FEBRUARY~ 1988 VOLUME 16, NUMBER 1

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See "Saltpetre Works". p9. FEBRUARY, 1988 PAGE 2 READERS WRITE IN DEFENCE OF BACKSIGHTS CRF NEWSLETTER Volume 16, No.1 I enjoyed the interview with Tony Waltham Established 1973 [November Newsletter]. However, I feel obliged to ralse 1ssue with his assertion that survey backsights are usually a waste Editors, Sue Hagan, Mick Sutton of time. I argue that backsights are highly Route 1, Box 110A useful, even critical, when working in a large system like Mammoth. The issue boils down Annapolis, MO 63620 to one of uniformity of survey accuracy; backsights impose quality control in several Quarterly: Feb., May, Aug., Nov. ways. Subscriptions $4.00 per year. tl. The compass operator's detailed Deadline: One month before the first of attention is demanded - it is embarrasing the issue month. (and a pain) to repeat shots, particularly toward the end of a long trip, when one gets sloppy. 2). Poorly-skilled compass readers The CRF NEWSLETTER is a publication of are identified (sometimes to their surprise) the Cave Research Foundation, a and can be helped. 3). Faulty instuments are detected, a remarkablY common experience. non-profit organization incorporated in 4). Spurious situations, such as metal on the 1957 under the laws of Kentucky for the compass operator , or in the vicmity (pack, etc.), are detected. Backsights are worthwhile on conservation, and education about caves vertical as well as azimuth. For instance, it and karst. For information about the is surprising how few know that laterally CRF, write to: Ronald C. Wilson, CRF tilting a Suunto clinometer affects the slope measurement. President, 1019 Maplewood Drive, Cedar Falls, IA 50613. These considerations apply particularly to the survey of a large, sprawling system such as Mammoth because hundreds of people (often of uncertain background) and thousands of survey stations are involved LILBURN PROJECT HOSTS ANNUAL over manY years. Indeed, you can blow off backsights in a small cave - it probably will MEETING not matter. However, in a truly big one, backsights, both azimuth and vertical, For the first time, CR F directors gathered in although sometimes a hassle, temper cumulative uncertainties. Fresno, California and Kings Canyon National Park for the annual members' Norm Pace meeting, which took place on October 8-10, 1987. Thursday afternoon was spent in CARLSBAD IS ONE CAVERN meetings with National Park Service personnel; Friday was spent in closed I noticed you had edited my cave names in the Lechuguilla article [November session, during which the directors briefed Newsletter] to the plural form Carlsbad each other on current projects and issues. Caverns. The correct form-J as established in Saturday included an open members' meeting current usage of the Park ;:;;ervice, is Carlsbad Cavern, as based on original usage among the big trees at Grant Grove followed in W. T. Lee's articles of the 1920s. The by a delightful five mile backpack through plural form is correct only in the name of the world's largest sequoia grove to the CRF Carlsbad Caverns National Park as a whole, in recognition of the unit's enlargement in field research station in Redwood Canyon. 1930 to incorporate a number of separate Sunday was spent in examining Lilburn Cave "caverns". Use of the plural form for the first hand. Directors took part in a number main cavern alone seems to be a corruption resulting from confusion with the name of of projects, including water sampling and the whole Park. The NPS encourages use of mappinq. the singular form by writers on Carlsbad Cavern, and I would recommend this be accepted as standard usage by all CRF Board actions focussed largely on authors. reaffirmation of current goals, including support for the upcoming China expedition, Donald Davis. publication of books and maps, cooperation [The correct form is duly noted. As an with other groups caving and cavers. Howard Hurtt, John novices into the fray and see if they survive. Tinsley, Mike Spiess, and Pat Witt did a terrific job of hosting events in Fresno and I visited the nearby show cave, Grotte di organizing logistics for a productive and Frasassi. The cave resembled Blanchard enjoyable meeting in the Sierras. Springs Cavern, AK, but was even more beautiful. It is operated by the local Ron Wilson government, and some of the funds go to caving groups for research. The current theory is that the area's caves formed PHANTASPELEO /87 through sulfuric acid solution. [see Guadalupe Caves, p9 J. Many people made Last October I travelled to Italy as guest of this trip possible. The CNS paid for travel the Centro Nazionale di Speleologia to and lodging, and CRF contributed toward address their annual gathering, additional expenses. Marco Menichetti acted Phantaspeleo '87. There is no central caving as host and his wife, Della, was my prime organization in Italy, but the CNS, a translator. I am grateful to Ron Wilson, compendium of groups from Umbria and Norbert Welch and Stan Sides for providing adjoining states, is similar in structure and photographs. purpose to the CRF. The festival attracted nearly 700 cavers from Italy and nearby Scott House nations. It was held in the Umbrian village of Costacciaro, a charming walled medieval town nestled at the foot of Mount Cucco, a SURVEY DATA REDUCTION cavernous block of limestone that juts 1000m above it. The CNS headquarters, in a very Many computer programs have been written old building in Costacciaro includes a for reducing survey data. Recently, I have meeting room, auditorium, offices, Ubrary, developed a program called "Cave Recorder" and a luxurious dormitory. Elsewhere is a for Apple II series computers. It will run hydraulics lab for testing climbing with 64k of me mary, and requires a single implements and ropes. disk drive. Data is stored on floppy disks using DOS 3.3 ASCII files are involved. In Italy, some maps development agents. The program is being can't be put together because different used for the Mammoth Cave 1:600 map groups had worked on the same cave using series. You can obtain a copy by writing to totally different systems. Another question the author at 2148 Timber Lane, Barnhart, concerned our funding; the audience MO 63012. Send a disk or a dollar. applauded on learning that our mapping effort is privately funded . At the need for continuous long-term monitoring. opposite end of the Gravel Avenue map, Tom Brucker et al mapped a dry crawl paralleling Photographer Wayne Levin started a cave the south end of Gravel Avenue. This looped photography proJect that produced exciting back to Gravel Avenue at the Jake's Trail images of White and Crystal Caves. Support Junction, then continued off the map until it for the narrative description program joined the "end" of one arm of the continued along western Kentucky Avenue sub-Swinnerton network discovered last and at the New Entrance: a historical and July. The new passage provides a second cultural assessment was conducted in and survey link between Gravel Avenue and the around Serena's Arbor. sub-Swinnerton passages.

As usual, a great deal of effort went into Northwest Passage got some overdue Mammoth Cave cartography, Bob Osburn led attention. Fish Brooks' crew was delayed by a trip to Hawkins River, tidying up some of navigational problems, but they now the mazy area about a mile up Fritch Avenue. thoroughly know the route down the Canyons They resurveYed 1000ft or so of the main of Absolon. They came back with 800ft of line , wh ich 10 thts area 1s low, and continued high-grade survey. This is the last of the up an unmapped ex tension which ended at a major trunk passages of western Flint Ridge waterfall. Scott House continued the to be surveyed for the detailed map program. resurvey of Belfry Avenue, a major Paul Cannaley's crew continued work on the south- flank trunk route. Resketching was Ralph Stone Hall/ Ingalls Way area. They the order of the day around Mount McKinley, mapped 200ft of pits and canyons to and 10 a loop passage off Morrison Avenue. complete a link between two earlier surveys. Many leads remain. Visiting British caver Tony Waltham got a first hand look at CRF surveying techniques Work under Mammoth Cave Ridge centered on on a trip to remap far western Gravel the Bransford/ Mammoth River levels of the Avenue. Work on the Ingalls Way* I Ralph Kentucky Avenue map. Sue Hagan continued Stone Hall complex continued: another crew the resurvey of upstream Mammoth River worked at sorting out discrepancies in the (Hickel's Trickle>. Jim Kaufmann did some Union Shafts/ Eyeless Fish Trail area off tidy-up work along the Bransford Avenue Pohl Avenue. main line. Tom Cradick's crew continued mapping a long link in the intricate * [Ingalls Way has generally been known as Bransford to Becky's Alley network. Tom "Engle Way". Recent histoncal research notes "The passage ••• had a lot of small conclusively showed that "Ingalls" is correct.] detail that livened up the sketch. The old survey simply did not do Justice to this ***** passage in terms of sketch." - nor in terms of closure. FEBRUARY, 1988 PAGE 5 Elsewhere, Fish Brooks resketched the north significant fact since the Weller Entrance to end of Fox Avenue. and Geor-9e De1ke filled Rappel is currently closed. in some omissions from the Morrison Avenue · surveY. The 200ft of sandy crawl beyond the ***** end of Morrison's tour had never been mapped -it crossed back over Morrison Thansgiving Expedition. November 26-29 Avenue before ending in sand fill. At the Leader, Phil DiBlasi: manager, Buzz Grover junction with Morrison's excavation, a soueeze through breakdown led to going cave, The expedition was attended by a mix of new ending for now at a flowstone constriction. . maps. Two parties went to Hawkins River in support of Bob Osborn's map. They cleaned up many loose ends and cutarounds, and found a passage wh ich continues as a low, GUADALUPES wet crawl. Under Mammoth Cave Ridge, Lynn Brucker led a crew to map 500ft of grim chert Columbus Day. October 10-12 crawl to finish the Bransford Avenue to Leader, Alan Williams Becky's Alley link. Scott House continued the Ma in Cave tourist trail resurvey, from Twelve people attended the Columbus Day MaYme 's Stoop to St. Catherine City. This Expedition. They spent 182 hours caving, will form the backbone of a new Main Cave and mapped over 2000ft, most of it new 1:600 sheet. Tom Brucker led a trip to the survey. Cathedral Domes upper levels, where they redid some poor ties, mapped some new The primary objective was field checking and passage, found a good lead, and removed the filling in floor detail on the Carlsbad Cavern old ropes from the Domes ascent. TheY used quadrangles. There were two trips into New the soundest rope to exit via Florence Section for surveying and field checking in Williams' Dome. Scott House went to Fox the upper F-fissure and Black River areas. Avenue to map 700ft of walking-high Two trips to the Main Corridor filled in floor canyons, and to Kentucky Avenue to survey detail in the Devil's Spring area and defined the old tour route from the New York the south wall above Iceberg Rock. One Hippodrome to the Aero Bridge. party went to the New Mex leo Room to resketch a passage off the lower In Flint Ridge, two parties went to southwestern edge of the room. Another Northwest Passage and did a 1500ft long party journeyed to the lower half of the leap-frog survey for Fish Brooks' map. Guadalupe Room to define detail on the Another party, led by Joseph Kaffl, massive, tilted breakdown slab which makes resurveyed a trunk fragment off the Hosken up the floor. Drain. Eric Compas went to White Way to do tidy-up survey for the Mather/ Turner map. Elsewhere, a party spent seven hours There is a lot of delicate gypsum in the area surveying over 800ft in a new backcountry and extreme caution is advised. Tim cave, Cueva de Leon. Schafstall went to Pohl Avenue to resurvey from the Gallery Turnoff to Ruth's Room. In ***** the same general area, Paul Cannaley went to Ralph Stone Hall to continue his efforts 1987 was a good year for attendance in the to document the complex of pits and canyons. Guadalupe area. Including the Field Camp, No survey was accomplished, but a greater there were 10 expeditions with 177 visits. understanding of the area was obtained. The March expedition had the highest participation, with 28 attending; October Ron Wilson led into Upper Salts to look for was the lowest, with only seven. Seven JVs more Indian drawings, following a hypothesis

H.;,.lloweeo. Oetot~er 30-31 Leader, Peter Basted.

Due to various problems, only three people showed up for this expeditlOn out of the twelve who originally signed up. On Friday, October 30, Ann and Peter Basted and Glen Malliet hiked in under sunny skies and began the survey of Cedar Cave, which was recently dug open after being silted shut for many Years [see November Newsletter]. We netted 320 feet in 42 stations, stopping where the cave finally opens up into larger passage with many leads. A strong breeze was noted 1n the crawlwaYs. We reached a depth of about 180 feet and were 2000' horizontallY from Lilburn Cave.

On Saturday we donned our wetsuits to visit the Enchanted River

CRF CHINA EXPEDITION /88

The China Expedition plans to arrive in Guangzhou on February 29, will fy to Guilin March 7 , and returns home March 21. The National Geographic Society

The Lechugullla Cave, NM expedition of almost invisible gypsum threads hang 15ft October 3-12, attended by 45 cavers, made from the ceiling. From here, ascending discoveries even more superlative than boneyard popped into a v-junction with the those in August. The surveyed length was most imposing corridor yet found. again more than doubled. to 37 ,300ft, and depth ex tended to 1207ft, third deepest in The south fork ascended for several hundred the U.S. The staight-line extent is now feet. It included three rooms more than about 5700ft, longer than the corresponding 100ft wide, and ended at a climb which 5000ft of Carlsbad Cavern. No major area remains to be done. The main fork persisted was finished, and more leads remained at the WSW as an enormous conduit 50-150ft wide, end than at the start. 40-50ft high and more than 3000ft long, undulating over breakdown between the -920 Wooden Lettuce passage was mapped to the and -1000ft levels. Part of this was named highest point in the cave, 26ft above the Winterlands for its glittering snowy gypsum, entrance. Other modest finds were made in locally beset with miniature solution spires, the upper and middle levels, but the drip pits, selenite crystal sprays, and impressive discoveries were made in the gypsum stalagmites up to 6ft high. For lower levels, where t1-10 arms extend ENE hundreds of feet along the lower segments, and WSW, paralleling the reef front along a the hall is floored with deep calcite-raft zone of heavily brecciated limestone. residues and lined with cloudlike Apricot Pit, whose potential was unclear in mammilaries. 11 Small 11 side leads up to 20ft August, led east to several thousand feet of high by 10ft wide have been left unpushed. large-scale maze, much of which lies below -1040ft. This is bounded on the north by This extraordinary borehole ends in a Nirvana, a large, irregular gallery with the breakdown mountain found, in the cave's most abundant decoration, including expedition's last hours, to climb 200ft into splendid white dripstone often set among the largest room so far, estimated at 400ft blood-red flowstone and pools. Here lies wide. This barren and austere chamber the deepest point, -1181ft, in a lower seems to have large unexplored exits. Its alcove. discovery was a fitting ending for an expedition of exceptional challenge, in which South of Nirvana lies the Great Beyond, a ever more remarkable revelations burst forth breakdown room 200ft wide by 400ft long, in bewildering profusion. and a low-level maze floored with ancient calcite rafts and walled bY bizarrly pitted, The longest mapping trips had cavers in the black-stained limestone with fields of cave for 23-28 hours, and progress to potholes and rillenkarren. apparentlY etched remoter parts may soon require camping. by intense condensation corrosion when There remain, however, many good leads in warm water stood at the bottom of the cave. more accessible sections. The project is South of the maze are other rooms up to independent, but fit and vertically qualified 100ft high, incompletely explored. JVs are welcome to participate, subject to space limitations; contact Rick Bridges The western branch yielded revelations even (303-444-1962 or 449-3668>. The next more impressive. Above the Fortress of expedition is scheduled for March 26 to April Chaos (the breakdown room found in August) 4; tentative dates for the following was Pellucidar, 120ft wide by 300ft long. expedition are May 21 to May 31. Here were soda straws 10-12ft long and two pools containing unique subaqueous The National Park Service is considering helictites. Diamond Chamber, a low room off seeking Congressional establishment of an one end, was floored with shining 11 Underground Wilderness11 designation under solution-etched spar crystals, the residue of which to manage the cave. This could sparry bedrock dissolution. Beyond Fortress re-open consideration of the concept for the of Chaos, a low-level maze lined with Mammoth system and other Federal caves. mammilary crust was pushed WSW to the White Christmas Tree Room, where Donald Davis calcite-raft cones surround a lake near which FEBRUARY, 1988 PAGE 9 BOOK NOTES

MAMMOTH CAVE S~L TPETRE WORKS processes as th~v seem to have applied to the Guadalupe limestone reef, and especially The cover illustration of to the formation of Carlsbad Cavern. the saltpetre operation in Mammoth Cave's Rotunda The book examines all the evidence from was produced bY the NPS within and without the caves in meticulous ., . ~ · Historic American detailbdescribes the analyses done then Engineering Record. The assem _les the p1eces mto a plausibie function of HAE R is to record and geological histor'l:'. The highlY logical preserve the industrial and arrange~ent hasits problems - one is asked engineering heritage of the United to examme each Isolated piece of the jigsaw States. A team from HAER, assisted bY CRF before any synthesis is attempted. There mappers. did a detailed survey and inventory ?re enough tid-bits, though, to keep the of the Mammoth Cave saltpetre works in the mterest ~erkH~g, and the pace picks up when summer of 1986. The works are said to be the the full sigmflcance of the peculiar cave most complete example known of equipment forms and deposits starts to become used in the processing of cave saltpetre. apparent. The team measured each component of the Analytical techniques have come a long way processing works at the Rotunda and Booth's since Bretz , colorful overview of Carlsbad Cavern. There ppd from Cave Books. are still some big gaps in the storY, but the $5.75 book promises to be the definitive· work on Mick Sutton Guadalupe speleology for some time to come. Mick Sutton CARLSBAD EXPLAINED

[JeologC of Carlsb~d Cavern and other caves CAVE BOOKS- MORE ADDITIONS m the uadalufe ountains. New Mexico and ~bY Caro A. Alii. l'Jew Mexico Bureau Other recent additions to Cave Books are: of Mlnes , 1987. 152pp. Signed copies $16.95 *** On Rope bv Allen Padgett & Bruce Smith. PPd from Cave Books National Speleological Society. 1987. 341 pp. Theories of limestone cave genesis by Hardcover. $19.95 ppd [The new vertical carbonic acid corrosion never seemed to flt techniques bible J. very well the unusual form of Guadalupes caverns, with their large , irregular rooms, *** CRF 1986 Annual Report, Karen LindsleY bli.nd Pits. lack of vadose streams. and

Roger McClure has been involved with the down below lt look5 impossible, but once exploration and mapping of Mammoth Cave you've done it lt's not so bad. longer than any other active caver. He ls one of the few who predate the 1954 NSS I shot compass more than anything, and Collins Crystal Cave Expedition. He is on Roger Brucker did book. Our techniques the CRF Board of Directors servin~ as changed with experience. For example, one Treasurer and chair of the Publlcat10ns Committee. He is the primary organizer of day Roger fell asleep, but it wasn't for a the Endowment Fund. On January 3rd, in the couple of stations that we found this out. midst of a survey trip to Mammoth Cave's From then on, I expected the bookkeeper to Fox Avenue, we conducted the following interview. Although Roger was a bit call back the numbers. reticent about personal achievements, it The Korean War was going when 1 started soon became evident that his legacy to CRF college and everyone had to join the ROTC is great. Sue & Mick · for two years. Because I wanted to finish My first visit to Mammoth Cave was when college and because I didn't want to get I was a Boy Scout. Phil Smith and I were in drafted into the Army, 1 was in ROTC all the same troop. Later we were roommates in four years. After that, I signed up and college, and we got thinking about what it found I enjoyed fly lng so much I ended up would be like to do some caving. We read staying 30 years. I had Just gone in the Air some books at the library and got started Force when CRF was started. Red Watson with mapping some small caves for the Ohio wasn't around either, but because we weren't Geolog leal Survey. there tor the founding meeting, they elected We visited Mammoth Cave, hitchhiking us as the first members. After that, I came from Columbus, Ohio, to Cave City and back whenever I could. Sometimes I would sometimes walking from Cave CitY to the fly in and buzz the Austin house; someone Mammoth Cave hotel, 'We'd talk to some of would drive over to the airport and pick me the guides and I remember they loaned us up. lanterns so we could explore some of the I think we had a scientific interest from small caves nearby. About this time, we the beginning. We enJoyed caving, but when discovered the NSS, and we formed the we riccochetted through the cave, it was so Central Ohio Grotto. Roger Brucker was an intriguing we wanted to document it, not just airman in the Air Force and we recruited sport cave through it. The organization him. We first ran into Jim Dyer [manager of didn't start off with professional scientists, Crystal Cave J in Columbus when he was but we wanted to support their activities. looking for a Job. Jim was going to take Phil, The cartography efforts were one way of Roger .and myself to look at Floyd's Lost doing that. Passage, but he got the flu so he imposed.on For the last 15 years, I have lived close Blll Austin to take us in the cave. In 1954, enough to regularly participate. One of my we applied to partake in the NSS Expedition goals, and I feel I was reasonably at Crystal Cave, and they accepted us to haul successful, was to build up the Endowment supplies but, of course, we got to do some of Fund. It was started in 1974 with.a few the surveying. thousand dollars. In the last six years, we After the week-long expedition, the NSS have given away $24,000 for cave related. had no · more interest in the cave. Several of research, and we still have probably $60,000 us decided there was great potential and we ln the Fund. All the money has been raised wanted to keep on, so we managed to talk by CR F people - no big companies, grants, or Dr .Pohl and Bill Austin into letting us other sources - Just CR F people donating continue. There was an effort by Austin and because they care about the work being done. Pohl to enhance the value of the cave, Bill Mann gave a substantial amount to because the Park Service were interested in further the cartography program, and Red buying it. I went with Austin a couple of Watson has been another large contributor. times on the Unknown Entrance trips; they Various other members have been very had made a modification of the gate at generous. A lot of the older members aren't Unknown so they could get in without it caving any more, but their financial condition being obvious. Recently I helped resurvey ln life has improved and they want to stay that section from the inside. The climb isn't involved and support what's going on. as difficult as it looks; you see a small hole Cave Books really doesn't make us any that you somehow have to get to, and from money, but we do look for things that will FEBRUARY. 1988 PAGE 11 recover our investment. Everything has CHINA KARST CONFERENCE been marginally successful. .. tr1e market for cave books is small, so we hope to find The participants of the CRF China things that will Interest the general public expedition have been selected, but there is as well. Right now we are working on an alternative connection to the Chinese getting the Atlas of the Longest and karst. The International Association of Deepest Caves of the World translated from Hydrogeologists UAH) will hold their 21st French and into publication. We're also Congress in Guilin, Guanxi Province, on planning a book on cave photography. It's a October 10-15, 1988. Guilin is in the center big job getting a major publication ready. We of the fabulous tower karst of southern survive in the business because we do a lot China. of the work ourselves as volunteers. I haven't had a bad cave trip yet. It's a The theme of the meeting is "Karst little disturbing, though, to think of the Hydrogeology and Karst Environment deterioration that's occurred in the places Protection". The Congress will provide an we go to- the River, Old Grandad -when we opportunity to meet karst researchers from first went through these areas it was virgin around the world. Topics will include cave, but through the years it's regional groundwater analysis and deteriorated. Some of it can't be avoided, management, water resource evaluation, but some of it is carelessness. Where prediction and prevention of sinkhole FloYd's coffin is, there used to be a collapse, and the compilation of beautiful gypsum garden, but workmen hydrogeological maps in karst areas. destroYed it when they removed the old Simultaneous translation services will be lighting system. Even the tourist areas available. Registration for non-IAH have changed. Snowball Dining Room in the members is $230 before March 1 1988 and mid-50's really had white snowballs. $270 thereafter. Hotels rooms are $35-$45 I retired in the summer of 1986. MY two per night

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