NEST TRIP REPORT


           Buchanan Cave 12 May  2001




   The Northeast Sump Exploration Team, NEST, conducted exploration efforts
In the Buchanan Cave Resurgence in Virginia on 12 May 2001.  The Northeast
Sump Exploration Team,  is a formal Project of the National Speleological
Society, NSS,  and consists of a team of sump divers and dedicated support
personnel who are pursuing original exploration efforts in caves throughout
the US.  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
National Cave Rescue Commission, NCRC,  in situations involving flooded
passage and beyond sump rescues.  The following is an account of the Teams
most recent explorations.
   I met Laura Kraus just past Frederick and we drove down to Paul's home on
Friday arriving just before 11 PM.   Laura is an extremely talented and
accomplished diver and the only woman thus far able to meet the requirements
to dive with the team.  She had played an important part in the Survey of
Project Z the year before.  Since then she had been preoccupied with wreck
and Florida Cave diving.  Intrigued by our progress with the project thus
far she had decided to join me this weekend for a look at the new site.
    I was beat after the 6 and a half hour drive so I crashed while Laura
and Paul stayed up into the early  mourning hours working on a new LED light
module that would fit into a Princeton tech 40 light body.  Up before dawn
we got a reasonably early start and arrived at the spring before the sun had
poked above the ridge.   Laura did the first dive of the day while I stood
by as a backup diver.  She carried a Alum 30 stage in addition to a set of
OMS 45 sidemounts and penetrated to a distance of 600 feet turning her dive
at the crossed spikes in sump 2 at a depth of 45 feet.  She emerged right on
time and quite impressed after her first look at the site, I could tell by
the look on her face that she had wanted to press on further but she had
adhered to the agreed dive plan despite the temptation to see more of the
cave.
   I entered next and used a  set of  Nested 30 and 45 cu ft buoyancy
compensated stage bottles  to pass the first four sumps. After dropping the
30 400 feet in I completed sumps 2 through 4 on the 45 stage.  I emerged in
the head pool of sump 4 1200 feet in after 32 minutes and walked my gear
through the 150 of dry passage that separates the pools.
   I entered the sump 5 head pool and reattached my fins and did an
equipment check.  As I began my dive I realized that I had made a mistake by
not putting my fins on outside of the pool.  My actions had generated a
small sediment slide that wiped out the visibility from the bottom to a
height of one foot.  It extended for at least a 100 feet into the sump and
resembled a layer of clouds as it rolled down the slope Although it created
a quite spectacular visual effect in the beam of my AUL HID.  I made a
mental note not to make this error in the future.   I followed the slope
downward and the slide petered out before I reached the deepest point at a
depth of 51 feet.  I pulled out a Disler Spike from beneath  the inner tubes
of my right side mount and placed it crossing the line to mark my beginning
point and began my survey from this spot.  I slowly worked my way back up
the gradual slope surveying as I went.  Fortunately most of the sediment is
fairly large in size so I could read my slate as I worked my way through the
area of the poor vis.  I surfaced 19 minutes later with an additional 210
feet of survey in the bag.
   During my surface interval I opted to take a closer look at the dry lead
that Eric had discovered on a previous push and which we had surveyed to a
tight canyon type restriction.  The passage starts off as an 8 foot high by
10 wide foot walking passage which makes a hard turn to the left.  From a
distance it looks like a small alcove but as Eric discovered it continues
quite a distance.  About 100 feet in you encounter a low wide crawl which
had
completely caked the values on my drysuit with gooey mud on my last visit to
the site.  I spent some more time further enlarging this section before
pressing on.   In front of me lay some nice wide stoop way with a sandy
floor with some pretty white crystal formations on the right wall.  The new
LED light that Paul had built really showed the crystal to maximum effect,
the color temperature being very close to day light made my Halogen bulb
seem yellow and dim by comparison.  After another hundred feet I reached our
furthest point of penetration, the vertical restriction that had stopped us
on our last push.
   I had been a dry caver for many years before the sump diving bug bit me
and pushed some pretty hairy restrictions to include some that had required
me to exhale to move forward.  This one did not look too bad but I had never
tried one in a dry suit with a full set of underwear before.  Well there is
always a first for every thing so I decide to give it a shot.  To add to the
entertainment value the walls were covered with cave corral.  If I had been
wearing anything other than a CF200 DUI drysuit I would not even have
considered this.   I slowly worked my way into the crack which dropped three
feet to what appeared to be a crawl that led to what we hoped would be a
larger section of passage.  As I eased my way into the slot I soon found
myself in snug contact front and back unable to see where I was going.
After gently wiggling for a minute my feet reached the mud floor below me.
I knew that I had to move downward and work my legs to the left.  Things
were getting tight so I exhaled and gained a few inches.  At this point my
crotch strap snagged on a piece of cave corral.  The strap was expendable so
I forced the issue and continued to inch downward and it let loose like a
large rubber band.  At this point I was beginning to wonder if this had been
a bright idea but I was committed and it was easier to move forward than to
try to reverse the process so I pressed onward and downward.  With a little
more judicious wiggling I cleared the restriction and found myself once
again in large formation covered walking passage.  The floor was now thick
gooey mud and I pressed forward scooping booty for an other 150 feet before
being faced with a climb.   I opted to call it a day and returned to the
slot to reverse the process.  Fortunately the exit proved to be easier than
the entry and I returned to the upstream headpool to wash the mud from my
suit.  After a quick snack I donned my sided mounts and exited the cave
collecting my stages as I went.
   I surfaced to the sound of gunfire to discover some of the local
landowners demonstrating their marksmanship for Laura.  It had been another
successful day for the team with new virgin passage pushed and a significant
part of sump 5 surveyed.   The LED prototype light that Paul had built had
also proven a complete success.
  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

ON SITE SUPPORT DIVER

 Laura Kraus

Stand By on call Divers and Support Team

Paul Montgomery   Virginia Area Coordinator

Eric Tesnau        On call  Backup Diver
Jeff Mott              On call   Backup Diver
Dave Nicholas   On call  Backup Diver




..
 JOSEPH  KAFFL

SUMPDIVER@MS*.CO*

NEST





























--
Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'.
Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.

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]