July Meeting Results

John Murray has renewed his membership with the Grotto.  It's good to have you aboard once again John!  Vickie Paul has a new home address and phone number which is shown on page two.  It was decided to have a cave trip in September.

12 - 14 September, 2003
Caving Trip at
Franklin, WV

Leave Friday afternoon and arrive Thorn Spring Park that evening.
Two cabins are reserved at Thorn Spring Park.
On Saturday, we will be caving (Kenny) Simmons Cave - great beginner's cave.
Sunday, to be determined depending on skill level of group.
Contact Joedy or Rita for further details.

July 2003
Sites Cave Rappel Trip
Critique
by Joedy Klimas

If you will refer back to last month's Ooze, you will see a lengthy article on our last Sites Cave trip where we experienced several rappel and climbing problems.  One of our rappel lines got caught on the "Fishhook" (cave wall projection) stranding Betsy for a few minutes, and, Pat became exhausted while climbing and had to be hauled out by Rita, Betsy and myself.  

You should have two rappel lines rigged for this cave.  There is one bomb proof tree to rig these lines to at the cave entrance.  Additional safety lines may be rigged to trees further away.  The tendency when rigging is to separate the rappel lines, one to the left side of the hole and one to the right.  I believe the Fishhook, about 100 feet down hole, is more to the right than in the center.  Therefore, if we had rigged our rappel lines to the left side of the entrance we might possibly have avoided Betsy getting caught on the Fishhook.  Betsy getting caught while rappelling down was a fluke.  There is much greater possibility to get caught by the Fishhook on the climb out.  You can't see what your rope is doing above you when climbing out, and, the Fishhook is always one to two feet away from your rope until you get to the last mud slope and start up the vertical 120 foot climb.

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