02.12.2011

MDC
Here’s me on my first aid/bolt climb! Of course it is in our beloved Memorial Day Cave.

Memorial Day Cave Trip Report
Feb 12, 2011

Chris Coates and I met up with the GVKS crowd at the Gateway for a hardy breakfast. We went to the fieldhouse to dress in the warmth and cover from the cold wind gusts outside. We followed Terry McClanathan in, who got an early start since the rest of his team was delayed by snow. We caught up to Terry in the Puppet Buster and chatted with him for about a half an hour at the bottom of Columbia Canyon. We said our good-byes and went our separate ways.

First, our goal was to bolt climb up to an upper passage that connected two rooms (between stations LAG2 and LAB5). During our September 2010 trip, we made a light and voice connection between the two, but we wanted to make sure there was no passage above. Plus, this was a nice, short climb to learn how to bolt climb. With Chris on belay, he guided me through the steps of gear management. I was surprised at how easy it was to get into a rhythm of aid climbing. Granted, I had good, solid rock to work with. Unfortunately, about the time I was getting very comfortable with the process, my legs started to cramp up, which ended my climb after only five bolts. So Chris and I switched. With me on belay, he topped it out with three more bolts. I was unable to join him on the climb because he forgot to attach the static rope to him, where I had left it on the fifth bolt. I went to the other side of the upper passage, near LAG2 to check out the other side. Chris said there was no passage above. So he came down and cleaned the route.

We had a snack and then decided to go and bolt some of the drops in the crawling section. It was the first time we had been back in the crawl since the upper Columbia Canyon connection was made in July 2010. Chris put in two bolts at the slot in the floor near LAA6. After, we went to the small room that had several leads, We crawled through the hole in the floor, near FIS6, to access the most promising pit on our list. Chris again, worked on setting the two bolts and hangers while I passed him the tools as we both were lying down. We then made it back to the last pit with the clean-washed sides, near NAC1, off of the station FIS4. Chris wanted to be clipped into something while bolting this, and since we left our vertical gear and ropes back in the Bison Room, we opted to leave it for later.

After eating lunch, we inventoried our gear for our next task: to tackle the flowstone climb at the top of the CC connection traverse in the slit above LAE7. While I was on belay, he spent five bolts on the climb. The rock was not very good, and completely mud covered, as I can attest to a mud shower for the entire time. Once at the top, Chris was straddling a mud bridge looking down each side. It was not what we had hoped for: another upper passage. He rigged the tail of the rope used on the 72-foot connection drop and came down, cleaning the route. Chris thinks that there may be free drop into Columbia Canyon on the other side of the straddle.

We made probably the best time, ever, when heading out of the cave. This can probably be attributed to my pain of wearing my harness. I had an extreme urgency to get it off as soon as possible. Once out, we were greeted with cold, piercing winds and changed as quickly as possible.

The numbers:
14 bolts used (personal gear)
2 hangers used (personal gear)
2 mallions used (personal gear)
0 feet of survey
16 hours underground

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