Mailing List Archive Mailing List Archive
NEST TRIP REPORT
Project X Trip Report 1 Apr 2000
The Northeast Sump Exploration Team, NEST, returned to continue
exploration efforts at Project X on 1 Apr 2000. NEST is a formally
recognized Project of the NSS and consists of a team of sump divers and
dedicated support personnel who are pursuing original exploration efforts at
several caves in the PA, Virginia and West Virginia areas. The team
surveys and further documents these sites through the use of still and video
techniques as well as engaging in biological surveys and water sampling at
these locations. NEST is also available to support the NCRC in situations
involving flooded passage and beyond sump rescues. Below is an account of
the Teams most recent explorations.
I knelt in the entrance pool ready to begin my reg checks and flipped on
the switch to my AUL HID and waited for it to cycle on, instead of the dim
initial glow indicating it had begun the lighting cycle nothing happened. I
tried it again, still nothing. This was not a good sign. I reluctantly
pulled off my fins and walked back to the entrance beach and ask Dave to
send a runner back to the truck to grab the backup gear pack. It contained
a spare battery pack as well as a standard Meteor 4 head piece. While we
waited I opened up the lid on my canister and verified that the light was
plugged in, it was. I then remembered a recent post I had seen on the list
by Brian Nadwidny regarding problems with HIDs and low temperatures. While
we waited for JD to return I had Dave place the light and battery outside in
the warm sunlight at the bottom of the sink hole. After about 6 minutes he
tried it and it fired up without any problems. We were back in business.
The water levels at the site were 3 feet above normal and I had assembled
my tanks inside the cave, the head piece of the light had been lying in the
stream for a good fifteen minutes, not normal procedure at this site but our
only option with most of the beach covered, the water temperature was 45
degrees. Since the battery was in excellent condition, I had recently burn
tested it and verified the charged voltage the night before, and because of
the short period of time it took for the problem component to warm up I
suspect that it was either the temperature of the bulb or ballast that
prevented the light from igniting. It also appears that once the light has
ignited that the colder temps, at least in the 40 + degree range are not a
problem. During the rest of the dive the light once again preformed in an
outstanding manner.
With my light working properly, once you use an HID you don�t want to go
back to an anemic halogen, I finished my gear checks floating in the head
pool. The vis was even better than before, at least 5 and a half feet with
a good deal of flow. As I finned through the first two shallow sumps
several small fish scurried out of my path. I was breathing off an Alum 30
hand held stage, modified with buoyancy containers to make it closer to
neutral, and continued to do so as I drifted down the 45 degree slope of
fine sand that took me to the low point of the third sump at 23 feet. I
followed the line around a small dog leg and up the reverse slope. As I
slowly fined upward a small avalanche of sand cascaded down the slope when
my stage hit the bottom. It created a surreal effect and I paused to enjoy
the spectacle. At a depth of 9 feet I clipped off the stage on the line and
again tested both of my primary regulators.
With there operation verified I entered the tight tube by rotating to
face the left wall and gently pulled against the flow careful not to damage
any of the fragile formations that covered the walls. On the other side I
followed the line downward. Because of the excellent visibility I was able
to stay a few feet above the line and examine the ceiling and walls checking
to see if I had missed any leads. I could dimly see solid limestone in all
directions and satisfied that this was not the case I entered the lower
passage following the line to the formation tie off and then the entrance to
the Eye Of The Needle. Hovering above the line I noticed what appeared to
be a bigger hole in the wall above the restriction, I had suspected that
there might be a bypass to the eye on my last dive at the site based on
total flow through the restriction. To explore this possibility safely I
would have had to run a reel and since my objective was to see if I could
push the end of the line I decided to stick to the proven route and not
waste any time or gas so I once again passed through the Eye Of The Needle.
Although incredibly tight it certainly was easier to do with practice.
On the other side I continued on following the line as it crossed back
and forth from belay to belay until I reached the loop I had tied in the
end. Attaching my fully loaded Aul reel to it I moved forward and upward.
After traveling a few feet I was faced with a pile of breakdown and by
extending my arm and primary into a void was able to see an air surface
reflecting above me. I only got a momentary glimpse before a shower of clay
dislodged by my bubbles cascaded down on me wiping out the vis. I waited
for it to clear and to my surprise it did not. At this point I realized
that I must have lost the flow so I backed up and hovered above my last
belay. I could see what appeared to be passage to my right so I finned in
this direction. After about 8 feet I ran into a dead end so I turned to the
right following this wall. This in turn led me into a low two to three foot
high passage up to six feet wide in spots. As I drifted down it I realized
the water was siphoning. Curious as to where it was going I continued.
After about 60 feet my tube intersected a larger passage at a right hand
angle. I turned to face back into the flow and hovering above the edge of
the drop noticed a small knob on the rock below me. It looked fragile but
was the only viable option so I did a line wrap and pulled gently, it held,
so I cut the line and executed a tie off on this. A quick look around led
me to suspect that I was back in the main trunk but not completely sure I
elected to return the way I had come.
I took one more look at the breakdown pile before following the line back
to the Eye Of The Needle. It looked like a serious under water dig would
be required to make any progress upward. At the drop weight just before the
restriction I tied in to the line and finned toward the right wall and
discovered that my suspicions about a large bypass to the Eye Of The Needle
were confirmed. Below me I could just make out the line as it emerge from
the restriction. A glance to my left also disclosed another line tied off
on a knob. It was turning out to be quite an April Fools day dive. I
continued on and dropped down to the opening of the restriction, tied in my
line at this point, before turning and exiting.
As I stood in the bright sunlight at the bottom of the sink hole relating
my experience to the support team I felt sure that I must have missed
something significant. The massive amount of water being pumped out of the
cave had to be coming from somewhere. The last dive had given me a much
better idea of what the cave looked like and with a bypass now established
made getting to the end considerably easier. The third sump was much more
complex than I had imagined. I was sure that most of the flow was coming
from the area beyond the Eye Of The Needle. The only question was from
where. With a fresh set of tanks and a suit pumped full of Argon I
reentered the water an hour later and soon found myself back at the tie off
near the break down pile. On my swim to this point I had careful checked
all the walls for any leads I might have missed beginning from the
restriction, nothing. As I hovered over the tie off I used my HID to
check the direction of flow of the water by watching the suspended particles
as they flickered past the light like blowing snow in a headlight. At this
point I realized I was in an eddy and moving back down the passage a few
feet and to the right noticed a small crack in the floor, it reminded me of
Little Devil at Ginnie on a much smaller scale. As I stuck my head in the
flow pushed me back, I was elated over solving the riddle. With my line
attached to the April Fools tunnel line I dumped as much gas from my suit as
possible and free fell into a lower level room. In front of me a tube four
to six feet wide and two feet and a half feet high disappeared into the
distance. Pulling my self along the bottom into the flow reminded me of a
Florida dive, it was really ripping. Nearing the end of my reel with no
good tie offs in sight I was forced to exit and recover the line as I went.
Unable to turn around I had to let the flow push me out feet first which
made reeling the line in a bit interesting. After the hole spat me out I
stowed my reel and riding the current exited to share the exiting news with
the team.
All in all the Aprils Fool Dive had turned out well. We now had a much
better understanding of the cave, had a bypass to the Eye Of The Needle and
had found a going tunnel with the main flow. Every time we thought this
site had ended it managed to surprised us.
We would like to recognize our sponsors and all of the supporting
cavers who helped make our efforts possible. A special thanks to Arnold
Jackson Of American Underwater Lighting who supplied our exceptional
primary lights, Meteor 4�s and HIDs , as well as other critical gear and Jon
Breazile of the Fifth Dimension Dive Center who has provided us with other
vital support. We would also like to thank Terry Brady, of the Brass Anchor
who has provided us with generous audio visual support. Additional sponsors
include Lamar Hires of Dive Rite, Gene Weisheit of East Coast Divers, Alex
Sproul of Inner Mountain Outfitters, Adrew Kipe of Maryland Reproductions,
and Robert Carmichael of Brownies Third Lung and HALCYON, The Doing It Right
Equipment Company, and our most recent sponsor, DUI for our outstanding CF
200 series Dry Suits, Tim Walker, Hank and Jane Anderson, and the Sovik
and Mothes families without whose support none of our efforts would have
been possible.
Diver Explorer
Joseph Kaffl
Support Team Members
Dave Hollick Pa Area Coordinator
J D Lewis Site Cartographer
David Wonderlick
Kim Smith
..
JOSEPH
KAFFL
SUMPDIVER@MS*.CO*
NEST
Navigate by Author:
[Previous]
[Next]
[Author Search Index]
Navigate by Subject:
[Previous]
[Next]
[Subject Search Index]
[Send Reply] [Send Message with New Topic]
[Search Selection] [Mailing List Home] [Home]