Melanterite Stalactite with possible Szomolnokita and Copiapite minerals oxidizing with the iron Sulfates. Cueva de los Minerales, Volcano Irazu, Costa Rica. After hours of scrambling down a semi active volcano around loose volcanic rock, we arrived at a ledge where the clouds started to ascend above the elevation barrier they previously held on to before. As the minutes inched their way towards noon, the sun burned away...
The Grace Shannon's bow section with double anchors side to side I was back and forth with diving this weekend as I had some other tasks to complete but I decided to come out with my dive buddy Mike Apke and head over to dive with Shipwreck Explorers with Jitka, and Dave Sutton on a sunny Saturday in Milwaukee. This was set up to...
OTE at the WIT hotel downtown Chicago Every Year I try to volunteer at least twice to do some sort of work to benefit someone else. This year I volunteered with a company called OTE (Over the Edge). This is a company with rope access technicians that rig ropes on top of buildings for people to rappel over the edge that raise money...
Hoopers Well Last day in TAG and we picked up everything that we had at Troy's house and made it out to Hoopers Well for one last drop. This 100ft drop is in Monte Sano State Park area and is a very popular pit near the road. A lot of cavers come here to practice vertical training which is a nice location to practice and a...
Trenton Well We woke up a bit later to make sure we were as fresh as possible for the days trip. One of the cavers stayed back to relax from the trip yesterday so we set out to go to a beautiful pit and go to Butler Sinks afterwards to enter Paul's Cave. Trenton Well We drop the entrance and made it down...
Thunder Hole 4th rappel The night before I closed my eyes at midnight and a minute later it was 7 am, at least that was what it felt like when the lack of sleep started to recharge it's empty bucket. Day Two, and we had a long day ahead of us as we had to hike up a large hill to a waterfall...
Driving into the night to go caving in TAG from Chicago has always been a great way to throw off your sleep cycle especially when going from work and driving straight to Huntsville with friends taking turns to drive. Once we got to Huntsville, we went to Troy Fugua's house to crash out for a bit before embarking on our trip. The first stop we are making is to visit Guffey Cave. We...
Toadpool Canyon, Nevada Not my photo Toadpool canyon is located in the Red Rock recreational area just outside of Las Vegas, Nevada. There are three rappels that we encountered up to 35ft in length that all looked like they could have been bypassed and easy to go around. The canyon itself is pretty straightforward and ghosting techniques are used to minimize the impact...
