ADAM HAYDOCK

The sun was just breaking over the mountain ridge as we met up with Peter Hartley to visit a sacred place in one of the Alpine Karst region's in Idaho.  Night was still upon us as we made our way out to south Idaho but just as we got to the trail head, the Forrest around us started to warm up and the winds started to gather force as we pursued the cave. 

Idaho Alpine Caving

This particular place we went to visit has been, and continues to be, a double probation super top secret to the rest of the world due to the sensitive nature of the location and some of the beautiful formations that can be found at the bottom of the cold darkness this cave holds secret. 

Idaho Alpine Caving

This cave itself is indeed a very Alpine environment with many secrets that are still held with no human interaction and leads that we passed right by as we pushed deeper into the depths.   

We set out at around 8am so we could get a fast start and get up the mountain with some good time which worked out overall but was a bit of a bushwhack as only a couple trips of cavers have ever been in this system previously.

Idaho Alpine Caving

We eventually make it up to the top and the entrance of the cave which was a climb-down into a slot canyon like passage that led to a sequence of small shelved rebelay drops.  They were all 15ft or less.  

 This passage took us to a meat grinding slot canyon that tore at our cave suits and tested our resolve as the temperature dropped and the conditions became wet, the deeper we went into the cave. After about an hour of tight slot stemming, squeezing up climbs, and sketchy  down climbing, we got to a 15ft drop in water and the passages started to open up a bit more.

Idaho Alpine Caving

 We had to dance around the drop a little bit so we could avoid the 40 degree water but once we were at the bottom, we continued down a breakdown slope a couple hundred feet. 

Idaho Alpine Caving

 This slope brought us to a depth of around 500ft in the cave and around a half mile of total vertical extent. We got to a section where we had to negotiate around some boulders and a pit that dropped around 20-25ft into the water below us. Eventually we made it back down to the ground level which is where we started to have some headlight issues and cold condition issues.

Idaho Alpine Caving

There were some crawls in water in the previous passage that dipped us a bit into the cold so we stopped at the 600ft level and started to head back out.  The rooms started to open up a bit and there were helectite gardens on the walls where the passage continued.  There were also some formations and breakdown rooms that would have been encountered as well as a sump that needs to be looked at more in detail.

We started to head out of the cave and continued to take a few photos as well as fight off the cold a bit as we kept warm and kept moving out.  some of these passages we quite annoying as It felt like we were walking through the mouth of a shark that just ate a pufferfish. 

Idaho Alpine Caving

 The passages grabbed at our gear and I even successfully was awarded with a tear in my cave suit while heading out of the cave. not cool!! Eventually we made it out and got down the mountain in good time to make it back home at a decent hour. 

Idaho Alpine Caving

 It is amazing that we had to head out so early and we got back pretty late but a cutting edge cave like this ( no pun intended) was able to be viewed and photographed and back home at a decent hour.

I hiked up almost two and a half miles of mountainous limestone terrain to an elevation of around 8 to 9,000ft. to seek out the photogenic Heaven's Gate Cave in Utah. I morning was clear with a thin scent of pine in the air and blue skies across the ridge.  It was quite the hike to get to the this 170ft. hole in the ground, especially after negotiating some steep scree slopes and valleys without losing too much elevation.

The hike itself was more than a couple miles but after descending to the slabby limestone basin at  9,000ft of elevation, the gaping hole in the ground started to appear.  The walk itself was through some beautiful alpine flower patches and dry dusty pine trees with sap dripping from a few and others standing proud as they show a weathered personality from all of the hot summers and snow piling winters this region endeavors.

This cave reminded me of Conley hole except for the snowcone at the bottom and the 34 degree temps inside the cave. I should have brought some dye and would have turned this snow cone into the largest slurpie on the planet.  I rigged to the near-by tree and attached our bags together so we could have some rope padding from the edge while this semi static rope dangled into the darkness. 

The pit itself looked a bit intimidating from the top as you stare into the pit and admire the echo that reverbed for a noticeable amount of time in the gapping blackness, but once on rope, the ambient light shines in and the free drop is only about 40ft down to a ledgy section than a quick 10-15 ft drop to the snow cone and it goes down to the bottom.

This is just one massive hole in the ground with some ice formations at the bottom and a couple pits behind me that continued down to terminal ends.  There is not much more to it but for what it is worth, this pit is a nice one for bouncing.

I snapped a few photos and headed back out of the cave so we could make our journey down the scree slope to White Pine Lake and back to the Tony Grove parking lot in time to get back home and get ready for the week.

This is one of the few caves that I want to come back to and take a couple more photos of in some different perspectives and locations at the bottom.

temps are right around 34 degrees with with blowing wind in places as well as a similar temp in the water that not only flows through the cave and the sumps, but out the resurgence at Wood Camp Spring. There are many re-belays to negotiate including a J hang out into the abyss at the top of frayed knot.

Cavers from Texas, Colorado, and Utah came to help with the Haul in of hundreds of pounds of in diving gear, warming stations, and other materials to keep everyone safe and efficient.

I made it up to the entrance of the cave and everyone was getting ready in stages to go in. The first team was going to the sump and that team was already full.  The teams are broken up into groups of three of four so people are not waiting at the bottom of the pits to ascend due to the extreme cold conditions. I joined Fernando's team in the assistance of setting up tents at the bottom of Frayed Knot and Leaky faucet.

Swede mentioned that he was able to reach out to Laura regarding her not being able to make it and I asked if he could send a message to her to let her know I made it up there and I am going in, since my phone was not working at the cave. Fernando and I went down into the cave carrying 25lbs. each and I carried an additional 20lb. pack of camera gear so I could get some photos of the drops.

I was wearing a dry suit undergarment which is made for cold water diving and that suit turned out to be the worst decision I made in cave clothing choice.  I was so hot in this thing that I was sweating so much I was dehydrating and going hyperthermic. It was not good and made every move difficult because of this super massive layer of synthetic material filled up with sweat and weighed me down even more.  It was pretty bad, so I ended up staying at the top of Frayed Knot and set up the camera to photo Fernando at the top of Frayed Knot.  Fernando went down and set up the tent and came back up.

The next day a team of three went to the sump and I attempted to catch up with them to help with the haul down to the sump without success but instead, I retrieved my flash that I left at the top of a pit in Main Drain and headed over to Lucifers Lair. Lucifer's Lair was sucking in air like a golf ball through a straw and this cave drops almost 300 feet in a multi drop sequence into a unknown section.  I got about 10ft into the cave and lit smoke bombs to see if the other team could smell them on their way out but they were not able to smell any smoke.

The Following day, I hung out for a bit for breakfast and than headed down to Wood Camp Spring which is where a dye trace in main drain ended in the resurgence spring of Wood Camp Spring. This Spring is a decent size resurgence and was expelling a lot of really cold and clear water as I got to the entrance of this resurgence.

It reminded me of Swamp Springs in Tennessee where the Rumbling Falls Resurgence is located. This resurgence is the Main Drain Resurgence and it was worth a good look to see if a similar hole in the ground can be found like the one that was found in Ricks spring up the road.

After an hour of moving rocks around and influencing some others I concluded that this will be a considerable effort but might be something that is worth doing since it will give us another entrance to dive into main drain and might also unlock the secrets under this region as to if Main Drain is truly the "Main Drain" or if there is an even bigger system just waiting to be discovered which some experts believe.

UPDATE: The Dive was successful and the Divers were able to push the sump which was around 375ft of length and 79ft of depth to a dry passage that extended another 500ft. to another sump.  This cave just got more interesting and more diving will be happening in the near future. Every member of the Haul team mechanized in a well oiled and enduring Valkyrie that set the stage for a successful dive that Jean Kreja and David Moore performed with prestige.  This is what makes American cave dive exploration so thrive and it is an honor to be apart of the few who endeavor the worst environments for the essence of exploration and wonder. The big question is, what is beyond the next sump?!?! 

Here is a video of the actual dive with Jean and David breaking through into new passage in Main Drain.

https://youtu.be/Hdnp6P-Grps

 We went back up tot he Unita Mountains to get away from the city a bit and visit another cave in the area. This cave is a 30ft drop that slopes into a room and ends with no passage to be found.

 At 10,100ft., this cave is the highest in Utah which had some nice views of the alpine flowers blooming.

 The drop itself was around 30ft and for some reason there was a ladder just below the entrance for the gold diggers to get down to see if there is some mystery gold at the bottom 

 There is no Spanish gold in this cave or any of the other caves in this area so please keep these natural features in pristine condition and leave the caves the way you find them.

 The cave can be seen from the road at it has a bit of a larger entrance but ends quickly after you get into the cave itself.

 The rock does seem a bit different than some of the other caves in the area as it appears to be more of a solutional cave with no hypogenic properties.

 We got down and took some photos but there was not much more to do so we came back up and enjoyed the topside a bit more.

 I wish someone would pull that ladder out of the pit and get rid of it as it is not needed in there at all and considered pollution.

 We headed up for a casual day to thunder shower cave and GMZ to check out some of the other tony grove caves in the area which was a nice get away from all of the people in the surrounding campgrounds and cities due to the holiday weekend.

 After parking on the side of the road in the full capacity parking lot of Tony Grove, we headed up the mountain to find Thunder Shower cave.

 The entrance to Thundershower reminds me a bit of Valhalla with the inverted canyon undercut and the hole yet a bit smaller and not a 224ft drop that Valhalla has, this drop might have been 60ft total.

 There was a sloping snow cone at the bottom of the cave which took us down to the passage leading to the large room at the bottom.  Once we were both down, we worked our way over to the lightly sloping ledge and continued to go down to this 50 x 30 ft. room.

 There were a few formations on the walls but there was not too much to see down here IMO.

 I understand that the passage continues and goes into a loop back to where you start and that is the cave but I have also read about some side leads being pursued to see if the cave might turn into another main drain cave.

 The cave is indeed interested especially at the entrance but I wouldn't say this is a destination cave unless you want to add a few caves to the day and visit the beautiful north Utah area.

 Thunder shower cave got its name for a group that took shelter in the cave when a thunder storm came into their area and the group hid inside the cave to avoid the storm.  I can see how there would be some good spots to hide in there.

I have not found a map for thunder shower cave yet which tells me that a survey of the cave will be some good practice and a nice addition to the cartography section.

 This cave is absolutely worth a visit and good place to hangout in the Alpine terrain 8200ft up.  We de rigged everything and headed over to GMZ cave next.