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November/December
1990
1990
was a year of enormous change at Wind Cave National Park. A marked trail system,
closely modeled after one successfully used at Jewel Cave for several years, was
installed. In all, six heavily traveled routes were marked, providing access to
the entire system. In addition to protecting the cave form unnecessary impacts
by concentrating traffic along narrow paths, the trails also drastically simplified
route finding in this exceptionally mazy cave. In less than one year, the number
of cavers capable of leading trips anywhere into Wind Cave has grown from fewer
than 10 to more than 50. With the help of cavers from Colorado, Minnesota, and
South Dakota, work at Wind Cave has accelerated tremendously. The purpose of this
semi-monthly column will be to keep interested cavers up to date on progress at
Wind Cave.
On November 1, 1990, the surveyed length of
Wind Cave was 53.9 miles. By December 31, 1990, it had grown to 55.4 miles in
length. During these two months, more cave was surveyed than in the previous year
and a half. A mile of cave was inventoried, not including the 1.5 miles of cave
inventoried during the above surveys.
On November 2, Stan
Allison, Mary Laycock and Jim Nepstad surveyed 154 feet into a pleasant walking
size upper level passage they found while searching for a bypass to the Frostline.
Later that evening, they were joined by Karen Hirschy, Sue McDonald and Jamie
Wolfe in surveying the remaining distance required to bring the cave over the
54 mile mark. A previously unsurveyed connecting passage between two parts of
the Fairgrounds tour route was surveyed entirely by the lights from the tour.
The Colorado Grotto's monthly visit in November took place
during the weekend of the 10th. On November 9, Kevin and Steve Smith, Bill Hawn
and Robert Phillips inventoried the BB survey form BB8 to BB35. They indicated
good leads were in the area, but recommended limited travel due to fragile floors.
A total of seven trips were led into the cave on November 10.
Ted Lappin, Tim Moreland, Skip Withrow and Jim Wilson headed to the Chimera Room
area and surveyed 499 feet off of the KN survey, consisting mostly of smaller
passages with little additional potential. Robert Phillips, Doug Kent, June Golaz
and Carl Pagano visited the Mystic Hall area and inventoried KP1 to KP13. In addition,
they flagged off the bat skeleton in the Figure Eight Room and finished the last
300 feet of flagging on the green trail between Half Mile Hall and the BM survey.
Bill Yett, Kevin and Steve Smith and Bill Hawn traveled to the Snowdrift Avenue
area and inventoried the UR, US and UT surveys, as well as parts of the C survey
near Snowdrift Avenue. They also spent some time flagging off some of the delicate
spots nearby. Ed LaRock, Mike Behn and Barry Berg headed for the XS survey in
the Colorado Grotto area of the cave and surveyed 220 feet into an upper level
area despite battles with old confusing surveys and a defective measuring tape.
Time was also spent looking for thrust faults in the Xerox Room, with none being
found. Pat and Bethany Jablonsky spent some time route finding from the Amphitheater
to the E survey area. Jim and Greg Nepstad, Stan Allison and Paul Burger went
to a new area off the east side of the Club Room and surveyed 1647 feet of new
cave, most of it below Jeez Pit, and eventually tied into the Winding Stair area.
The most exciting find of the day was made by Garry Petrie, Pat Seiser and Norm
Thompson. After squeezing up through a tight opening in the ceiling near the start
of the XD survey in the Colorado Grotto area of the cave, they entered a new upper
level crawl which eventually led to several large rooms, including the STP Speedway.
The new area, which is on the eastern edge of the cave, contained considerable
airflow and was well decorated with various forms of aragonite. Large dry lake
beds, unusual for upper levels in Wind Cave, were found in several areas. 820
feet of cave was surveyed with many large leads left unexplored.
With a passable major breakthrough on the east side of the cave, an exception
was made to the normal once a month visits of the Colorado Grotto. Garry Petrie,
Pat Seiser, Ed LaRock, Mike Behn, Ted Lappin, Miles Hecker, Bob Kobza and Jim
and Greg Nepstad returned on November 17 to the STP Speedway area. Jim, Greg and
Bob busied themselves flagging off the fragile parts of the area while the rest
split into two groups to survey. In all, an additional 1275 feet of passage was
surveyed, with few remaining possibilities.
The Minnesota
Speleological Survey returned for their annual Thanksgiving weekend visit. A few
representatives of the Windy City Grotto, as well as the Colorado Grotto, were
also present for the purpose of "getting to know each other". On November
23, Matt Kramar, Randy Waslien, Rich Ness, Dave Trumm and Rick Nelson traveled
to the New Lakes region beyond Windy City Lake and surveyed 175 feet of water
leads in the Mammoth's Backbone area. While snorkeling, they reported finding
large flooded passages extending to the south. If the present rate of lake level
decline continues, these passages may be enterable in five to ten years. Gene
Kremer, Mark Wickham, Any Clark, Anne Ness, Becky Schmidt and Jan Harms finished
inventorying the Lakes route with the help of another group consisting of Dave
Gerboth, Naomi Burtnick, Greg Brick, Jim Edberg and Bob Lenz. Close to 1000 feet
of cave was inventoried. Bill Yett and Pat Jablonsky led two trips into the E
survey area in the northeastern part of the cave.
The Colorado
Grotto weekend for the month of December took place on the weekend of the 8th.
Jim Wilson, Dave Lester, Bill Yett and Tim Moreland went to the Coke Room area
and inventoried from MP22 to the Coke Room. They also surveyed 117 feet in the
area. Ted Lappin, Steve Reames, Bethany Jablonsky and Stan Allison surveyed a
total of 546 feet in the Winding Stair and Club Room areas. Kevin and Steve Smith,
Bill Hawn and Jerry Hassemer led an inventory trip into the area beyond the infamous
Wretched Hole. They came out with a record 74 stations of inventory. Their only
comment on the trip report was "the Wretched Hole is wretched". Pat
Jablonsky, Lonny Haynes, Bob Stucklen, Clarence Williams and Tom Briardy inventoried
23 stations along the E survey in the northeast part of the cave.
On December 15, Bob Kobza, Mike Paulike, Jim Nepstad, Marc Lamphere and John Scheltens
traveled to the BP survey (along the green trail) below Half Mile Hall. Once there
they divided into two groups and surveyed 1800 feet of passage.
On December 19 and 20, Stan Allison and Paul Burger led trips into the Chamber
Pot Room and Mound Builder's Rest areas of the Historic zone, and surveyed 230
feet of passage in the Club Room area. They also checked a blowing lead located
only a few feet into the Snake Pit Entrance which heads north. Strong airflow
was noted, but the passage becomes breakdown choked. On the same day, they reported
observing wind exiting the Snake Pit while the natural entrance was blowing in.
It was an exceptionally cold day, and the cave apparently set up a chimney effect
(the Snake Pit is roughly 200 feet higher in elevation than the Natural Entrance).
This was the first recorded occurrence of the phenomenon at Wind Cave. |
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