Mailing List Archive Mailing List Archive
NEST TRIP REPORT
Buchanan Cave 14 Oct 2000
The Northeast Sump Exploration Team, NEST, conducted exploration efforts
In Buchanan Cave Resurgence in Virginia on 14 Oct 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 had all my gear packed and was ready to hit the road when I succeeded
in jamming the little toe on my right foot into a couch leg. It hurt but
did not seem that bad, two hours later as it began to swell up I was
wondering if I had broken it. What a great way to start of the weekend.
With Eric en route to meet me, water levels even lower than last weekend
and perfect weather projected for the next several days I decided I was not
going to let my mangled toe stop me. By the time we reached Paul�s place
several hours later it was really colorful. By the next mourning I was
barely able to get my shoe on as we set out for the hour long drive to the
cave. To say the least I was not a happy camper.
My mood improved as we rolled up to the site, conditions were
absolutely perfect with the flow crystal clear and lower than last weekend.
After getting all of our gear set up Eric led off while I stood by in
support. He did an orientation dive to a depth of 32 feet 250 feet in to
the end of the deep section of the first sump and then turned and exited
having the pleasure of being only the second person to ever see this cave.
As he surfaced he was wearing a huge grin, not only was the cave much bigger
than he expected but it was teeming with life and he ranked it as one of his
nicest sump dives.
With Eric�s help carrying my extra reel and weights I hobbled to the
cave, performed an equipment check and set off carrying an OMS 45 buoyancy
compensated stage. I proceeded through the first sump and once again found
a good solid 12 feet of visibility. After passing through the four foot
deep section that marked the end of the first sump I entered the second
pausing at a depth of 27 feet. At this point I was able to float against
the ceiling while I carefully placed the stage on the bottom 3 feet below me
and switched over to my primary side mounts. While I hovered there I also
took the opportunity to tighten my two waist belts before continuing on.
The passage rapidly got deeper and I soon found myself at a depth of 58 feet
720 feet back from the entrance at the end of the line. On my last dive to
this spot I had determined that the passage appeared to head straight up and
had been forced to turn because I lacked a bomb proof way to secure the
line. I now removed one of the two three pound drop weights I had brought
along and used it for this purpose. I added a bit of air to my CF 200 dry
suit and slowly rose above the silt that this action had generated and shone
my HID light straight up. Once again the cave ate the light. Holding my
reel in front of me I slowly headed straight up. My air bubbles were
dislodging some sediment from above me but the vis remained good enough so
that I could read my bottom timer and I paused briefly at a depth of 42
feet. After a few moments I continued upward expecting at any moment to run
into a ceiling but the cave just kept heading up. At 30 feet I had to
maneuver back out to clear a ledge that protruded into the canyon but past
this point the cave went vertical again. When I reached 10 feet my light
reflected off a large air surface and I again stopped for a short safety
stop. The vis dropped dramatically and I headed upward once again breaking
through the mirror like surface expecting to find big dry cave.
Instead I found myself floating in a large lake 35 feet long and several
feet wide with a solid ceiling 4 to 6 feet above my head. The walls were
smooth with no possible spot for a tie off for the line. This concerned me
since I had no desire to attempt to reel in line on the way down, my 500
foot reel is designed to lay and not recover line. I ducked my head
underwater and moved a few feet to the right and found a limestone arm
protruding from the wall large enough and properly placed so that I was able
to securely wrapped the line around it and place the reel on top in a secure
location. I surfaced again and used my HID to examine the room once more, I
could not quite see around the far left corner but decided against swimming
over for a closer inspection. My assent rate had been a bit faster than I
preferred and I needed to make sure that my way back was secure before I
completely silted the area out so I headed back down. My decent went quite
smoothly and the vis improved below 10 feet. The passage I was in was quite
large and reminded me of the pit at Tooth Pick at Friars hole except this
one was full of water. My swim out proved uneventful and I included a few
safety stops for good measure exiting the cave after a 51 minute dive with
plenty of gas to spare. Eric did one more orientation dive to the end of
the first sump and we called it a day. As I pulled off my gear I noted that
my toe felt much better. A good long soak in a sump was all it needed. My
suspicion is that an underwater passage exits from the dome pit at the end
of sump 2, whether it is around the corner or somewhere below the water
level on one of the walls remains to be seen. With my line properly secured
I now have a reference to use for my search of this area. Needless to say I
can�t wait to go back to see where this fascinating cave goes next. In fact
that�s where I am headed this weekend.
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 Tom
and Jon 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, 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
Eric Tesnau
Stand By on call Divers and Support Team
Paul Montgomery Virginia Area Coordinator
Jeff Mott
Dave Nicholas
..
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]