It was raining when I met Sean at Taco Bell. We knew it was supposed to rain but I’d hoped it wouldn’t. We made our way to Freeman pit and soon Sean was rigging his rope and I was rigging my rope. Our objective was to photograph the pit so I’d need to be on a separate rope so shoot Sean rappelling down. After everything was rigged and I had two dry boxes and a cave pack hanging from my harness, I got on rope and rappelled about 8 feet down and set up to take pictures of Sean rappelling over the lip into the pit.
I replaced my camera and flash in the dry box and we continued down to about 40’ above the pit floor and set up for a few more pictures looking down the pit as Sean rappelled down. We had both quickly noticed the large green tarp at the bottom of the pit. I took one more picture looking down of Sean after he’d touched down on the pit floor and I joined him at the bottom. Sean walked over to check out the dig and I followed. Their tarp arrangement really didn’t make sense to us. Possibly they were trying to focus the water onto their dig. Anyway, we weren’t very impressed with the dig. It didn’t really seem like they’d done very much and they weren’t digging in the wrong spot. The only reason we could think of to dig on the bottom of Freeman would be to lower the pit to the depth of 100 feet.
Anyway, I set up on the other end of the pit to take a picture looking out. I’d wanted to take some pictures looking up on the rappel down but the rain prevented me from aiming my camera up because water drops kept spotting the lens. Sean climbed back up the rope about 25 feet and posed there while I snapped a few shots first using a bulb and then using two slaved Vivitar 285 strobes. Sean was glad when I told him he could come back down.
When he got back down I asked him if he’d ever climbed up to the overlook window in the side of the pit. He hadn’t so I sent a slaved strobe up with him. Once he was in position, it took me a few shots but I finally figured out that I wanted to place the strobe facing up parallel to the pit wall to bring out the texture of the wall. I took quite a few shots here to make sure I got it right and then Sean climbed back down.
After that we got on rope and started to climb out. Sean saw a side lead about midway up the pit and swung over to check it out. While he was doing that I got my camera out and photographed him standing within the alcove. I also took a couple pictures looking down the pit as he hung there on rope. One of them caught my eye because the air below him looked foggy. I later figured out that this effect was created by having the flash very close to the edge of the frame. I believe I actually had to crop the flash out of the picture later. After that we climbed out of the pit. I snapped a few shots of the pit entrance as Sean coiled his rope. Sean had to head home to study but I wasn’t done caving yet.
Freeman Pit
Sean descends over the lip into Freeman Pit.
Looking out Freeman Pit, lit by outside light.
Freeman Pit
Sean descends Freeman Pit.
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Freeman Pit
Sean descends Freeman Pit.
Sean pauses just below the entrance of Freeman Pit.
Freeman Pit
Sean descending.
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Freeman Pit
Sean descending.
Sean continues his descent midway down Freeman Pit.
Freeman Pit
I sure do have a lot of stuff hanging from me.
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Freeman Pit
Sean descending.
Looking down towards the bottom of the pit.
Freeman Pit
Somebody has been digging at the bottom of the pit. How strange.
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Freeman Pit
Sean begins to ascend the pit.
I showed Sean a crevice that you could climb into and emerge through a window in the wall of the pit.
Freeman Pit
Another angle.
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Freeman Pit
Sean squeezes back out of the slot.
Sean checks out an alcove in the pit wall as he ascends out.
Freeman Pit
Sean looks down.
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Freeman Pit
Sean poses on a narrow ledge.
Another pose.
Freeman Pit
Sean pulls his rope out of the pit.
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Freeman Pit
Sean coils his rope next to the pit entrance.