Sean Lewis, Phyllis
Boneau, Doug Strait, Kelly Keener, Mark
Medlen, Jim Burke
Eventually, we started up the hill towards our first pit. We were going to the very farthest pit first and then visiting the others on our way back. 3/4 of the way there it started pouring rain and we were all soon drenched. Finally, we reached the large sink I had been expecting. The entrances were impressive. They weren't quite Neversink size but were nearly that big. The two main wells were separated by a natural bridge. Doug was still rigging the rope for the pit on the left so I went down the one on the right. It did reach the bottom but I was about 30 feet short of reaching the very bottom of the pit where I wanted to take pictures. I got off rope and Alan rappelled down with another rope which he tied in and descended to the very bottom. I followed. The two of us took many pictures as the others descended and ascended. The pit is quite impressive though rather difficult to photograph. I really needed a Willie Hunt strobe. I'd brought my full arsenal of photo gear along today. I had 4 Vivitar 285s and 2 Vivitar 2800s casting light up the pit but it still wasn't quite enough. Eventually, I ascended out and we routed back to our next pit.
The entrance of this pit lies below a large boulder. Soon I was rappelling the 130' drop. I would have really liked to have been able to place a flash somewhere on my way down but didn't see a good spot to do so. When I got to the bottom, I stayed there as the next two people cycled in and out taking pictures. Then I climbed back out and took a few pictures at the entrance and waited on the rest of the group to bounce the pit.
After that, we hiked further back towards the car and did our last pit. It was a 218 footer and an extremely nice drop with a large entrance. I went down first. About 40' from the bottom I swung over to place a couple flashes atop a flowstone pedestal. After snapping my dry boxes back closed I started back down but soon heard a loud bang. My dry box had uncarbineered itself and fallen 40' bouncing down the breakdown slope below. I rappelled the last 40' very quickly and narrowed the distance between me and my dry box in just a few strides. I picked it up and was glad to see no external damage. When I opened it I first grabbed the camera out. Nothing appeared to be broken but finally I spotted that a small plastic knob atop the camera was now about half broken making it more difficult to change the aperture and shutter speed. Also, the end of one of my Vivitar 285s had been smashed. I wasn't real happy but at least the camera still worked. I took some flash bulb shots of the pit. After all of that work my strobes 40 feet above weren't firing. We also walked back down the tall canyon to look at a climb. It looked like a difficult climb and was pretty exposed since there was a 20' pit below so none of us attempted it. I took a few more flash bulbs shots as the others climbed out. Jim Birk requested that I photograph him so I did so and eventually climbed out. It was the bounciest 210' climb I've ever done. I'm not sure what was up with the rope but I didn't really like it. My croll was also slipping occasionally which was annoying. I think the spring must be going bad none of the teeth are that worn. When I reached the top, I could see that the rope was significantly frayed so we padded it before the next person came up. It was starting to get dark so we hiked back to the cars and took off.
Misc. Pits
Phyllis Boneau climbs out.
Phyllis Boneau rappells in.
Misc. Pits
Jim Burke prepares for his descent.
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Misc. Pits
Jim Burke disappears into the pit.
Alan Cressler poses on rope 40' up the pit.
Misc. Pits
Jim Burke poses next to a larger formation.
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