Congratulations! This has been a long time coming and is a super accomplishment for all involved. Special kudos to Bill for keeping the effort alive and keeping it going! And without Kurt, and his continued efforts working with the owners we might not still be working in this cave.
We (TSA, Texas cavers) have a major project this spring which Kurt and Bill and others are organizing, and it will be an opportunity for some good work on the shaft and some good work on the property to maintain our good relations with the owners. It's exciting to find the potential for more going cave, and to think about the possibilities. Maybe we need to by a piece of land and do another shaft -- that would be an interesting project. Count me in! Linda -----Original Message----- From: speleoste...@tx.rr.com [mailto:speleoste...@tx.rr.com] Sent: Monday, December 03, 2007 7:10 AM To: Texascavers@texascavers.com Subject: [Texascavers] Breakthrough in Texas Longest Cave Texas cavers, The upstream HS sump of Honey Creek Cave was cracked over the weekend. Ace cave diver James Brown, now living in the Dallas area, did a cave dive of about 1,400 feet, exploring and laying 165 feet of new line beyond what John Schwayan explored and laid in 1989 and 1990. James emerged in air-filled steam passage beyond. He tied off his dive line and looked closely, but he did not have boots to wear so he could climb up out of the water. The air was good and he said he saw surface crayfish. It was a monumental effort, with Brown and a 15 person support team to carry his dive gear. The reason for so many people in the support team is the extreme challenge of reaching the HS sump, which requires six hours of travel through the cave using the shaft entrance to this 20 mile-long cave. Of the 16 cavers who headed to the sump, 11 made it there and all carried part of the load for some distance. There were eight loads, broken up into two tanks, four large Pelican cases, fins, beoyancy compensator, wetsuit and two masks. Those reaching the sump were: Jon Arendt ASS Branndon Bargo Austin James Brown D/FW Grotto Bobby DeVos D/FW Grotto Tom Florer Bexar Grotto Mark Gee D/FW Grotto Ted Lee San Antonio Vivan Loftin UTG Bill Steele D/FW Grotto Diana Tomchick D/FW Grotto Drew Whitmore ASS Those in support who carried gear some of the way: Pete Chomack D/FW Grotto Chris Cole Maverick Grotto Daniel Dase Maverick Grotto Edwin Lehr D/FW Grotto George Paul Richmann GHG We entered the cave at 11:00 Saturday morning, reaching the sump at approximately 5:00 p.m. Breaking down the gear and Brown dressing out took about two hours. His dive lasted two hours. Undressing and repacking took about an hour. We headed out at 10:00 p.m. James Brown was the first pulled up the shaft entrance at 2:00 a.m. The last three to exit the cave were Bobby DeVos, Bill Steele, and Diana Tomchick, who emerged at 4:00 a.m. after 17 hours underground. Will Harris, of the D/FW Grotto, led a dozen cavers to the Boneyard passage, entering the shaft entrance after the dive team left. Kurt Menking (Bexar Grotto) and his son Justin were in huge support by unlocking the ranch and entrance gates, bringing the ranch's tractor to the entrance, and supervising the cutting of Mexican juniper on the ranch Sunday morning. Kurt and Justin did the Grand Finale loop in the cave on Saturday, through the very low airspace which connects back to the main stream, in the surprisingly swift time of an hour and a half from the shaft entrance back to the same. A very special thanks goes out to Don Broussard and Don Morley, who volunteered to do tractor duty. Broussard slept Saturday night on the concrete pad at the base of the shaft tower in order to be awakened when the first cavers arrived to be pulled up. That began at 2:00 a.m., and Broussard and Morley were then busy for the next four hours. I have been heralding the trip to the upstream HS sump of Honey Creek as the "toughest caving trip" in the state of Texas. I meant with a share of the dive gear, that is. Vivian Loftin isn't so sure. Having done it, she thinks maybe a trip to the back of Airman's Cave is tougher. I'll have to do that again soon to see if I agree. Bill Steele Irving, Texas --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com
