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