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Glen Davisin Bane's entrance, VA. Photo by R.E. Clark |
NEWBERRY - BANE'S the first complete traverse |
Cooper and Cuddington went into the Bane entrance and worked down the canyon passage for several hundred feet to the top of an eighty foot well. At this point they rigged the drop with three cable ladders and started back toward the surface. In the meantime the rest of us proceeded to the Newberry entrance where we rigged its sixty -foot drop, and then rappelled to the bottom. From here we followed a wet-weather stream passage (which was wet that day) down a steep grade to an obnoxious little fifteen-foot drop. We rigged this, went down and worked over to the really big drop, a well with a depth of 175 feet from top to bottom. Here we waited for Cooper and Cuddington who were, according to previous plans, going to follow us after completing their chore in Bane's.
At this point, the explorer may make a choice of either going down the drop or working around behind the well and chimneying down the "staircase" which ultimately leads to the bottom. Carts, Camden, and Logan decided to descend by way of the Staircase; the rest of us elected to rappel into the pit. We rendezvoused on the bottom and then proceeded through a narrow, muddy passage toward the vault room. This large room serves as a sort of a central point in the cave with several important leads going off in different directions.
After visiting the Subway Passage and the Triple Wells, we returned to the Vault Room. When we had partaken of a brief snack, we began the long trek toward the Bane entrance. This part of the trip makes one think he is exploring the moon or some desolate, glaciated Mountain side. Deep canyons, rooms with immense sponge work networks, and narrow, tortuous passages are the order of the day. The spongework here is the biggest and best developed that I have ever seen. Similarly, other phreatic features are also magnificently displayed, including, wall and ceiling pockets and smoothly-lined solution tubes. It is somewhere in this grotesque section of the cave that one crosses the imaginary line that marks the end of Newberry's and the beginning of Bane's.
Glen Davisin 75' drop near Bane's entrance. Photo by R. E. Clark |
Shortly after making the connection, Cuddington reminded us that we would soon come to a point where we could either follow a dusty crawlway or drop to a lower level and follow a wet, muddy passage, also a crawlway. A mistake someplace along the line saved us the toss of a coin because pretty soon we were face-to-face with the aforementioned muddy route. Most of the cave from the big wells all the way through to Bane's is dry and in some places even dusty, but soon after crossing the imaginary line, a small stream can be found by dropping to a lower level. This same stream flows throughout most of the Bane's section of the system.
Getting through the wet crawlway wasn't as bad as it had first appeared. All of us made it with no more than wet knees and elbows except for Carts and Cooper, who managed to also soak their bellies. After the crawlway, the passage opened up again and with some canyon-hopping and chimneying the ladder drop was reached in a few minutes. Cuddington went up first and then furnished a belay for the rest of us. The whole trip went off with finesse and precision, and the complete operation took less than ten hours.- - - John Holsinger, DC SPELEOGRAPH, April 1962.
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next--Breathing and Easter Pig pg171
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