ACENTHAHOLE wrote:I never intended to beat my chest. I only started this thread to make an announcement. I never even mentioned my name. I didn't care. Somehow I got sidetracked in to this crap. Everyone I have spoken to says 285' is the deepest. That leads me to believe 285' is the deepest. You are the first person ever to tell me that Mystery is 316'. If Mystery is 316', fine. I won't argue with the facts. I just want to explore and find new stuff, map it and make it available to the rest of the caving community. More than anything I just want to find out where all that air is running off to.
Hey, Ace: I didn't mean to dump on you - just pokin' a little fun, as we say. You guys did some great work in Chambliss, and this pit project is pretty cool as well. It's all about having some fun and finding more cave, so keep on pushing those leads!
I don't know who you've been talking to about Mystery, but it's only 286 (or whatever) from the lowest rig point, and is recorded that way according to the TCS standard practice. for pit depths. Mark Wolinsky published an article about the history of the cave along with the map when it was completed many years ago. I think it was in the Speleonews, and I know it was in the Journal of Spelean History.
It seems like the young bucks don't read history any more - I wonder why? Is that an American thing or is it true in Europe as well? When I started caving I read everything I could get my hands on about the history of caving, including the classics like Subterranean Climbers, Ten Years Under the Earth, Memoirs of a Speleologist, One Tousand Meters Down, and many more.
Reading history gives you a sense of perspective. When you consider that Pierre Chevalier and Fernad Petzl and company explored and surveyed what became the deepest known cave in the world from the bottom up, with scaling poles, in occupied France during WWII, dodging the Germans to avoid being drafted into the German army or thrown in jail or worse, it makes our little weekend adventures seem kind of pale in comparison. Those were some real hardcore cavers.