texascavers Digest 2 Feb 2012 17:30:41 -0000 Issue 1486
Topics (messages 19448 through 19456):
correction to link to Mexican maps
19448 by: Mixon Bill
Honey Creek-SURVEY Trip-Feb 11th
19449 by: ellie watson
Calling cave biologists
19450 by: Matt Zaldivar
19452 by: Mark Minton
19454 by: Fritz Holt
Petzl Ecrin Roc Helmet Discontinued ?!
19451 by: R D Milhollin
scorpions
19453 by: Jim Kennedy
Hiding in a cave
19455 by: Aimee Beveridge
January CBSP Project report
19456 by: Jim Kennedy
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--- Begin Message ---
Sorry. The correct link for the 1:50000 Mexican geo maps is
http://portaljsp.sgm.gob.mx/cartas_impresas/productos/cartas/cartas50/geologia50/numcarta50.html
The link to similar maps at 1:250000 for the whole country is
http://portaljsp.sgm.gob.mx/cartas_impresas/productos/cartas/cartas250/geologia/numcarta250.html
--Mixon
----------------------------------------
Never play leapfrog with a unicorn.
----------------------------------------
You may "reply" to the address this message
came from, but for long-term use, save:
Personal: bmi...@alumni.uchicago.edu
AMCS: edi...@amcs-pubs.org or sa...@amcs-pubs.org
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
I will be taking a survey team to some of the hundreds of leads in Honey
Creek Cave on February 11th. Survey will last a max of 24 hours. I am also
willing to coordinate other teams who want to survey.
Please contact me off-list if you are interested.
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
Can y'all help this anachnologists?
Thanks
Matt
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Airrick Lee <gambit_of_a...@yahoo.com>
To: manto...@yahoo.com
Sent: Wednesday, February 1, 2012 9:01 PM
Subject: Caves.
Hello sir,
My name is Airrick. I study arachnology more particularly scorpions. Im doing
research an documentary on scorpions of Texas. In austin area there is a
scorpion called psuedouroctonus reddelli, a inhabitant of caves which you may
have encountered before. Duringmy research I was hoping to show locations of
these scorpion's habitat. However since I know little to nothing about caving,
I do not plan on entering into any caves., for obvious safty concerns. However
this species will often travel out of caves to hunt during winter conditions.
This is why I have contacted you. I was hoping to get information on location
of caves so I may get some pictures. I have read an found out that caves
locationa are almost a trade secret amongst grottos. Due to this I wouldnt want
to invade on secret spots. Is there any way you could help me though? I read
there are three public caves in austin, would it be possible to find those?
Thank you for any help,
Airrick.
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
I hope this guy's research methods are better than his grammar...
Mark
At 12:06 AM 2/2/2012, Matt Zaldivar wrote:
Can y'all help this anachnologists?
Thanks
Matt
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Airrick Lee <gambit_of_a...@yahoo.com>
To: manto...@yahoo.com
Sent: Wednesday, February 1, 2012 9:01 PM
Subject: Caves.
Hello sir,
My name is Airrick. I study arachnology more particularly scorpions.
Im doing research an documentary on scorpions of Texas. In austin
area there is a scorpion called psuedouroctonus reddelli, a
inhabitant of caves which you may have encountered before. Duringmy
research I was hoping to show locations of these scorpion's habitat.
However since I know little to nothing about caving, I do not plan
on entering into any caves., for obvious safty concerns. However
this species will often travel out of caves to hunt during winter
conditions. This is why I have contacted you. I was hoping to get
information on location of caves so I may get some pictures. I have
read an found out that caves locationa are almost a trade secret
amongst grottos. Due to this I wouldnt want to invade on secret
spots. Is there any way you could help me though? I read there are
three public caves in austin, would it be possible to find those?
Thank you for any help,
Airrick.
Please reply to mmin...@caver.net
Permanent email address is mmin...@illinoisalumni.org
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
That remark made me laugh out loud. Typical of Mark and well said. I assume the
fellow was not born in the US but got here as fast as he could, or he went to
the same school I did. :)
Fritz
-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Minton [mailto:mmin...@caver.net]
Sent: Thursday, February 02, 2012 8:44 AM
To: texascavers@texascavers.com
Subject: Re: [Texascavers] Calling cave biologists
I hope this guy's research methods are better than his grammar...
Mark
At 12:06 AM 2/2/2012, Matt Zaldivar wrote:
>Can y'all help this anachnologists?
>
>Thanks
>Matt
>
>----- Forwarded Message -----
>From: Airrick Lee <gambit_of_a...@yahoo.com>
>To: manto...@yahoo.com
>Sent: Wednesday, February 1, 2012 9:01 PM
>Subject: Caves.
>
>Hello sir,
>My name is Airrick. I study arachnology more particularly scorpions.
>Im doing research an documentary on scorpions of Texas. In austin
>area there is a scorpion called psuedouroctonus reddelli, a
>inhabitant of caves which you may have encountered before. Duringmy
>research I was hoping to show locations of these scorpion's habitat.
>However since I know little to nothing about caving, I do not plan
>on entering into any caves., for obvious safty concerns. However
>this species will often travel out of caves to hunt during winter
>conditions. This is why I have contacted you. I was hoping to get
>information on location of caves so I may get some pictures. I have
>read an found out that caves locationa are almost a trade secret
>amongst grottos. Due to this I wouldnt want to invade on secret
>spots. Is there any way you could help me though? I read there are
>three public caves in austin, would it be possible to find those?
>
>Thank you for any help,
>Airrick.
Please reply to mmin...@caver.net
Permanent email address is mmin...@illinoisalumni.org
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--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
>From VA List:
according to Karst Sports, the beloved-by-cavers Petzl Ecrin Roc helmet has
been
discontinued.
http://www.karstsports.com/10301.html
"END OF SERIES. The manufacturer has stopped making this item and once
inventory is depleted it will no longer be available."
If you're a fan of this helmet, get a spare while you can.
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
Airrick,
You really need to get in touch with James Reddell, THE premier cave
biologist in Texas. While there are many cavers who have seen scorpions
in and about caves, James is much more versed in the overall literature
about them, and also their behavior and localities. I have cc'ed him on
this reply so that you also have his contact information.
Jim Kennedy
Cave Resources Specialist
Bat Conservation International
NSS 26791 Fellow, Life Member
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Airrick Lee <gambit_of_a...@yahoo.com>
To: manto...@yahoo.com
Sent: Wednesday, February 1, 2012 9:01 PM
Subject: Caves.
Hello sir,
My name is Airrick. I study arachnology more particularly scorpions. I'm
doing research an documentary on scorpions of Texas. In Austin area
there is a scorpion called Pseudouroctonus reddelli, a inhabitant of
caves which you may have encountered before. During my research I was
hoping to show locations of these scorpion's habitat. However since I
know little to nothing about caving, I do not plan on entering into any
caves., for obvious safety concerns. However this species will often
travel out of caves to hunt during winter conditions. This is why I have
contacted you. I was hoping to get information on location of caves so I
may get some pictures. I have read an found out that caves locations are
almost a trade secret amongst grottos. Due to this I wouldn't want to
invade on secret spots. Is there any way you could help me though? I
read there are three public caves in Austin, would it be possible to
find those?
Thank you for any help,
Airrick.
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
Sad Cave story
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-16693432
Mexico strikes Sinaloa cartel as Cabrera Sarabria shot
Ten of the detained were paraded in front of journalists, another suspect is
in hospital.
Mexico's drugs war
* The Mexican security forces have arrested 11 alleged members of the
country's most powerful drug gang, the Sinaloa cartel.
They said those detained worked for Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, the most wanted
man in Mexico.
They were arrested during a helicopter raid on a ranch in the north-western
state of Durango on Friday.
During the raid, elite troops killed the regional leader of the gang, Luis
Alberto Cabrera Sarabia.
The security forces said his death was a severe blow to the Sinaloa cartel's
operations in Durango and Chihuahua.
Mr Cabrera Sarabia is accused of having controlled much of the drug trafficking
in the two northern states.
Defence spokesman Gen Ricardo Trevilla Trejo said the security forces located
the ranch where Mr Cabrera Sarabia was staying last week.
A special operations team moved in on Friday and were fired on, Gen Trevilla
Trejo said.
He said that Mr Cabrera Sarabia managed to escape along with his bodyguard,
hiding in a cave in a mountainous area near the ranch.
'Family business'
Mr Cabrera Sarabia was killed in a firefight as the special operations team
moved in on the cave, the general said.
Three members of the security forces were injured in the operation.
At the ranch, soldiers found more than a dozen long-range weapons and more than
4,000 rounds of ammunition, as well as armoured cars and communication
equipment.
Gen Trevilla Trejo said Mr Cabrera Sarabia had been personally chosen to head
the Sinaloa cartel's operations in the region by its leader Joaquin "Shorty"
Guzman.
He was appointed only last month, after the arrest of the previous regional
leader, Luis Alberto Cabrera Sarabia's brother, Felipe.
The Sinaloa cartel controls much of the flow of cocaine, marijuana and
methamphetamines into the United States via air, land and sea, and is believed
to have links in as many as 50 countries.
Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman was jailed in 1993 but escaped his maximum-security
prison in a laundry basket eight years later, embarrassing and eluding the
authorities ever since.
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
Sorry for the lateness of this report. It has been a busy month for me!
-- Jim
Project date: 13–15 January 2012
Reported by: Jim Kennedy
Report date: 1 February 2012
Person-hours: 302 hours (200 work, 102 travel)
Personnel: (21 folks) Yazmin Avila, Emily Booth, Jerome Cap , Andy Edwards,
Ryan Fabich, Galen Falgout, Mark Gee, Lee Jay Graves, Devra Heyer, Terry
Holsinger, Jim Kennedy, Maya Liu, Karen Masters, Ryan Monjaras, Kris Peña,
William Quast, Scott Serur, Bryce Smith, Keenan Smith, Matt Turner, Liang Wu
(+10 Boy Scouts and their leaders)
The beautiful weekend weather combined a good turnout for another successful
Project weekend. We continued working on small caves needing survey, cleaning
up the data set to weed out duplicate and non-karst points, and answering other
questions about the less-well-documented karst of Colorado Bend State Park.
Team 1 Lee Jay Graves, Karen Masters, Kris Peña, William Quast
Will and Kris took a break from Dog and Butterfly Cave (SAB197) this month
since sketcher Heather Túček was home sick. So Lee Jay and Karen eagerly
recruited the couple to help them finish up the profile and cross section of
Centennial Cave (SAB239). After a brief delay caused by a return to camp for a
forgotten headlamp, they finally rigged the cave’s entrance and began their
work. They investigated the few leads at the bottom of the cave, and began
digging at the most promising, the natural bridge and the crawlway behind the
flowstone. They also photodocumented this rather pretty cave. About 6
tri-colored bats (Perimyotis subflavus) were seen in the main room of the cave.
Upon exiting, Will discovered that the narrowest part of the entrance drop was
free-climbable.
Before heading back to camp, the group helped to ground-truth the correct
location for MM Hole (SAB191). Jim had 2 different waypoints for the cave in
his data set, but the northernmost was discovered to be off the Park, and the
southern was correct. A large rock was pulled out of the bottom of the cave,
and Will lowered Kris headfirst to look at the potential for continuation.
Only another meter of very tight passage was seen, making this a karst feature,
not a cave.
Team one’s hours: 24.0
Team 2 Yazmin Avila, Emily Booth, Ryan Fabich, Galen Falgout, Maya
Liu, Jim Kennedy, Matt Turner
Jim continued his quest to clean up questionable locations in the Park, and
teaching new cavers survey techniques, especially sketching. They headed out
towards Glory Hole (SAB220) and the Bill Larson Caves. Matt found the first
new karst feature, named Sounds Hollow karst feature (SAB816). It was a nice
looking entrance that plugged too quickly with sediment, but could probably be
dug open. They then moved on to one of the two locations Jim had for Bill
Larson Cave #2 (SAB594). Yaz and Galen got separated from the group on the way
there, and by the time they were finally found and reunited, Galen noticed that
Lee Jay’s Stenlight, which was on his helmet outside his pack, got knocked off
and lost somewhere on the ridge. Yaz and Galen went back to look for it, to no
avail. Meanwhile, Jim located a nice lead in the creekbed which was where Bill
Larson Cave #2 was supposed to be. It was obvious, however, that the cave was
never large enough for humans before we got there. Jim and Matt soon had it
opened to reveal a nice-looking fissure below stream level. Maya entered, and
Ryan sketched, and it was re-named Honeybee Cave. A temporary aluminum tag was
finally found with “594” written on it, but we have no idea who put that there,
or when. The new virgin cave mapped out to 5.89m long, all depth.
Jim and Galen and set out again to look for the lost headlamp and for Yaz, who
got separated again from Galen and lost a second time. Over an hour was spent
with no success, but Jim found Yaz as Galen returned to the rest of the group.
On his way back to the team, Yaz wandered off again, getting lost for a third
time. Jim decided to check out another questionable point on the way back to
the group, labeled only as “Fat Bob.” It turned out to be a nice-looking cave
with two entrances. He went to collect the rest of the group to survey this
cave, and they finally were able to make voice contact again with Yaz, and
holler her in to rejoin the rest.
Fat Bob Cave (SAB557) turned out to have 22 meters of passage and was about 8m
deep. It has some nice speleothems, at least 3 or 4 hibernating tri-colored
bats, and is used as a porcupine den at least part of the year. It also has
ticks. It was a great practice survey cave, so Yaz and Emily both sketched
while Jim coached and Matt and Galen set stations and got attacked by bugs.
The sun was starting to set and the temperatures were dropping, so the team
headed back to the truck parked along the Park road. But, as usual, several
more new karst features were discovered, within sight of a Park trail. They
were named Offtrail karst features (SAB818), and a little digging was
attempted. But the lateness of the day and general low spirits (from the lost
light) cut the efforts short. However, they did relocate and get improved
coordinates on two long-misplaced caves, Polish Pit (SAB233) and Crystal
Crevice (SAB029) and collected coordinates for Puny Pond Pit (SAB308), which we
apparently never had before. All three caves were near roads, and all were
visited in about 30 minutes.
Team two’s hours: 52.5
Team 3 Sandi Calhoun, Devra Heyer, Terry Holsinger, Sean Lewis, Liang
Wu
The group left in Terry’s truck and parked at the old Caver Camp. Following
the recently-corrected coordinates, they easily found the entrance to Scorpion
Pit (SAB289), a slim, triangular opening. Photos were taken as Sandi entered
the cave with survey gear. One very narrow spot, measured at 22cm, excluded
some of the group, and gave the others trouble getting through with their
vertical gear. Sean and Sandi ended up mapping the cave, getting 44.27m in 8
shots. The lowest level drain has a good going lead, and a brick hammer left
in the cave from the first exploration 20 years ago. Two tri-colored bats were
noted, as well as an unidentified frog, cave crickets, and lots of bones.
Afterwards, the group looked at nearby karst features that might possibly turn
into caves with some digging and hammer work. Finally, they stopped by Puberty
Pit (SAB244) on the way back to camp.
Team three’s hours: 35.0
Team 4 Jerome Cap, Andy Edwards, Scott Serur
Scott led the latecomers back to his latest obsession, Deep Dream Cave (SAB769)
to try again to gain entrance. They spent 4 hours breaking rocks and finally
were able to enter. About midway through this process they were joined by
members of Team 5 who were working nearby. They set a bolt, rigged the pit,
and sent Andy in first to check it out. It went down 6m to a 2.5m x 4m room,
leading to a second drop perpendicular to the first. This went down another 8m
to a natural bridge and a climbdown to a steeply sloping fissure for another
9m. Airflow was noted at the cobble-filled drain. Another 4m could be seen,
at which point the passage appeared to enlarge and make another left-hand turn.
Digging is necessary to continue. Scott and Andy, joined by Bryce (from Team
5) surveyed out of the cave, noting that it is about 17.5m deep so far.
Team four’s hours: 22.5
Team 5 Mark Gee, Ryan Monjaras, Bryce Smith, Keenan Smith
Mark’s goal was to head back to Blood and Guts Cave (SAB768) and map it. Upon
arrival, they removed a rock from the entrance with the aid of a big rock bar.
The three skinny guys entered while Mark began the survey. The cave
unfortunately only dropped 4m to a 4m long fissure plugged by breakdown at each
end. It ended up being 8.54m long in three survey shots. Afterwards the
dejected foursome joined Team 4 for their more interesting cave.
Team five’s hours: 28.0
Team 6 Yazmin Avila, Emily Booth, Galen Falgout, Maya Liu, Jim
Kennedy, Ryan Monjaras
On Sunday morning Jim led a group to Gorman Cave (SAB054) to admire the new bat
gate. It is holding up quite well, and all were suitably impressed. Matt,
Emily, and Maya then left, while the others climbed the bluff to clarify
another set of bad points. We had two sets of coordinates for Pat Geary Pit
(SAB 231). It turned out that one set was fairly accurate, and the cave is
less than 2m from one of the new hiking trails. This cave still needs to be
mapped.
Team six’s hours: 10.5
Team 7 Kris Peña, William Quast, Scott Serur, Bryce Smith, Keenan Smith
Taking advantage of the beautiful Sunday morning, this group headed back out to
Lively Pasture to have a go at Peps Pit (SAB315). Rattlesnakes had been
reported from almost every previous visit. Despite that threat, the pit was
rigged and William descended, finding bad air at the bottom. The “snakes”
turned out to be an old set of bedsprings dumped in the cave, that “rattled”
when hit by rocks tossed in to see if snakes were present! He stayed in long
enough to make a survey, finding the cave to be only 14.7m deep, with no good
leads. After Will emerged, Kris, then Bryce entered to check it out. Will is
already at work on drafting the map, his first.
Afterwards, the group wandered around Lively pasture, stopping at Coon Scat
Cave (SAB273), Hard Wedge Cave (SAB272), Spider Web Cave (SAB314), Good n’
Tight Cave (SAB283), Dog and Butterfly Cave (SAB197), Arizona Cave (SAB282),
Flying Log Sink (SAB740) and numerous other karst features, some of which may
even be new. As usual, there is a lot more to do out there.
Team seven’s hours: 27.5
--- End Message ---
