Chris on rope, exiting Nebraska Canyon in Memorial Day Cave. The LAI survey Kevin Skelton and Christine Burton. Chris and Carl Amundson worked on a bolt climb at the western end of Nebraska Canyon. I took the others to work on the eastern end with the mud slope. Found the end, a tiny stream and a little pool of standing water.

Memorial Day Cave Trip Report
Surveying Nebraska Canyon
LAI Survey

Chris Coates and I meet up with the usual suspects at the Gateway for a hearty breakfast before entering MDC on Saturday morning. We were joined by Carl Amundson, Kevin Skelton and Christine Burton. We went to the fieldhouse to change, along with the other crews, wanting to avoid the frigid day and got underground a little after 10 a.m.

Once we were up in the western end, I took Carl for a quick tour of the upper level while the others were still making their way up the connection drop and the mud slope. I wanted to give him a quick tour and get him oriented. It still surprises me how we breezed through almost a mile of passage in minutes, when it took so long to map it.

We stopped for a snack near the Bison Room and then headed to the window into Nebraska Canyon. Armed with digging and bolting tools, we were on a mission to push the canyon on both ends with the two crews. Chris and Carl tackled the 25ish-foot bolt climb at the western end. I took Kevin and Christine to push the mud slope on the east side.

Upon scrambling over the breakdown choke at the bottom of the rappel into the room, I was soon presented with blackness, a black void plunging downward. Where was this slope? Kevin backtracked, and climbed into the breakdown. A short time after, he shouted that he was looking down a mud slope that looked pretty sketchy. He had found it. Christine and I followed suit and stopped to get out our digging tools. Between the three of us, we were armed with a mason’s hammer and three Wonder Bars.

The three of us worked on carving out steps in the mud slope to get to the bottom. We got to the bottom of the slope and it looked like the drainage for the canyon as we saw river rocks. I checked out a crack in the wall, and found running water. It was a tiny stream that ran parallel to the passage on the south side.

I then started to climb up the next mud slope only to be stopped by another breakdown choke in the passage. Here there were two tiny holes that barely looked passable. So I went first, and with the aide of Kevin, wrangled my way through one of the holes. I decided to go ahead and walk to the top of the hill to see what was beyond. Around a 150 feet later I made it to the top and pushed my way into a small room. It was the end of Nebraska Canyon.

Upon my return to the breakdown hole (LAI6) Christine was attempting to join me on the other side. With help, she also made it through the hole. Kevin decided to try next. He wiggled, but could not make it. So he rested for a bit while I made some adjustments to the hole with his hammer. He then tried again and made it. We all went to the end and then started the survey back.

The tiny room at the eastern end (LAI1) had a small lead. It looks like a drainage route that goes into the canyon. It’s small and not passable without persuasion with no air flow. Above LAI3 there are cracks with multiple fissures in the ceiling channel, which pretty much spans the entire canyon. A possible bolt climb? It will perhaps lead to nothing… but I would like to know how far Neb Canyon is from the surface.

Upon our survey back to the rope, Chris and Carl caught up to us. We heard a huge collapse and learned that they dislodged some of the rocks in the breakdown choke to widen the vertical hole (LAI6) we all pushed though. When Kevin first saw it his rightful response was, “Now that’s cheating!”

When we made it back to the little stream at the bottom, Chris and Carl were busy pushing all the leads there. They found that the tiny stream passage is passable and leads to several tiny rooms and keeps going. We did not survey this because it was getting late. Chris and Carl also removed some rocks on the northern side to access a tiny crawl way. At the bottom was a pool of standing water. To each of our amazement, we each took a turn down there dropping small rocks into the water and watching them disappear into darkness. Carl rigged up a way to measure the abyss, which I wanted to call the Ogallala Aquifer. (Getting a little carried away with the theme of the western section of the cave…) He used a Wonder Bar, a small biner and the tape. He dropped it down the hole and to our disappointment, it ended up only measuring 9 feet deep. We figured out that the lowest point n Nebraska Canyon to the the ceiling is roughly 140 feet.

We surveyed up the canyon back to the rappel and tied the survey in. On the way out, Chris and Carl replaced 10 of Aaron’s personal carabiners he used for rigging on Nebraska Canyon and the connection drop/traverse with our own stainless steal mallions.

On a side note — Christine found a Wonder Bar while walking in Nebraska Canyon. I can only assume that it was accidentally left there from one of people during the LAD survey last July. Which means that it belonged to one of the following: Abby Hohn, Aaron Moses, Peter Penczer or Pete Johnson. In any case, it came in handy, so thanks mystery person! It should also be noted that it was accidently left near the water we found (between LAI6 and LAI7) in Nebraska Canyon. It seems that the Wonder Bar does not want to leave!

The numbers:
12 stations
373.2 feet of survey
18 hours underground

It appears that we have found the deepest point in the cave with our LAI survey!