Participants
- Eoghan
- Laine Greaves-Smith
- Austin McCrary
- Andrew Orr
- Knutt Peterson
- Levi Ramsey
- Alex Seaton
- Erin Vair-Grilley
- Piper Weekly
- Minori Yoshida
Friday 10th of January
Alex and Minori set off from Albuquerque in the afternoon on Friday. On our way to the field house, we made a detour through the project area to take care of an errand at one of the caves. As soon as we turned onto the county roads, we encountered a significant amount of snow on the roads from the storm a day earlier.
Aside from slowing us down a little, this didn’t cause us too many problems, but was unfortunately a sign of things to come the following day.
Right: A bizarre snow ‘tongue’ sculpted by the wind
Having taken care of our errand and endured a good dose of the bitter cold temperatures, we headed over to the field house.
A few of the team had already arrived, so after a brief chat we got to work preparing dinner. Dinner for Friday was a rice, chicken, and bell pepper recipe courtesy of Alex’s parents. We also prepared dinner for Saturday, which was slow-cooked beef and lemongrass phở. As usual, the plan was to slow cook it while we went caving.
Saturday 11th of January
Wedgie Cave Survey and dig team
Wedgie cave survey: Minori Yoshida (TL), Erin Vair-Grilley, Piper Weekly
3-BJD cave & ‘dug cave’: Eoghan(TL), Laine Greaves-Smith, Levi Ramsey
Our objectives for the day were for Minori’s team to work on survey of Wedgie cave while Eoghan’s team investigated 3B-JD cave and the cave dug open by Ryan, and Levi in December.
Both teams drove from the field house and took the Transwestern road north from highway NM-246. The sky was bright blue, with no clouds. Unfortunately though, it wasn’t long before we ran into problems.
Although the snow was only a few inches deep in the grassy areas, it had blown around in the wind and gathered in huge drifts in places. Laine was smart and put chains on his tires while it was still level and the snow was thin. Minori relied on using 4WD low to get out of the deep snow, but this wasn’t very successful and the truck ended up getting stuck.
Minori’s team tried calling the other groups for help on the walkie-talkies, but this turned out to be futile since they seem to need line-of-sight. Nevertheless, the dig team eventually drove over the hill and came to the rescue. They put their digging tools to good use and dug out the tires far enough to get chains on.
Right: Levi carrying the digging gear.
Unfortunately, the truck kept getting stuck, causing the wheels to spin and the chains to come off. We soon realized that it wouldn’t be possible to get to the caves, and decided to head back to the field house.
The return journey also proved challenging. The Tacoma kept getting stuck and it took a lot of effort from both teams to dig it out. By the end, many of us were soaked through and getting cold.
Erin & Minori signalling for help from nearby aircraft (this was unsuccessful);
the team clearing snow from the Tacoma’s path.
Nevertheless, we persevered and eventually made it to the paved road and the field house. During the return journey, we heard via texts from the other team that they had also decided to bail.
Ridgewalking team
Alex Seaton (TL), Austin McCrary, Andrew Orr, Knutt Peterson
Our team’s objectives were to work on ridgewalking along Hines draw road, and mop up some remaining points of interest.
The weather was good, and we were excited to get going. We took two vehicles to allow the team to split in two if needed, and made our way out towards the area of interest.
Once we reached the county road we began to come across snow on the road, but it was light and patchy in places. However, as we progressed, the snow became thicker, and we noticed it had formed drifts in some places on the roads. This was a bit more problematic!
The first major sticking point was a steep section of road, where the snow had blown and become quite deep. This was passable in the evening on Friday, but the wind overnight had apparently changed things.
Austin made an attempt at it, but quickly discovered that the snow was too deep for him to be able to maintain traction and momentum all the way up the hill, so he retreated and we stopped by the side of the road to discuss our options.
We’d spotted a county grading vehicle clearing snow on our way out, and it seemed to be headed in our direction, so we figured we could just wait for this to clear the way for us.
After 5-10 minutes, the grader showed up, and began clearing the snow along the slope. Unfortunately, this turned out to be a difficult situation for the grader too. It ended up stuck by the side of the road, and the operator got to work trying to get the vehicle unstuck.
After a little while, another grader arrived. This turned out to be a local rancher, who stopped to greet us briefly before heading over to help his stuck colleague.
This was becoming a much more involved situation than we had expected. Alex had a look at our maps, and we figured that there was a point of interest (POI) nearby that we could take a look at while the two graders sorted out the snow. Knutt opted to stay behind with the vehicles and monitor the situation, while Alex, Andy, and Austin hiked out to take a look at the POI.
It was around a 15 minute walk out to the point. The wind was still fairly strong, which made it feel very cold despite the blazing sunshine. Off road, the snow was only around 4″ deep in most places, which made the whole situation seem a bit ridiculous.
The location turned out to be more promising than it had looked from LIDAR/imagery. We noticed that there was clear drainage feeding into it, so there’s a good chance of there being a cave underneath. Unfortunately, the entrance looked very tight, and would likely need digging to make passable. Given that it was extremely cold, and that we’d be digging with our hands through snow, we decided that this was better left for some other time!
We started making our way back to the vehicles, and heard from Knutt over the walkie-talkies that the road was now looking clear.
Right: looking much better!
Back at the vehicles, we had a chat about what to do next. The road was now clear, but it seemed likely that there would be similar issues further along our route. Knutt also pointed out that with the blazing sun, the snow would start to melt soon and this could turn the roads into a mud swamp. Texts had also started to trickle in from the other groups that they had been having issues too, and it wasn’t immediately clear if they would need our assistance.
Given all of these factors, we decided it would be risky to press on with our original plan. Instead, we decided to check another POI that was a short drive from our location, and then head back to the field house. We texted the other groups to let them know our plans and headed to our next point.
After making the short journey to the POI, we discovered there wasn’t much of interest and classified it as ‘not a cave’.
With that taken care of, we headed back to the field house. Along the way we received more texts from the others indicating that they were clear of the snow and also on their way back.
Food team
Everyone!
On returning to the field house, we discussed plans for the rest of the weekend. There was more snow forecast for Sunday, so we decided it was probably not worth testing fate by returning to the field then. There was also the option of just going home, but nobody seemed particularly keen to do that either.
Instead, we decided to make the best of things and went for a meal in Ruidoso. Afterwards, some of the team visited the fort in Fort Stanton, while others used the opportunity to take a nap.
In the evening, we had the phở for dinner, which turned out to be excellent!
Sunday 12th of January
With no caving to do, we had a luxurious sleep in. Our plan for the day was to head to Capitan for breakfast before going our separate ways. As we were packing up the vehicles, we discovered that the rooftop tent on Minori’s truck had partially come loose. We theorized that this had happened the previous day. Fortunately, with the team’s help she was able to devise a fix that would hold up for the journey home.
After a hearty breakfast in Capitan, we split up and the Texans headed home, while the rest of the team went west through Carrizozo to investigate the lava flow before also driving home.
While we didn’t get a chance to make any serious progress on our caving objectives, this turned out to be a fun weekend nonetheless. It was nice to have some more time to socialize with one another and was a well-deserved break for the team from the usual schedule!