Beyond Mammoth Cave

by Beyond Mammoth Cave- A Tale of Obsession in the World's Longest Cave (epub)

  flutes, fluting, n. Vertical striations, grooves, or alcoves in cave passage walls or vertical shaft walls produced by the solutional activity of concentrated streams of descending water.

  free-climb, n. A climb that does not require any equipment to ascend or descend.

  frost action, frost-wedging, n. Mechanical weathering of rock caused by the freezing of water and expansion of ice in fractures of exposed rocks.

  go, v. Cave passages that go are passages open for exploration, or going cave. A lead that looks passable is said to go. One also says of an explored passage that it went.

  grape, n. A secondary deposit of calcium carbonate on cave walls, with surface projections consisting of globules ranging from pea size to grape size.

  groundwater, n. Subsurface water that lies at or below the water table.

  gypsum, n. A white to colorless mineral, calcium sulfate, deposited in caves in a variety of crystalline forms resembling needles, flowers, cotton, feathers, and wood shavings and as faceted crystals. Gypsum is sometimes colored yellow, orange, or brown by impurities.

  hanger, n. A metal fastener, attached to a bolt, with a hole to attach or clip in a carabiner.

  hanging survey, n. Cave passages that are surveyed, or the data of that survey, that are not connected to the main grid of surveyed passages in a cave.

  hard hat, n. A protective helmet or head covering of fiberglass or strong plastic held on the head by a chin strap and containing an attachment on the front for the placement of a carbide lamp.

  hydrology, n. The study of groundwater.

  hydrologist, n. A scientist who studies groundwater.

  Joppa Ridge, n. The southwesternmost karst ridge of the Mammoth Cave Plateau in Mammoth Cave National Park, containing Proctor Cave and Lee Cave.

  Jumar, n. A mechanical clamping and camming device used to ascend ropes. Used in combinations of two or three, they allow the climber to ascend step-like up a rope.

  karst, n. A characteristic landscape produced by solution and underground drainage in areas of soluble bedrock such as limestone and dolomite. Karst landforms include sinkholes and sinking streams, irregular ridges such as Flint Ridge, and blind or closed valleys such as Doyle Valley.

  karst ridge, n. A cavernous upland, bounded by karst valleys, base-level rivers, or sinkhole plains. Mammoth Cave Ridge is an example.

  karst valley, n. A cavernous lowland, usually formed by solutional activity of water along the course of a former surface stream, the waters of which have been captured underground. Sometimes called a sink valley. Doyle Valley is an example.

  knee-crawlers, n. Molded rubber pads, each with two straps for fastening on one’s knee. They protect knees from bruises and abrasions when one crawls on rocks in caves. Also called knee pads.

  layback, v. A method of rock climbing in which the climber’s fingers pull one way and the feet push the opposite way in a crack in a wall, with the climber’s body out in space parallel to the wall like that of an inchworm. The vector of opposing forces effectively neutralizes gravity to permit the climber to move hands and feet alternately to climb vertically.

  lead, n. A cave passage that looks big enough to explore.

  limestone, n. A sedimentary rock composed principally of calcium carbonate. Mammoth Cave is developed primarily in the Girkin Limestone, the Ste. Genevieve Limestone, and St. Louis Limestone of Carboniferous age.

  line plot, n. A map made by drawing straight lines between survey points.

  longbar, n. A steel crowbar three or four feet long.

  Mammoth Cave National Park, n. Established in 1941 as a part of the National Park System. For information, write to Mammoth Cave National Park, Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, 42259.

  Mammoth Cave Plateau, n. An upland in Mammoth Cave National Park in the Central Kentucky Karst containing major karst ridges separated by major karst valleys. Flint Ridge (10 square miles) is separated by Houchins Valley (2 square miles) from Mammoth Cave Ridge (3.5 square miles), which in turn is separated by Doyle Valley (2.7 square miles) from Joppa Ridge (4 square miles). Toohey Ridge (3.5 square miles) is a spur of Mammoth Cave Ridge. These individual ridges join each other.

  Mammoth Cave Ridge, n. The central karst ridge of the Mammoth Cave Plateau in Mammoth Cave National Park containing Mammoth Cave, which has been known since 1798 and which became a part of the Flint Mammoth Cave System in 1972.

  mirabilite, n. A water-soluble colorless mineral, hydrated sodium sulfate, occurring in a variety of crystalline forms, often resembling needles, coconut, or powder. Useful as a salt substitute and as a cathartic.

  National Park Service, n. Founded in 1916 as a branch of the U.S. Department of the Interior. For information, write to National Park Service, Washington, D.C., 20240

  National Speleological Society, n. A membership organization founded in 1941 and affiliated with the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The purpose of the NSS is to encourage scientific study and conservation of caves, and it maintains extensive conservation and publication programs. Local branches of the NSS are called grottoes and are located in all areas of the U.S.A. For further information, address queries to the National Speleological Society, 2813 Cave Avenue, Huntsville, Alabama, 35810-4431.

  passage, passageway, n. A horizontal opening in a cave large enough for one to enter.

  pinch, pinch-down, n., v. Where a passage gets so low or narrow that one cannot penetrate it; at that time, the passage has pinched out.

  pit, n. A vertical opening in the floor of a cave passage produced by collapse of rock, slumping of breakdown, or the solutional activity of descending water. Vertical shafts viewed from above are often called pits.

  pitch, n. An uninterrupted vertical drop.

  piton, n. A nail-like device used for climbing or securing ropes in caves. Pitons are hammered into cracks with a rock hammer.

  plotting, v. Use of a protractor and scale to draft a cave map. Sometimes a computer plotter is used to draft the map automatically from data supplied in digital form.

  point, survey point, n. A marked, numbered location in a cave passage on which the compass is placed for measuring the bearing and on which the chain is placed for measuring the distance to the next point. (This is a local usage for what is more generally called station or survey station.)

  point person, n. The first person in a cave survey party who selects and marks each survey point.

  popcorn, n. A secondary deposit in cave passages, characterized by rough, globular surface projections.

  pothole, n. A round, bowl-like pocket in the floor of a cave.

  prussik knot, n. A special sliding hitch made of rope used for climbing standing ropes. The hitch clamps on the standing rope when loaded. Also called a prusik.

  rack, n. A mechanical device containing multiple brake bars that is attached to a climber’s seat harness to enable a controlled descent. The standing rope is threaded around the bars to provide friction to control the speed.

  rappel, n., v. The act or method of descending a vertical shaft or cliff by means of a rope passed around the body through any of a variety of devices that produce friction, permitting a controlled rate of descent.

  rebelay, n. A secondary anchor for a standing rope.

  rinky-dink, n. A cave tour calculated to confuse, entertain, and fascinate the victims by taking them on a circuitous route over obstacles and at a dizzying pace. Sometimes called a run-around.

  short bar, n. A steel crowbar twelve to eighteen inches long with a curved end, using for digging and prying at breakdown rocks in caves.

  sinkhole, n. A closed, often oval basin-like depression on a karst land surface through which water drains underground. A sinkhole entrance is an opening into a cave from a sinkhole.

  sinkhole plain, n. A geographic unit of the Central Kentucky Karst consisting of a gently rolling land surface with drainage carried underground through sinkholes and sinking streams. Water drains underground to base-level Green River and Barren River. The sinkhole p
lain is bounded by the Mammoth Cave Plateau on the north, the Green River on the east, the Warsaw Limestone on the south, and the western divide of the Barren River on the west.

  sinking stream, n. A stream that flows in a valley that terminates in a headwall beneath which the stream plunges underground.

  siphon, n., v. The place at which a cave passage is drowned by the ceiling extending underwater. A passage that is closed off by water in this way is said to siphon. (This is a local usage for what is more generally called a sump.)

  speleologist, n. A scientist who specializes in speleology.

  speleology, n. The science of the origin and nature of physical and biological features and processes of the karst and cave environment.

  spelunker, n. A derogatory term for caver. “Who is that spelunker with new red coveralls and flashlight?”

  stalactite, n. A pendulant, conical, or icicle-like deposit. Stalactites are usually of calcite and hang from the ceilings of cave passages. They are precipitated from mineral-bearing solutions dripping from cave ceilings.

  stalagmite, n. A cylindrical, conical, or mound-shaped mineral deposit. Stalagmites are usually of calcite and project from floors of cave passages. They are precipitated from mineral-bearing solutions dripping from the ceiling and often form under stalactites.

  station, survey station, n. See point.

  sump, n. See siphon.

  survey, n., v. In caves, the systematic process of, or the data from, measuring and recording the bearings and distances of passages, using a compass and chain for the purpose of making an accurate map. Often a cave passage is referred to by the name of the survey in the passage, such as the Q Survey. Thus “the Q Survey” can refer either to the survey data or to the passage from which that data is taken.

  survey party, survey team, n. Usually consists of three or four cavers, one of whom reads the compass or other surveying instrument, one or two of whom set points and read the chain, and one who takes notes in a survey book.

  survey shot, shot, n. In cave surveying, one of a series of bearing and distance measurements between points.

  tape, n. See chain.

  terminal breakdown, n. Rocks that have fallen from ceiling and wall to form a barrier that closes a cave passage.

  Toohey Ridge, n. A karst ridge immediately to the east of Mammoth Cave National Park, containing Roppel Cave. In 1983, the forty-nine-mile-long Roppel Cave was connected to Mammoth Cave.

  transit, n. An instrument for measuring horizontal and vertical angles of bearings in surveying.

  traverse, n., v. To move laterally across the face of a wall, such as a wall of a pit, using climbing techniques, or a section of cave passage requiring traverse movements. A compass traverse is a survey.

  trunk, trunk passage, trunk stream, n. A major conduit, usually of walking height. Logsdon River, Elysian Way, and Arlie Way are considered trunk passages.

  tube, n. A horizontal cave passage roughly cylindrical or elliptical in shape.

  tyrolean, n., adj. A traverse using a horizontal, standing line, usually to cross pits. In a tyrolean traverse, the caver moves hanging like a sloth beneath the line.

  vertical shaft, n. A vertical, well-like, usually oval cave opening underground, produced by the solutional activity of water seeping downward at the intersection of joints or fractures in the limestone or dolomite. Shafts range in diameter from a few inches to more than forty feet and in height from a few feet to more than a hundred feet. In the Central Kentucky Karst, vertical shafts are the underground heads of drainage, and their drains are tributaries to underground trunk streams.

  virgin cave, virgin passage, n. A cave or passage that has not been explored.

  walking cave, n. A cave passage high enough to walk in.

  water table, n. The level below which the ground is saturated with water.

  wetsuit, n. A rubber suit used to insulate against cold water.

  wild cave, n. A cave that has not been developed with trails and lighting.

  INDEX

  The abbreviations CKKC and CRF stand for Central Kentucky Karst Coalition and Cave Research Foundation respectively. Abbreviations locate passages within their respective caves: Mammoth Cave (MC), Morrison Cave (MO), Proctor Cave (PC), and Roppel Cave (RC). Page numbers in boldface type refer to illustrations or maps; cp refers to color plates.

  aboriginal Americans, 3–4

  Abracadabra (RC), 245

  accidents, 287–88, 310–11

  Alfred, Janet, 122

  Alfred, Tom, 122–30

  All Woman Party, 119–21

  Anderson, Bob, 194–200, 231–33, 273–79

  Anderson, Jenny, 122

  Anthony, Darlene, 305–10

  Arlie Way (RC), 88–99, 194–95, 198–99, 224

  Arrow Canyon (RC), 67, 77–78

  ascending equipment. See caving equipment

  Austin, Bill, 15, 80

  Avalanche Pit (MO), 148–51

  Baker, Linda, 194–200, 225–33, 273–78

  Barnes, John, 66–70, 95–96, 98–102, 130–34

  Barren River, 1

  Bishop, Sarah, 296

  Black, Dave, 286, 317–23

  Black River (RC), 103, 217–19

  blasting. See explosives

  Borden, Elmore, 136

  Borden, Jim, xii, 14, 16–18, 23–24, 35, 106, cp; and Arlie Way trip (RC), 98; and conflicts with Jim Currens, 108–12, 204–8, 262–63; and connection trip for MC-RC, 9–13, 316–23; and CRF trips, 47–48, 83; and Crumps Spring Cave trips, 19–20, 25–32; and early Roppel Cave trips, 51–64; and Elysian Way trip (RC), 200–202; and Jakes Cave trips, 38–40, 43–45; and Logsdon River trips (RC), 225–33; and Lower Elysian Way trips (RC), 214–19; meeting Don Coons, 139–40; and meeting with CRF, 207–8; and Morrison Cave trip, 144–51; and North Crouchway trips (RC), 186–190; and photographing of Wilcox map, 283–85; and Pirates Pot trip (RC), 248–49; reaction of the Bruckers’ secret trip, 242–43, 258–59; and Renick Cave trip, 40–41; and rock throwing episode, 108–10; schooling of, 40, 46, 83, 105; and West Virginia caving trips, 21–23, 106–7

  borehole, 90

  Bransford Avenue (MC). See East Bransford Avenue (MC)

  Branstetter, John, 292–93, cp; and connection trip for MC-RC, 12–13, 316–23; and Hawkins River trip (PC), 163–64; and Logsdon River trip (MC), 304–11; and Morrison Cave trips, 151–57

  breakdown, 12, 39, 269

  Bridge, John, 16

  Bridgemon, Ron, 170–72

  Bridges, Hal, 108–10, 220, 257, 261

  Brucker, Lynn. See Weller, Lynn

  Brucker, Roger, xiii, 176, 240, 296, cp; as co-chair of Third Cave Project Workshop, 298–300; and connection trips for MC-PC/MO, 179–85; and connection trips for MC-RC, 9–13, 317–23; family of, 293–96; and Logsdon River trip (MC), 305–11; and marriage to Lynn Weller, 304; and Morrison Cave secret trip, 236–43; and P17 Pit–Hawkins River trips (PC), 130–34, 158–62, 168–70; and reaction to Jim Borden’s secret map photos, 284–85; and Snail Trail trip (MC), 116–19

  Brucker, Tom, 317; and breakthrough trip (PC), 114–16; and Brucker Connection (RC) 218, 255; and connection survey trip for PC-MO, 177–78; and connection trip for MC-MO/PC, 181–85; and discovery of Ferguson Entrance (MC), 295–98; and Lower Elysian Way trip (RC), 217–19; and secret trip (MO), 236–43; and Snail Trail trip (MC), 122–30

  Buecher, Bob, 170–72

  Burns, Denny, 15–16, 121

  Butler, Bonnie, 81–83

  Buzzard Pit, 38

  BWOB (Black-White-Orange-Blue Passage) (RC), 255–56, 288

  camping in cave, 194–95, 198–200

  Canadian cavers, 189–93

  canyon, 55, 86

  carbide lamp, 4–5, 137, 310–11

  Carter, Jim, 297–98

  Cave City, Ky., 222

  cave clothing. See caving equipment

  cave conservation, xix, 222–25, 272–73

  cave development process, 1–3

  cave pearls,
cp

  Cave Research Foundation. See CRF

  Caves Beyond, The (Brucker and Lawrence), 4, 23

  cave wars, 135

  caving equipment, 4–6, 5, 6, 18, 84–85, 294

  Center for Cave and Karst Studies, 296

  Central Kentucky Karst, 1

  Central Kentucky Karst Coalition. See CKKC

  chimneying in caves, 147

  CKKC, 95; beginning of, 58; early organization of, 110–12; strains upon, 272–73; Washington, D.C., area operations of, 262–63

  CKKC-CRF relations, 203, 205–8, 258–59, 276–78, 326

  CKKC Newsletter, 112, 262

  climbing in caves, 144–46

  Coalition Chasm (RC), 58, 73–75

  Cocklebur Avenue (MC), 292

  collapse, and rarity of connections, 11

  Colossal Cave, 286, 340

  conflict: between CKKC and Fisher Ridge cavers, 288–89; between CKKC and outside cavers, 272–73, 312–16; between Jim Borden and Jim Currens, 108–12, 262–63; between Jim Borden and Geary Schindel, 314–16

  connection, 2–3, 174–76, 179–85, 234–35, 279–80; announcement of, 294; debate about, 241–42, 289; team, cp

  connection trips: MC-RC, 9–13, 14; PC-MO, 171–75; MC-PC/MO, 181–85

  Cook, Bob, 59–64

  Coons, Don, 46, 70, 327, cp; and connection trip for MC-RC, 10–13, 316–323; and connection trip for PC-MO, 171–74; and Elysian Way trip (RC), 200–202; and Ferguson Entrance (MC) activities, 297; and Hawkins River trip (PC), 163–64, 166–69; and Logsdon River trips (MC, MO), 165–66; 305–9; and Lower Elysian Way trips (RC), 186–87, 216; and Morrison Cave trips, 140–57; and Parker Cave trip, 139–40; and reaction to Borden’s secret map photography, 283–85; and reaction to the Bruckers’ secret trip, 242–43; and Watergate trip (RC), 285–86

  Crawford, Nicholas, 296

  Crecelius, Pete, 103, 261, 289–90, cp; and Elysian Way trip (RC), 208–14; and Logsdon River trip (MC), 302–12; and Logsdon River trip (RC), 231–33; and Lower Elysian Way trips (RC), 217–19, 255–56; and meeting with CRF, 207–8; and Norms Dome trip (MC), 304; and North Crouchway trip (RC), 188–94; and Old Cave trips (RC), 245–47; and Pirates Pot trip (RC), 248–49