January and February 2004

During January and February of 2004, 15 survey trips and one lake monitoring trip were taken into the Historic, North, Half Mile Hall, Club Room, Southern Comfort, Colorado Grotto, and Lakes Sections of Wind Cave. During the survey trips, cavers surveyed and inventoried a total of 4,084 feet, or 0.77 miles of passage, with an average survey length of 280 feet per survey. This new survey raised the length of Wind Cave from 109.56 to 110.33 miles. With this additional survey, Wind Cave remains the 4th longest cave in the US and the 6th longest cave in the world.

01/06/2004 
Steve Baldwin, Rod Horrocks, & John Scheltens
Steve led this evening trip to the eastern edge of the cave to push leads off the US survey in the Historic Section. They mopped up 137 feet.

Wind Cave Weekend 01/10/2004

Amy Bern, Andy & Joanna Poczobutt
Amy led a trip to push leads off the KN survey in the North Section. They surveyed 308 feet in a couple of leads, leaving a few leads to return to on a future trip.

Christa Schneider, Karla Whittenburg, & Teresa Nowak
Christa led this trip to the Colorado Grotto Section. They surveyed one passage into a blank area of the map, but were stopped by a tight squeeze. They surveyed 227 feet, leaving several leads for a future trip.

Carl Bern, Jeff Goben, & Derek Wolfe
Carl led this trip to push leads off the Skinner in the Southern Comfort Section. While recovering a tape that they had previously dropped down a narrow slot, they rediscovered a lead they had forgotten about. While surveying this, they found a small room with many leads for their next trip. They surveyed 271 feet in this new area.

Randy Macan, Mark Rosbrook, Bruce White, & James Lawton
Randy led a trip to the BX survey off the green trail in the Half Mile Hall Section. They finished surveying one room and mopped up several fissures for 580 feet of survey.

Sandy Kramer, Kathy Petty, & Pat Jablonsky
Sandy led this trip to finish mopping up leads off the Model Room on the Natural Entrance Tour Route. They mapped 48 feet.

Rod Horrocks & Jay Kennedy
Rod led this trip to push the Cataract Balcony area in the Historic Section. They surveyed 350 feet, naming a passage RSV Trail, since they both had hacking coughs and Jay had recently been exposed to RSV on the Indian Reservation. They left some leads to return to.

Jim Wilson, Skip Withrow, Greg Glazner, & Howard Bartlett
Jim led this trip back to the Puzzlement Room area in the Historic Section. They surveyed 700 feet, leaving many leads to return to in this complex area.

02/03/2004
Rod Horrocks, Bjoern Zindler, & Alexis Brooks
Rod led an afternoon trip to resurvey a passage that had no recoverable stations or any sketch in the Cataract Balcony area in the Historic Section. In the process, they closed several loops and mopped up a few leads, resurveying a total of 116 feet and adding 151 feet of new survey. They left a few leads for their next trip to the area.

Wind Cave Weekend 02/14/2004

Jim Wilson, Peter Knoll, & Tim Moreland
Jim led a trip back to the Puzzlement Room area in the Historic Section to continue pushing numerous leads left from his previous trip. They were able to survey 222 feet in some pretty gnarly passage.

Derek Wolfe, Dan Mottinger, & Donna Swigert
Leading his first trip in Wind Cave, Derek took some cavers on their first Wind Cave trip to the Loose Cannon Run area in the Club Room Section. They surveyed 384 feet and named one room the Foul Spark Plug.

Marc & Rene Ohms
Marc led a trip to the Cakewalk area in the Historic Section to push the eastern edge of the cave. They surveyed 300 feet in several small leads and left several leads for a future trip.

Tom Dotter, Carey Hunter, & Kim McVey
Tom led a trip to push leads off the UQ survey in the Historic Section, but were forced to abandoned the trip when part of the group couldn’t fit through a tight squeeze.

Rod Horrocks & Jay Kennedy
Rod led a trip to mop up leads in the Mock October Room area in the Historic Section. They surveyed three leads for 69 feet, but had to abandon the trip when Jay started feeling poorly.

02/17/2004
Rod Horrocks, John Scheltens, Steve Baldwin, & Vickie Siegel
Rod led an evening trip to the eastern edge of the Garden of Eden area in the Historic Section. They surveyed 287 feet while surveying a dome and a loop. They found some spectacular Van Gogh weathering and left several leads to return to.

02/18/2004 
Marc Ohms, John Keefner, & Bjoern Zindler
Marc Ohms led a trip to What the Hell in the Lakes Section to check on the lake level. He found that the lake level had dropped .02 of a foot during the previous three months.

March and April 2004

During March and April of 2004, 13 survey trips and one photography trip were taken into the Historic, Colorado Grotto, North, Half Mile Hall, and Southern Comfort Sections of Wind Cave. During these survey trips, cavers surveyed and inventoried a total of 3,244.69 feet, or 0.61 miles of passage, with an average survey length of 249 feet per survey. This new survey raised the length of Wind Cave from 110.33 to 110.94 miles.

03/04/2004
Rod Horrocks & Alexis Brooks
Rod led this trip to the Roman Candle Room area in the Historic Section to re-survey some bad loops and mop up several leads. They surveyed a total of 188.7 feet in the leads.

03/11/2004
Rod Horrocks, Jay Kennedy, & Alexis Brooks
Rod led this group back to the Roman Candle Room area to finish the remaining leads and to correct some loop closures off of the CW survey. A total of 198 feet was surveyed in the leads, bringing the total survey in this area to 3,333 feet.

Wind Cave Weekend 03/13/2004

Christa Schneider, Beth Duda, & Jeff Goben
Christa led a trip to the Independence Hall area in the Colorado Grotto Section. They mopped up a few leads and left several for their next trip. They surveyed 229 feet.

Amy Bern, Joe Fass, Rick Brinkman, & Barbara Smith
Amy led a trip to the North Section, mopping up leads left on the LH survey in January. All known leads in this area are now surveyed. They surveyed 314.35 feet.

Randy Macan, Robert Watson, & McFarland
Randy led this trip to the Wind Gate area in the Half Mile Hall Section, surveying a total of 514.1 feet. The group found gypsum flowers off of the Green Trail. A sharpie pen was dropped and is waiting to be found by the next survey team. They left lots of leads to return to along the Green Trail.

Derek Wolfe, Carl Bern, Andy Poczobutt, & Mike Wiles
Derek led a trip into the Southern Comfort Section. This self-proclaimed uneventful trip surveyed a total of 276.15 feet after a 4.5 hour journey to their first station. The majority of the survey was through tight breakdown and paleo-fill passageways.

Tracy Copp, Karla Whittenburg, & Kim McVey
Tracy led a trip following the Candlelight Tour to the PGB survey in the Historic Section. They found many fragile areas with gypsum splatters on the floor as well as gypsum cotton, hair, and needles. One of these gypsum cotton formations, which was approximately 4” wide and 1” long with needles of varying lengths extending in all directions, was named Methuselah’s Beard. They surveyed a total of 254.65 feet.

Jim Wilson, Jess Gribble, & Dave Gribble
Jim led a trip to the Puzzlement Room area in the Historic Section. Jess and Dave were new to surveying, but the group was still able to add 193.1 feet to the cave. Significant amounts of moonmilk and aragonite were found in this area. Unfortunately the majority of the leads didn’t go far; with others that may continue but are too fragile to push. A few leads remain in this area.

Sandy Kramer, Kathy Petty, & Pat Jablonsky
Sandy led this trip to the Model Room in the Historic Section. Many of their leads had already been surveyed, although they did find a small pile of bones near a lead off of the Methodist Church. The bones seem to have been from two large rodents? A total of 58.86 feet were surveyed.

Marc & Rene Ohms
Marc led this trip, surveying 450 feet along the DL and AT surveys in the Dreamland area on the east edge of the Historic Section. Leads are few and grim in this area of the cave.

Mary Laycock, Sandy Kramer & Kathy Petty
Mary led a photography trip on the Columbian Hall Route in the Historic Section.

03/17/2004
Rod Horrocks, Jay Kennedy, & Alexis Brooks
Rod led this evening trip through the Post Office Room to Room Draculum and then on to the Mock October Room area in the Historic Section. Heading northwest, they found and named the Stop-And-Go Tube, named so because the passage kept looking as if it was about to end, only to continue time and again. A lot of paleofill and chert were found. This survey mapped 235.38 feet.

04/06/2004
Rod Horrocks, Alexis Brooks & Vickie Siegel
Rod led this evening trip to the Mock October Room area. They mopped up some of the leads they had left on their last trip; this time finding a large manganese deposit they named the Manganese Stop. A total of 128.5 feet were surveyed.

Wind Cave Weekend 04/10/2004

Jim Wilson, Barb Smith and Skip Withrow
Jim led this trip to the Puzzlement Room area in the Historic Section, where they mopped up leftover leads from their previous trip. They found many promising leads off of the AIV survey, which they saved for their next trip. They surveyed a total of 203.9 feet.

May and June 2004

During May and June of 2004, seven survey, three resurvey, and one lake monitoring trips were taken into the Historic, Southern Comfort, and Lakes Sections of Wind Cave. During the survey trips, cavers surveyed and inventoried a total of 2,087.24 feet, or 0.39 miles of passage, with an average survey length of 298 feet per survey. This new survey raised the length of Wind Cave from 110.94 to 111.33 miles. During the resurvey trips, a total of 676 feet of problem surveys were redone.

Wind Cave Weekend 05/08/2004

Carl Bern, Andy Poczobutt, & Mike Wiles
Carl led this trip to the Gypsy Road area in the Southern Comfort Section. They found and named the Paper Mill, a room containing an interesting speleogen which resembles boxwork but is flexible. They surveyed 338.4 feet.

Rod Horrocks, Chris Amidon, & Reno Lippold
Rod led this trip to the Twilight Zone area in the Historic Section. They found a 25-foot diameter room that they named Fill-In-the-Blank Room and surveyed a total of 261.30 feet, leaving several leads for a future trip.

Chris Amidon, Ajax ( B.Dalman), & Chris Wonderly
Chris Amidon led this trip to the 5,4,3,2,1 Contact Room area along the E survey in the Historic Section. This survey trip was a learning session, as Ajax and Wonderly were learning to use instruments and Amidon was sketching for the first time. A total of 50.85 feet were surveyed.

Wind Cave Weekend 06/12/2004

Chris Amidon, Sarah Petite, & Ajax (B. Dalman)
Chris led this trip back to the 5,4,3,2,1 Contact Room area in the Historic Section. They found a beautiful dome with wet formations, stalactites, ribbons, soda straws, and flowstone and named it the Ice Rink. Many good leads were left for the next trip. A total of 139.55 feet were surveyed.

Rod Horrocks, Dave Tibbets, Bernice Piper, & Peggy Renwick
Rod led some of the Black Hills Restoration Camp folks to the Back Room in the Historic Section, an area that hasn’t seen any survey for decades. They were able to find virgin cave after crawling down a small pit near H6. A total of 566 feet were surveyed and some good leads were left for a later trip.

06/15/2004
Rod Horrocks, Seth Spoelman, Jason Walz & Kali Pace-Graczyk
Rod led this evening trip to the White Coral Room area in the Historic Section to tie up some leads off of the UQ survey. One lead was left when they ran out of time and had to leave the cave. A total of 370.09 feet were surveyed.

06/15/2004
Chris Amidon, Sarah Petite, Ajax (B. Dalman), & Vickie Siegel
Chris led this trip back to the 5,4,3,2,1 Contact Room area in the Historic Section. They named a tight squeeze the Grade D Crawl after the not-so-good-for-you grade D meat. Another passage was named Charlies First Born after the same rock gave the majority of the team charlie horses. A dome was also named, Booby Trap Dome, because of the large hanging chert blocks, waiting to fall on the top edge of the climb. A total of 361.05 feet were surveyed.

06/16/2004
Marc Ohms, Kali Pace-Graczyk, Jason Walz & Seth Speolman
Marc led this trip through the Fairgrounds Tour to the AX survey in the Historic Section to resurvey some poor data. They resurveyed 137.33 feet.

06/17/2004
Marc Ohms, Jason Walz & Kali Pace-Graczyk
Marc led this trip to the UC survey past the Caving Tour in the Historic Section. They resurveyed UB1-5 to replace poor data. They resurveyed 85.25 feet.

06/18/2004
Marc Ohms, Jason Walz, Seth Spoelman, & Kali Pace-Graczyk
Marc led this trip to Beacon Street in the Historic Section. They resurveyed the NY survey to replace poor data. They resurveyed 454 feet.

06/21/2004
Marc Ohms, Kali Pace-Graczyk, Sarah Petite, & Vickie Siegel
Marc led this trip to check on the lake level of What the Hell. They found that it had dropped 0.03’ since February.

July and August 2004

There were 13 survey trips and 3 work trips in Wind Cave during July and August. The survey netted a total of 2,714 feet, which raised the survey length from 111.33 to 111.84 miles.

07/06/2004
Jason Walz, Lee Gray Boze, & Sith Spoelman
Jason Walz led Lee Gray Boze and Seth Spoelman to the AQ survey near The Way Back Room in the Historic Section. They surveyed 161 feet.

07/06/2004
Chris Amidon, Don Frankfort, & Meredith Dreyer
Chris Amidon led Don Frankfort and Meredith Dreyer to the QC survey near the Juice Room in the Historic Section. They surveyed 157 feet and named one nasty crawl Shark Bait.

07/06/2004
Rod Horrocks, Melissa Reisinger, & Tom Jarvela
Rod Horrocks led Melissa Reisinger and Tom Jarvela to the FD survey near Columbian Hall in the Historic Section. They surveyed 123 feet and left a few leads for a return trip.

Wind Cave Weekend 07/10/2004

Chris Amidon, Vickie Siegel, Tom Jarvela, & Erin Niedringhaus
Chris Amidon led Vickie Siegel, Tom Jarvela and Erin Niedringhaus to the QC survey near the Juice room in the Historic Section. They surveyed 200 feet and left many leads to return to.

Theresa Nowak, Karla Whittenburg, & Kim McVey
Theresa Nowak led Karla Whittenburg and Kim McVey to the PGB survey near the Candle Light Tour route in the Historic Section. They surveyed 58 feet, finishing all leads along the PGB.

Jason Walz, Seth Spoelman, & Ron Lavielle
Jason Walz led Seth Spoelman and Ron Lavielle to the BH survey just off the green trail in the Half-Mile Hall Section. They surveyed 402 feet.

07/15/2004
Mary Laycock, Ben Shouse, Chris Gannon, & Dan Evangelista
Mary Laycock led Ben Shouse, Chris Gannon, Dan Evangelista, and Tom Jarvella on a work trip to the Spillway and Caving Tour Route in the Historic Section.

07/20/2004
Jason Walz, Seth Spoelman, Meredith Dreyer, & Chris Amidon
Jason Walz led Seth Spoelman, Meredith Dreyer, and Chris Amidon to the KY survey near the Coke Room in the North Section. They surveyed 473 feet.

08/02/2004
Marc Ohms & Linda Stoll
Marc Ohms led Linda Stoll, Superintendent of Wind Cave National Park, along the Bishop Fowler’s Loop in the Historic Section to retrieve 3 sets of Petri dishes for an ongoing dust study.

08/03/2004

Chris Amidon, Meredith Dreyer, & Valoree Varick
Chris Amidon led Meredith Dreyer and Valoree Varick to the QC survey near the Juice Room in the Historic Section. They surveyed 263 feet off of the QC and NL surveys.

Rod Horrocks, Graham Hogg, Randy Oliver, & Brad Hill
Rod Horrocks led Graham Hogg, Randy Oliver, and Brad Hill to the FD survey near Columbian Hall in the Historic Section. They surveyed 120 feet and named a room the Frosted Cereal Bowl after the shape of the room and abundance of moonmilk.

Jason Walz, Seth Spoelman, & Ajax (B. Dalman)
Jason Walz led Seth Spoelman and Ajax Dalman to the John Wayne Room in the North Section. They surveyed 87 feet.

Jason Walz, Joey Feaster, & Howard Horton
Jason Walz led Joey Feaster and Howard Horton to What the Hell in the Lakes Section for a reading of the gage in the lake. The water was down .02 feet since June. They also resurveyed two shots in an effort to fix an error.

Wind Cave Weekend 08/14/2004

Chris Amidon & Eric Amidon
Chris Amidon led Eric Amidon to the QC and E surveys near the Star Café in the Historic Section. They surveyed 190 feet.

08/17/2004

Chris Amidon, Valoree Varick, & Tom Jarvela
Chris Amidon led Valoree Varick and Tom Jarvela to the QC survey near the Star Café in the Historic Section. They surveyed 381 feet tying into several other surveys.

Jason Walz & Ajax (B. Dalman)
Jason Walz led Ajax Dalman to the NK survey near the Spiral Stair in the Historic Section. They surveyed 99 feet.

08/18/2004
Marc Ohms, Jason Walz, & Seth Spoelman
Marc Ohms led Jason Walz and Seth Spoelman to Calcite Lake in the Lakes Section. For the first time since July of 1999, What the Hell was low enough to allow passage beyond. The main lake (Windy City, Calcite, and other lakes are now all one) was down 2.6 feet since July of 1999, but had been much higher as the gage had calcite rafts stuck to the top.

September and October 2004

During September and October of 2004, 13 survey, 2 resurvey, and 2 lake monitoring trips were taken into the Historic, North, and Lakes Sections of Wind Cave. During the survey trips, cavers surveyed and inventoried a total of 3,003 feet, or 0.56 miles of passage, with an average survey length of 231 feet per survey. This new survey raised the length of Wind Cave from 111.84 to 112.40 miles. With this additional survey, Wind Cave remains the 4th longest cave in the US and the 6th longest cave in the world.

09/02/2004
Marc Ohms, Jason Walz, & Seth Spoelman
Marc Ohms, Jason Walz, & Seth Spoelman
After the water level in What the Hell dropped enough to allow access to the Lakes once again, Marc led a lake monitoring trip to Calcite Lake to reset the gage and take some photos for a press release.

09/07/2004

Jason Walz, Seth Speolman, Erin Neidringhaus, & Dan Evangelista
Jason Walz, Seth Spoelman, Erin Neidringhaus, & Dan Evangelista
Jason led a trip to the NK survey in the Historic Section to push leads. They surveyed 217 feet.

Chris Amidon, Vickie Siegel, & Karen Henker
Chris Amidon, Vickie Siegel, & Karen Henker
Chris led a Historic Section trip down the Kentucky Chimney off of the E survey to continue pushing leads. They pushed a tight contortionist squeeze that they named the Broccoli Bend and Blow, which opened up to sizeable passage where they named several things, including: Choose Your Own Adventure, Rizzos Demise, and the Onion Ring. They were able to survey 411 feet.

Wind Cave Weekend 09/11/2004

Jason Walz, Seth Spoelman, & Peggy Renwick
Jason led a trip to push leads off the John Wayne Room in the North Section. They surveyed 345 feet off the JW survey.

Jim Wilson, Skip Withrow, Howard Bartlett, & Tim Moreland
Jim led a trip to the AIV survey in the Historic Section. They discovered an active formation area and mapped 332 feet.

Tom Dotter, Kim McVey, & Karla Whittenburg
Tom led a trip to the Fireball Hall area in the Historic Section to push leads. They mapped 59 feet.

Chris Amidon, Vickie Siegel, Kevin Amidon, & Karen Henker
Chris led a trip to the Quiet City area in the Historic Section to mop up three leads. They were able to survey one lead for 42 feet.

09/21/2004
Chris Amidon & Vickie Siegel
Chris led a trip to the E9R survey where they surveyed some tight nasty leads for 122 feet.

09/23/2004
Marc Ohms & Jason Walz
Marc led a trip to Phantom Lake in the Historic Section to check on water levels. They found the 200-foot long lake, which was as deep as six feet in places, reduced to a puddle.

10/05/2004

Rod Horrocks, Jason, Ryan, & Jeremy Anderson
Rod led three brothers to the Back Room in the Historic Section for their first Wind Cave survey trip. They resurveyed part of the 1962 G and H surveys and some leads off of those surveys. They named one room the Loading Dock and surveyed a total of 764 feet, including 214 feet of resurvey and 549 feet of new survey.

Jason Walz, Eric Frey, & Marcus Key
Jason led a survey trip back to the John Wayne Room area in the North Section. They named a small decorated dome the Rainbow Dome while surveying 231 feet.

Wind Cave Weekend 10/09/2004

Jim Wilson, Tim Moreland, Eric Dutton, & Howard Bartlett
Jim led a return trip to his AIV survey in the Historic Section to see if they could tie into The Well of Souls that Rod Horrocks had found in May of 2001. They successfully tied into that survey, which originated from the Natural Entrance Tour Route, making the first connection between the extensive passages off of the Spillway and the Natural Entrance Tour Route. They found a good going area at the end of the day on the AI survey that they decided to save for their next trip. They surveyed 206 feet.

Chris Amidon, Chris Wonderly, & Desiree Drane-Davidson
Chris led a trip back to the Quiet City area in the Historic Section to push the remaining leads. They mapped 55 feet, finishing the area.

Rod Horrocks, Larry Shaffer, & Sara Booth
Rod led a trip back to the Loading Dock area in the Historic Section to continue pushing leads. They mapped a small lead on the east side of the room that opened into a room they named the Hospital Ward, since all three were recovering from various sicknesses. They mapped 200 feet before connecting into the E’ survey, a large canyon that originates off of the Amphitheater and continues to the north edge of the cave.

10/19/2004
Rod Horrocks & Larry Shaffer
Rod led a trip to begin the resurvey of the E’ survey in the Historic Section and push any leads they found. They named the main red and white banded passage the Marbled Hall. They also named a lower side room that had a thick twine running through it, the Twine Room. They mapped 306 feet for the day, including 72 feet of resurvey and 234 feet of new survey.

November and December 2004

During November and December of 2004, 17 survey and 3 work trips were taken into the off-trail portions of the following sections of Wind Cave: Historic (9 trips), North (3 trips), Southern Comfort (2 trips), Club Room (1 trips), Half Mile Hall (1 trip), and Lakes (3 trip). During the survey trips, cavers surveyed and inventoried a total of 6,729 feet or 1.27 miles of passage, with an average survey length of 373 feet per survey. This new survey raised the length of Wind Cave from 112.38 to 113.65 miles. With this additional survey, Wind Cave remains the 4th longest cave in the US and the 6th longest cave in the world. However, only 1,900 feet separate Wind Cave from Lechuguilla Cave, which is currently the 5th longest cave in the world.

11/05/2004
Marc Ohms, Jason Gully, Nicole Davis, Eric Weaver & Steve Keene
Marc led a group of cave divers to look at the route to the lakes to determine what a dive of the deepest lake would entail. They found that Calcite Lake had dropped .03’ since the last trip in September.

Wind Cave Weekend 11/13/2004

Jim Wilson, Tim Moreland, & Howard Bartlett
Jim led a survey trip to continue pushing leads north of the Spillway in the Historic Section. They surveyed 382 feet of mostly crawlways under a chert lens, leaving a few leads to return to.

Carl Bern, Jason Walz, Mike Wiles, & Andy Poczobutt
Carl led the first trip to enter the Cosmos area for a long time. They pushed the NE corner of the area, surveying 463 feet and leaving a few leads to return to.

Marc & Rene Ohms & Lee Florea
Marc led a survey trip to the Polar Ice Cap area in the North Section to push the western edge of the cave. They discovered some new rooms off the edge of the cave, mapping 683 feet of cave. They found some awesome frostwork and air, but everything ended.

Evan Anderson, Peggy Renwick, & Todd Suess
After splitting from Marc Ohms’ team, Evan’s team surveyed in the Polar Ice Cap area in the North Section, mopping up a few leads for 331 feet.

Randy Macan, Tracy White, & Jim Lawton
Randy led a trip to the Wind Gate area in the Half Mile Hall Section to continue pushing lower level cave in that area. They surveyed 370 feet of tight passages.

Christa Schneider, Amy Bern, Matt Higgins, Joanna Poczobutt
Christa led a trip to the Chimera Room area in the North Section to push leads. They surveyed a few leads for 206 feet.

Rod Horrocks, Larry Shaffer, and Sara Booth
Rod led a trip to the E’ survey in the Historic Section to continue resurveying that old survey and to push any side leads they found. They mapped the northern portion of the 1897 Room, which had never been surveyed. They surveyed a total of 467 feet, with 75 feet of resurvey and 392 feet of new survey.

Sandy Kramer & Pat Jablonsky
Sandy joined Rod Horrocks’ team to help resurvey and push leads off of the E’ survey in the Historic Section. They surveyed a total of 173 feet, with 109 feet of resurvey and 53 feet of new survey.

Tracy Copp, Karla Whittenburg, & Kim McVey
Tracy led a trip out to the Fireball Hall area in the Historic Section to push leads. They named one crawl Sawtooth Slither while mapping 98 feet. They left several leads to return to.

11/16/2004
Jason Walz, Larry Shaffer, & Peggy Renwick
Jason led an evening trip to push a lead off of the 1897 Room that Larry had found during the previous Wind Cave Weekend. They surveyed 232 feet in some windy crawls that were covered with moonmilk and gypsum, essentially finishing the area.

11/16/2004
Rod Horrocks & Alexis Brooks
Rod led an evening trip to continue pushing side leads off the E’ survey in the Historic Section. They surprisingly ran into Jason Walz’s survey at a room that Jason had just named the Powder Puff Room. The duo surveyed 217 feet, leaving some good leads to return to.

12/03/2004
Marc Ohms, Jason Walz, Andy Thorstenson, & Tyler Schmitt
Marc led a work trip to gather some petri dishes from a dust accumulation experiment he was conducting in the Club Room Section.

12/07/2004
Jason Walz, Peggy Renwick, & Larry Shaffer
Jason led a trip to Calcite Lake in the Lakes Section to place some temperature loggers that will look at the difference between water and air temperatures in the area. They found the water level had dropped one inch since the previous month. While in the area, they pushed some nearby leads and surveyed 246 feet, naming one area the Bungalow.

12/07/2004
Rod Horrocks, Alexis Brooks, Steve Baldwin, & Vickie Siegel
Rod led a trip back to the E’ survey in the Historic Section to push the leads they had found the previous week. Pushing towards the north edge of the cave, they found an obscure bellycrawl that led into a virgin area that they named Pearl Harbor, both after the survey date and the pearly white deposits of moonmilk that covered everything. They mapped 397 feet, leaving a few leads to return to.

Wind Cave Weekend 12/11/2004

Carl Bern, Mike Wiles, Derek Wolfe, & Peggy Renwick
Carl led a trip back to the Cosmos area in the Southern Comfort Section to continue pushing the SW corner of the cave. At Vega, the southern most point in Wind Cave, they found that a new lake had formed, the first lake discovered in the Southern Comfort area. They left a few leads to return to while surveying 547 feet.

Jim Wilson, Tim Moreland, & Howard Bartlett
Jim led a trip to the area north of the Spillway in the Historic Section, where they found a previously unnoticed lead in the Elbow Room. They surveyed 770 feet in the lead, leaving numerous leads for a return trip.

Jason Walz, Larry Shaffer & Sara Booth
Jason led a trip to the Base Camp II area in the Lakes Section to push the lower level canyons along the flagged trail. They found a room that they named the Arroyo while surveying 305 feet. They left one good lead to return to.

12/21/2004

Rod Horrocks, Dave Fairfield, Aaron Fairbrother
Rod led a survey trip to the Back Room area in the Historic Section to continue pushing that area. They mopped up several leads, including a 17-foot pit just south of the room that led to 150 feet of passage. They then climbed down through the HD4 survey to the E’ survey, where they found numerous leads. They surveyed 550 feet for the day and left several good leads for a return trip.

Jason Walz, Larry Shaffer, & Donald Anderson
Jason led a trip to the lower level cave in the Club Room Section, where they mopped up 303 feet of unsurveyed passages, while naming one narrow boxwork-lined fissure, Ginsu Alley.