Wind Cave Trip Reports - 2006

January/February 2006

During January and February of 2006, 22 survey trips were taken into off-trail portions of Wind Cave, including 15 trips to the Historic Section, 5 trips to the Club Room Section, 1 trip to the Southern Comfort Section, and 1 trip to the North Section. During these trips, cavers surveyed and inventoried a total of 7,650 feet or 1.45 miles of passage, with an average survey length of 431 feet per survey. This new survey raised the length of Wind Cave from 118.38 to 119.83 miles. On February 13, the Wind Cave survey passed Hoelloch Cave of Switzerland to become the fourth longest cave in the world. In addition to the survey trips, 8 work trips were taken; including 6 resurvey trips, where 1,850 feet of problem surveys were resurveyed.

01/03/2006
Larry Shaffer, Andy & Bonny Armstrong, & Kelly Brownson
Larry led an evening trip back to the Ghost Town area on the western edge of the Historic Section. They surveyed 166 feet of previously scooped passage and left several leads for a future trip.

01/06/2006
Rod Horrocks & Derek Marohn
Rod led a trip back to the Geode Hall area in the Historic Section to resurvey the main BI survey and mop up any associated side leads. They named the vertical connection between Geode Hall and the upper BI survey, Engine House No. 6. They resurveyed 160 feet and added 221 feet of new survey for the day. They left a good climbing lead for a later trip.

01/11/2006
Marc Ohms & Jason Walz
Marc led a work trip to the Mammoth Galleries, Buffalo Gap, and the Nudist Colony to replace Dr. John Moore’s Petri dishes for his biological experiments.

01/11/2006
Marc Ohms & Jason Walz
Marc led a resurvey trip to the NL survey in the Historic Section. They resurveyed 262 feet and left a few leads for someone else.

Wind Cave Weekend 01/14/2006

Jason Walz, Andrea Croskrey, Johanna Kovarik, & Ben Tobin
Jason led a survey trip to the DK and DJ surveys in the lower level of the Club Room Section. They surveyed 506 feet and named Snowshoe Road and Chilkoot Pass.

Jim Wilson, Tim Moreland, Dan Wray, & Howard Bartlett
Jim led a trip to the MP survey in the Club Room Section. They surveyed 675 feet and left lots of leads in the Multipurpose Room area.

Marc Ohms, Duff McCafferty, Sara Booth, & Ken Geu
Marc led a trip to resurvey the B* survey in the Historic Section. They resurveyed 400 feet and added 200 feet of new survey to the area.

01/17/2006
Rod Horrocks, Steve Baldwin, John Scheltens, & Derek Marohn
Rod led an evening trip to the Silent Lake area in the Historic Section to survey leads off of the upper BI survey. They surveyed some tight connections between the UU and BI surveys before finding a squeeze that led to a new room above Engine House No. 6. They surveyed 113 feet.

01/19/2006
Marc Ohms, Jason Walz, & Derek Marohn
Marc led a resurvey trip in the Historic Section. They resurveyed 157 feet of the NV survey.

01/23/2006
Marc Ohms & Jason Walz
Marc led a trip back to the NV survey in the Historic Section to continue the resurvey project. They resurveyed 230 more feet, finishing the NV.

01/25/2006
Rod Horrocks & Derek Marohn
Rod led a trip to resurvey the UEA survey in the Historic Section. They found a two-foot long fossil burrow while resurveying 275 feet. They also added 155 feet of new survey.

02/03/2006
Marc Ohms & Jason Walz
Marc led a resurvey trip to the NZA survey in the Historic Section. They found some flexible boxwork while resurveying 200 feet.

02/07/2006
Rod Horrocks, Alexis Brooks, & Derek Marohn
Rod led a trip to survey leads off of the Candlelight Tour Route in the Historic Section. They surveyed several side leads between P6-7 for 383 feet. They left some climbing leads for a later trip.

02/07/2006
Larry Shaffer, Andy & Bonny Armstrong, & Sara Booth
Larry led a trip back to the Ghost Town area in the Historic Section to continue surveying their leads. They named the Zerba Room while surveying 244 feet. They left a few leads for a future trip.

02/07/2006
Marc Ohms, Jason Walz, & Larry Shaffer
Marc led a trip to the HX survey in the Historic Section. They found a really nice formation area while surveying 275 feet. They only left a few miserable leads.

02/07/2006
Jason Walz, Andre Baumeister, & Eric Grunwald
Jason led a trip to the Ghost Town area in the Historic Section to survey side leads. They surveyed 101 feet and named one room, Der Biergarten.

Wind Cave Weekend 02/11/2006

Carl Bern, Derek Wolfe, & Larry Schaffer
Carl led a survey trip past the Skinner in the Southern Comfort Section. They found the largest discovery on the edge of the cave since Pizza Hut was discovered in 1999 by Marc Ohms. They named the Gas Chamber while surveying 809 feet of new passage.

Marc & Rene Ohms, & Andy & Bonny Armstrong
Marc led a trip south of the Key Room in the North Section to survey leads. They discovered a beautifully decorated area off of the PB survey that they named Stalactites Galore while surveying 802 feet.

Amy Bern, Sara Booth, & Jason Walz
Amy led a trip to the Club Room to survey leads in a pit along the CP survey. They named the Bern Tunnel, Beil Tunnel, and Boglis Doghouse due to the fact that the Wind Cave survey passed Hoelloch Cave of Switzerland that day to become the fourth longest cave in the world. They surveyed 501 feet.

Jim Wilson, Tim Moreland, Howard Bartlett, & Skip Withrow
Jim led a trip back to the Multipurpose Room in the Club Room Section to continue surveying leads. They discovered an obscure hole that led to 450 feet of virgin passage. They surveyed 620 feet for the day.

Jeff Goben, Rick Speaect, & Christa Schneider
Jeff led a trip just past the Club Room to survey a lead from a previous trip. They surveyed 259 feet and found an additional lead for a future trip.

Rod Horrocks, Ken Geu, & Dean Faust
Rod led a trip to the No Don’t Stop passage along the north edge of the Historic Section. They surveyed several domes before finding a nice passage they named End of the Road, which abruptly ended in a calcified breakdown choke on the edge of the cave. They surveyed 551 feet and left numerous leads for a future trip.

02/13/2006
Marc Ohms, Jason Walz, Linda Stoll, Rick Mossman, & Sabrina Henry
Marc led a trip to the Club Room for various park staff to give them an appreciation for what it would take to rescue someone from the cave, and simply an appreciation of the resource.

02/21/2006
Jason Walz, Bonny Armstrong, & Eric Grunwald
Jason led a trip to the Ghost Town area in the Historic Section to continue surveying leads. They named the Berlin Crawl and Skull Crossings while surveying 220 feet of passage. They finished all of the leads from the Zerba Room. This brought the total survey in the Ghost Town area to 2,407 feet.

March/April 2006

During March and April of 2006, 17 survey trips were taken into off-trail portions of Wind Cave, including 9 trips to the Historic Section, 4 trips to the Club Room Section, 3 trips to the North Section, and 1 trip to the Southern Comfort Section. During these trips, cavers surveyed and inventoried a total of 4,757 feet or 0.9 miles of passage, with an average survey length of 280 feet per survey. This new survey raised the length of Wind Cave from 119.83 to 120.73 miles. In addition to the survey trips, 2 work trips were taken; including 1 resurvey trip, where 132 feet of problem survey was resurveyed.

03/02/2006
Jason Walz, Dorte Wolfkuhler, & Andre Baumeister
Jason led a resurvey trip to the AQ survey in the Historic Section where they resurveyed 132 feet and named an area, “Bermuda Dreieck” (Bermuda Triangle), after the area in Germany where Dorte lives.

03/07/2006
Jason Walz, Bonny Armstrong, & Andy Armstrong
Jason led an evening trip to a pit along the edge of the Club Room. They named a climb-down the “Crafty Maneuver”, because it reminded them of a similar climb-down in Jewel Cave by the same name. They then rigged a 35-foot pit that Jason had found on an earlier trip along the VII survey and surveyed down, connecting to the Lower Level and the ST survey. If it weren’t for the vertical work, this would be a faster route to the ST survey than down the Boxwork Chimney. They surveyed 67 feet for the trip.

03/07/2006
Larry Shaffer, Sara Booth, & Eric Grenwald
Larry led a trip back to the Ghost Town area in the Historic Section to continue pushing that area. They surveyed 189 feet and left a couple of small leads for a future trip.

Wind Cave Weekend 03/11/2006

Larry Shaffer, Mike Wiles, & Derek Wolfe
Larry led a trip to the Delusions of Grandeur area in the Southern Comfort Section. They surveyed a lead not on the map that provided some momentary excitement before it reconnected to known cave. They then surveyed into a dome complex for a days total of 497 feet.

Marc Ohms, Randy Macan, & Rob McFarland
Marc led a trip back to the EX survey in the North Section. They spent most of the day surveying some crawls found at the top of a dome at EX4. They surveyed 522 feet and exited the cave via the Snake Pit Entrance. They wrapped up this area, declaring it finished.

Amy Bern, Jeff Goben, & Andrew Blackstock
Amy led a trip to the Pail of Fill area in the North Section. Entering through the Snake Pit Entrance, they surveyed several nasty leads for 207 feet and extended the length of the webbing on the breakdown climb on the Pink Trail. They then exited the cave via the elevator.

Jim Wilson, Tim Moreland, Eric Dutton & Evan Blackstock
Jim led a trip to the Multipurpose Room in the Club Room Section. They surveyed several leads for 595 feet, leaving several others for a future trip.

Jason Walz, Ben Tobin, & Christiane Grebe
Jason led a survey trip to the Lower Level in the Club Room Section. They named a tight fissure Schmale Kluft (Tight Fissure) and surveyed several passages for a total of 305 feet.

Mike Hanson, Dave Springhetti, & Maurita Kaufman
Mike led a photo trip to the Candlelight Tour Route in the Historic Section to continue his stereo pair photo project. He is trying to recreate all the historic stereo photos taken in the cave during the 1890’s.

Rod Horrocks, Ken Geu, & Duff McCafferty
Rod led a survey trip to the No Don’t Stop area (NB survey) in the Historic Section in order to push leads along the edge of the cave. They surveyed three nasty leads, one that had air, on the very northeastern edge of the cave, before retreating to the Red Clay Room. There, they found a route down through the breakdown into a small room underneath the Red Clay Room, where they surveyed a hundred feet of new cave. For the day, they surveyed 276 feet and left a few leads for a future trip.

03/21/2006
Jason Walz, Peggy Renwick, & Ben Currens
Jason led a trip to the Ghost Town area in the Historic Section. They surveyed 159 feet and left good leads for a future trip.

03/24/2006
Marc Ohms & Jason Walz
Marc led a work trip to Calcite and What the Hell Lakes in the Lakes Section to check on water levels. They found that Calcite Lake was down a tenth of an inch.

04/04/2006
Jason Walz, Christian Levers, & Barbara Grunow
Jason led a trip to the Ghost Town area in the Historic Section to continue pushing his leads from his last trip. They surveyed 95 feet in some crawlways and left a dome lead for his next trip.

04/04/2006
Jason Walz, Bonny Armstrong, & Eric Grunwald
Jason led an evening trip back to the Ghost Town area in the Historic Section. He returned to his lead from earlier in the day and climbed the dome. They found a 20-foot diameter room they named Hotel Fairburn. The only way on was through a small hole that quickly reconnected to the TT’ survey. They surveyed 268 feet.

Wind Cave Weekend 04/08/2006

Bonny Armstrong, Rene Ohms, & Larry Shaffer
Bonny led a trip to the PB survey in the North Section to check leads. They surveyed a passage at PB8 for 26 stations and 410 feet.

Jason Walz, Ian Shanklin, & Cherine Bashara
Jason led a trip to the ZC, LL, & ST surveys in the Lower Level of the Club Room Section. They pushed several leads for 423 feet.

Rod Horrocks, Erik Kurth, Duff McCafferty, & Ken Geu
Rod led a trip back to the NB survey in the Historic Section to continue checking his list of leads. They surveyed several domes and side passages off of the No Don’t Stop passage. In one that is heading towards a blank area, they found a skeleton of what looked like a wood rat. They left that lead and two other small crawls for a smaller survey party. They surveyed 372 feet for the day.

Ben Tobin & Heather Veerkamp
Ben led a trip to the Wall Street area in the Historic Section. They surveyed three short leads for a total of 94 feet. They also left some nasty leads for a future generation.

04/17/2006
Marc Ohms & Branden Johnson
Marc led a work trip to the Club Room to put some items in the rescue cache. He found the cache in good shape.

04/18/2006
Larry Shaffer & Sara Booth
Larry led an evening trip back to the Ghost Town area in the Historic Section. They surveyed 132 feet in some small leads in the Make Out Room area and left some other leads for a later trip.

04/18/2006
Jason Walz & Eric Grunwald
Jason led a trip back to the Ghost Town area in the Historic Section. They surveyed several small leads for 146 feet, leaving more leads for a future trip. This trip brought the total survey in the Ghost Town area to 3,396 feet.

 

May/June 2006

During May and June of 2006, 11 survey trips were taken into off-trail portions of Wind Cave, including 7 trips to the Historic Section, 2 trips to the Club Room Section, and 2 trips to the Half Mile Hall Section. During these trips, cavers surveyed and inventoried a total of 2,889 feet or 0.55 miles of passage, with an average survey length of 262 feet per survey. This new survey raised the length of Wind Cave from 120.73 to 121.28 miles. In addition to the survey trips, 5 work trips were taken; including 2 resurvey trips where 393 feet of problem survey was resurveyed.

05/02/2006
Jason Walz, Eric Grunwald, & Ajax Dalman
Jason led a survey trip to the CP survey in the Club Room Section. They surveyed 217 feet in some upper middle level crawls and left a few leads for a latter trip.

Wind Cave Weekend 05/13/2006

Rod Horrocks, Ken Geu, Erik Freeman & Reno Lippold
Rod led a trip to mop up leads off of the Candlelight Tour Route in the Historic Section. They surveyed 422 feet for the day, leaving several leads for a future trip.

05/16/2006
Jason Walz, Chris Dale, & Jessie Mann
Jason led an evening survey trip to the TT survey in the Historic Section. They found a pit lead that would require a handline while surveying 112 feet.

05/22/2006
Jason Walz, Marc Ohms, & Mariah Roberston
Jason led a resurvey trip to the AQ survey in the Historic Section. They resurveyed 210 feet and found lots of leads for a future trip.

05/26/2006
Rod Horrocks, Steve Bernardin, & Megan Hannah
Rod led a resurvey trip to resurvey JD14-20 in the Historic Section. They resurveyed 183 feet.

06/06/2006

Jason Walz, Andy & Bonny Armstrong
Jason led a survey trip to the Deep Confusion area in the Half Mile Hall Section. They surveyed several leads off of the Red & White Trail for 388 feet.

Rod Horrocks, Joey Feaster, & Ajax Dalman
Rod led an evening survey trip to the Muddle Room in the Historic Section. They found a fantastic section of Zebra Rock while surveying 202 feet, leaving a few leads for a later trip.

Larry Shaffer, Shawn Thomas, Daniel Ramsay, & Nick Smith
Larry led an evening survey training trip to the Ghost Town area in the Historic Section. They surveyed 156 feet and left more leads for a future trip. This trip brought the total survey in the Ghost Town area to 3,552 feet.

06/09/2006
Marc Ohms, Jason Walz, & Rod Horrocks
Marc led a photography work trip to Rome on the Wild Cave Tour Route in the Historic Section. They shot 35 photos for the 360 degree panoramic photo project.

Wind Cave Weekend 06/10/2006

Jason Walz, Larry Shaffer, & Lee-Gray Boze
Jason led a survey trip to the Peteys Puddle area in the Club Room Section. They surveyed 647 feet while pushing every lead they could find that headed away from known cave. They left several leads at the extreme northern end of this lower level area.

Rod Horrocks, Ken Geu, & Tonia Foster
Rod led a trip back to the Muddle Room area in the Historic Section to continue mopping up the area off of the Wild Cave Tour Route. They closed some loops while surveying 303 feet, leaving several leads for a later trip.

Sandy Kramer, Mary Laycock, & Kathy Petty
Sandy led a trip to mop up leads along the Natural Entrance Tour Route in the Historic Section. They surveyed 83 feet.

06/14/2006
Jason Walz, Marc Ohms, Bonny Armstrong, Shawn Thomas, & Erin Niedringhaus
Jason led a photography work trip to the Club Room. They shot 70 photos for the 360 degree panoramic photo project in the southern and northern sections of this room.

06/20/2006

Bonny Armstrong, Andy Armstrong, Kelly Brownson, & Daniel Ramsay
Bonny led a trip back to the Deep Confusion area in the Half Mile Hall Section. They surveyed in a breakdown pile and then out to a couple of balconies for 253 feet.

Jason Walz, Adam Newkirk, & Stephanie Graham
Jason led an evening survey trip back to the TT survey in the Historic Section to push the pit he had found on his last trip. They found an alternate way to connect to the bottom of the pit. However, when they were surveying up the pit, Adam had a handhold break, sending him down to the bottom of the pit on his back. Although, his back was badly scratched, he suffered no other injuries during the 12-foot fall. They surveyed 106 feet.

06/28/2006
Marc Ohms, Bonny Armstrong, Jason Walz, Shawn Thomas, Larry Shaffer, & Lee-Gray Boze
Marc led a photography work trip to Southern Comfort & Northwest Territories in the Southern Comfort Section. They shot 70 photos for the 360 degree panoramic photo project.

 

July/August 2006

During July and August of 2006, seven survey trips were taken into off-trail portions of Wind Cave, including five trips into the Historic Section, one trip to the North Section, and one trip to the Half Mile Hall Section. During these trips, cavers surveyed and inventoried a total of 1,559 feet or 0.29 miles of passage, with an average survey length of 222 feet per survey. This new survey raised the length of Wind Cave from 121.28 to 121.57 miles. In addition to the survey trips, two work trips were taken; including one resurvey trip where 184 feet of problem survey was resurveyed.

07/04/2006

Larry Shaffer, Lee-Gray Boze, & Tonia Foster Larry led a survey trip to the KY survey in the North Section to push leads in the John Wayne Room area. They survey 204 feet, naming one moonmilk-covered room, Instant Guilt Trip.

Bonny & Andy Armstrong, Kelly Brownson, & Daniel Ramsay
Bonny led a survey trip back to the Deep Confusion area in the Half Mile Hall Section to survey leads off of the CT survey. They surveyed 212 feet of grim, gritty, crawls.

Wind Cave Weekend 07/08/2006

Rod Horrocks, Ken Geu, & Seth Spoelman
Rod led a survey trip back to the JDA survey along the Wild Caving Tour Route in the Historic Section to finish mopping up the leads in that area. They surveyed 395 feet, leaving one lead that was impossibly tight on the edge of the cave, and which, appeared to open beyond a bedrock constriction.

07/18/2006

Rod Horrocks, Erin Niedringhaus, & Adam Newkirk
Rod led some park staff on a survey trip to mop up leads off of the Candlelight Tour Route in the Historic Section. They surveyed up a large fissure just before the Tabernacle and into a spacious passage 20-feet over the tour route. They left a couple of going leads that were too exposed to climb into before retreating to the nearby AT survey. There, they surveyed several short side passages while surveying 231 feet, leaving a couple of leads unsurveyed in a fissure near AT88.

Larry Shaffer, Vickie Siegel, & Nick Smith
Larry led a survey trip back to the Pleasant Surprise room in the Ghost Town area in the Historic Section to continue pushing that area. Although the leads didn’t go far, they were able to survey 180 feet.

08/01/2006
Marc Ohms, Ryan Stroschein, & Phillip Assmas
Marc led a work trip to Room Draculum in the Historic Section to remove Dr. John Moore’s water drip collector.

08/02/2006
Marc Ohms, Lee-Gray Boze, Tonia Foster, & Allen Epps
Marc led a work trip to the Lakes Section to flag the route from What the Hell to City Hall. They double-flagged the path in City Hall over to Calcite Lake. They found that What the Hell had dropped 0.1’ and Calcite Lake had dropped 0.3’.

08/15/2006
Larry Shaffer, Shawn Thomas, Pat Fleming, & Nick Smith
Larry led a survey trip back to the Ghost Town area in the Historic Section to push leads near the Zerba Room. They surveyed 183 feet for the day during an uneventful trip. This trip brought the total survey in the Ghost Town area to 3,915 feet.

08/21/2006
Rod Horrocks & William Monday
Rod led a resurvey trip to the Temple in the Historic Section to resurvey the UQA survey and to push any leads off of that survey. They resurveyed 184 feet between UQA2-10 and added 154’ of new survey in several short dead-end side leads. They left one tight awkward lead at UQA52.

 

September/October 2006

During September and October of 2006, eleven survey trips were taken into off-trail portions of Wind Cave, including seven trips to the Historic Section, two trips to the North Section, and two trips to the Club Room Section. During these trips, cavers surveyed and inventoried a total of 4,202 feet or 0.79 miles of passage, with an average survey length of 382 feet per survey. This new survey raised the length of Wind Cave from 121.39 to 122.18 miles. In addition to the survey trips, three work trips were taken; including one resurvey trip where 96 feet of problem survey was resurveyed, one lake level monitoring trip, and one cave management trip to the Wild Cave Tour Route.

09/05/2006
Rod Horrocks, Alexis Brooks, & Eric Dodd
Rod led a survey trip to the Bishop Fowler Loop in the Historic Section to survey leads off of the WXC survey. Once they saw the amount of unsurveyed passage in the area, they started the HE survey and named the first room the Black Arrow Room, after a 19th century arrow they found sooted onto the ceiling. While surveying nearby passages, they found some great button popcorn, several 35-foot slot connections to the Breckenridge Gallery area along the Natural Entrance Tour Route, a pit they named Confuzzled Pit, and a pendant that inspired them to name another passage the Delicate Arch Passage. They surveyed a total of 313 feet for the afternoon.

Wind Cave Weekend 09/09/2006

Rod Horrocks, Ken Geu, Shawn Thomas, & Nick Smith
Rod led a trip back to the HE survey in the Historic Section to continue pushing that area. They named a climbable 40-foot pit, Hospitable Pit, while surveying 468 feet for the day.

Jim Wilson, Skip Withrow, Tim Moreland, & Howard Bartlett
Jim led a survey trip back to the Multipurpose Room in the Club Room Section to continue pushing that area. They found a pit that led to 439 feet of survey and some bat bones.

Karla Whittenburg, Tom Dotter, Ken Kloppenborg, John McLean
Karla led a survey trip to the Lost Paradise area in the Historic Section to continue pushing leads. They surveyed 351 feet for the day.

Sandy Kramer, Mary Laycock, & Pat Jablonsky
Sandy led a survey trip to the Post Office area along the Natural Entrance Tour Route. They didn’t complete any survey.

9/26/2006
Marc Ohms, Bonny Armstrong, Sarah Booth, & Erin Niedringhaus
Marc led a work trip to the lakes to install some HOBO dataloggers. They found that the lake levels had dropped slightly.

10/03/2006
Rod Horrocks, Vickie Siegel, & Bill Stone
Rod led a survey trip to the AL survey on the southern edge of the Historic Section, which hadn’t seen any survey for over 30 years. They found some big cave to survey, three unclimbable pits, and a room they named Hieroglyphic Dome, after some moonmilk patterns on the walls. They ended the day in some big flat-floored cave they named the Flatlands. They were able to survey 570 feet for the day.

10/05/2006
Rod Horrocks, Marc Ohms, & Mary Laycock
Rod led a work trip on the Wild Cave Tour Route to determine what could be done about the dust issue where potholes have formed in the floor crust.

Wind Cave Weekend 10/14/2006

Rod Horrocks, Ken Geu, & Duff McCafferty
Rod led a survey trip back to the AL survey in the Historic Section to continue pushing the leads left from his last trip. This quickly led them into a sloping breakdown-filled passage that had air and was located on the edge of a large blank area. However, everything ended. Next, they surveyed a dome complex and then found two other pit connections between the AL survey and the underlying passages off of the Wild Cave Tour. They also found a mass mortality layer of brachiopods while surveying a passage off of a large unnamed room. They surveyed 693 feet for the day and left a steeply sloping tube that would require a handline for a future trip.

Jim Wilson, Tim Moreland, & Peter Knolz
Jim led a survey trip back to the Multipurpose Room area in the Club Room Section. They found a 125’ long by 25’ high hall below the yellow trail. They surveyed 346 feet for the day.

Carl Bern, Evan Blackstock, Andrew Blackstock
Carl led a survey trip to the Ghost Riders Gulch area in the North Section to push leads. They found some crawls that gave them 432 feet of survey for the day.

Amy Bern, Andrea Croskrey, & Srdjan Pajic
Amy led a survey trip to push leads in the North Section. They named one room the Brachdown Room after some brachiopods in the paleofill in the ceiling. They surveyed 445 feet and left numerous leads for a future trip.

10/31/2006
Rod Horrocks, Seth Spoelman, Erin Niedringhaus, & Bjorn Zindler
Rod led a resurvey trip to the UD survey off of the Wild Cave Tour Route in the Historic Section. This unusual area had lots of mud and sand with lots of organic flood debris that had pieces of charcoal in it. They found some small calcite balls on the tip of some filamental organic fibers hanging down from the underneath side of some ledges. They resurveyed UD1-6 for 96 feet and named the area Mud Peel Alley. They mapped an additional 145 feet of side passages, leaving only one very tight lead that is heading off of the eastern edge of the cave.

 

November/December 2006

During November and December of 2006, ten survey trips were taken into off-trail portions of Wind Cave, including five trips into the Historic Section, three trips to the North Section, and one trip each to the Club Room and Silent Expressway Sections. During these trips, cavers surveyed and inventoried a total of 3,026 feet or 0.57 miles of passage, with an average survey length of 302 feet per survey. This new survey raised the length of Wind Cave from 122.18 to 122.75 miles. In addition to the survey trips, one work trip was taken to monitor the lake levels in the Lakes Section.

11/07/2006
Jason Walz, Seth Spoelman, & Erin Niedringhaus
Jason led a survey trip to the Graveyard area in the Historic Section. They found a 30x15-foot room while surveying 224 feet.

Wind Cave Weekend 11/11/2006

Jim Wilson, Srdjan Pajic, Tim Moreland, & Howard Bartlett
Jim led a survey trip back to the Multipurpose Room area in the Club Room Section. They were quite surprised when one of their leads headed east without connecting to anything until it intersected the TA survey in the Historic Section. They surveyed 524 feet for the day.

Randy Macan, Robert Mcfareano, Shilou McCollum, & James Lawton
Randy led the first survey trip to the Silent Expressway Section in four years. They surveyed some passages that cut across a void on the map while surveying a total of 406 feet.

Kim McVey, Rick Speaect, & Dave Lambert
Kim led a survey trip to an area north of the Coke Room in the North Section. They surveyed 124 feet in a breakdown maze.

Sandy Kramer, Kathy Petty, Greg Glazner, Pat Jablonski
Sandy led a survey trip to the 89 Stairs area along the Fairgrounds Tour Route in the Historic Section. They surveyed some upper level tubes for 189 feet for the day.

Karla Whittenburg, Tom Dotter, Carey Hunter, & Ken Headrick
Karla led a survey trip back to the Lost Paradise area in the Historic Section. They named a small room with lemon-colored yellow flowstone and sodastraws the Lemon Twist. They surveyed 154 feet for the day.

12/06/2006
Marc Ohms & Jason Walz
Marc led a work trip to the Lakes to download the HOBO dataloggers that continuously monitor the lake level.

Wind Cave Weekend 12/09/2006

Rod Horrocks, Ken Geu, & Duff McCafferty
Rod led a survey trip to mop up several leads in a couple areas in the Historic Section. They started by surveying an unsurveyed canyon at the Crossroads, tying into the bottom of Hospitable Pit. They then went up to the HE survey and surveyed a couple of loose ends before retreating to the Temple to survey a couple of side passages. They named one popcorn-covered passage the Popcorn Extension. They surveyed 382 feet for the day.

Larry Shaffer, Nick Smith, & Jeremy Smith
Larry led a trip to the KY survey in the North Section where they surveyed 437 feet.

Amy Bern, Christa Schneider, Kim VcVey, Andrea Croskrey
Amy led a survey trip to the GY survey in the North Section. They mopped up 264 feet of passage.

12/19/2006
Rod Horrocks, Mark Sparks, & Adam Manship
Rod led a survey trip to the UF survey off of Columbian Hall in the Historic Section. They found a Roy McDonald signature from the early 1890’s in an extensive upper level maze located above the UF survey. They surveyed 322 feet for the day and left a going lead past a tight constriction.