S.W. Missouri area cavers

[basjr]

Hey everyone, the name is Brett , I have been caving for 18 years. If anyone is in the area, email me @ basjr@usa.com.

[Chads93GT]

either way, hello from south east missouri.

[basjr]

hello, been in any class A caves? I have yet to. Missouri seems to have quite a few with passages over 2500 feet. Let me know if you want to get together and go underground.

[Chads93GT]

ermmm...Whats a class A cave?? I live in the cave capitol of missouri, there's more caves over a mile in length, here, than in the rest of the state.

[basjr]

Back in the day, Missouri used to classify a cave based on the length of passages, "A" class being over x number of feet. I have stumbled on such a list. There are no class "A" caves in Mcdonald county, but I have over 12 class"B" caves in my county. Class "B" is at least 900 foot of passage, up to 3000 foot of passage. Just looking for larger caves, to check out.

[Squirrel Girl]

Back in the day, Missouri used to classify a cave based on the length of passages, "A" class being over x number of feet. I have stumbled on such a list. There are no class "A" caves in Mcdonald county, but I have over 12 class"B" caves in my county. Class "B" is at least 900 foot of passage, up to 3000 foot of passage. Just looking for larger caves, to check out.

I grew up just north of MO (Iowa for those geographically challenged) before the day. I never heard of that labeling scheme. Must be a really local (spatially and temporally) way to classify caves.

[wyandottecaver]

Currently MDC uses a opeen/restricted/closed system of classification for public caves. Commercial Caves use an ABC system based on number of visitors, and at the 1977 Cave Management Symposium Jerry Trout of NM described an ABC system based on a caves contents and its hazards.

Dunno if the Missouri Cave Survey used that system but it seems likely that cavers would classify based on length.

[Chads93GT]

Yeah, i think that must be a local thing. Ive never heard of the big caves here in perry county classified as class A, B, C etc caves. I also haven't seen anything in the missouri cave files updates about classifications.

[basjr]

I'll get you the list for Perry County, and I will look into the exact qualifications for such labeling. It is not a local thing unless for some reason the whole state of Missouri is your Idea of local.

[Chads93GT]

well if class a caves = over 3200 feet, this county has about 32 of them ;)

[basjr]

My list has quite a few class a caves in perry county, crevice 142,296 ft of passage, moore 88,704ft, mystery 82,368ft, rimstone, fiddlers, mertz, snow, zahner at 10,300 foot of passage. Class b, i have twin a at 5,000ft of passage, sutterer. Now class c, hoff at 900 ft of passage, flaming river, rail fence, and so forth and so on.......... I could keep going. I still do not know who compiled the list but I have many lists to go with this list. So back to my original question any class a caves yet?

[Chads93GT]

Well, surveyed passage yeah. For crevice its actually a lot longer than the surveyed passage. Yesterday I did a 11 hour 5 mile door to door trip through crevice with the guys who have been mapping it for the past 40 years and they were frequently pointing out unsurveyed passages and even unexplored passages. Anyway moot point. Where do you live? I will probably be leading a rimstone river trip later this year (nov) but it is a wetsuit trip, and it will be a 10-12 hour trip covering 7 or more miles. Its not a trip for someone out of shape with no gear or wetsuit, or for a beginner unfortunately. do you cave a lot and have your own gear?

Chad McCain

[basjr]

I do not have a wet suit, but I have other gear. Ropes, lights, and the sorts. The longest I have been underground is about 4 hours. I am really looking for something with a little more substance, like a 10 hour+ trip. The book that this list comes from is simply called Missouri Caves, published in the 70's. The gentlemen that have been mapping crevice might have even contributed to this book. When you get a mile plus underground, do you encounter much cave life? formations?

[Chads93GT]

It all depends on the cave really, but in my experience with caving in Perry County, the best parts of the cave, are the hardest (exhausing) to get to. The beauty doesn't come cheap. Cave life, that as well depends on the cave, but again in my limited experience, just because you are 2 or 3 or 4 miles underground, doesnt mean the life trails off, in perry co. anyway. Perry's caves are active drains for the surface, so lots of things get washed in that don't intend to get washed in. There are more ways into a cave than the holes you and I can fit into. My experience is rather limited as I have only been caving for about 13 months. But in that 13 months I have been on 52 or 53 cave trips that average 8 hours or longer (survey). I am also limited to caving where I live. There is no sense for me to drive hours to go caving, when I can literally run to missouri's #1 and #3 largest caves in less than 25 minutes, or...drive 4 minutes ;) How far do you life from Perry county? ie Perryville, MO. A wetsuit is required for some caves here, but not all. Rimstone river you have to have one though.

[basjr]

sadly enough, I am in Mcdonald county on the very bottom west corner, and I see you are in the extreme south east corner,mac county here has only smaller caves. I have recently been contacted by a property owner here, to possibly be the first to explore a cave on his property. We'll see if it is maybe larger???