RE: [Texascavers] Epic at Honey Creek Cave
Thanks for the report, Bill! Sounds as if y'all had an exciting and productive weekend and glad everyone made it out OK safely. If it's OK with you and if anyone has any photos they'd like to submit, I would like to run this in the TC. Thanks! Mark From: speleoste...@tx.rr.com [mailto:speleoste...@tx.rr.com] Sent: Tue 1/27/2009 7:58 AM To: Texascavers@texascavers.com Subject: [Texascavers] Epic at Honey Creek Cave Last weekend an epic trip was taken into Texas' longest cave, Honey Creek Cave. The objectives were 1) to do a tank haul in support of two cave divers, James Brown and Jean Creature Kreja, to dive the 1,435 foot-long HS upstream sump, which is nearly six hours of travel from the shaft entrance, and 2) to take a cave radio borrowed from Brian Pease of Vermont to the passage on the far side of the sump and get a precise location above it on the surface.
Re: [Texascavers] Epic at Honey Creek Cave
Maybe Puppy will submit his photo :) On 1/27/09, mark.al...@l-3com.com mark.al...@l-3com.com wrote: Thanks for the report, Bill! Sounds as if y'all had an exciting and productive weekend and glad everyone made it out OK safely. If it's OK with you and if anyone has any photos they'd like to submit, I would like to run this in the TC. Thanks! Mark -- *From:* speleoste...@tx.rr.com [mailto:speleoste...@tx.rr.com] *Sent:* Tue 1/27/2009 7:58 AM *To:* Texascavers@texascavers.com *Subject:* [Texascavers] Epic at Honey Creek Cave Last weekend an epic trip was taken into Texas' longest cave, Honey Creek Cave. The objectives were 1) to do a tank haul in support of two cave divers, James Brown and Jean Creature Kreja, to dive the 1,435 foot-long HS upstream sump, which is nearly six hours of travel from the shaft entrance, and 2) to take a cave radio borrowed from Brian Pease of Vermont to the passage on the far side of the sump and get a precise location above it on the surface.
RE: [Texascavers] Epic at Honey Creek Cave
I was hoping to use it on the cover! 8^) Mark From: Ellie Thoene [mailto:ellie.tho...@gmail.com] Sent: Tue 1/27/2009 8:56 AM To: Alman, Mark @ IRP Cc: speleoste...@tx.rr.com; Texascavers@texascavers.com Subject: Re: [Texascavers] Epic at Honey Creek Cave Maybe Puppy will submit his photo :) On 1/27/09, mark.al...@l-3com.com mark.al...@l-3com.com wrote: Thanks for the report, Bill! Sounds as if y'all had an exciting and productive weekend and glad everyone made it out OK safely. If it's OK with you and if anyone has any photos they'd like to submit, I would like to run this in the TC. Thanks! Mark From: speleoste...@tx.rr.com [mailto:speleoste...@tx.rr.com] Sent: Tue 1/27/2009 7:58 AM To: Texascavers@texascavers.com Subject: [Texascavers] Epic at Honey Creek Cave Last weekend an epic trip was taken into Texas' longest cave, Honey Creek Cave. The objectives were 1) to do a tank haul in support of two cave divers, James Brown and Jean Creature Kreja, to dive the 1,435 foot-long HS upstream sump, which is nearly six hours of travel from the shaft entrance, and 2) to take a cave radio borrowed from Brian Pease of Vermont to the passage on the far side of the sump and get a precise location above it on the surface.
Re: [Texascavers] Epic at Honey Creek Cave
Hey Bill, Nice write up. Thanks tons for sending that out to the masses. I would think there needs to be a full accident analysis too, for posterity and learning purposes. One thing I realized as I read it is that you may not know the full story of Joe Datri and John Kerr's trip, or how I ended up on the haul team after all. Joe and John entered with a fellow named Jason. I came in almost 2 hours later with the photo crew planning on a short photo trip to the Grand Finale. I ran into Joe, John, and Jason near the Grand Finale. They had been to the end, but still didn't realize they had taken the wrong passage from the shaft. By that point I had my own wet suit, so I was pleased to have a second chance at getting on the haul team. So I took the extra load Joe had been hauling (it was really too much for him with his video equipment too) and proceeded to show them the way. We were in the boneyard area just before the long crawl starts when Jason realized he was in over his head. He asked you mean it gets worse than this?. We debated what to do for some time. Joe and John really wanted me to stay with them since I'd done the trip before, and they had been lost once already. At this point, having gone way out of their way, I don't think Joe was really up for taking my load back. Jason assured us repeatedly that he felt fine about the trip out alone. We did remember you saying no one goes out alone, but we decided that under the circumstances (others downstream, goals to accomplish, his confindence level) it would be OK. As it turned out, Jason was not even carrying any dive gear. I had heard him say on the surface that he intened to go and just see how far he'd get, but didn't know if he'd make it all the way. Before leaving him we reviewed all the landmarks repeatedly to be sure he knew what to look for. Luckily, he did not overshoot the entrance and made it out fine on his own. Just so you know the full story... Cheers, Viv
Re: [Texascavers] Epic at Honey Creek Cave
sorry about the reply all. I meant to send that last one just to Bill
Re: [Texascavers] Epic at Honey Creek Cave
On Jan 27, 2009, at 7:58 AM, speleoste...@tx.rr.com wrote: Members of five Texas grottos participated in the tank haul: Barry Adelman UTG Braddon Bargo Diana Tomchick DFW Alex Wendeborn ASS Supporting on the surface were: Jerry Atkinson Don Broussard Diana Tomchick Drew Wendeborn Cephas Wozencraft Wow, not only did Ninja James Brown pass 21 people on the way out of Honey Creek, I magically became a Ninja caver on this trip by both participating in the tank haul and helping lower and haul people out of the cave! Maybe those late-night cloning experiments in the lab have finally paid off, and I really did clone myself...no, this is one tank haul trip I missed, due to lower back problems. But I plan to be on the next one, as they are may favorite trips into Honey Creek. Diana P.S. I really feel as though I am responsible for what happened with Puppy. I should have known enough to have assigned one surface support person to check people off the list as they came out of the cave. The biggest problem was that as they were being hauled up the shaft, they kept yelling about how cold they were, so we worked as hard and as fast as we could to haul them out, unclip their gear and shove the cable back down the shaft. Once people unclipped themselves they ran (and I literally mean, RAN) to the campfire, and many abandoned their packs where we unclipped them from the cable (this prompted one person to ask the next morning, Did you split up their abandoned gear?). Several times I had to go over to the fire and add more wood--they were so oblivious they didn't even notice that the fire was starting to burn down. In all the hustle to get everyone out of the cave and get them warmed up as quickly as possible, we lost count of the people as they came up the shaft. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Diana R. Tomchick Associate Professor University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center Department of Biochemistry 5323 Harry Hines Blvd. Rm. ND10.214B Dallas, TX 75390-8816, U.S.A. Email: diana.tomch...@utsouthwestern.edu 214-645-6383 (phone) 214-645-6353 (fax) - Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com
Re: [Texascavers] Epic at Honey Creek Cave
Diana, Your description does sound right on...we all ran and it was very chaotic, disorganized and dog-eat-dog. You really are magical. On 1/27/09, Diana Tomchick diana.tomch...@utsouthwestern.edu wrote: On Jan 27, 2009, at 7:58 AM, speleoste...@tx.rr.com wrote: Members of five Texas grottos participated in the tank haul: Barry Adelman UTG Braddon Bargo Diana Tomchick DFW Alex Wendeborn ASS Supporting on the surface were: Jerry Atkinson Don Broussard Diana Tomchick Drew Wendeborn Cephas Wozencraft Wow, not only did Ninja James Brown pass 21 people on the way out of Honey Creek, I magically became a Ninja caver on this trip by both participating in the tank haul and helping lower and haul people out of the cave! Maybe those late-night cloning experiments in the lab have finally paid off, and I really did clone myself...no, this is one tank haul trip I missed, due to lower back problems. But I plan to be on the next one, as they are may favorite trips into Honey Creek. Diana P.S. I really feel as though I am responsible for what happened with Puppy. I should have known enough to have assigned one surface support person to check people off the list as they came out of the cave. The biggest problem was that as they were being hauled up the shaft, they kept yelling about how cold they were, so we worked as hard and as fast as we could to haul them out, unclip their gear and shove the cable back down the shaft. Once people unclipped themselves they ran (and I literally mean, RAN) to the campfire, and many abandoned their packs where we unclipped them from the cable (this prompted one person to ask the next morning, Did you split up their abandoned gear?). Several times I had to go over to the fire and add more wood--they were so oblivious they didn't even notice that the fire was starting to burn down. In all the hustle to get everyone out of the cave and get them warmed up as quickly as possible, we lost count of the people as they came up the shaft. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Diana R. Tomchick Associate Professor University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center Department of Biochemistry 5323 Harry Hines Blvd. Rm. ND10.214B Dallas, TX 75390-8816, U.S.A. Email: diana.tomch...@utsouthwestern.edu 214-645-6383 (phone) 214-645-6353 (fax) - Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com
