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A Learning Experience The
Higgenbotham's Project
During 1962 the VPI Grotto formed a Project Committee with Ed Bauer as chairman. The committee decided to develop a constructive project that would give individuals an opportunity to learn different aspects of caving, napping, and rigging as well as incorporate biological, geological and hydrological studies. Since Higginbotham'sand Devil's Slide (1978 names) were located so close together, it was decided to use this area for the club project and to determine if the caves were connected.
The two caves are located on the eastern side of Knob Mountain in Thompson Valley, a few miles south of Tazewell, VA. The entrances are both found in the bottom of sinkholes less than 1000 feet apart. A "more-of ten--than- not" stream makes the entrance and exploration of Higgenbotham's very miserable, while a 140-foot drop close to the entrance of Devil's Slide is quite tiring and often dangerous for exiting explorers.
With this in mind, we include the following trip report by Gregg Marland concerning a trip to Higgenbotham's Cave (formerly known as Higgenbotham's #1)
Leaving school on a Saturday afternoon, Ed Bauer, Ed Day and myself were looking forward to a hard trip into the cave for the purpose of doing additional surveying. Then we planned a short rest and a quick trip into Cauliflower Cave to collect a specimen of the long-eared bat before returning to VPI.
We arrived at the cave, and after descending the steep climb to the entrance, rigged the 140-foot drop. It is interesting to note that because the drop is about 150 feet inside the cave and there is no place to rig a rope inside the cave, we generally tie-in to a large rock formation at the entrance. The rope then runs for 130 feet down a 250 slope, drops vertically for fifteen feet, runs horizontally for twenty feet and finally plunges 140 feet to the main level of the cave. We tied a nylon rope at the entrance, ran it down over the short drop which we descended via a French foot rappel (and planned to ascend hand-over-hand), and then ran it through am expansion bolt placed in the wall to eliminate rubbing of the rope and to make the break-over easier. Just below the bolt, we tied the manila rope on which we would descend. The drop is free space all the way except for one sloping ledge, too small to stand on. For the last half of the descent you are close enough to the wall that it can be used to prevent spinning and also close enough to place you in the waterfall that is likewise descending. This is no problem when both are descending, but when you start up, the wet rope and icy water are not generally spoken of in kind terms.
Below the drop the cave continues as a very narrow, winding fissure type passage with one moderate-sized room containing a waterfall, two short rappels, and two very interesting little climbs. After nearly 400 feet a big "T" intersection is reached, and so much cave has been found to the left that I have yet to even enter the right-hand passage beyond the first room.
Heading to the left into big passage we took time off at several points to climb up on ledges and jump into the soft knee-deep guano. One of the amazing features of the cave is the vast amount of guano, much of it still in a damp, fresh condition, and the small number of bats that have been actually noted to date.
We began checking the several small holes which marked the termination of our original survey. In one ridiculously small and tortuous squirm-way I lost most of my shirt but fell through into a passage even larger than that we had just left. Turning in both directions we surveyed through 40- foot wide and 40 foot high passage into a meandering stream passage, and eventually back into our original survey at an obscure hole near the natural bridge. Returning in the opposite direction down passages of similar dimensions, with three survey shots in excess of 100 feet, and several very promising side passages, we finally abandoned the project for the time being with 1800 feet of survey notes and a long arduous trip to the surface awaiting.
Arriving at the bottom of the drop, I proceeded to prusik out in a fairly respectable thirteen minutes or so. I then rigged a ladder for the others which turned out to be twenty feet too short. Laboring under the misconception that a ladder climb is easier, they prusiked to the bottom of the ladder, then climbed up to crawl exhausted over the lip. Packing our gear, we now turned to the easy little fifteen-foot drop and daylight somewhere above.
It was now nearly 7:00 AM and we had been on the go since that time the previous day, and it was just too much for us. If you've ever tried to climb hand-over-hand on a vertical flowstone wall on a rubberband, you can understand our problem. After two tries apiece and considerable banging around with the stretch and pull of the rope, we became determined not to give in to the obviously simple solution to prusik up that rotten little wall. Instead we set our inventive genius to work a way to conquer the wall without submitting to prusiks. Reaching as high as possible, we tied a butterfly knot in the rope and Bauer pulled himself up until he was standing in the knot and the rope now stretched halfway to the floor. I then added my weight and stretched the rope until we were both on the floor. By now we had taken in nearly ten feet of stretch, so I tied a single prusik as high as I could get into and stood up in it. When Bauer let go of the end of the rope, I sprung up over the edge and then helped the others up from above. We call it a "slingshot" rappel, but admit that its application is limited.
We were sitting beside the car devouring nourishment when the rains came. I was half asleep by then anyhow, so they rolled me under the car while they both climbed inside; we slept for several hours. With a little gasoline and a couple of cokes, we pocketed our remaining eleven cents, voted to forget Cauliflower Cave and headed home. To make the weekend complete, we ran over a dog on the way home.--By Gregg Marland, THE TECH TROGLODYTE, April 1962.
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