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THORN MOUNTAIN



On 23 March 1963, six PSC members visited Thorn Mountain Cave. It is located on Thorn Mountain above Sinnet Cave, and the two are believed to connect. To reach the cave one must ascend through a rather steep pasture area. This particular group of dedicated cavers had a glorious snowball encounter during the march.

The entrance is vertical for about 15 feet, and then becomes a very steep slope. A handline is most helpful on the slope. The vertical portion is climbable, with the help of a chest prusik. I think this cave is the prettiest I have seen thus far. The walls in a large portion of the cave are covered with dog-tooth spar calcite crystals. They are so abundant that it is difficult to walk by without breaking some off. While we were there, I collected a few fossils which had been requested by the Smithsonian. Two of them were rare specimens, and the museum was quite happy to receive them.
Later, at least 40 persons attended a 'New Year's Eve type party' at the Fieldhouse. A good time was had by all, though I did not see anyone traverse the walls which is a usual occupation. We did find out that Steve Emery and Dave Harvey are Heidi Bread fans, as they occasionally broke into singing the ditty that goes "My favorite bread's Heidi, etc."... Steve plays a rather mean guitar, and has quite a repertoire of folk songs.--
Carol Luke (now Logan), the POTOMAC CAVER, Vol. 6, no.4, April 1963.

A multi-exposure of the Big Room in SinnetUsing a Coleman lantern. Photo by Dan Nigh


Breakdown

Sinnettand Thorn Mountain Cavesofficially exist as a cave system. With the intent of surveying the damage caused by a recent collapse of breakdown between the two caves, Earl Geil found on, July 15, 1962 the crawl up to the alcove completely blocked by small dangerous breakdown. After several hours of removing rocks, and passing them back to a companion, Earl was able to make a V-shaped passage through the breakdown about ten feet long by two feet high. Removal of more breakdown enabled them to squeeze through into the alcove.

Examination of the alcove revealed that several tons of rock now filled an area where Earl had once sat and shook hands with cavers in Thorn Mountain Cave through the original connection, a few months earlier. Again, a warning: both passages leading to this area from both caves are very Dangerous and should be attempted only by experienced cavers.--THE CAVALIER CAVER, 1962 Sinnet and Thorn, page 149, chapter 1, Discovering West Virginia, Virginia Region History from 1962 to 1979
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