Amata (they/she) on Nostr: #Karstmas day 4 For today, enjoy this image of a 586 ft (179 m) single pitch, put yer ...
#Karstmas day 4
For today, enjoy this image of a 586 ft (179 m) single pitch, put yer rack on and go, pit in the US. It's called Fantastic, and it really is! It is the longest cave rappel in the lower 48. (Alaska has one that beats it!)
The day we went it was high water, and as you can see there is a massive waterfall. Wind created by the falling water in the pit whipped it around, constantly shifting where it was landing. The rig is out of the water for safety reasons, but the bottom 200 ft we were getting soaked by spray nonetheless.
This is a lightpainted image, my partner (the dark spot on rope) and I communicated via radio as I directed where & when to paint with a very bright (1000+ lumen) light as I opened and closed the shutter as needed. As high as he looks in the image, he is only 200ft above me. There is another 400ft above him...notice the waterfall disappears before the pinpoint of light at the top. The waterfall faded, too small to see.
Remember I talked about rope weight on day 2? Rope also stretches some, even the super-static* kind we use. In 600 feet, this is not a negligible amount, there's about 10 feet of stretch that I had to 'climb' before I got off the ground. In that process, the wind in the pit shifted *whomp* shoving me down slamming my back onto the cobbles. *ouch* Twas a painful climb after that, with an epic bruise to show for it!
So. You'd better enjoy this photo! I suffered for it!
*For those curious, cave rope of choice for things like this in the US is PMI Pit Rope Max Wear, which has elongation at 300 lbf of only 1.8%.
#cave #caves #caving #speleology #karst #karstmas #srt #vertical #climbing #geology #limestone #rock #waterfall
For today, enjoy this image of a 586 ft (179 m) single pitch, put yer rack on and go, pit in the US. It's called Fantastic, and it really is! It is the longest cave rappel in the lower 48. (Alaska has one that beats it!)
The day we went it was high water, and as you can see there is a massive waterfall. Wind created by the falling water in the pit whipped it around, constantly shifting where it was landing. The rig is out of the water for safety reasons, but the bottom 200 ft we were getting soaked by spray nonetheless.
This is a lightpainted image, my partner (the dark spot on rope) and I communicated via radio as I directed where & when to paint with a very bright (1000+ lumen) light as I opened and closed the shutter as needed. As high as he looks in the image, he is only 200ft above me. There is another 400ft above him...notice the waterfall disappears before the pinpoint of light at the top. The waterfall faded, too small to see.
Remember I talked about rope weight on day 2? Rope also stretches some, even the super-static* kind we use. In 600 feet, this is not a negligible amount, there's about 10 feet of stretch that I had to 'climb' before I got off the ground. In that process, the wind in the pit shifted *whomp* shoving me down slamming my back onto the cobbles. *ouch* Twas a painful climb after that, with an epic bruise to show for it!
So. You'd better enjoy this photo! I suffered for it!
*For those curious, cave rope of choice for things like this in the US is PMI Pit Rope Max Wear, which has elongation at 300 lbf of only 1.8%.
#cave #caves #caving #speleology #karst #karstmas #srt #vertical #climbing #geology #limestone #rock #waterfall