Cavechat.org

Does anyone have any info on this one. It looks very interesting and I was wondering about the possiblities of a pull down...

I haven't been to it personally, but from the map I can see it would be a heck of a tough pull-down. It has a 241' pit about 1/3 of the way into it, and a total of 6 rigged drops. If you rig it for a pull-down, (at least the way I rig a pull-down), you'd be hauling a 500' rope through a lot of very difficult cave. It is a really wet cave as well, and there's a reason they call it "Bloodstone."

Perhaps some of our other regulars can give you a first-hand account.

Trogman

Haven't been there in many years, but there used to be a giant, loose boulder (I think we even called it "death rock"!) you had to crawl past in the upper section. As I recall it was kind of precariously balanced, and could be a deal-breaker. You might check to see if anyone knows the status, but beware in any case. Seems like I recall Jim Smith and others doing a pull down, but I'm not sure. I do remember it being a tough cave.

The entrance is collapsed shut.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... f12ef00ee0

Good work, guys. Has there been any update about this recently? Specifically about re-rigging? I would be open to help clear our more rocks and debris if another work day is planned.

I think this is a 1977 write up about the cave from Speleo News: http://www.karstportal.org/FileStorage/ ... 1-n004.pdf

JOhn

I had just finished reading that before I posted! haha that's funny

Marion did a great job writing that article- him being the historian that he is. Doing a through trip in that cave would be tough. Lot's of wetsuit crawls in dangerous breakdown. It looks like they pretty much have the cave open now, which is very cool. I would like to talk to someone who has done it before.

"I would like to talk to someone who has done it before."


Did it twice. What do you want to know about it?

That's awesome! Did you do a through trip or just past protected well? I was also curious if they had rebolted the cave since they re-dug the entrance open (I heard it was in need of that), but Kelly told me there is a group planning to take care of it at some point. How was the death rock?

This cave is just a long-term goal of mine -considering the extensive wet crawls and dangerous breakdown. I've done several long drops, but I'm just breaking into wetsuit multi drop caves so its one I'll be working my way up to.

I guess I'm just generally curious about the cave and am willing to hear any advice or interesting points about the trip(s).

Did two through trips, following on the first and leading the second. The second time I was an idiot and took a 300ft 1/2 inch rope. What a workout! We somehow got sidetracked in the upper sections in the wrong crawl. As I recall we were warned about the possible difficulty in pulling the rope down the second half of the 240' (due to the friction at the edge created by anchor location).
The bloodstone is in the entrance area and I recall it dangled above as cavers crawled beneath it. Most of the breakdown was in the entrance area also. Its been a long time since I've been there but I enjoyed both trips. I don't know of the current bolt status.

That sounds like a work out!

I've been told that there will be a re-bolting trip done sometime in the near future. I look forward to doing this one some day!