Wind Cave Trip Reports - 2001

January/February 2001

During January and February 9,843 feet of new cave was added to the length of Wind Cave. This brings the length to 96.13 miles long, maintaining the cave's position as the seventh-longest cave in the world and the fifth longest in the US. The 100th mile is getting closer!

01/03/2001
Rod Horrocks, Chris Ingebretsen, and Ari Jahalla
The first trip of the New Year saw this trio surveying in the Historic Section in the area of the Chamber of Lost Souls area. They surveyed 243 feet on this evening trip.

01/05/2001
Marc Ohms and Matt Reece
Marc and Matt visited Elk Antler Cave, a small cave in the park, to survey the cave. The entrance consisted of a 22-foot vertical pit that required rope. At the bottom of the pit, a crawl leads to the north for 35 feet to a constriction too tight to continue. The floor of the cave consists of pinecone parts, needles, and cactus spines. They then checked out a nearby, cliff-side entrance that required a rappel to enter. As all too typical in the Black Hills, the hole went about 4 feet.

01/10/2001

Marc and Rene Ohms, and Matt Reece
Marc and crew surveyed 231 feet, mopping up four leads along the Bishop Fowler's Loop in the Historic Section.

Rod Horrocks and Chris Ingebretsen
Rod and Chris surveyed leads along the Overland Trail in the Historic Section on this evening trip. They mopped up several side leads for 193 feet.

Steve Baldwin, Steve and Sammi Langendorf
Sammi and the Steves went into the Historic Section for a bit of after dinner caving. They surveyed 260 feet along the Overland Trail.

Wind Cave Weekend 01/13/2002

Amy Johnson, Christa Schneider, Jeff Goben, and Dan Wray
Amy led this bunch out to the Club Room Section to survey leads in the YK survey. They surveyed a total of 220 feet.

Marc and Rene Ohms, Matt Reece, and Nick Myers
Marc led this crew into the Club Room Section to survey leads in lower level cave, northwest of the Garden Gate. They surveyed 406 feet, mopping up several leads.

Tom Dotter, Karla Whittenburg, Carrie Finn, and Majorie Johnson
Tom led the female contingency into the Club Room Section to survey leads south of the Road Block. Tom could not fit past a constriction leading to their original destination but managed to find going cave nonetheless. They surveyed 392 feet in an area they want to return to.

Cyndi Mosch, Mike Goar, Jim Lawton, and Polly Hansel
Cyndi led the others into the Club Room Section to survey leads near Christmas Tree Park. They resurveyed 327 feet of an old BB survey to correct errors and obtain a better sketch, and surveyed 178 feet of new passage.

Evan Anderson, Steph Haderlie, Pat Roberson, and Steve Lester
Evan led this crew to the Half-Mile Hall Section to survey in the Bucking Horse Canyon area. They named the Deep Sea Transvestite and Stephs Tentacle. They surveyed an amazing 1,680 feet!

Dennis Laird, Tim Moreland, Dave Lester, and Eric Dutton
This foursome ventured into the recently discovered Kneebone area of the Historic Section. They surveyed 685 feet in one lead and left many more leads to return to.

James Wilson, Skip Withrow, Barbara Smith, and Greg Glazner
This crew also headed into the Kneebone area in the Historic Section. They surveyed 632 and left numerous leads.

Rod Horrocks, Jay Kennedy, and Clarence Williams
Rod led this trip into the Historic Section to relocate stations along the C-survey (tour route) and record LRUD information. They also resurveyed 147 feet of the old ES survey and surveyed 302 feet of new cave.

01/20/2001

Marc and Rene Ohms, Kelly Mathis, and Charlie Knight
Marc drug this crew to the southern Club Room Section, to continue surveying leads in the area. They surveyed 520 feet, mopping up several leads.

Rod Horrocks, Chris Ingelbretsen, and Ari Juhala
Rod led this team into the Club Room Section to survey leads in the Hobsons Bypass and Loose Cannon run areas. They finished the Hobsons Bypass area and surveyed a total of 252 feet.

01/23/2001
Marc Ohms and Dan Austin
Marc led the monthly trip down to What the Hell to obtain a water sample and gage the lake level. It was down 0.78' since the last trip in December.

01/25/2001
Rod Horrocks and John Scheltens
Rod and John surveyed 125 feet of small virgin crawls in the New Beginnings Room area in the Historic Section during this evening trip.

01/27/2001

Marc Ohms, Mike Wiles, and Joe Oliphant
Marc led this crew out to the Southern Comfort Section to the Northwest Territory area. They surveyed two leads for a total of 192 feet.

Rene Ohms, Tina Oliphant, and John Citta
Rene led this trio out to the Southern Comfort Section to the area of Northwest Territory. They surveyed 286 feet in one lead that consisted entirely of crawls.

Rod Horrocks, Andy Belski, Mitch Price, and Doug Warner
Rod led this foursome out to the northwestern edge of the Half-Mile Hall Section, to the Rainbow Room area. They surveyed 380 feet, wrapping up several leads. On the way in Rod slipped on a climb and injured his rotator cuff in his left shoulder. He completed the trip but was laid up for several weeks following the incident.

Matt Reece and Ben Miller
Matt and Ben traveled along the Candlelight Tour in the Historic Section and surveyed 305 feet before Ben lost the mylar tags down a pit.

02/03/2001
Marc and Rene Ohms, Matt Reece, and Ben Miller
Marc led the foursome into the southern part of the Club Room Section to continue surveying leads in that area. They surveyed 390 feet.

Wind Cave Weekend 02/10/2001

Amy Johnson, Greg Springer, and Derek Wolfe
Amy led the crew into the Half-Mile Hall Section to the area of Snowball Draw. They surveyed 313 feet of crawls with profuse gypsum, moonmilk, and frostwork.

Jim Wilson, Clarence Williams, Jay Kennedy, and Mike Kienker
Jim and crew surveyed 368 feet in the Historic Section and noted numerous historic artifacts.

Dennis Laird, Greg Glazner, Bruce Albright, and Stuart Marlet
This foursome headed to the Kneebone area in the Historic Section to continue pushing leads in this new area. They named the Metacarpel Room, the Black Lung Room, Haggis Hall, and the Carpel Tunnel. They surveyed 544 feet and left more leads.

02/15/2001
Steve Baldwin, and Steve and Sammi Langendorf
This Custer trio returned to leads in the Historic Section along the Overland Trail that they started a few weeks ago. They tied into a former survey and resurveyed a passage that had known problems, surveying a total of 152 feet.

02/18/2001
Marc and Rene Ohms
This couple headed north in the Historic Section to continue pushing leads in the nasty area they call Hades. They surveyed 304 feet of low crawls. They discovered a 15-foot pit that will require vertical gear to drop. The pit is north of any known cave in the area.

02/20/2001
Rod Horrocks and Chris Ingebretsen
Spending a couple hours in the Chert Room area in the Historic Section teaching, Rod taught Chris to sketch. They surveyed 62 feet in the process.

02/24/2001
Marc and Rene Ohms, Matt Reece, John Keefner, and Dan Durben
This bunch headed into the Historic Section to an area west of the Misplaced Pit. They split into two groups, Rene lead Dan and John and started the resurvey of the NN survey. Marc and Matt surveyed leads off of the NN behind the resurvey crew. One lead headed south into a nice room they named Brittany's Boudoir. Rene's crew resurveyed 190 feet and the other surveyed 320 feet.

02/28/2001

Marc Ohms, Matt Reece, and Ben Miller
The monthly gaging of What the Hell saw a drop of 0.5'. At this rate the now sumped route to the Lakes, could be open this summer.

Steve Baldwin, John Scheltens, and Chris Ingebretsen
This trio headed into the Historic Section to check for leads off of the TT survey. They found nothing that went.

March/April 2001

March and April saw a flurry of activity in the cave. The survey total for the two months was 10,428 feet (1.97 miles)! This brings the total survey to 98.1 miles. The 100th mile is getting closer.

03/04/2001
Marc and Rene Ohms
This caving duo headed into the north part of the Historic Section to continue surveying in the nasty M survey. They surveyed 193 feet of low crawls heading north. They toted in a cable ladder to drop a short pit on the north edge of the cave that they discovered last trip. It led to a dead-end room.

Wind Cave Weekend 03/10/2001

Randy Macan, Jake Deeds, Patricia Malone, and Jon Ewert
Randy led this team out into the Half-Mile Hall Section to survey leads off of the BH survey. They surveyed 425 ft.

Jeff Goben, Christa Schneider, and Kim McVey
Jeff lead this crew out to the northern part of the Half-Mile Hall Section to survey leads near the pink trail, south of the Chimera Room. They surveyed five nasty leads for a total of 144 feet.

Carl Bern and Amy Johnson
This couple ventured into the Historic Section to do a bit of surveying. They surveyed leads off of the BF survey, off of Rome. They surveyed 172 feet of mop-up.

Jim Wilson, Skip Withrow, Marc and Rene Ohms
Jim led this trip out to the Kneebone area of the Historic Section. They surveyed 1,110 feet new cave and left plenty of leads.

Rod Horrocks, Dave Cummings, Dave Weber, and George Corddry
Rod led this trip into the Historic Section to survey leads off of the SPH survey near Omnibus Hall. After mopping up a dome and then better defining the northeast corner of the room, for a total of 100 feet of survey, they went up into the Mind Boggler area to finish the remaining leads in that area. Surveying 189 feet, they surveyed a total of 289 feet.

Sandy Kramer and Kathy Petty
In the morning these two ladies did the Caving Tour in order to familiarize themselves with the route for the upcoming Restoration Camp. After that they headed into the Historic Section, along the Bishop Fowler's Loop to survey leads. They surveyed 76 feet.

03/14/2001
Rod Horrocks, Dave Shurtz, Ryan Shurtz, and Jordan Shurtz
Rod led the visiting Utah crew into the Historic Section to survey leads off of the Fairgrounds. They surveyed a room with multiple dead-end side leads that they named the Ever Ending Room. They then surveyed up into a 60-foot high spiraling dome that appears to have been completely excavated. They found a 1935 check for two cents tacked to the top of the dome, which they named the Two-Cent Stope. They surveyed 519 feet, including 124 feet of resurvey.

03/15/2001
Rod Horrocks, Dave Shurtz, Ryan Shurtz, and Jordan Shurtz
Rod led the visiting Utah crew into the Historic Section to survey leads off of the New Beginnings Room. The first dome they checked led into a rift area they named the Arcane Rift. This then opened into a 370-foot long passage they named "Terra-Cotta Trail", after the brownish orange floors. The passage headed north, 50 feet above the paved tour route. They left plenty of leads in this area and surveyed a total of 626 feet.

03/17/2001
Matt Reece and Dan Durban
Matt and Dan traveled into the Historic Section to survey leads off of the Overland Trail. They surveyed 204 feet including one passage with some great popcorn that they named the "Popcorn Machine".

03/24/2001

Marc and Rene Ohms and Matt Reece
The crew headed into the North Section to survey leads off of the Key Room. They started by surveying a large room south of the Key Room that had not been previously surveyed. A lead off of this room lead to an additional 400 feet of well-decorated cave with all sorts of dripstone including cave pearls. They surveyed a total of 503 feet and left several leads.

Ed LaRock, Mike Behn, Larry Richards, and John Piatt
Ed led this bunch into the Club Room Section to survey leads off of the MK survey. They surveyed 284 feet.

03/26/2001
Matt Reece, Ben Miller, and Bob Leach
Matt led this trio into the Historic Section to survey leads off of the SA survey. They surveyed 225 feet.

03/29/2001
Rod Horrocks, Steve Baldwin, and Nick Myers
Rod led this group into the Historic Section on an evening trip to survey leads off of the New Beginnings Room. They mopped up 158 feet before locating a bellycrawl that led up a dome with air. After 140 feet of survey, they emerged from underneath a boulder in the Mammoth Galleries. They surveyed a total of 298.

03/31/2001
Marc and Rene Ohms and Matt Reece
The trio returned to the Key Room area in the North Section for more survey. They added another 411 feet of survey to the cave. The most exciting thing they discovered was a dome with airflow and roots hanging from its ceiling.

04/10/2001
Rod Horrocks, Nick Myers, Belinda Fox, and Tom Kindling
Rod led this evening trip into the New Beginnings Room area in the Historic Section. They surveyed 247 feet of very small passages. Their average shot was eight feet long. Numerous other small leads remain in this area.

04/11/2001
Marc Ohms and Matt Reece
Marc and Matt traveled to What the Hell in the Lakes section for the monthly visit to obtain water samples and a gage reading. The lake was down .04 ft since last month.

Wind Cave Weekend 04/14/2001

Carl Bern, Jeff Goben, and Greg Springer
Carl and crew headed out into the North Section of the cave to survey leads north of Snowball Draw. They surveyed 673 feet and left several going leads.

Evan Anderson, Tonya Potts, and Paul Mozal
Evan led this bunch into the Half-Mile Hall Section to continue surveying leads in the Mystic Hall and Bucking Horse Canyon areas. They surveyed 1,020 feet.

Patrick Roberson, Curtis Pattillo, Pete Tschennan, and Mica Ball
This foursome traveled into the Half-Mile Hall Section to survey leads off of the BX, BW, and CY surveys. They surveyed 590 feet and noted many unsurveyed leads along the BW.

Karla Whittenburg, Tom Dotter, Marjori Johnson, and Kim McVey
This foursome traveled into the Club Room Section to survey leads off of the AA survey. They surveyed 266 feet and left several going leads.

Dennis Laird, Rene and Marc Ohms, and Eric Dutton
Dennis led this group into the Kneebone area of the Historic Section. They surveyed leads noted on a previous trip and racked up 1,145 feet of new cave. They left many leads including some that were walking sized.

Skip Withrow, Jim Wilson, and Barbara Smith
Skip led the team into the Kneebone area of the Historic Section to survey leads found on an earlier trip. They surveyed 762 feet and left more leads. They discovered an area decorated with all sorts of dripstone formations.

04/21/2001
Sandy Kramer and Kathy Petty
These two traveled along the Caving Tour to re-familiarize themselves with the route for the upcoming Restoration Camp.

04/26/2001
Rod Horrocks and Steve Baldwin
Rod and Steve ventured into the Drip Drop Room area in the Historic Section for an evening survey. They surveyed 246 feet off of the CW survey, closing several loops.

 

May/June 2001

During May and June of 2001, 13 survey and 2 resurvey trips were taken into the Historic, Club Room, Half Mile Hall, North, Lakes, and Colorado Grotto sections of Wind Cave. During those trips, cavers surveyed and inventoried a total of 6,428 feet, or 1.22 miles of previously unsurveyed passage, with an average survey length of 494 feet per trip. In addition, they resurveyed a total of 595 feet of old problem surveys. The new survey raised the official length of Wind Cave from 98.1 miles to 99.32 miles, maintaining the cave's position as the seventh-longest cave in the world and the fifth longest in the US.

05/09/2001
Rod Horrocks, John Scheltens, Steve Baldwin, and Randy Schriber
Rod led an evening trip to push some dome leads in the Fairgrounds area in the Historic Section. They found a coded Alvin McDonald signature (Z.U.Q.) and several domes explored by Roy McDonald in the mid 1890's. They surveyed 333 feet.

05/11/2001
Tom Dotter, Karla Whittneburg, Tracy Copp, and Marjori Johnson
Tom led a sketchers training trip to a fairly large room on the LSD survey along the Red and White trail in the Club Room Section. They surveyed 200 feet in several small leads off this room and left numerous leads for a return trip.

05/12/2001

John Scheltens, Ed LaRock, Mike Behn, and Dave Worthington
John led a day trip to the AA Route in the Club Room Section, where he found an unsurveyed passage off of AA13. They found a nice frostwork lined room and mapped a total of 471 feet.

Rod Horrocks, Bonnie Curnock, Jamie Sherer, and Cheryl Yearwood
Rod led three Wind Cave Restoration Camp participants on a short evening trip to the Coliseum area in the Historic Section. They surveyed 150 feet on this training trip, leaving a couple of unsurveyed passages for a later trip.

Randy Macan, Paul Mozal, and Carrie Finn
Randy led a trip to the south end of the Half-Mile Hall area. They surveyed 235 feet within a small hole in the line plot and then mopped up several passages in a confusing area. They surveyed a total of 587 feet.

Evan Anderson, Suzette Kane, Jim Olsen, and Hazel Barton
Evan led this trip out to the north end of Half-Mile Hall to check a pit that Hazel had found. After 200 feet of survey, they started checking the KK survey to the south. They found a complex vertical maze before quitting for the day with 659 feet of survey. They left numerous leads in the maze for a return trip.

05/25/2001

Marc Ohms and Rod Horrocks
Marc and Rod traveled down to What the Hell lake for the monthly water level gaging. The lake level was down 0.36 feet since last month. The lake is continuing to drop which means we may have access to the main lakes before too long?

Evan Anderson, Paul Burger, and Steve Lester
Evan led this trip out to the Bucking Horse Canyon area in the Half-Mile Hall Section. They mopped up numerous leads for 938 feet of survey.

05/29/2001
Rod Horrocks, Dave, Ryan, and Jordan Shurtz
Rod led some returning Utah cavers on a day trip back to their Terra-Cotta Trail discovery they made a few months before in the Historic Section. They named an upper level passage the Tannis Passage and an interesting room the Map Room. The room's name referred to the flat chert ceiling that was covered with outstanding dendrites that resembled a line plot of Wind Cave. Surveying a tube that continued straight west out of the room, they mapped the only passage in the whole area to deviate from the general NW-SE trend. They stopped the survey at the top of a 30-foot pit that they named the Well of Souls. With 851 feet of survey for the day, this brought the total survey in this new area to 1,615 feet.

05/30/2001

Rod Horrocks, Dave, Ryan, and Jordan Shurtz
Rod led the visiting Utah cavers on a second trip, this one to the Base Camp area that straddles the Lakes and Club Room Sections. They found some nice unsurveyed canyons with helictite bushes. After closing several loops, they started surveying each side passage along the JA survey that led to Shelobs Lair. They stopped at a very tight bellycrawl after 761 feet of survey.

Marc & Rene Ohms, and Tom Kindling
Marc led an evening trip into the Candlelight Tour area in the Historic Section. They surveyed the first lead they found along the AT survey, surveying 157 feet. They left a few leads and noticed some bad loop closure problems in the area.

06/09/2001
Jim Wilson, Skip Withrow, Barbara Smith, and Derek Wolfe
Jim led a day trip back to his extensive Kneebone Room discovery, north of the Spillway in the Historic Section. They mopped up numerous leads off the TA and TE surveys. They finished with 414 feet of new survey.

06/21/2001
Marc Ohms, Noah Daniels, and Stephen Smith
Marc led this resurvey trip to the Mammoth Gallery area in the Historic Section. They were able to resurvey 81 feet and fix a bad loop.

06/22/2001
Marc Ohms, Noah Daniels, and Stephen Smith
Marc led a work trip to resurvey part of the main pink and black trail in the Colorado Grotto Section. They resurveyed 514 feet of the KC survey, from Independence Hall to the Xerox Room.

06/23/2001
Marc Ohms, Noah Daniels, and Stephen Smith
Marc led a day trip to an area south of the Key Room in the North Section. They surveyed several virgin loops for a total of 614 feet of crawling and stoop-walking passage.

06/25/2001
Rod Horrocks, Stephen Smith, and Jake Turin
Rod led some visiting cavers on an evening trip to the Terra-Cotta Trail discovery area in the Historic Section. They were able to mop up 293 feet in several small leads, leaving several leads for a return trip. This brought the total survey in this area to 1,907 feet.

06/26/2001
Marc Ohms, Jake Turin, Noah Daniels, and Stephen Smith
This crew headed down to What the Hell lake for the monthly gaging of the lake level. It was down 0.18 feet since last month. The lake is continuing to drop but seems to be slowing down. Jake Turin obtained water samples for his ongoing research of radioactive isotopes in the cave water.

06/27/2001
Marc Ohms, Stephen Smith, and Noah Daniels
Marc led this trip out to the X survey in Club Room Section, to a pool of water discovered in late 1999. The mission was to grab water samples for Jake Turin's radioactive isotope research. However, when they got to the pool they found it dry. When discovered a couple of years before, it was 20-feet long and up to 6-feet deep.

July/August 2001

During July and August of 2001, 15 survey trips were taken into the Historic, Club Room, Half- Mile Hall, Colorado Grotto, and North Sections of Wind Cave. During those trips, cavers surveyed and inventoried a total of 5,265 feet, or 0.99 miles of passage, with an average survey length of 351 feet. In addition, the park Cave Resource Management Staff resurveyed a total of 983 feet of problem surveys. The new survey raised the official length of Wind Cave from 99.32 miles to 100.31 miles. A major milestone was reached on August 11, when the survey hit the 100-mile mark. At the same time, the survey passed Fisher Ridge Cave to become the sixth longest surveyed cave in the world and the fourth longest in the U.S. In addition to the survey trips, two monitoring trips were led to What the Hell lake and three recreation trips were taken on the Bishop Fowlers Loop.

07/05/2001
Mary Laycock, Dawn Mosher, Ben Tobin, Alexis Kumfer, Ajax (B. Dalman), Johny Goebel
Mary led several Interpretation staff members on a recreation trip along the Bishop Fowler's Loop in the Historic Section.

07/10/2001

Marc Ohms & Noah Daniels
Marc led a resurvey trip to the Noah's Beard area off of the Candlelight Tour in the Historic Section. They resurveyed 215 feet of passage along the AT survey, in hope of tracking down survey blunders.

Mary Laycock, Michael Landrum, Stephen Woods, Heather Veerkamp, and Elyse Fields
Mary led several Interpretation staff members on a recreation trip along the Bishop Fowler's Loop in the Historic Section.

07/12/2001
Marc Ohms, Noah Daniels, Megan Barkes, and Christine ?
Marc led a resurvey trip to the Monte Cristo's Palace area in the Historic Section. They resurveyed 238 feet, fixing a couple of bad loops.

Wind Cave Weekend 07/14/2001

Jim Wilson, Stuart Marlatt, & Derek Wolfe
Jim led a trip back to the Kneebone Room area on the western edge of the Historic Section to continue pushing leads in this exciting new area. They started checking leads closest to the Kneebone Room. Unfortunately, most leads reconnected to the TA and TB surveys. They surveyed 710 feet for the day.

Carl and Amy Bern, Christa Schneider, & Kirk Digby
Carl led a trip to the Mule Creek Junction area in the North Section to continue pushing three unpromising leads from their last trip. Surveying up through some breakdown, they made an exciting discovery, finding a large new room which measured 90' x 40'. They named the room the "Ton 80 Room", which is the highest score one can get in darts. They surveyed 450 feet for the day, leaving numerous good leads for a return trip.

Tim Moreland, Yerko Barrera, Greg Glazner, & Pam Mehr
Tim led a trip to the Citadel area in the Colorado Grotto Section. They mopped up a couple of loops, surveying 234 feet.

Tom Dotter, Karla Whittenburg, Kim McVey, & Tracy Copp
Tom led a trip to the Nudist Colony area in the Club Room Section. They surveyed 305 feet.

07/19/2001
Marc Ohms and Noah Daniels
Marc and Noah ventured south into the Lakes Section on the monthly quest for water samples and lake level readings of What the Hell. The lake was down .07 feet since the previous month.

08/02/2001
Rod Horrocks, Graham Hogg, Rainer Engler, & Dave Fairfield
Rod led some Canadian cavers on an evening trip to push some side leads off the Terra-Cotta Trail area in the Historic Section. After closing a couple of loops, they dropped into a pit and squeezed underneath a chockstone where they discovered a rift passage with a pit in the middle. Chimneying as far as possible down the 35-foot deep pit, they spotted the paved tour trail below. After dropping a Mylar tag onto the trail, they looped back to the Natural Entrance Tour, where they found the tag on the trail at Miltons Study. They named the area the Alberta Connection. They surveyed 101 feet for the evening.

08/03/2001
Rod Horrocks, Graham Hogg, Rainer Engler, & Dave Fairfield
Rod led the Canadian cavers on another evening trip, this time to the Omnibus Hall area in the Historic Section. Finding an unsurveyed dome that Herb and Jan Conn had named the Bleeding Liver in 1963, they surveyed 44 feet before this beautifully decorated area ended. Abandoning that area, they buzzed out to the Buffalo Gap area in the Club Room Section and started the survey of a 28-foot deep pit. At the point that the pit connected with the Nudist Colony, they found a flat-floored crawl that headed southwest. After surveying past several small leads, they quit their survey at a three-way junction. They surveyed 248 feet for the night.

08/04/2001

Rod Horrocks, Graham Hogg, Rainer Engler, & Dave Fairfield
Rod led the Canadian cavers on a day trip back to the discoveries where they had quit the night before. After surveying some virgin crawls and rifts, they surveyed up through a rib-cage-compressing squeeze between some breakdown blocks, and into the bottom of a canyon. After connecting with the LS and RP surveys, they returned to the Nudist Colony to survey additional side passages. They surveyed 507 feet for the day.

Marc and Rene Ohms, & Ben Miller
Marc led a trip to continue pushing the Hades area on the north edge of the Historic Section. They surveyed 216 feet, finding some flowstone and a good blowing lead heading north off the map. They also found fresh packrat droppings. To date over 2000 feet has been surveyed in this area. However, nothing is over 2 feet high!

08/07/2001

Rod Horrocks, Doug Fowler, & Diana Ludwig
Rod led a resurvey trip to the Bachelor Quarters area in the Historic Section. They discovered a few unsurveyed leads and resurveyed 323 feet of the BQ survey.

Rene Ohms, Heather Lacey, Brian Fagman, David Steitl, Josh Armstrong
Rene led four staff members from Jewel Cave on a recreation trip along Bishop Fowler's Loop in the Historic Section.

Wind Cave Weekend and the 100 Milestone!! 08/11/2001

Patrick Roberson, Derek Wolfe, Evan Anderson, & Stephanie Haderlie
Pat led a trip to the BX survey area in the Half-Mile Hall Section. They spent the day mopping up narrow, walking fissures that had lots of air. They mapped 929 feet for the day.

Tom Dotter, Karla Whittenburg, & Kim McVey
Tom led a trip to the Nudist Colony area in the Club Room Section. They pushed several leads, surveying 222 feet.

Dave Lester, Tim Moreland, & Marjori Johnson
Dave led a trip into the Colorado Grotto Section. They surveyed a fissure below STP Speedway, which dropped into some good lower level cave, for total of 262 feet.

Marc and Rene Ohms
Marc led a trip to push a lead he had known about for a couple of years in the Minnihaha Falls area in the Historic Section. They surveyed 187 feet, finishing the lead.

Rod Horrocks, John Scheltens, Mike Hanson, & Steve Baldwin
John led a short trip to the Bachelor Quarters area in the Historic Section to push the leads Rod had found on 8/7/2001. They discovered a previously unrecorded Alvin McDonald signature and surveyed 478 feet.

08/15/2001
Rod Horrocks, Heather Veerkamp, Ben Tobin, & Jonny Goebel
Rod led some Wind Cave interpreters on an evening survey training trip to the Coliseum area in the Historic Section. They were surveying a "boneyard" area when Rod found a crawl that led to a 40' x 70' room, which they named the Lucky Strike Room. They found some evidence that someone else had been before, finding a Lucky Strike cigarette pack (probably dating to the CCC Crew from the 1930's). They surveyed 295 feet for the night and left some leads for a return trip.

08/21/2001
Rod Horrocks, Ajax Dalman, Michael Landrum, & Alexis Kumfer
Rod led some Wind Cave interpreters on an evening survey training trip to the Fairy Palace area in the Historic Section. They surveyed down a pit they named Quicksilver Pit, after the silver-colored beaded drops of water on the walls. They surveyed 121 feet in this very mazey area, leaving numerous leads for a return trip.

08/23/2001
Noah Daniels, Jason Tinant, and Kerry Leguex
Noah led a trip down into the Lakes Section for the monthly trip to collect a water sample and level reading of What the Hell lake. The lake level was down .05 feet since last month.

08/31/2001
Marc Ohms and Noah Daniels
Marc led a resurvey trip into the Noah's Beard area in the Historic Section to continue tracking down loop closure problems. They resurveyed 207 feet.

 

September/October 2001

September and October saw a low level of activity in the cave. The survey total for the two months was 1,675 feet.

09/01/2001
Marc and Rene Ohms
Marc and Rene went on a short trip into the Historic section to mop-up leads along the AT survey. They surveyed 330 feet.

09/05/2001
Marc Ohms and Noah Daniels
Marc and Noah headed into the Historic section to do a bit of resurvey work along the AT survey. This is in an attempt to track down a large loop closure problem. They resurveyed 246 feet.

Wind Cave Weekend 09/08/2001

Tim Moreland, Marjori Johnson, Doug Pflugh, and Terry Sherman
Tim led this bunch into the Colorado Grotto section to the area of the Citadel. There they surveyed 371 feet off of the XJ survey.

Skip Withrow, Jon Beard, Cheryl Kinsel, and Michael Carter
Skip led this bunch of visiting Missouri cavers into the Shinbone area in the Historic section to do some survey. When they arrived at the designation one of the cavers did not feel well so they turned around and headed out.

Jim Wilson, Bob Heim, Randy Rosebrough, and M. Kleiber
Jim led this group of visiting Missouri cavers into the Shinbone area in the Historic section. They surveyed 282 feet, closing many leads.

Rod Horrocks, Stephen Schaefgen, Andreas Pflitsch, and Bastian Schulte
Rod led this bunch of visiting cavers from Germany into the Historic section near the Candlelight Tour route. Here they surveyed 221 feet.

09/26/2001
Marc Ohms and Noah Daniels
Marc and Noah traveled to What the Hell lake in the Lakes section for the monthly lake level reading and water sampling. The water level had dropped .4 feet since last month.

10/02/2001
Rod Horrocks, Dixie Hemingway, Melissa Adle, and Jeff Dwyer
Rod led this trip into the Historic section to survey leads near the Candlelight tour route. They surveyed 211 feet.

10/12/2001
Stan Allison, Kelly Mathis, and Mike Wiles
This trio headed out into the far reaches of the Southern Comfort section to the area beyond the Skinner. They pushed leads along the LLB survey, the farthest western passage. Nothing went very far at all and they surveyed 200 feet.

Wind Cave Weekend 10/13/2001

Sandy Kramer, Kathy Petty, and Pat Jablonsky
Sandy led this group into the Historic section to survey leads near the Natural Entrance. They surveyed 60 feet and left some leads for a future trip.

Mike Hanson, Dan Wray, Larry Brooks, Todd Hitch, Dave Anderson, and Lottie Hufford
This group continued their efforts to reproduce the old stereo photos of Wind Cave. They worked in Fairy Palace along the Candlelight Tour and the Fairgrounds. Wind Cave National Park hosted a celebration for the 100th mile in Wind Cave. The event was held in Hot Springs and was attended by 120 cavers and past and present park employees.

10/24/2001
Marc Ohms and Noah Daniels
Marc and Noah headed south to What the Hell in the Lakes section for the monthly level reading and water sampling. The water level was down .06 feet since last month. We still need the water to drop another 8 inches before we can get through to the main lakes.

November/December 2001

During November and December of 2001, 18 survey trips were taken into the Historic, Club Room, Colorado Grotto, and Lakes Sections of Wind Cave. During those trips, cavers surveyed and inventoried a total of 4,206 feet, or 0.79 miles of passage, with an average survey length of 233 feet per survey. In addition, the park Cave Resource Management Staff resurveyed a total of 606 feet of problem surveys. The new survey raised the official length of Wind Cave from 100.79 to 101.58 miles. In addition to the 18 survey trips into Wind Cave, Beaver Creek Shelter was surveyed and two monitoring trips were led to What the Hell lake in the Lakes Section.

Wind Cave Weekend 11/10/2001

Rene Ohms, Abby Snow, Ben Miller, & Jay Snow
Rene led a trip to Misplace Pit in the Historic Section. Their team found some soda straws while mopping of 129 feet of survey.

Jim Wilson, Howard Bartlett, Derek Wolfe, & Ryan Butlier
Jim led a trip to his Kneebone Room area in the Historic Section. They finished numerous leads before stopping their survey just before some wall to wall gooey mud. They surveyed 531 feet of virgin cave.

Karla Whittenburg, Tom Dotter, Marjori Johnson, & Carey Hunter
Karla led a trip to the Nudist Colony area in the Club Room Section to push some leads left from a previous trip. They made a connection from the WG survey to the Buffalo Gap area and surveyed 278 feet.

Rod Horrocks & Clarence Williams
Rod led a trip to the Candlelight Tour route to clean up some survey problems. After recording the missing L,R,U,D data for all of the P survey stations, they began surveying some unsurveyed passages along the tour route. They mopped up 352 feet.

11/14/2001
Marc Ohms, Noah Daniels, & Krupa Petal
Marc led a resurvey trip to the Juice Room area in the Historic Section. They resurveyed 161 feet. Date: 11/15/2001 Marc Ohms, Noah Daniels, & Krupa Petal Marc led this resurvey trip, this time to the Breezeway area in the Historic Section. They resurveyed 445 feet with 40 feet of new survey. They found some leads near the edge of the cave to return to on a later trip.

11/16/2001
Rod Horrocks & Patrick Lynn
Rod led an evening survey-training trip to the leads he had found during the previous Wind Cave Weekend along the Candlelight Tour Route. They wrapped up several leads and discovered some nice calcified mud cracks while surveying 202 feet. Date: 11/16/2001 Marc Ohms, Noah Daniels, & Krupa Petal Marc led a work trip to check on the level of What the Hell lake. They found the lake had dropped 0.35". The lake will have to drop another ½ foot to once again allow access to the Lakes Section. They mopped up 82 feet of unsurveyed passage while in the area.

11/19/2001
Dawn Cardace, Jason Kolbe, & Paul Colbert
Dawn led an evening trip to the Ruhr Room in the Historic Section to survey a dome lead above the Candlelight Tour. They found a rodent skeleton while surveying 79 feet.

11/20/2001
Dawn Cardace, Jason Kolbe, Paul Colbert, & Sarah Wedge
Dawn returned to the dome lead they started the previous evening and spent the day pushing that area. They tied into the WE survey and surveyed a total of 214 feet.

11/21/2001
Dawn Cardace, Mary Laycock, & Jason Kolbe
Dawn led a trip back to the dome lead out of the Ruhr Room. Surveying in the opposite direction, they surveyed 140 feet before tying into the tour route near the Bachelor Quarters.

11/28/2001
Rod Horrocks & Chris Ingebretzen
Rod led a trip to the Mind Boggler area in the Historic Section. They wrapped up the only leads left in that area and then moved on to a tube in the ceiling of Omnibus Hall. They surveyed up to an exposed ledge climb into a dome lead and then backtracked to the yellow and black trail to survey a lead Rod had known about a couple of years. They surveyed up into a dome room with an eight-foot high, flowstone-covered climb that led into a 12' x 6-foot lead. They named the area Echo Falls. The duo surveyed a total of 154 feet for the evening.

12/5/2001
Rod Horrocks & Chris Ingbretsen
Rod led an evening trip back to Echo Falls in the Historic Section to climb the lead he had found on his previous trip. Rod did the climb and then rigged a rope for Chris to use with a hand-held ascender. They found a beautifully decorated area with six-inch soda straws and flowstone. Connecting into a room with a decayed wooden ladder, they tied into station BI31 and mopped up some side stuff. Continuing down the BI survey, they found a large walking lead that was heading into a blank area on the map. Unfortunately, it abruptly ended after a couple of stations. They surveyed 250 feet.

12/7/2001
Marc & Rene Ohms, & Noah Daniels
Marc led an evening trip to the Natural Entrance area in the Historic Section to push three leads on the LJH survey. They surveyed 210 feet.

Wind Cave Weekend 12/08/2001

Jim Wilson, Ryan Butler, & Barb Smith
Jim led a trip back to the Kneebone Room area to push a lead he knew about. They mapped several crawls, with some tight spots, before finding a room. Checking out a tight bellycrawl with air, they quit their survey at the top of a deep fissure that would require a handline. They surveyed 297 feet of cave.

Carl and Amy Bern & Tracy White
Carl led a trip to the BBB survey on the western edge of the Club Room. They mopped up several tight leads for 291 feet of survey.

Tim Moreland, Marjorie Johnson, & Doug Pflugh
Tim led a trip to the Monolith Hall area in the Colorado Grotto Section. They surveyed a high lead from the top of the hall that paralleled it and reconnected as balconies at several points. They surveyed 225 feet.

Tom Dotter, Carey Hunter, & Tracy Copp
Tom led a trip to the Buffalo Gap area in the Club Room Section. They mopped up a few leads for 196 feet of survey.

Karla Whittenburg, & Karl and Kollin Mayne
Karla led a trip to the Buffalo Gap area in the Club Room Section. They ended the trip after one member go sick. They were only able to survey 76 feet.

12/12/2001
Marc Ohms & Noah Daniels
Marc led a trip to survey Beaver Creek Shelter. They surveyed 87 feet under the dripline in this shallow overhanging shelter.

12/15/2001
Rod Horrocks & Jay Kennedy
Rod led a trip to the Bachelor Quarters area in the Historic Section. After tying up a side lead off a balcony above the stairs, they surveyed a crawl that connected the tour route with the Dragon Room. Suspicious of the lengths of the survey shots in that room; they checked five shots and found four to be off by several feet each? They then closed several loops, finding several spectacular 5-6" gypsum beard deposits. The duo surveyed 460 feet.

12/20/2001
Marc Ohms & Noah Daniels
Marc led a work trip to check on the level of What the Hell lake. They found the lake had dropped 0.08". The lake will have to drop another ½ foot to once again allow access to the Lakes Section.