Hi BATS,

 

Yesterday was the February BATS grotto trip.  I led, although I do have to thank Allan for taking the guys back to the Pool Room, more on that later.  The BATS cavers who went on the trip were: Nikki Bennett, Mike Hill, Dave Johnston, Jeremy Meyers, me, and Allan Weberg.  It was a good and fun group!

 

We actually ALL were early to arrive at the meeting place and therefore left a little early. We were suited up and in the cave before 11 a.m.!! Our cave suits were mostly clean and bright and look great in the "before" photos, but you know we got them all muddy and the "after" photos are full of mud.

 

Since I was leading, I said that I wanted to explore the "left side" of the cave, an area we rarely go to.  I believe that at least one or two BATS poked themselves down every possible hole and climbed up every possible climb-up in that section.  ! We went down to the "Duodenum" and later through the "Large Intestine."  When the Madison University Student Grotto mapped this cave back in 1983, seems they had a lot of fun with "gutsy" names.  I named "Reep's Rectum," a very tight spot that Jeremy, Allan, and Dave tried to fit through, though I've never even been close to it. The guys didn't make it. (If you know my friend, Jaime Reep, who is still very thin, you'll know why.) 

 

While they were trying that out, Nikki, Mike, and I headed up the slippery slope to what I "fondly" call the "scary down-climb."  Nikki was going butt-backward up the slippery slope while I spotted her and Mike spotted me.  It actually was not that slippery, but by this time we had already done a good 1 1/2 of exploring; Nikki was tiring out. 

 

By now, the others caught up to us.  Nikki and I opted to wait where we were while the boys went back to t! he Pool Room.  Luckily Allan had been in Glade before and led them on a fairly quick trip; they returned in an hour and five minutes.

 

I know exactly how long they were gone because that is how long it took me and Nikki to develop mild hypothermia waiting for them.  We originally had planned to go out of the cave.  I myself really had not relished the idea of the wet, slimy, and very slippery "Big Slab" nor the "Scary Down-climb" and Nikki was just plain worn out.  Sometimes you just have to admit that you are not up for something and hang back.  If we had gone on to the Pool Room, it would have taken a lot of time and effort and we still would have ended up beat. I admired Nikki for hanging back AND appreciated her giving me a great excuse to hang back too!

 

As it was, she and I could not get up the climb-up that I traditionally go up to get out of the "right side" of Glade.  I pushed an! d she pulled and we both grunted and joked and then she got stuck.  Then she got scared until she realized she wasn't quite as stuck as she thought.  I've been in that position and it is hard not to let yourself freak out. We ended up coming back down and now had the problem of trying to stay warm.  I went up the crack to retrieve our packs where Nikki had tossed them; I want her on my baseball team!

 

We had to get out of the junction where the wind was blowing.  We headed back up the slippery slope, again going butt-backward. We got to a comfortable sitting spot and waited.  When we got too cold, we moved up another 8 or 10 inches, anything to get us moving. It was kind of weird to be on a cave trip and have to consciously think of "what if..."  We both knew that the worst thing that could happen would be that the guys would take a really long time and find us too cold to move and have to haul our sorry butts out of the cave. We had candles and trash bags and talked about possibly making heat tents, but joked that by the time we did that we would be too cold or the guys would have come back.  It was good to know, though, that we both knew what we could do to help ourselves.

 

After an hour and five minutes, though, we heard voices. Yay!  We were saved!  Sort of. Nikki and I were both shivering by this time. We still had to figure out how Nikki was going to make it to the top of the climb-up.  The guys all agreed that she should once again go butt-backward (can you tell I like that phrase?) up the slippery slope and then down the parallel passage to a parallel climb-up.  Not me, I climbed up my usual route and was glad to get back to my fleece shirt I had left behind up there earlier.  I think Mike and Dave helped Nikki up and down and then Jeremy helped her up the other climb.  Allan was at the top with a webbing belay.  By now Nikki could barely use her legs, so the guys really helped.  But all's well that ends well, to do some more Shakespeare quoting (you missed the other quotes if you weren't on the trip).

 

We got out of the cave after about 3 1/2 hours or so and were glad to see and feel the sunshine.  Did the requisite "after" photos and headed to the car to change.  Over there the wind was blowing fiercely and I think we changed in record time.  Then we all went to Bob-A-Rea's pizza restaurant in Bridgewater and had two really LARGE pizzas. 

 

I myself had a great time, even the part of sitting and waiting.  Thanks to the guys for all their help, not just with Nikki, but with giving me my "mental belays" whenever I asked.  Some of my photos turned out pretty well; hopefully you'll get a chance to see some of them on either the BATS Web site or Jeremy's MySpace pages. 

 

Meredith