In 1988, while working with the US Forest Service on a trail crew in the Mt. Evans wilderness our crew found three caves. All were fissure/crack caves in metamorphic rock. Two were very tight entrances and explored perhaps only 35' in before becoming too small to voyage further for our untrained group. The third one was a different story. It had a more or less vertical opening, about 10x10', with an 8' drop to a small flat area, then a large (8x6') cave dropped at about a 60 degree angle for about 45-50'. This is the one we went back and explored further in 1999 or 2000 with rappeling gear and jumars, but still never saw the end of it. Beyond the ramped section, there was 20-30' long narrow (2-3') but tall fissure that led to a tricky tight spot. Once through, there was a platform on the edge of an abyss. There was air flowing through, but our lights could not see the bottom.
Anyway, we all swore to keep it a secret, but recently I've talked with a few of my co-explorers and none of us will ever have the guts to go any further. We're not cavers. Heck, none of us really knew enough to go as far as we did, but we had the common sense to know our limits. We'd love to see someone else have a crack at it now that we've all but forgotten about the cave. Access will likely be snow-covered until early June and it is a substantial hike in, but I'm curious if anyone around here would be interested in exploring something like this.
Is this something common or a rare find for the area? Anyone interested in having a look? I'd be happy to lead someone in when the trails dry out provided I get a full report upon a return to the surface (and pictures and video if possible).
Mark
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