Another Cave Project in Utah...

[CCR Josh]

For the last 2 months or so the Dive Addicts Exploration Team (Randy, Michael and Josh Thornton) have been hauling dive equipment into another Utah cave. A bit different than Ricks this time....although the cave is still within 3 hour drive of our home, logistically it is on a whole new plane.

Our current alpine cave project - Altitude: 2500m, terminal sump is currently at -374.5m (we hope to be pushing past that soon!).

The approach is fairly short, but very steep and rocky. Hauling equipment, it is about a 2 hour hike. It took 3 trips and participation from over 10 people to get all our equipment to the entrance, and then to the sump. We hope to be making our initial exploration dives in the next week or two. The potential for this system is in the miles! If the sump (we think it's a sump...) is passable, then this cave also has incredible vertical potential as well.

We owe a HUGE thanks to Peter who has been training us on and helping with the logistics of exploring a true Alpine cave. There is still snow and ice in the cave, it is extremely wet and as you can imagine- cold!

Anyway... I just wanted to start sharing some of the pictures thus far as I have had a few inquiries as to how it was going. Hopefully our next post will be some diving pics!

Before and after a long day (10.5 hours in cave equipment hauling trip)


Waiting in line to drop into a huge 90m (300 ft) + pit, about 275m (900 ft) below the entrance


Michael pushing a bag through


At least it is a pretty hike!