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previous--Snedegar pg232
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MISADVENTURES IN
SNEDEGAR CROOKSHANK continued |
However, we still had Holsingers car in which to go for help. And his keys were you guessed it in his pocket at the bottom of Crookshanks. Our request for the keys was greeted by a frantic whatcha gonna do? We hastily assured him that we were not closing up shop for the night, but were only going for help.
On the trip back, Lew explained to us what had caused the difficulty in prusiking out of the pit. About halfway down, a large stream flowed out of the wall forming a waterfall. This was not a cave stream but icy cold water flowing directly in from the surface. Our rope had been rigged so that it was impossible to prusik without passing directly through it. The force was such that it was impossible to prusik through the waterfall. Both Lew and John had been soaked when they rappelled down into the pit. Lew had been able to ascend only because John held the rope to one side so that he missed most of the waterfall.
On the way back we stopped at Mrs. Snedegars farm to ask for help. It was now about 9:00, a rather late hour for the country. The two apparitions which she viewed upon her front porch were apparently not reassuring and she remained behind her front door with the lock firmly secured. She was unable to locate any help over the phone and so we continued on to Lewisburg. On arriving at the hotel, we found Ron Burnett waiting for us; he was planning to go caving with us on Saturday.
We left Lew at the hotel and the three of us headed for McClung Cavein the hope of finding cavers there. Arriving at the Echols farmhouse near McClung, we found it to be full of lumpy sleeping bags. Everyone was soon awake, and we recruited six more to help rescue the illustrious chairman of the i963 NSS Convention. The six consisted of Walter Lipton, Peter Grant, Lyle Conrad, Roger Stafford, Bob Fishal and one other.
We were soon on our way back to the cave and arrived there without incident. It was now after midnight and it had been many hours since John had heard the sound of a human voice. Needless to say, our voices at the top of the pit were a welcome sound. John tied into the rope with his prusik slings and with a minimum of confusion he was hauled to the surface. Cooper and I, who were both about done-in from worry and physical exertion, found Holsinger to be in disgustingly good condition when he arrived at the surface.
On Saturday we went through Ludingtonwith its miles of huge subway-like passages but after Crookshanks everything seemed an anticlimax--George Titcomb, DC SPELEOGRAPH, January i963.
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Snedegar/Crookshank
"lineL" Once upon a time, eighteen years ago, the VVA Grotto was founded. During these eighteen years the Grotto engaged in every kind of caving conceivable; from trips to a commercial cave to cave diving. During all this time, as far as records can tell, the Grotto has never been trapped in a situation where its members needed rescuing. Now we have added a new chapter to our history and other grottos have an opportunity to crow.
The episode began with a spilled mug of beer in Washington, D.C., and someone getting his dandruff disturbed. From there the idea matured into a UVA attempt to reach the back of Snedegars-Staircase Cave, a then unknown and virgin area, leave a note on the wall and exit before the arrival of the Baltimore and D.C. Grottos. It is with some chagrin that we admit the intended scoop backfired, miserably.
Baltimore and D.C. were planning to arrive Saturday morning so Stuart Sprague, Mason Sproul, and I (Earl Geil) arrived at the cave around 2100 hours Friday. We requested and received permission from Mrs. Snedegar to enter the cave, although we later learned that she thought we were going into another of her caves and that she did not even know of the existence of the cave known as Snedegars Staircase. (At the time we entered not much was known about the cave except what had been published in the BALTIMORE GROTTO NEWS, January 1964.
The cave begins with a thirty-foot entrance drop to the bottom of a stream channel which receives the surface drainage from the entrance sinkhole. The stream channel is narrow and sinuous, often necessitating an erratic vertical traverse in order to gain horizontal distance. One hundred feet from the entrance drop a second drop of fifteen feet must be chimneyed; another 100 feet further a third drop of fifteen feet is also chimneyed. The water, entering the cave at the entrance and just below the second drop, flows along the entire length of the stream channel, but is of little nuisance, and one need not get wet.
Forty feet beyond the third drop the passage terminates in a beautiful sixty foot pit, with water ducking Under the floor fifteen feet from the edge of the pit, and spewing out into the pit twenty feet below the top. Only Bob Blackburn had been down the pit before us; and had explored the passage downstream from the pit for 300 feet. The passage did not end at his turnaround point.
Armed with this information and several nylon ropes for possible additional drops, we entered the cave. A rope ladder was rigged at the entrance and the three of us descended with the equipment, which included a 120 foot piece of 5/8 inch manila rope for the 60-foot pit. From here on the cave became quite nasty, and progress was slow and troublesome. We finally reached the pit and rigged the manila rope. I was the first to descend, and I must say I was a little uneasy because it looked like I would have to land in a deep pool at the bottom of the drop. I dreaded this after all my efforts to stay dry up to this spot.
The rope hung about ten feet to the left of the waterfall, which is fascinating to watch as you descend. Twenty-five feet from the bottom the waterfall hits a crack and part of the water runs down the crack for several feet and then emerges as a second waterfall. I would have to rappel between the falls to keep dry. However, if I went straight down, I would have to rappel through the second one. When I reached the top of the second waterfall, I forced myself between them, pushed out and let go of the rope. Splash! To my grateful surprise the water was only inches deep in the pool and I was still nearly dry.  continued
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a scoop
backfires EARL H. GIEL
MASON SPROUL
Mason Sproul,
UVA caver, late 1950s.
Photo by T. B. Vigour.
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