Meeting Minutes March 2023

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Cascade Grotto Meeting
In-person only (Phinney Neighborhood Association)
March 31

Votes

Beginner trip

Should we allocate fund refreshments for beginner trip? ($70)

  • 8 for
  • 0 against

Presentation

Belize Trip

  • cannot be broadcast online as would cancel permit

Belize

  • in central america: speak english there
  • lots of karst, around the Yucatan peninsula
  • yearly expeditions have been going on yearly for around 20 years (happens in Feb because that is when there is the lowest rain)
  • rent a house at entrance of barton creek cave (big tourist cave)
    • have a big group, 18 people total between two buildings

The cave

  • expedition cave is “Panti pit” found in 2007
  • Barton creek cave is drain for all caves in the region
  • entrance is a tiny hole in the ground, right underneath a shop in town
  • dug out sinkhole that was blowing a geyser to find cave
  • lots of garbage/sewage to wade through by entrance
  • 6500m long cave (so far)
  • entrance is tight/squeezy (8 pitches to access main trunk of cave)
  • a cave telephone was installed (which is now broken)
  • cave is extremely muddy and has very high CO2
  • previous expedition was interested in mayan archeology (so didn’t bother with the cave as it was never explored by humans)
  • normal atmospheric CO2 is 0.04; turnaround is around 3% (immediately dangerous to life/health) — OSHA limit is 0.5%
    • this year was FAR better CO2
  • depends on water flow (heavy rains/flooding tends to flush out CO2)
  • big trunk passages go and go and go; easy walking passage all the way
  • towards Barton creek has been pushed hard but no real leads found
  • pushed the other way (many going leads)
  • mostly muddy but some nice flowstone scattered around
  • 83F ambient temperature in cave (also very humid)
  • stream-passage midway; tried to get down into where it leads but had very bad air
  • there are bats in some places in the cave (implies other entrances)
  • trips were about 12 hours long each day
  • gave all data to Brian Pease (80 yo) who stayed in camp and created map
  • on days off:
    • search for new caves
    • also did lots of touristy stuff on days off
  • surveyed 2700m this year!
  • 18 people, lots of socal cavers
  • most leads left are high climb leads (in-feeders)
  • borehole was mostly exhausted so no more easy passage
  • a lower passage is theorized but the air is so bad that it’s inaccessible
  • rebreathers are impractical because the cave is already so hot and using them would make it hotter
  • manganese nodules within limestone (rock/conglomerate from cretaceous era dinosaur impact)

Trips

Trip reports

Belize trip

  • See above presentation

Jackman creek cave trips (Feb 25, March 5)

  • two separate trips
  • had two different groups, lots of snow each time
  • total amount of digging was about 10-15 feet
  • checked out the old piton in the shower room and discovered no real leads

Danger on Cave ridge (March 25)

  • went up to cave ride and saw lots of backcountry skiers
  • had to dig snow steps into cave as there was lots of snowpack
  • Danger has been dye-traced to commonwealth basin
  • did a little bit of digging in danger

Helens glacial caves

  • no trip but there was a recent publication
    • bulletin of Volcanology (2023 Sobolewski et al)
  • surveying new dome caves (some caves have closed)
  • caves are in ice, floor is rubble/fumarole
  • caves move as the glacier changes/also fumarole shift around
  • igloo cave was the previous shelter/camp (but has since vanished)
  • Helens caves much smaller than Ranier caves (those have very wide passages)

Upcoming Trips

Cave Ridge

  • Checking out danger on Cave Ridge on April 16 w/ Kenny Bennett
    • See facebook/mailing list

Beginner trip

  • April 29/30 (last weekend) @ Cougar, WA (lake cave and ole’s cave)

Vertical training in Seattle

  • postponed until May

Vertical training w/ Oregon High Desert grotto

  • weekend of the beginner trip near Bend, OR

Annual meeting of BC Speleological Federation

  • Their meeting is on the weekend of the 21st of April, somewhere on Vancouver island

Future Trips/Plans

Vancouver island cave rescue

  • Memorial day weekend — may still have spots available

Windy creek

  • register’s last entry was from 2006
  • want to put in a new register there later this year
  • approach not as easy since the bridge was washed out
  • special issue newsletter coming for windy creek

Cougar creek

  • Gary Petrie/Lee looking to do something

Convention

  • there may be good carpooling situations from Ohio if people want to contact grottos located there

Survey training

  • can try to organize something end of May
  • Eric will get a poll going to see how much interest in course
  • may do some software stuff online in a zoom/teams call
  • good sketchers get invitations to really cool expeditions so worth the investment in skills

Wallowa expedition

  • date still in flux

Poet’s crest

  • early August (first weekend)

Granite peak

  • not a cave but Daryl planning a trip if others are interested
  • climb of highest peak in MT
  • some roped rock climbing at the end
  • 26 miles/5k ft elevation gain, max of 13k ft

Scapegoat

  • likely in late August (8/27 – 9/4)
  • ~$250 each for 75 lb gear to/from campsite
  • found a possible pit through shale layer — may connect to one more day cave

Vancouver island

  • 4th of July weekend, tentative plans to make a trip

Newsletter

  • Daryl doing a 2022 retrospective newsletter
    • ETA is in about 1 month

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