The Massachusetts Caver - Boston Grotto

Vol. XXXI No. 4
At the July ‘12 Meeting Dave Crusoe & Rich Lester
11-July-12, Stata Center Room 124, Attendance: 22.
Presiding: John Evans
This month we had around half a dozen members of the
MIT caving club in attendance, which helped swell attendance
to 22, up from the usual 16 or so.
Recent Trips:
On June 24 2012, Dave Crusoe and Dan Schott led a trip
to the Lanesboro karst in Western MA. Other attendees
included Camille Richman, Ramon Armen and Zhu. The
group poked their heads in several small and tight caves,
and Dave and Dan discovered that one thought not to go
actually continues a couple hundred feet with careful maneuvering
for those cavers not dimensionally challenged.
From June 25 to 30, John Evans, Rich Holub, Chris Taylor,
Aaron and Heidi Tester and former members Steve
and Joanne Stokowski attended the NSS convention in
Lewisburg West Virginia, along with about 1,300 other
cavers. The BG group visited many caves and watched
the Salon photo show, which included MANY awardwinning
photos by former club member and noted photographer
Kevin Downey. At the end of the week-long
convention, a huge storm whipped through the fairground,
causing significant damage including more than
$3,500 in damages to both Steve and Rich’s trucks. See
story later in this issue.
On June 27 2012:, Tom Kinsky, Rich Lester, Leander
Nichols, Morrie Gasser, Dan Schott and Aaron Tester
entered the Ack Shack entrance of McFail's Cave and
attempted to pass through the crawlway. This was heavily
silted up, and required extensive digging. Ultimately
the smallest cavers made it through, but communications
broke down, and Tom Kinsky and several others gave up
waiting and retired to the surface near the Halls Hole entrance
for some much-deserved goofing off. Eventually,
the cavers that made it through the Ack Shack crawl
came arrived at the base of the Halls Hole drop, and the
entire group rejoined,. However, by this time the group
could not pursue the planned bust-ass trip to the far
reaches of the cave. Tom vowed to return in August and
try again.
On June 30, Dave Crusoe led a trip with Dan Schott,
Ramon Armen, Camille Richman and Emily Tencate to
Knox Cave, discovering a section not far from The
Lemon Squeeze that nobody in the group had seen before.
On July 3, Tom, Shawn and Paul Kinsky, Dan Schott,
Morrie Gasser and Glen hiked up hiked up Mount Monadnock
to watch local July 3/4 fireworks and cook boil
up some lobsters they had packed in. Morrie took some
spectacular twilight and night pictures with his new Sony
NEX-7 camera, a rather expensive “bridge camera” that
features a large, high-resolution D-SLR sized sensor in a
compact camera body. Morrie has vowed never to take
this gem of a camera into a cave.
Upcoming Trips:
July 14 2012: Vertical practice, probably at Quincy
Quarry, Quincy MA. Contact Dave Crusoe.
August 4 –5 2012 (tentative dates): Tom’s Return to
McFail's Cave, NY, BUST-ASS CAVE TRIP! Second
day will consist of a visit to Young’s Cave. Contact Tom
Kinsky. Vertical experience (SRT) required for
McFail’s. Wetsuit or partial wetsuit strongly recommended.
September 15 — 16: Fall NRO, and possible Bentley's
Cave Race, New York near Bentley’s Cave. Contact
Dave Crusoe
Business:
None this month.
Presentation:
Attendees watched "Cave People of the Himalaya," a
video by PBS about ancient burial artifacts and human
remains stored in caves perched in cliffs in the Himalayan
mountains.
Fourteen meeting attendees went out for pizza after the
meeting to discuss caves, caving and upcoming trips.
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