig handling and signals, we hauled all the packs out first. That went pretty smooth, so we sent the rope back down with a full-body harness on it. Lawrence and Andy got Allison into the harness. Stephanie stayed on the mezanine where she could hear Allison. Matt managed the prussiks and resetting of the z-rig. John, Derek and I provided muscle.
The actual haul went very smoothly. It took about 10 minutes to get Allison all the way up the shaft. Matt helped her derig. Andy came up the ladder. Lawrence decided he wanted to get some trash out of the cave, so we used the original belay line to haul. Matt and I brought up two loads including a bunch of pipes. Lawrence then attached the ammo case. Matt and I tugged a bit but decided it was too much weight. We told Lawrence to save it for another day. Lawrence then came up the ladder.
Once at the top, Lawrence decided he was going to get that ammo box out of the cave no matter what! He hauled that thing all the way up all by himself. What an animal!
The four students managed to get themselves changed and their truck packed with little help from us. Aside from fatigue, they were all OK. Allison was the only one who had any problems in the cave or on the ladder. They all left about 5:00pm. Matt, Andy, Lawrence and I coiled ropes and cleaned things up. We closed up and were on the way down the hill by about 5:30pm.
The rain had finally ended. Back at camp, we all enjoyed hot hamburgers (thanks Matt!), and the company of visitor Bill Pfantz.
============ Conclusions
This trip raises two issues that need to be discussed.
The biggest concern is leading inexperienced, unfit and perhaps even uninterested people through a cave as large and demanding as Carroll. Taking responsibility for a high-risk trip requires consideration, preparation, and emergency preparedness. Most importantly, one must not assume that neophytes and the unfit will be aware of their own physical limitations. In this case it was especially troubling to learn that the students were here for class credit rather than personal interest.
In all, each of the five students performed very well and should be commended for their effort. Nonetheless, we were fortunate to have knowledgable and prepared cavers with us that could deal with a potentially dangerous situation.
The other issue is locking of the hatches. The small hatch was not locked when Matt and I went up Friday evening. The big hatch is locked and we can't find the key for it. Had there been a stretcher rescue, we would have had a big problem.
In the end we managed to self-rescue without a callout. No one was injured and the outcome of our biology trip was good.