Gory Hole
He yelled ‘off rope’ and it was my turn to descend to the first ledge. Just as I began to get to the first ledge, I accidentally bumped and rubbed my helmet against the wall. I looked down to see my light-source had emancipated itself from my helmet and was traveling down the free fall in the slowest slow-motion sequence I had ever watched something take such a fall. I cannot share the thoughts and words entering and leaving my mind as well as vocabulary… but I can say it sucked royally. Brian said to me, ‘I hope that wasn’t the light that belongs to IUCC.’ In my mind, I knew I was planning to buy my own light source eventually and now I am already down one that I never even got to own.
We then emerged from the pit, walked back to his car and got an old light source that I had to take extra care of because of its fragile state.
After the crap, we both descended to the bottom of the massive pit. It was amazing to say the least! We looked around the floor to search for the fallen light source, but we were sure it was destroyed beyond repair weather we found it or not. And we didn’t. Then we explored a passage in the pit, did some climbing, crawling and we became tired, hungry and ready to leave Gory.
Brian climbed up quite quickly and signaled for me to climb out. The climb out was pretty strenuous for me and just as I was nearing the top I looked at my rig to realize half of my waist harness had freed itself from my maillon rapide that was unscrewed. There was no explanation for this considering it was rigged well before going in the pit and I didn’t try to undo it while in there. The maillon rapide may not have been screwed tightly and worked itself open while I was crawling and climbing. In any event, I had thoughts and feelings much like I did earlier that day except they involved a gruesome death in a gory pit. I told myself inside that I can’t die: my birthday is tomorrow! I was shaking uncontrollably and really had try my best to keep it all together. Brian sent me down a carabiner to jimmy-rig my harness and it worked.
We exited the pit and rushed to Bedford to eat pizza at Mr. Gatti’s. The food was delicious considering we got there 15 minutes before they closed. We got back to Bloomington with just enough time to shower, change, and make it to the party with my girlfriend. The party was great, the bands made everyone want to groove all night long, and the post party lip sync/ karaoke/ dance jam was unforgettable. Every five minute interval after midnight I was wished a happy birthday by a different person. I thought to myself, what a day!
I got out of class today and I was excited. I was going to go caving today. I wanted to drop Gory Hole again. I’d printed the map out the night before and determined that I would definitely be checking out the sketchy rope so I could see the rest of the cave. I unloaded my excitement on Sara while I waited on Kyle to come home. Finally, Kyle showed up and we geared up, chatted with Sam, picked up and IUCC light and were off to Gory with a brief stop at JL Waters where Kyle bought a spare carabiner.
By Kyle Lapcyznski © 2004
The drive to Gory was uneventful though I don’t recall seeing the Kings or Kingsdale Ridge sign the road before Gory. The parking area was slimed so I parked right next to the road. Kyle and I got our shit together and hiked the slushy, sludgy mud to the pit.
The wind was blowing heavily through the trees. It had definitely cooled off. Kyle heard the distinct sound of water falling down the pit so we decided to rig the bolts. I put on my stuff and rigged the rope. I was have made myself belief that I was actually able to fling the rope all the way around the tree and catch it but after reflection I think I just got it almost all the way around the tree and didn’t catch it.
I was a little rope pad happy today since I now have 5 rope pads (my mom finally made the rest of them) I unnecessarily padded the entrance ledge. I rappelled down with my rope bag and artillery case hanging below me. I’ve wanted to rappel with the rope feeding out of the rope bag. I stowed the artillery case and crossed the crevice over to the bolts. I tied an excellent double figure eight, aka rabbit ears, to share the load on the bolts and clipped my spare carabiners onto the two loops. I went to clip the biners into the bolts and found my carabiners were too large to fit through the bolts. I was dismayed. I wasn’t sure if I had carabiners that would fit. I climbed back over the crevice and back out to my bat pack. I pulled out the Petzl death biner (known for its ability to not auto lock but certainly safe if you remember that it never auto locks J) and a spare omallion rapide. I rappelled back down and yelled off rope for Kyle to come down. I rigged the bolts wondering if there’d be enough rope to bottom the pit. By now Kyle was making his way down. He had almost made it to the ledge when his headlamp fell off his helmet and down the pit. He now needed a headlamp so we both ascended back out of the pit and I went back to the car to get a spare headlamp.
Back in the pit, I rappelled down the second drop. The rope was swinging around a little too much as I rappelled down. I expected that it would be a little bit off the bottom and was correct. It was about 15 – 20 feet off the bottom. I sat the artillery case down on a ledge and climbed back up and re-rigged the bolts with two alpine butterflies and went back down. The rope just reached the bottom.
I tried to take some pictures while Kyle was coming down but only one of the flashes was working. Later, neither flash worked so I gave up on taking pictures. Kyle and I looked around for the dropped light but didn’t find it.
The whole room was windy and misty, we walked through a light drizzle into the adjacent dome room. We climbed up the muddy slope and I ascended up the rope to check out the rest of the cave. It looks like somebody has replaced the rope recently because it was pretty new. I got to the top and looked down a ledge overlooking the room as Kyle got on rope. Soon he climbed up and I squeezed around the rigged formation and crawled down the decorated crawlway. There were a few squeezes but it wasn’t real bad. It was kinda pretty. Soon enough I had lost Kyle and entered the breakdown room. I looked around the room for leads but didn’t push anything real hard because I was feeling the effects of the virus I still hadn’t beaten. I got done checking leads and began to wonder what had become of Kyle. He was at a short squeeze under a boulder and asked to approach it headfirst or feet first. Soon he had joined me and he was fairly impressed with the breakdown room. Now that our gear was slimed we went back to the main room and I climbed up. I was definitely more tired than I should have been. When I got to the top I removed my camera and waited for Kyle to come up to take some pictures. I took many pictures as he neared the top.
About 6 feet from the ledge he was posing for a picture when the right side of his harness somehow came undone from his omallione rapide. I’m not sure how this happened since I had checked his gear before we came into the pit originally and he hadn’t removed it since then. Somehow his omallion rapide link must have come unscrewed while we caved or while he climbed. He was kinda panicked. I didn’t think it was a good situation but didn’t think he was going to die. He still had a chest harness on and he still had his legs attached to the harness. I should have probably said something reassuring. I did pass him down a carabiner to attach his harness to the rapide link which he eventually connected to the carabiner attached to his rack. He got up and I was surprised that after he calmed down he said that Gory was an awesome pit and we needed to come back and do it again. Kyle headed topside and I de-rigged. I coiled the remainder of the rope and sat it on the ledge. As I ascended up I was dismayed when the rope started feeding down the pit from the coil. It only went down about 20 feet. I came up and it was cold, dark, and the wind was blowing strong. Kyle pulled while I stuffed and after we got our stuff together we walked back to the car. We stopped in Bedford for some Mr. Gatti’s pizza.
By Brian Killingbeck © 2004
By Brian Killingbeck © 2004
