Cavechat.org

Hopefully a fun sort of topic, for on-rope junkies.
We have a cave here (Argyle Hole) which I think is great because it has lots of pitches (for it's depth) and lots of rebelays and redirects.

Overall depth: 138m (453 ft) (None in the area go very deep )
No of pitches: 5
No of rebelays: 5
No of redirects / deviations: 1
Average depth between features (start of pitch, rebelay, redirect) on rope: 138 / 11 = 12.54m (41 ft)

Ropes required are (nearest 5m):
25
35
20
15
25

Of the 138m about 40m is descended off rope, so average on rope distance between features is:
98 / 11 = 8.9m (29 ft)

It's a pretty tight sort of cave so all of the rebelays and redirects are required (in case you were wondering ), I think it packs in a lot of rebelays and redirects for it's depth (which is why I like the cave so much ) but I'm wondering how it stacks up? Anyone else have a cave that packs in more rebelays and redirects per metre of rope?

A rough guess from the survey and there's about 150m (492 ft) of horizontal distance covered getting to the bottom, in absolute terms (as the crow flies, if crows flew through rock) it's about 30m (98ft) horizontal distance from the entrance to the sump.

So what's the statistics on your most technical type caves? If the cave branches or has multiple sumps pick the most interesting route to the bottom or the ones that give the best stats and go with that.

I thought it mightn't be so nice working in metres so I gave distances in ft as well.

It was a cave called Gourdneck.

Vertigo wrote:It was a cave called Gourdneck.

Was??? does it not longer exist? or has it been replaced with a better more technical one?

Tell me more! how many pitches, rebelays etc what length?

It is normally one of the easiest caves, but we forgot our regular rope for the climbdown entrance. We ended up using a webbing hand line, tied off to 8mm rope near the edge, then a knot in the middle of the pit to 7mm rope at the bottom. I figured it would be easier to rappel the drop than chimney down. The 7mm rope was a real trip! Other than that, there's not much technical aspect to the cave, but it ends up a little more technical when the waterfall climbs are roaring.

I had a dream once about Jim Wilbanks rigging Boulder Falls in Lech with 3mm. I think that 7mm is as close as I'll get to that. I do not suggest anyone use it. There's just not enough friction.

I have free-climbed the chimney down into Gourdneck, with no rope or handline. It wasn't too bad. I found the free climb out to be more challenging.

Never thought of doing that. I just don't like to think about falling there. It would probably hurt.

That one cave that does this...120, then a handline traverse and climbup, 26 (on 9mm), 18(on dynamic), 510(which feels like dynamic once you reach the bottom) But if you mean most tiring cave, then Hickey Pot is still mine. Squeezing through crawlways full of water dragging ropes is always fun!

Utah has numerous technical vertical caves, requiring some skill with tranversing, crossing rebelays or knots, and doing other various technical rope stuff. Hard to name just one.
One of my favorites would have to be Boomerang which is technically all vertical... starts out with a beautiful 130 free entrance drop, a 12 foot up climb, squeeze through a narrow vertical crack to rig up the next rope, down through a tight vertical crack which bells out immediately to a 70 foot semi-free drop. Then you takes your choice of going through a twisty S turning crawl... backwards while on rope to where it opens to a 30 foot drop OR (my personal favorite) ascend up 80 feet to a ledge and cross over that 15 foot wide boulder choke to get back on rope and rappel diagonally to the next rebelay, traverse a short 5 feet to the next hanger and switch to a 135 foot rappel to the bottom.
The cave has it all I think. Really cool... looking forward to a map of it coming out soon.

Ralph E. Powers wrote:Utah has numerous technical vertical caves, requiring some skill with tranversing, crossing rebelays or knots, and doing other various technical rope stuff. Hard to name just one.
One of my favorites would have to be Boomerang which is technically all vertical... starts out with a beautiful 130 free entrance drop, a 12 foot up climb, squeeze through a narrow vertical crack to rig up the next rope, down through a tight vertical crack which bells out immediately to a 70 foot semi-free drop. Then you takes your choice of going through a twisty S turning crawl... backwards while on rope to where it opens to a 30 foot drop OR (my personal favorite) ascend up 80 feet to a ledge and cross over that 15 foot wide boulder choke to get back on rope and rappel diagonally to the next rebelay, traverse a short 5 feet to the next hanger and switch to a 135 foot rappel to the bottom.
The cave has it all I think. Really cool... looking forward to a map of it coming out soon.

Damn Ralph, that sounds like a GREAT cave.

junkman wrote:

Ralph E. Powers wrote:Utah has numerous technical vertical caves, requiring some skill with tranversing, crossing rebelays or knots, and doing other various technical rope stuff. Hard to name just one.
One of my favorites would have to be Boomerang which is technically all vertical... starts out with a beautiful 130 free entrance drop, a 12 foot up climb, squeeze through a narrow vertical crack to rig up the next rope, down through a tight vertical crack which bells out immediately to a 70 foot semi-free drop. Then you takes your choice of going through a twisty S turning crawl... backwards while on rope to where it opens to a 30 foot drop OR (my personal favorite) ascend up 80 feet to a ledge and cross over that 15 foot wide boulder choke to get back on rope and rappel diagonally to the next rebelay, traverse a short 5 feet to the next hanger and switch to a 135 foot rappel to the bottom.
The cave has it all I think. Really cool... looking forward to a map of it coming out soon.

Damn Ralph, that sounds like a GREAT cave.

Yep... I could tell you where exactly it is.. .but then I'd have to kill you... sorry... (just kidding)

Vertigo wrote:Never thought of doing that. I just don't like to think about falling there. It would probably hurt.

I did fall on the way up. Quite a ways. It wasn't a free-fall--I extended by body out and had some braking against the walls (it's a chimney after all). It did hurt, but nothing near severe injury. It was very wet and slippery...if it had been drier and I'd fallen (less likely), then I would probably have stopped much sooner.

Ralph should lead a trip to Boomerang...that sounds pretty cool!

Vertigo wrote:Ralph should lead a trip to Boomerang...that sounds pretty cool!

Road trip

junkman wrote:

Vertigo wrote:Ralph should lead a trip to Boomerang...that sounds pretty cool!

Road trip

Be happy to do it... lead many a successful trip there... everyone had a blast.
Here is the entrance...

And how it looks from the bottom looking up! It's been compared to rappelling into a coke bottle... narrow at top... gets wider then narrows for a bit then widens at the bottom... I believe it's 135 feet and free hanging most of the way.

When do we go???