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BLUE HOLE continued
Meanwhile outside, other great plans were being hatched. One grotto member had brought several five gallon cans, a couple of boards, and some rope from which he proceeded to make a raft. While we crouched, wet and shivering on a ledge some 35 to 50 feet above the water level, waiting for the raft to be built, the brilliant idea came to us that we had gear with us. We quickly found that a naked carbide flame applied to the body gave only localized warmth (and too much of that in spots if you weren't careful), and the smell of burning body hair didn't do much for the cave environment.
Terry W Tarkington, UVA Grotto caver, Contributed by T. W. Tarkington |
The Virginia Navy was afloat and things were looking up as it came to our rescue. So we wouldn't have to swim out through the cold water without clothes, they were supposedly on board. Just far enough inside the entrance where we could see it with the daylight from outside the caver paddling the raft must have been concentrating on the song he was singing at the top of his voice than on his balance. Over went raft, caver, and all the clothes he was bringing in. (Fortunately, he had forgotten mine!) So reluctantly, Monk and I chimneyed down and with teeth chattering, swam back out.
Now with a healthy respect for the cold water, we determined on the next trip to enter the cave without getting wet. We had found a small cave at the surface, running in the same northeast direction as the water passage in the Blue Hole. A hole in the floor of this small cave offered possible rope access to a small ledge that might get back in the upper passage of the Blue Hole.
Several of us had been in the Navy and after climbing ropes hand over hand daily in Physical Education, we had no qualms about using that technique in caving. A little later, the Washington rock climbers taught a few of us how to body rappel, but at this point in time our knowledge was limited to only having heard of such a technique. We did use what could be called a "foot rappel" where the end of the rope was brought under the instep of the left foot and over the top of the shoe of the right foot while the caver remained vertical and kept his balance by letting the rope run through his hands. It was possible to stop or control the rate of descent on the rope by changing the position of the feet. Normally, the use of the "foot rappel" was limited to about 30 to 40 feet. We had never heard of a Jumar or a prusik knot so that climbing was limited to cable ladders (which we didn't have) or hand-over hand up the rope.
We must have had about a 20 foot rope, since when it was tied to a tree outside, snaked through the small cave, and dropped through the hole, the end of the rope still lacked some 40 to 50 feet from reaching the water surface. Monk and I made a foot rappel about 30 feet down the rope and swung Tarzan-fashion onto a small ledge where we were eventually joined by two other cavers.
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We had to then go around a bulge in the wall to get to the small ledge on the other side which we felt we could follow to the upper passage. So getting some slack on the rope, as Monk anchored me to the ledge, I flipped the rope around the bulge and looped it over a big projection that would hold it. Then, holding to the rope and swinging away from the wall, I swung in and around the wall bulge and landed safe on a small ledge about two feet wide. Monk followed with no problem; then things got tricky The next man, as he came around the wall bulge didn't swing far enough, didn't make the ledge, and was hanging from the rope about three and a half feet away with a drop of 40 to 50 feet below him. Monk quickly wedged his feet in a crack, grabbed me by the legs and as I fell out into space, in best trapeze-fashion, I grabbed the dangling caver, pulling him into the ledge. After allowing the adrenaline flow to subside slightly, we made sure that when the fourth caver swung around that we were ready to reach out and pull him in.
Displaying an uncommon amount of common sense, the other two cavers decided to stop at this point and a little later started to work their way back to a place where they could get out.
Monk and I gingerly started around a small ledge some fifteen inches wide that followed the north wall about 40 to 50 feet above the water. We weren't sure whether at was flowstone-covered solid rock or mud, so we gave ourselves some small degree of confidence by beating on the ledge with our fist as we moved around the wall. Soon we were in the upper passage. This proved to be an anticlimax since it turned out we had explored most of it the previous trip.
We climbed back out by a route hat I don't remember exactly, except that we were eventually united with the other two cavers and climbed under an overhang(somewhat lower than the ledges that we had been on) where the outside crew was going to rig a rope for us to climb. As usual, things were slow and I remember hanging onto hand holds and footholds on an almost vertical wall. Eventually, after an indeterminable amount of time, I started getting a cramp in first one hand and, then the other. When flexing the cramped hand, I almost slid off the wall a couple of times only to stop myself by picking up a little extra friction by pressing my nose against the rock. When a load is perfectly balanced, even the weight of a fly makes a difference!!! Eventually, the rope was rigged and all climbed out. -- Terry Tarkington
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