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ITHE CASCAOE CAVER

International Journal ofVulcanospeleology

Published by the Cascade Grot to, N.S.S.

Editor: Mark Shernan

Assistant Editor: Ben Tom~kins

A!'RIL 19>\5

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The History of Northwest Caving

Part Two

Paradise Ice Caves

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THE CASCADE CAVER,

The Cascade Caver is published 10 times a year by the Cascade Grotto which is amember of the National Speleological Society. Annual dues for the CascadeGrotto is $7.50, which can be sent to the Grotto Treasurer:

Al Lundberg, 19221 38th Place NE, Seattle WA, 98155

GROTTO OFFICERS

Chairman:Vice Chairman:Sec/Treas:Regional Rep:Grotto Store:Editor:

Mark ShermanJim HarpAl LundbergBen TompkinsJim HarpMar k Sherman

524-8780745-1010365-7255524-9526745-1010524-8780

The Cascade Grotto meets at7:00 PM on the third Tuesdayof each month at:1117 36th Ave. East Seattle.This is at the corner of 36thAvenue East, and East Madison.

GROTTO EVENTS CONTENTS

:13

25

25

Barbados Caving 1984

Minutes from the AprilGrotto Meeting

The History of NorthwestCaving to 1972 (Part Two)Mt. St. Helens psuedokarst

Call Bill Halliday at324-7474 (he will be homeon July 4) orin Tennes see (rel~) - '3es- '2..~28 -----------------------:------------

Grotto Party and BarbacueCall Jim Harp (745-1010)or Mark Sherman (524-8780)

JULY 6

JULY 4

JULY 6-7

JULY 16

JULY 20

AUG 2-3

AUG 10-11

AUG 17

AUG 20

AUG 31-SEPT 2

Deadhorse Cave, CallBob Brown at 569-2724Grotto Meeting, 7:00

Cave Ridge, call LarryMcTigue at

Bighorn slide party inVictoria.

Caving in the Concretearea (Windy Creek), callMark Sherman at 524-8780.

Black Mt. area, call JanRoberts at 778-8503

Grotto Meeting, 7:00

Regional Meet, Lovell Wy.Call Bob Brown for details

The following Grotto members orsubscribers are overdue or will becoming due soon. Please note yourdues date on your mailing label.

3/85 R Corbin, Larry3/85 R Lundberg, Alan4/85 R Tupper, Ed5/85 R Brown, Robert5/85 R Cunningham, Tom5/85 R Kachel, Barb6/85 R Crawford, Ed6/85 R Crawford, Rod6/85 R Ehli, Lynn6/85 R Enochs, Kelly6/85 R HcTigue, Larry6/85 S Rockwell, Julius7/85 R Richardson, Jed7/85 R Smith, Dr. Floyd I

CASCADE CAVER APRIL 1985 Page 24

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MINUTESFROMTHEAPRIL GROTTOMEETING

The main topic of business thismonth was on finding a new meetingplace. I was asked to send out asurvey with this month's Caver askingfor everyone's input. Some of thesuggestions were a pizza place, andpossibly the NOAAfacility in Seattle.If anyone has any ideas please callany of the Grotto Officers. Since wenow have our exempt status from theIRS someone could get a nice tax, .deduction from the use of the~r roomor building.

Bob Brown who is head of the CaveRegister Program suggested that Hehave a meeting to plan for thissummer. If anyone would like toinstall new registers or service oldones, please call Bob at 569-2724.

The Grotto received a letter fromthe Bonneville Power Administration,asking if we would be interested inhelping them with their planning ofsmall dams. They would like to knowevery cave within 1/4 mile of astream.

New Grotto member John Fichtelshowed slides of the Sloan's ValleyCave System in Kentucky and some of"caving" in the Cincinatti SubwaySystem which was never used(apparently after they made thetunnels, they found out that thetrains were too tall).

**************************************Hell the Postal Service dl.d it to usagain, they changed our post officebox. Our new address is:

CASCADECAVERPO BOX75663SEATTLE,HA 98125-0663

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THEHISTORYOF NORTHWESTCAVINGTO 1972

By TomMillered. note: This is the second part ofTom's article (see the March 1985CAVERfor part one). This article waswrit ten in 1972 so some of it is alittle outdated.

CONSOLIDATIONANDMATURITY

In Washington, the Cascade Grottohad been making a great deal ofprogress, especially on VancouverIsland where they had made a trip in, .January of 1963. The resulhngpublicity in a Victoria, B.C. paper inFebruary resulted in a number ofreports to the Grotto by persons onthe island aware of other caves, andin the first contact by the grottowith the B.C. Cave hunters. In factenough trips were made to keep thegrotto too busy to investigaterequests by both the Tonasket,Washinton, Chamber of Commerce aboutMcLoughlin Canyon Caves, and theForest Service of Idaho, about acertain Papoose Cave in the Riggins,Idaho area. The Tonasket people,receiving no response, eventually hadto explore their complex fissure cavesby themselves. In August of 1963,aided by financing from a Victorianewspaper, the grotto chartered afloatplane and reconnoitered arainforest Karst on Vancouver, Island,finding six caves.The accumulation of knowledge of

Washington Caves led to the release ofCaves of Washington, written byHalliday, and published in 1963, butthere were enough caves in Oregon toencourage the southern extension ofthe grotto in Portland to form theirown group in 1964. That year was aquiet one for the Cascade Grotto, themost important events being the newsof Steam Caves on Mount Rainer, andthe realization of the Forest Servicein Riggins, Idaho, that they had amajor cave on their lands.Personnel in Riggins had in 1962

managed to stop the dissecration of

CASCADECAVER APRIL 1985 Page 25

the Seven Devil Caverns, as Papoosewas then known, by a pail"of brotherswho desired to strip the formations.Ensuing correspondence with theCascade Grotto was disappointing, andled to the realization that anyinitial exploration would have to bedone by the Forest Service itself.Thus, in March, 1964, armed withseveral hundred dollars of newequipment and led by a Montanaspelunker, three Forest ServiceRangers assualted Papoose Cave.Considering their archaic techniquesand their lack of spelunkingexperience, it must have required alot of courage to probe Papoose to theWet Way Pit at the worst season of theyear.

Further correspondence stirred theWashington Cavers to action, and aparty left in March of the followingyear for the cave. Led by Don Dilley,the group failed to locate the cavedue to a cross-up in direction and allthat was found was a dead sheep and afifty-foot mine. When the cave wasfinally located in June of 1965,little improvement, if any, was madein knowledge of the cave, except fordiscovery of the Dry Passage, and thespelunkers, unused to Idaho's icywaterfalls, ran into serious exposureproblems.

On Labor Day weekend, the majordevelopment of Papoose occurred. TadRiste, Bill Simpson, and LuurtNiewenhuis (one of the first intoDynamited Cave) arrived at the cavewith a sizable party to search formore passages. Riste shortly foundSatori Passage, but most of the grouphad to leave and were unable to followup the discovery. Simpson andNiewenhuis, however, stayed behind andpushed the passage to the large pit atthe end. Alone, they then attemptedto reach the bottom but cold andexhaustion forced them to quit.

Back home, Vern Frese led themapping of Cave Ridge, and after nineyears Red Cave was re-found. At thesame time two new tube systems were

"<'.~..,.

discovered in the Mount Adams area.The first part of 1966 was slow forthe grotto, but in the summeractivities revived again with a475-mile trip to Nakima Caves inBritish Columbia, and last half of theyear was occupied with at least sixtrips to Vancouver Island, and markedby a joint publication of abibliography of Oregon Speleology byHalliday and Knutson. The cooperativenature of the Cascade Grotto, alreadyused in joint trips with the Canadiansand the Oregon Grotto, was highlightedat the initial descent of Papoose insummer. A large party had arrived atPapoose on Memorial Day, one prong ofwhich was led by Bob Brown from theUpper Entrance and down most of theWet Way. The other party ofNiewenhuis, Dilley, Simpson andHalliday attempted again to reach thebottom but again exposure andexhaustion stopped them at what was tobe the last pit. Two weeks later onJune 11, members of three grottos -Don Dilley of Cascade, Jim Chester ofShining Mountains, Earl Petersen andStan Moulton of the Salt Lake Grotto,finally reached the bottom siphons,800 feet down and a half mile inside.As a sequel, on September the grottodid dye tests on the Papoose Cavestreams, finding that the resurgenceof the siphon stream occurred at adistance of two miles and in adifferent drainage area, several dayslater.

Activity in 1967 was conspicuouslyless, and there was trouble keepingthe Caver on schedule, but the extentof the Paradise Ice Caves was realizedand several trips were made there toexpand the length. In February of1968, however, one of three membersreturning from the caves died in asnowstorm which caught them beforethey reached the safety of a nearbylodge. Other problems followed, theCaver went unpublished for four monthsand the first trip to the Summit SteamCaves of Mount Rainier was stopped byaltitude sickness and exhaustion atthe top. Charley Anderson kept up the

..

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exploration of the Paradise Ice Cavesand on Memorial Day the firstNorthwest Speleological Convention atPapoose Cave gave birth to theNorthwest Regional Association, firstchaired by Earl Petersen of SSG.Internal problems about the role ofthe grotto kept 1969 another slow yearexcept for a few trips to some lavatubes and continued work on theParadise Ice Caves. Finally, thedivisions progressed to the pointwhere a group abandoned the grotto tostart a new speleological cell of itsown.

Not until 1966 did the OregonGrotto break out of the trail left bythe Cascade Grotto. Knutson andHalliday's bibliography of OregonCaves was published in July, but byAugust membership had reached anall-time low of twenty-four. Then,the grotto caught fire and embarked ona several year spree of explorationand discovery. In September, an uppersection of Red Cave was found and thefirst entry into the upper part ofDynamited Cave was made by theOregonians.

Although activities slowed downagain in 1967, with a few more lavatubes south of Mt. St. Helens found in1968 the grotto started it's mostproductive era. In May, grottomembers appeared at Papoose Caveassisting in the birth of the NVIRA.Later, in July, three Sinks Lava Cavewas extended by 1700 feet, and in thesame month a secrecy cloaked trip toScorpion Cave south of Oregon Cave wasmade. The cave was discovered by LeeRosenberg in 1966 after a fire pilotspotted openings nearby. Rosenberg'ssubsequent disclosure to the OregonGrotto in 1968 and his desire forprotection of the place led the grottoleaders to painful decisionsconcerning who "deserved" the firsttrip to the cave, which created somebad feelings in the grotto for a time.In October, Steve Knutson and EricBinker sped to the Vlallowa Mountainsto check reports of a large limestonecave, and in March of 1969, three

Oregon cavers completed a tremendouslyproductive trip by mapping theunbelievable amount of 16,000 feet insix days.

By August, membership was up toforty and Eric Binker was running wildalong the Oregon-California border.That month he investigated a Karstarea in the Klamath River region. InSeptember, he was back again withKnutsen, and again December, findingseveral more caves. Meanwhile, Oregonspelunkers were opening up another"cave that couldn't be". Jim Nielandand a party surveying a supposedlysmall lava tube north of the Columbiain October noticed a slight draft ofair coming out of a small hole over asupposed lava seal. Quickly, theyenlarged the hole and broke into newpassage containing a large stream.They returned the following weekend,and again the next month, findinganother entrance and 1300 more feet ofpassage. Subsequent explorations inthe highly complex tube pushed thetotal length of passage to nearly amile. That summer, excited reports ofa twenty-mile lava tube had appearedin several Oregon newspapers. SteveKnutson drove to Malheur County, butas expected found a rather long trenchsystem with caves at intervals. OnThanksgiving Day, a large group ofCascade and Oregon Grotto membersconverged on Hell's Canyon, primarilyfocusing' on a new karst area acrossthe river where Knutson and a partyattempted to blast open some sinkswith dynamite in the hopes ofconnecting them with a resurgence 1300feet down the canyon cliff.

Of all their caves, Ramshorn wasthe one most visited by the veryactive Shining Mountains Grotto, butnew discoveries, such as the one byJim Chester and a party enteringNatural Trap Cave of the BighornMountains in October, 1965, continued.A "Caving Capers" was organized inearly April of the next year in orderto get the Montana cavers together toexplore and swap stories of Montanacaves.

CASCADE CAVER APRIL 1985 Page 27

Generally isolated until then,contact began to be made with othergrottos. Two months after the "CavingCapers" a party at Papoose Cavecontributed Jim Chester to the firstteam to descend Papoose to the siphonsand later that fall, the Salt LakeGrotto guided them to the terminalsiphon of Neff's Cave.

New discoveries by Al Lovell inBear Canyon and extensive discoveriesby the grotto in, of all caves,Ramshorn, were proof that even thebest known caves held surprises andthat knowledge of speleology was stilljust beginning in Montana.

The year 1967 continued at a fastpace for the SMG. Harvey Leach, stillcarrying the old Treasure StateSpeleological Society along, waselected grotto chairman for the secondtime and participated in the periodwhen computerized mapping wasintroduced, and the Speleothem movedto a covered publication. Six yearsof mapping and exploration inGloryhole had turned up four miles ofpassage, and 3 names, from CaveX, toGloryhole, and in 1967, to BighornCaverns. Unfortunately, withdiscovery had gone increasedvandalism, which led the newsletterand the grotto to increased heights ofconservation, including cancellingexchange of newsletters with aneastern grotto and the publication ofan early Montana caver's N.S.S. numberwhich has preceded the grotto tonearly every cave in the state.

Ramshorn was gated in June of 1968to prevent the type of vandalism thathad occurred in Bighorn Caverns andseveral snowshoe trips were taken, butthe most important event was cloakedin secrecy. In September, RobertSchultz and Fred' Spieker of the SMGand TSSS crawled through the longsought connection between HorsethiefCave and the Bighorn Caverns. In thecrawl, however, they found an old ringof keys and a rock cairn on theBighorn side of the crawl, relicsprobably of an old prospector or minervisit long before.

The implications of a "walk-in"entrance to Bighorn cautioned the twoto remain silent during the 1969 NSSconvention held at the site severalmonths later in June. Nearly sixhundred attended the NSS convention,hosted by the SMG and TSSS, andchaired by Harvey Leach, which ledcavers from allover the nationthrough Bighorn, Natural Trap,Horsethief, and the Pryor MountainsCaves. Later that summer, twoout-of-the state cavers re-discoveredthe connection, unaware of theprevious two discoveries and told JimChester. Disturbed by the possibilityof further damage to Bighorn Caverns,he, his wife, and Claude Smith of theCascade Grotto, one of there-discoverers, place a plug of 1400pounds of concrete in the crawlway inmid-September.

It wasn't long after the formationof the British Columbia SpeleologicalSociety that membership increased totwenty-two under the presidency ofDennis Richards. With Ken Sinkiewiczas vice-president and Kronek assecretary, several trips were takenevery month and in September of 1967,the seasonal siphon in a Horne LakeCave was successfully passed after aninitial frustration in the wet season,and led Sinkiewicz and a party to thebottom, 200 feet down.

The first BCSS newsletters werepublished in April, May, and July of1967, but the members found littletime to publish more than these forthey were already channeling theirenergies to forming a nationalCanadian society under the auspices ofthe BCSS. By December, the name ofthe group, less than a year old, waschanged to the "Canadian SpeleologicalSociety" and they actively beganplanning for the expansion of thegroup across Canada. Somewhatsurprisingly, the members apparentlyhad no knowledge of any other cavingclubs in Canada.

Subsequently, the stress ofnational planning became too much fora small group still not grown out of

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Vancouver Island, and organizationalbreakup was imminent by the summer of1968, even though trips were stillfrequent.

Before poor heal th forced him toleave the Island, Hronek participatedin the discovery of Euclataws cave inlate April of 1968, and in the summerattended the birth of the NWRAatPapoose cave. There as the "victim"in a mock rescue practice he pointedup one of the dangers of the cavebecoming so cold a replacement victimhad to be found I

The severe winter of 1968-69brought most caving on the Islandentirely to a halt, but in the springrepeated trips discovered a beautifulnew extension of Euclataws Cave.After debate, the CSS membersapproached the Provincial Governmentof British Columbia and attempted topersuade the bureaucracy to undertakeprotection and development of thefind. Only, however, after newspaperpublicity engineered by the group inSeptember, did the officials move andby 1971, the area was declared part ofa Provincial Park.

Even though trouble had been seencoming for some time, the last year ofthe Gem State Grotto's first periodwas deceptively active. A February,1968, list shows over forty peopleinterested in Idaho spelunking, withfourteen actually members of thegrotto. Trips were taken to theHell's Canyon area to meet with theOregon Grotto and much of the planningfor the first Northwest Speleologicalconvention was done by members of theGSG who co-hosted it with the CascadeGrotto that summer. Sylvia Ross andJerry Thornton made a trip north inJuly to check out rumors of atremendous pit near Salmon. Itsrediscoverer, Verne Blalack, appearedto be quite interested in spelunkingbut the three were frustrated by alack of equipment.

In September, Thornton and a partymade a trip to Papoose but again thecold conditions proved to be a matchat the Sand Room. Minnetonka Cave

became the final fling of the year asboth groups GSG and SLG managed tofind a long unknown section of thecave. The December - GemCaver showedthe pressing need for areorganization, pointing out thatwhile thirty caves had been found in1967, and 7,000 feet mapped, only fivewere found in 1968 and less than 2,000feet were mapped.

That was the last issue until June,1970, For over a year no electionswere held, no mail was answered, andThornton left the state. Activitiesdid occur, but all were fragmented andisolated. Syl via Ross publishedIntroduction to Idaho Caves ~ Cavingin May of 1969, the Gem State Grottocome out with Caves of the Gem Statein the same year, and that summer,Verne Blalack, "hot-seating" it allthe way, descended his pit, Baker'sHole, a free rappel of 190 feet.Another trip to Papoose, in May of1970, nearly ended in tragedy when ayoung boy balked ascending the ladderin one of the waterfalls.

The period was a trying one forIdaho speleology and the rumor thatGem State Grotto was permanently deadbegan making the rounds.

THE LASTFEWYEARS

From the beginning of 1970 to thepresent, much of the activities of thevarious Northwest groups has beencentered around the continuingconsolidation of their organizationsand investigating well-known areas.Occasionally new areas are found andbreakthroughs made. Of three newcaving groups who made theirappearance on the scene, one has ineffect, folded, and only time willtell if the remaining two have thesupport needed to maintain theiractivities. With the exception of theOregon Grotto, nearly all the otherorganizations of the northwest seem tohave followed a pattern of initialenthusiasm, followed by a period ofdecline, and sometimes a totaleclipse, before achieving solidarity.

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In June, 1970, the ~ Cayer beganto publish again, and the Augustmeeting managed to put the Gem StateGrotto back on its feet, this timewith a different format. Blalack,having become frustrated during theGrotto's twilight period, had formed agroup of his own, based in Salmon,Idaho. The other unit in Boise formedthe remainder of the group.

Even though the newsletter wassketchy, the activities still slow,the membership soared from none tothirty by the end of 1971• Aconservation drive by the grotto hadresulted in gating Papoose Cave, andPigpen and Redfish Caves in the Hell'sCanyon. In 1972, George Huppertfinished his thesis on Papoose Caveand a third unit at Blackfoot, Idahojoined the main group.

By 1969, continued work on theParadise Ice Caves by the CascadeGrotto resulted in establishing themas the world's longest mapped glaciercave system. An October trip toPapoose resulted in the disco,ery of anew section by Russ Patterson and ledto the beautifully decoratedPatterson's Passage (since renameBluewater Extension).

At the beginning of 1970, facedwith the withdrawal of several membersto form a new grotto, a decliningmembership and a general feeling ofennui, the members revamped theconstitution and sacked therequirement of NSS membership. Theresulting year was one of its moreproductive for some time. Paradise IceCaves was finally traversed by BillZarwell and Ron Pflum, and CharleyAnderson set some sort of persistencerecord with his one hundredth visit tothe caves. After a six-week trainingprogram, a grotto party finally madeit to the Summit Steam Caves, unawarethat only two weeks before twomountain climbers had completed atrans-crater exploration of them.

The Cascade Grotto helped theOregon Grotto with planning the 1972NSS convention at White Salmon, WA.Trips were frequ~nt but little of note

was done by the group for some time.Low level feuding with the XanaduGrotto of Seattle surfaced from timeto time in the newsletter, which wasspending more and more space onarticles connected with areas farremoved from the Cascade Grotto.

The Oregon Grotto, with over fiftymembers by 1970 found plenty ofwilling hands and plenty to use themfor. In rapid succession more leadswere pushed in Deadhorse Cave, 900feet mapped in Oregon caves by aKnutson-Nieland-Binker party, and amassive Cascade-Oregon assault onHell's Canyon turned up Pigpen Cave.In December, the grotto plannedanother trip to Hell's Canyon, butheavy snowstorms in the regionprevented enough participation toaccomplish anything.

Small Limestone caves near Kerby,Oregon were located and explored thenext summer, as Knutson againattempted to find rumored caves in theWallowa Mountains. Deadhorse yieldedmore surprises as additional passagesin the by now extremely complicatedlava tube were pushed and mapped.Twenty more members joined the grottobringing the total to seventy, morethan twice the size of the nearestnorthwest grotto. In other fields thanexploration the grotto was stillpushing ahead. Charlie Larson of thegrotto, past chairman became chairmanof the Northwest Regional Associationthat year and Jim Nieland and his wifeLibby, began to publish a regionalnewsletter. A successful bid was madeto host the NSS convention in 1972,and the grotto submerged itself inpreparation for the first suchgathering in a volcanic area.

Following the Shining MountainsGrotto June triumph at the conventionwas another success--finding MillCreek Crystal Cave after several yearsof snowbound attempts. Few othertrips of note were taken that year,\oIhichprompted the formation of a"Krusty Kavers Klub" for the ardent,but disappointed.

Jim Chester, the prime force behind

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the formation of the grotto, waselected chairman for the 1970-71 year,and Newell Campbell another old-timerliving by then in Washington, wascommissioned by the Montana Bureau ofNines to prepare a geologic study ofMontana caves. Over 300 were soonlisted, but after exploring andsurveying a number of them Campbellstumbled onto a long-lost pit inFrench Creek Cave that Robert Zellerhad been unable to find in 1949. Thepit opened into a huge extension ofthe cave. Realizing the exent of hisfind, Campbell called in the servicesof Chester, Chuck Borlan (pastchairman of the SMG) and Chuck Lyon.The other plans temporarily abandoned,Campbell and company mapped over sixthousand feet in six days, quicklyestablishing French Creek Cave asMontana's second largest and seconddeepest.

Towards the end of October, adoctor of Botany contacted the grottoin hopes of obtaining data about cavesthat would support life in event of afuture social holocaust.Unfortunately, to the Montana cavers,the doctor appeared as something justshort of a nut, and he was somewhatwaggishly invited on tour of just sucha cave. The eventual outcome couldhave been easily predicted--the gooddoctor forsook Montana for warmerclimates and warmer caves.

Newell Campbell continued his probeof Montana's hinterlands and thatsummer published some of the firstreports on some of the mostfascinating, if not the best, Karstareas remaining in the U.S. ScapegoatMountain, in the Bob MarshallWilderness was found to have excellentpotential for a 1400 foot deep caveamid the scores of Karst in theLimestone Wall and Yakinnikak Creekareas of northern Montana, visitedlong before by Basil Hritsco.

Although evidence of some problemsexist (the Speleothem is beingpublished on an irregular basis)Montana is probable "the state mostlikely to succeed"--the potential is

enormous, the caves are large, and thecavers are definately a hardy breed.

Members of the CanadianSpeleological Society took severalmore trips with the Cascade Grotto inthe fall of 1969, but for the firsttwo months of 1970, activity was slackbecause many of the CSS members weretied up with other things. Frustratedwith this new state of affairs, KenSinkiewicz revived the name of "B.C.Cave Hunters" and began to recruitother members. The recruitment ofseveral enthusiastic new membersresulted in a casual group thatshunned formality, but was able tomake field trips nearly every weekendfor several months. In April, thegroup approached the C.S.S. and made aproposal to pool resources. TheC.S.S. agreed to place the realcontrol of the group in the hands ofthe active cavers, notably Sinkiewiczand a new recruit from England, PhilWhitfield. A measure of the vastlyincreased effectiveness was the recordof thirty-four trips made in Haythrough November, and the growth ofthe group from seventeen to twenty-six. Nine joint trips occurred withthe Cascade Grotto, and explorationand mapping continued at a fast pace.

At the annual November meeting thevote was overwhelming in favor ofdissolving the C.S.S. and the name ofVancouver Island Cave ExplorationGroup was chosen for the new club, butthe old C.S.S. constitution wasretained in a modified form.

A week later, one of the moreimportant Island caves was enteredthrough breakdown at the bottom of apit discovered only two weeks before.Several additional parties pushed theextent of the cave to several hundredfeet by the end of the year, and VICEGnamed the cave "Cascade" for theconsiderable help given them by theCascade Grotto.

In January, 1971 the new grotto hadits first publication, the "YICEGNEWS," followed with the formation ofa caving club at the University ofVictoria by Ron Frederick.

CASCADE CAVER APRIL 1985 Page 31

Unfortunately, the divergent views ofboth groups soon came into conflict,creating strife where there shouldhave been cooperation. A meeting bythe heads of both groups in Aprilaccomplished little towards thesettling of their differences, but thetenuous nature of college life solvedthe problem, for by the next schoolyear, most of the disenchantedstudents had left the club, and a newyear of cooperation began. TheCascade Grotto continued to makefrequent visits as the VICEGmembership swelled to forty. ASeptember meeting of the NorthwestRegional Association accepted theentrance of VICEG into the NWRA andthe resignation of Charlie Larson ofthe Oregon Grotto as chairman pavedthe way for Phil Whitfield to beelected.

VICEG is indeed fortunate to haveso many caves close at hand incontrast to most Northwest groups andthe northern Karst of the Island ismore extensive than in the south.Excellent relations with the newsmedia have resulted in a considerableamount of publicity, and there seemsto be no future lack of cavers orcaving.

The withdrawal of a small group ofdisgruntled cavers from the CascadeGrotto led to the formation of a rivalgrotto on January 1, 1970. NamedXanadu, after reference to a poem ofSamuel Coleridge Taylor's, the groupspent most of its time extending thelimits of Papoose Cave. Hundreds ofnew feet were explored when DaveMischke, leader of the group, and BobVocke, used a ceiling crack to cross awaterfall in the newly discoveredBluewater Passage in Spring of 1970.Repeated trips brought them to morevirgin passage and waterfalls. Nearlyall of the mapping done in the cave inrecent years has been the work of theXanadu cavers, and extensive time hasbeen spent in cleaning the cave of theyears of trash accumulation.

The growth or the grotto has beenslow, but stead1~ The main problem of

the group in the future will be itsability to expand its interests fromthose of an overriding concern withPapoose. The passage of time willprobably have the effect of lesseningthe amount of hostility that led thetwo Seatle groups to split apart,perhaps leading to a reunion in theend.

The Cascade Grotto, with arejuvenated constitution, largermembership and funds, a wider interestrange, and tradition seems much morelikely to outlast its offspring.

Western Washington, more of acaving wasteland than any other areaof the Northwest, hosted the stirringsof caving activity in early 1969. TomMiller and Bruce Ainslie formed a clubat Eastern Washington State Colegethat fall with the assistance of Dr.Eugene Kiver, an NSS Member -- callingitself the EWSC Spelunking Club, themembers spent nearly all of the firstyear just familiarizing itself withthe area, and making numerousunsuccessful attempts to find nearbycaves.

In the summer of 1970, Kiver andothers from the EWSC GeologyDepartment made the first scientificstudy of the Summit Steam Caves ofMount Rainier, while other members ofthe club ranged across the northwest.Jim Crail, an Air Force sergeant at anearby air base led trips to GlacierNational Park and Bighorn Caverns,while Miller and Bob Ries visitedYakinnikak Creek Caves in Montana andmade the first scubalunking attempt inthe Northwest, a siphon scuba dive inMalheur cave, Oregon.

From the first, expectations of thegroup were overly optimistic. Plansfor a grotto fizzled out, and the clubnever attained a large membership.Much of the club's activity would havebeen hopeless without the aid of acore of cavers at Crail's Air ForceBase. Bill Parks, an ephemeral memberof the Air Force taught most 'of thecaving techniques used at the presenttime.

Still fired with enthusiasm in

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spite of setbacks, the club membersmade numerous trips to Papoose Cave in1971 and in February staged an"expedition" of nine days in themiddle of a school term on whichnineteen people participated. Thisand other trips to the cave, led byMiller, Crail and Denny Andrew, turnedup nearly two thousand feet of virginpassage, mostly small, however.

Trips ranged far afield, to Neff'sin Utah, Goshute and Lehman in Nevada,French Creek Cave in Montana, evenCanada and Oregon, but as with Xanaduthe problems of sustaining interest ina small group remain. As the originalmembers graduate, transfer, or loseinterest, much experience will belost. One only hopes that the twomost recent additions to the Northwestcaving family will not share the fatethat has overtaken nearly every othergroup in the area at some point in itshistory.

BIBLIOGRAPHYWhitfield, P.R. 1971, .A. History Qf.

Vancouver Island Caving. 1962-1971.Halliday, Dr. W.R., 1966, Depths Qf.

the Earth.Halliday, Dr. W.R., 1963, Cave of

Washington.___N.S.S News, 1950-the present,

numerous times.___Northwest Caving, 1971-the present,

numerous times.Ross, Sylvia H, 1967, Introduction to

Idaho Caves and Caving.Gem State Grotto, 1969, Caves of the

Gem State.___ 1961-63, Cavernooz of Montana

Speleological Survey.___ 1964-present, Speleothem of Shining

Mountains Grotto.___ 1967-present, Gem Caver of Gem

State Grotto.___ 1951-present, Western Speleological

Survey Bulletins.___ 1965-present, Speleograph of Oregon

Grotto.___ 1951-present, Cascade Cave Report,

later Cascade Caver of CascadeGrotto.

___ 1971-present, VICEG News of VICEG.

___ 1970-present, ~ X of XanaduGrotto.

Written Communications From:

Blalack, Verne, Gem State GrottoThornton, Jerry, Gem State GrottoHalliday, Dr. W.R., Cascade GrottoLarson, Charles, Oregon GrottoMischke, David, Xanadu GrottoKnutson, Steve, Oregon GrottoWhitfield, P.R., VICEGChester, Jim, Shining Mountains GrottoCampbell, Newell

BARBADOS CAVING 1984

BY WILLIAM R. HALLIDAY, M.D.

A major fringe benefit of living inthe Southeast is the easy availabilityof special package fares to theCaribbean and thereabouts. So Marciaand I arranged an Eastern Airlinespackage to the caves of Barbados overthe Thanksgiving weekend. By sheerluck the Dover Beach Hotel (where wewere scheduled to stay) was overbookedand we ended up in the Golden SandsHotel quieter, more convenient,probably a little nicer, cateringmostly to Canadians and clearlywilling to put up with cavers.

Although Richard Goddard (Directorof the Barbados Speleological Survey)is collecting data elsewhere, thenewly commercialized Harrison's Cave -Cole's Cave - \olelchman'sHall Gullyarea remain the caving center of theisland. Cave Hill on the outskirts ofBridgetown (the capitol) is said tohave some holes but they are said tobe less than 100 feet long. AnimalFlower Cave at the extreme north endof the island is a mere two-chambersea cave.

The #4 Sturgis bus goes to the cavearea but we did not know it at thetime and hired a car; the bus wouldhave been only 75c and much more fun.It stops at Welchman's Hall Gully andprobably there is another stop/closer

CASCADE CAVER APRIL 1985 Page 33

to Harrison's Cave. The gully is atleast partially an unroofed cave withblunt stalactites on overhangingwalls. The original entrance toHarrison's Cave was in the gully; itnow has been closed to the dismay ofDick Goddard and visitingspeleologists concerned with thecave's ecology.

Harrison's Cave is about '1/2 mileaway, on a well-marked side road, in asmaller gully. The present entranceis artificial and the surfacedevelopment is tasteful. A briefintroductory slide show is well done.Then the visitor boards an electricbus-train and is driven throughtunnels connecting some of the finestand largest rooms discovered by OleSorenson and his crew some years ago.The rooms are surprisingly large,speleothems are glisteningly white,and Roy Davis' waterfalls are pretty.

Prior to the Sorenson discoveries,nearby Cole's Cave was the best knowncave on Barbados. It is not where thetope, map of the -island 'indica .:;es andthere are no signs to it. To visitit, from Harrison's Cave parking areago back up the hill to the main sideroad and turn right. After about 100meters it makes a turn to the left andthen you come to a T-junction. Fromhere go downhill for about 200 metersto the last electric power pole andthen continue in the same line to theend of the fields. The trail to thecave is easily found in the bushesjust to the left at this point. Itangles s~ightly, then steepens to theright for about 200 meters, along thegully. The cave entrance is a deep,steep hole to the right of the trailin the gully bottom, easily seen ifone's looking for it. A descent ofabout 12 meters leads to theonce-gated orifice of a short sidepassage which soon joins the mainstream channel, several thousand feetlong. Only a few short side passagesare known. The cave is teeming withmillipedes and other cave life and hasbeen studied by Stu Peck. Mostvisi tors follow"; the stream passage

upstream past a near-siphon to theupper entrance, in an area where thereare large water pipes, now abandoned.Unfortunately it is not a photogeniccave but the water is pleasantlyluckwarm.

Our special target, however, wasseveral miles farther southeast:Bowmanston Pumping Station Cave, forwhich very special arrangements arenecessary because visitors must belowered in a bucket (very much likethe old guano bucket in the early daysat Carlsbad Cavern) about 80 metersdown a wide well shaft in a thicket ofwater pipes. The local caver groupgets permission only about once everytwo years.

Bowmanston Pumping Station Cave isbasically a stream canyon cave likeCole's Cave but locally quite prettyand much more fun. Dick Goddard hasmapped about 2 kilometers; a bitshorter than Cole's. At the bottom ofthe well shaft, a masonry duck-underserves as introduction to a 100 meterswim .' (flotation gear is advisable).Upstream (where the present waterintake is located) is a locked gate.The lake at the bottom of the shaft isartificial; we were there atmoderately highwater and a beautifulwaterfall was cascading over the dam.Much more water was present than inCole's Cave and it was considered tomake the cave much pleasanter by thosewho had overheated below the damduring previous trips. The cave endsin a mud sump; there are no knownnatural entrances although I have theimpression that no one has looked hardfor upper level leads. At the wellshaft the cave is about 80 metersbelow the surface. The bucket hasroom for the feet of four explorers,and the descent in the jungle of pipesis a unique experience in caving inthe 1980 'so

Reference: Peck, Stewart R. 1981.Community composition and zoogeographyof the invertebrate cave fauna ofBarbados. Florida Entomologist, vol.64, no. 4, pp520-527.

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