Lost River - Karst Information Portal

the right side. It was necessary to chimney in
two different places, then drop into a larger
room. Dan Beavers, Gordon Donnally, and Bill
Trousdale described this room as having a little
waterfall, popcorn, and soda straw formations,
with a rimstone pool. A blind crawfish was also
spotted. After each group had explored the
room that they had been assigned and pictures
had been taken, the pipes were disassembled
into two 25-foot sections and removed to the
main room.
Although everyone had considered the
lengthy ascending operation would take up
the great majority of the cave trip, no one
anticipated that it would take almost nine hours
to get the entire expedition, both equipment
and personnel, to the surface. Due to the water
absorbed by the new Goldline rope, the quarterinch
Prusik material, which had been used on
all the practice trips, became almost useless
because the knots just would not grab. Bill
Trousdale using ⅜-inch Prusik knot material
with a carabiner wrap, managed to reach the
ledge in about 45 minutes. Walt Peters, having
tremendous confidence in a set of ascending
cams he had made from directions in an article
in the NSS News, managed to make the ledge
in about 30 minutes. Gary Frazer, observing the
speed at which Walt Peters made it, asked Walt
to send his cams back down for him to try. After
almost 30 minutes of constant staining and
pulling Gary began to get very tired. Perhaps it
was due to Gary Frazer’s size or the lack of sleep
that we were all suffering from or the long 300mile
drive from Carbondale to Bloomington.
But, whatever it was, his fighting and efforts
finally paid off as he made it to the ledge.
The remaining six cavers grew very serious
and any joking had disappeared. It was Bill
McQunnie’s turn next to use the cams and
his determination seemed to brighten things
up. Every now and then a flash from a carbide
lamp could be seen up on the ledge and faint
voices could be heard calling down concerning
the progress that Bill was making. After Bill
McQunnie made it to the ledge and was off
rope, Vern Cornell checked the rope and
discovered that the weight of the climbers and
Gory Hole
the pressure of the cams had forced most of
the water and ice out of the rope. So with both
fingers crossed the remaining four watched
Vern Cornell make his way slowly and steadily
to the top using Prusik knots.
The remaining four cavers kept themselves
busy organizing the pipes and remaining gear
that needed to be hauled out. As the first
25-foot section of pipe was being tied onto
the rope the five cavers on the surface were
preparing to haul it up. We decided that the
rope tied to the pipes would be pulled through
a pulley that Bill Greenwald had placed high
in the tree and locked around another tree by
Bill Trousdale. In this manner both of the 25foot
sections of pipe were removed from the
pit. Things seemed to go faster after the pipes
and gear were hauled out and as the cold, fresh
air hit Don Formanek’s face he burst into a big
smile. A volley of cheers could be heard clear
across the field, which on such a clear night
probably woke up all of the neighbors.
So after 14 hours the trip was declared
a success and nine muddy, tired cavers were
beaming with a hard-earned feeling of
accomplishment. The pipes were once again
strapped to the rack on the rear of the Corvair
and all of the equipment was packed back
into the vehicles including all the trash, spent
carbide, paper, and spent flashbulbs. The
remainder of the morning was spent sleeping
at the barn. Sunday, the two cars split up and
made their way back to Carbondale to get ready
for classes on Monday morning.
We are not permitted to choose the frame
of our destiny but what we put into it is ours,
“He who wills adventure will experience
it according to the measure of his courage,”
Dag Hammarskjold.
Conclusion
In typing this on my computer 40 years after
the fact, I can still remember some of the things
that impressed me most about doing my first pit.
In an effort to contribute I quickly volunteered
to climb the tree over the pit to install the pulley
directly over the hole as high as I could get it.
Later, I realized how foolish I was to do this
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