Sorry about the poor footage but there’s really nothing you can do to get better footage out of this cave. It’s 140F, 100% humidity, and filled with sulfurous gas. We prepared by taping our cave suits to our boots and our gloves and piling ice in. It truly didn’t help at all.
I think I posted the longer format version here a while back but here’s it chopped down to the best parts.
Anyone know any good caves where Boy Scouts can try out spelunking in Virginia or West Virginia? I’m not talking about a tour of Luray Caverns, but I mean actually crawling around/climbing some rocks etc in a cave that’s a bit off the beaten path, but still with a guide who can make sure we stay safe. We’re located in Northern VA and we’re able to drive 2-3 hours to get to a good spot.
Three of us spent most of Saturday in a system I've been visiting on and off since I joined the local grotto last year. There's a section past the second squeeze that nobody on the current roster had actually surveyed, mostly because getting the tape and compass through that crawl is miserable and everyone kept putting it off.
We finally did it. Took about five hours for maybe sixty meters of actual passage, which sounds absurd until you're the one lying on your side trying to read a compass while your helmet light fogs up from the humidity. The crawl itself isn't dangerous, just tight and low enough that you're basically breathing against the ceiling for a stretch. One spot required taking the pack off and pushing it ahead separately.
What made it worth it was finding a small side lead about two thirds of the way through that opens into a little dome room nobody had logged before. Nothing huge, maybe four meters of relief, but there's some decent flowstone starting to form on one wall and a draft coming from somewhere we couldn't immediately trace. That draft is now the thing everyone in the club wants to chase next.
Drew up the rough sketch last night with the raw numbers from the Suunto and tape. Still needs cleaning up before it goes into the official file, but it already shows the passage trending a bit differently than the old hand-drawn map from the eighties suggested. Makes me wonder how much of our older cave data is just slightly off because nobody wanted to crawl back in and double check it.
Anyone else have a system in their area with a section that's technically mapped but everyone secretly knows the survey was rushed or guessed at? Curious how common this actually is.
Minnesota usa, am looking for caves like TOT, hams, or AG. I am not asking for locations coordinates or entrances please do not share that on here or your comment will be deleted I am just looking for caves that are open and if it's the original entrance.