Chris goes on the traverse to get into the middle of the Wet Happy Dome, where he bolt climbed to the top of a saddle during our project caving trip in Hellhole.

Hellhole Trip Report 
Climbing the Wet Happy Dome
Feb. 18-20, 2011
by Chris Coates

Nikki and I left Harrisonburg after work on Thursday, heading over to Franklin to catch dinner before heading into SEC. While we were eating dinner Stacy, surprised us by tapping on the window of Foxes Pizza. Stacy, Heather and his dad came in and we all talked for a while. Nikki & I got massive belly aches and decided that caving would not be a good idea that night, so we slept in the Jeep.  

In the morning we felt better and got the traditional greasy Gateway breakfast when they opened at 7 a.m. We went back to the field house and retrieved Lewis’s rope/bag, and bolts and left a note at the Harpers since no one was home. We entered SEC a little after 8 a.m., and headed to 2007 camp. Once there, we dropped off Lewis’s stuff and collected some of our gear to take to Last Falls Camp. During our leisurely pace we noticed that the water level was a few inches higher than in January. All in all, it was an uneventful trip except for when I tripped in the stream and went swimming with the drill and other gear. This made me chilled for the rest of our journey to camp. So when we arrived, we set up our bed, ate dinner and went to bed very early.

We got up around 5 a.m., and made our way to Diggers Hall to find and sort John’s climbing gear. In the crawl leading to Wet Happy Dome I geared up in the jungle of cords, webbing, rope, and misc crap. Of course the traverse into Wet Happy is a nasty gear grabber. I climbed down to a belay alcove on the right and set a good belay bolt. After we were all set up and untangled, I started a bolting traverse around the dome with Nikki on belay. Once at the back corner, I progressed up about 20 feet before running out of supplies. I came down and we ate lunch, regeared and started again. On the way through the crawl this time Nikki and I cleaned the entrance passage. It is now devoid of popcorn and is an easy hands and knees crawl with no grabbers. I continued the climb for another 30 feet to a saddle, which was out of sight from the belay alcove.  

I needed more gear and Nikki was going to have to come up and belay me from a higher point from which she could see. Then we talked about what was needed she told me that her hands were tingly and she was having trouble gripping. Oh boy, just what you want to hear from your safety person. So we opted to finish the climb next month. So while she was packing up, I set another bolt to make a free rappel to the bottom of Wet Happy Dome.  

I rappelled to the bottom and realized that everything thrown into the pit goes into a small puddle at the bottom. It is a true funnel. On one side of the bottom is a tight crack, through which I could crawl once I removed my vertical gear. The passage was tight, grabby and wet. On the other side of the crawl is a small loft with about a 30-foot drop going down into a small room. It appears to have a couple of small leads going off at the bottom. Otherwise, at the loft level on the far side of the room is another tight squeeze with what appears to open up into a room. When turning around to climb/crawl back to the bottom of the rope, I noticed a narrow chimney going down at about a 45-degree angle.  

In summery, there are several promising leads at the bottom of Wet Happy Dome (Pigtail Pit is a name that Brian Masney used in his trip report to the pit on Jan. 21, 2011) that need to be pushed and surveyed. When I climbed up, I pulled the rope up out of the pit. It is still rigged, just piled in the entrance crawl to keep it from getting pulverized by any and all debris falling into the pit. Then we headed back to camp, dropping off the climbing gear where we found it.  

Sunday morning we got up late since we had no alarm and headed out. One of Nikki’s ascenders broke on the morning of the first day and her back up ascender was severely worn out, which made for a long, frustrating trip back up through the SEC entrance series. Once out, we stopped by and chatted with the Harpers for about a half and hour. Franklin provided our dinner stop of Subway.

Notes:
— No Survey
— A lot of air flow going into the pit from the Dry Happy Room.
— From the saddle all the way to the bottom of the pit is about 110 feet. It is not free hang and there are two rebelays near the top.
— The rock is good dark grey with small veins of calcite throughout.  There are calcite fossils sticking out all over the walls. The walls are very abrasive and sharp.  
— The top rig point in the saddle is a single 3 3/4’” carbon steel bolt.

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