This unauthorized post is for cavers who have never seen Kiwi Sink, and to possibly encourage a new caver to come join the fun. Disclaimer: I do not have permission to re-post the 2 links shown below.
This is old news, but I am sitting here 196 miles away from the sinkhole, reminiscing about the previous digs. I think the last dig was the best one in the past 3 months. However, I had more fun digging when the weather was cool. I have seen the floor of the entrance pit drop about 5 feet overall in the past 3 months, and in places about 7 feet. The video below was uploaded by Karstwalker 18 months ago. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvJWZnocDaE Where the 8 foot ladder is shown, there is now a 20 foot ladder sitting at the top of the floor, and it is all downslope from there. ( Except there is a large mound of flowstone in the middle of the floor of the pit. ) Behind the ladder, is a passage that you can bellycrawl down into nearly 5 feet. Large rocks around that lead will be removed on the next dig, so that digging will become more efficient on that lead. It would be my guess that digging will progress in that lead when the fall digs start back up, and that surveyable passage will be found in that lead someday. It seems to be above the area on Dale's map ( see link below ) that reads, "breakdown choke with fresher air than most of cave." So maybe the diggers are just removing the ceiling of that digging lead from above ? In the floor around the ladder, are several extra-large size rocks, but you can see tiny voids underneath them going down at least a foot or more. It would seem like the next trip, those rocks will get hauled out. If so, the entrance drop will be 20 feet deep. A wild guess would be there is at least 16 more feet of rock and dirt at that spot ( plus or minus 10 feet ), meaning the pit could someday be a 26 to 46 foot rappel ( on the high side ). 180 degrees opposite the ladder, is the open passage going steeply down into the lower part of the known cave. I am looking forward to seeing a future waterfall video, if someone gets a chance to film one. How much rain do you need in order to get a video like that ? Is there any other way to determine which way the water really flows ? Like putting a garden hose down there ? David Locklear Ref: https://mail-attachment.googleusercontent.com/attachment/u/0/?ui=2&ik=71f4577f0b&view=att&th=13ec73bf1607ee6c&attid=0.1&disp=inline&safe=1&zw&saduie=AG9B_P_HZIuLtDLeBlc_tuBzgWzd&sadet=1373346917401&sads=fRXwGQ7YHp_NNGpZhsHsZsSgwrc
