Participants
- Minori Yoshida
- Carrin
- Laine Greaves-Smith
- Ethan Haft
- Sarah Haft
- Henry Little
- Kevin Manley
- Ryan Marshall
- Pierson Miller
- Andrew Orr
- Cody Sinclair
- Erin Vair-Grilley
- Nikki Woodward
Saturday 15th November
Ridgewalking
Carrin (TL), Henry Little, Minori Yoshida
Another excellent day of Project Yeso ridgewalking! We returned to the mesa we first visited last month to more fully document its linear fissure system. We hoped to find connections between the dozens of surface collapse features (below) or an entrance into the fissure itself.
On our first objective—connections between collapses—we struck out. As promising as these features look, most are so collapsed they terminate quickly in slabby limestone breakdown and are impassable. Some are filled in with dirt and vegetation. The team confirmed seven of these as not caves and one as a low-priority dig.
On our second objective—entering the fissure—we scored. The crack the October ridgewalking team located turned out to be the best (and likely only) access point to the fissure on the mesa top. We rigged this crack on a convenient natural anchor; Henry got to practice some knots and his new vertical skills and followed Minori down the drop.
The newly named Cowboy Crumble Cave has about 85 ft of linear gypsum passage at the base of a 30 ft drop. One end of the passage ends at a boulder choke, the other at a gypsum wall, and there was a sense the floor might have been false. Warrants survey, though no leads are present.
After successful vertical at Cowboy Crumble, the team decided to go for more and drop another crack the October ridgewalking team had located. Hello Kitty Crack, named by a previous visitor, is in a gypsum arroyo at the base of the mesa. It drains the mesa slopes, making it very vertical very quickly. With no natural anchors present, Minori placed three rebars and rigged the drop with a double figure eight and backup.
The crack turned out to be narrower than it looked—no more than 10 inches in places. Minori rappelled 50 ft to a floor and a linear passage; the upslope end terminated in rock choke after 20 ft, and the downslope end became too tight after 50 ft—enough passage to warrant survey, but only by a team of small cavers! Henry gamely attempted the drop but upon reaching the 10-inch width, he made a great decision to not continue and climbed out instead.
For giggles on the way out of the field, we stopped by another feature at the base of the mesa that the October ridgewalking team located—an entrance with a vegetation plug. Henry popped into a tiny skylight near the entrance, where he could see the backside of the plug and passage into the cave.
A great team, great teamwork, great vertical and rigging practice, and great progress on PY objectives to document gypsum plain features!
Earthquake Cave survey
Ryan Marshall (TL), Kevin Manley, Pierson Miller, Nikki Woodward
🚧 Trip report in progress 🚧
Toad Hop Cave survey
Andrew Orr (TL), Laine Greaves-Smith, Cody Sinclair
It was 8 o’clock—time for everyone to gather for the morning safety meeting before another, hopefully successful, day of caving. All the Project Yeso participants met in the party tent for a quick briefing, and then we split off to our assigned caves. Andrew, Laine, and Cody drove out to the parking area for Toad Hop Cave. Once parked, we geared up and made the roughly one-mile walk to the entrance.
After donning helmets and packs, we headed into the cave and went straight to the Big Room. Our first objective was to calibrate three Distos and verify their accuracy with backsights. Alex had prepared new step-by-step instructions to make sure we completed the calibrations correctly. Working through the process, we eventually got the first Disto calibrated—though it took several re-shoots to get consistent values. Once calibrated, we confirmed its reliability with a round of backsights. Everything checked out.
The second Disto also required calibration, but this time the process went faster now that we understood all the quirks. Once we achieved good calibration numbers, we confirmed them again with backsights. Finally, we compared both Distos side-by-side and verified that their measurements matched. They did—all good news.
With calibrations finished, we took a lunch break and then began surveying. Since we hadn’t managed to collect any survey data on our last trip, it felt great to finally start making progress again. We surveyed into the Big Room first and began the sketch from there. This was Andrew’s first time sketching a full room, so it took a while to work through all the details and get everything dialed in.
Once the Big Room was complete, we surveyed into the tight crawling passage that eventually leads to the vertical downclimb Toad Hop Cave is becoming known for. While Cody and Andrew worked through this section, Laine spotted a promising lead and started investigating to see if the cave continued in that direction. He managed to push into the passage and discovered an additional 30–40 feet of previously unmapped cave. Nice work, Laine! The back end of the extension had some fresh mud, suggesting water had recently moved through.
With solid survey progress behind us and Andrew feeling good about the day’s work, we decided to spend the final hour doing some fun caving. We ventured farther into the cave, and Andrew showed Cody and Laine the tight downclimb. We followed it down to the water sump for a quick look before turning around. By then, it was time to head out and enjoy a hot dinner back at camp.
Tummy Troubles Cave survey
Erin Vair-Grilley (TL), Ethan Haft, Sarah Haft
Ethan, Sarah and Erin were set to go to Tummy Troubles. The goal of the day was to clean up a variety of leads and incomplete survey portions. They started at A8, where there was a tiny lead. Erin went into the lead backwards, and Sarah assisted in getting the survey shots. This lead connected back into the main passage after only a couple of shots.
They then moved to survey station A9. There was a more considerable sized lead here after a small tight section. Sarah was setting the station shots and Erin was surveying while Ethan was following behind and checking for leads that the two might have missed. None of the three expected there to be much passage in this area. However, it turned out that there was a parallel passage to the main passage with several connections, making it look like a figure 8. There was the connection at A8, another at A11 and then it joined in again at A17 and A18. In the area around A16, A17 and A18 there were several connections that were made with the helmet lights, but the passage itself was too small for even Erin to fit in. These light and voice connections were indicated on the survey. While this passage is parallel to the main passage, it is unlikely to replace the main path of travel. Another thing to note about this passage is that it is considerably more damp than the main path of travel so Erin suspects that this is where the water currently travels through the cave.
The group of three had a little bit of time at the end of the day so they decided to clean up a little bit of the survey at the start of the cave A2 and A3. Survey stations are not and A1 could not be found so they could not complete the survey at the last few stations at the entrance of the cave. They also did a little bit of cleanup around A4, A5 and A6 where the passage is split by rock and rock debris, such that it makes a parallel passage, however, the passage all connects back at A6.
After a successful day of ticking off a bunch of open leads and incomplete survey, Ethan, Erin and Sarah exited the cave to head back to camp.
Sunday 16th November
Ridgewalking
Ryan Marshall (TL), Ethan Haft
🚧 Trip report in progress 🚧
Ridgewalking
Carrin (TL), Laine Greaves-Smith, Pierson Miller
The team’s main objective was to return to a point at the base of a mesa identified by the October ridgewalking team. A 3 ft x 3 ft entrance at the lowest point of a significant gypsum arroyo was choked with tumbleweeds.
Laine masked up and went in and began moving the tumbleweeds out of the way, passing them to Pierson and Carrin. There was no evidence of recent flooding.
After the tumbleweed was removed, Laine was able to travel in for around 12 ft of passage, before reaching a gypsum boulder blocking the passage. Pierson went in and was able to shift the crumbling block out of the way.
Just beyond the block, the sinuous passage made a sharp right, then a sharp left, and became too tight after 40 ft. Given the passage dimensions, the team decided the feature isn’t worth continuing to push. Another PY POI wrapped up!
The team then headed to the mesa top to join the other ridgewalking team with the hope of completing the ridgewalk of the entire mesa top. The teams worked together to confirm five features as not caves and one as a potential dig that’s worth a return trip to explore further.
After giving the mesa top a thorough ridgewalk over the weekend, the teams agreed that Cowboy Crumble Cave is its only real access underground and no other significant entrances are present.
On the way out of the field, Laine and Pierson maximized our remaining time by quickly scouting an outcrop below the mesa, confirming three points as not caves. Appreciated everyone’s energy and gameness today!
Toad Hop Cave survey
Andrew Orr (TL), Henry Little, Cody Sinclair
After spending Saturday morning calibrating Distos, Sunday began with plenty of optimism that we’d finally get a solid day of surveying in. Andrew, Cody, and Henry arrived at the parking area for Toad Hop Cave and hiked out to the entrance. Our plan was to continue the survey from where we left off and, ideally, finish the day having surveyed into the passage below the tight vertical downclimb the cave is known for.
We started by checking a backsight to make sure the Disto was still performing correctly after the previous day’s calibration. Luckily, everything matched. Once we reached the station where Saturday’s survey ended, the three of us got to work. This section of passage was fairly tight, so we rotated responsibilities—whoever happened to be positioned best took the splays and centerline shots with the Disto.
Working steadily through the crawlway, we eventually reached the small room at the top of the vertical downclimb. Henry found a solid location for the next station directly above the shaft, and we took the shot down into the drop. Once all three of us had climbed down, we checked the time and decided to spend the remaining part of the day exploring a few nearby leads.
We left our packs and continued farther into the cave until we reached the water sump. On a previous trip, Cameron had climbed a lead off to the left of the passage, and while Henry and Cody examined the sump, Andrew went up to take another look. The climb was tight and very vertical, and the walls were still wet—evidence that water had recently flowed through. At the top, the passage flattened into a low, rectangular crawlway that could likely be pushed farther with some effort, though it will be a tight squeeze.
After wrapping up our exploring, we exited the cave and returned to the meeting point to join everyone for closing goodbyes at the end of a productive weekend.
3B-JD Cave survey
Erin Vair-Grilley (TL), Sarah Haft, Minori Yoshida
Minori, Sarah and Erin went to 3BJD cave with the intention of doing a bit more survey. The three entered the cave via down climbing into the entrance chamber. Then they headed it into the mud tube. The intention was to survey the upper section via the chimney. The cave was much less muddy. It had done significant drying over the past month, which was very nice. Once at the survey station they realized that the DistoX was not calibrated so Minori and Erin attempted to calibrate it. The DistoX kept power cycling, which made it very frustrating to try to calibrate, and they ended up going back to a larger chamber to complete the calibration. Even in the large chamber, the DistoX was not cooperating, they did eventually complete the calibration and went back to survey the chimney into the upper passage. However, while Erin was sketching, it was apparent that something was still wrong with the calibration as the shots were not lining up with what the cave actually looked like. After much frustration they decided that the final calibration was not successfully imported into the DistoX.
In an attempt to ease the frustration, Erin, Minori and Sarah explored the upper passage a little bit. But while they were exploring, Minori felt a little bit uneasy. They suspect that all of their dilly dallying in that passage did a considerable number on the oxygen/CO2 levels as that passage does not have good airflow and lots of wet mud. They decided to exit the cave for a snack break and a mental reset. However, even after a snack, none of the three were feeling great and there wasn’t really enough time to go back in and make any progress on survey. The three returned to camp relatively early, feeling disheartened by the lack of progress made that day.