"Frogwatch" wrote in message
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On Jan 7, 11:01 pm, "mgg" wrote:
"Frogwatch" wrote in message

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On Jan 7, 7:00 pm, Frogwatch wrote:

Stephens Gap Cave was in National Geographic earlier this year where
they had a pic of a woman standing on this rock this fool is standing
on. I took a similar pic in 1985 of my wife standing on this rock but
in my pic you can see 3 waterfalls crisscrossing into the pit. It is
180' deep but has a huge "Walk in" (climb in) entrance to the side.
It is one of the most photogenic caves I know.
This video is a classic "Hey Y'all, watch this", but he only broke his
leg.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtQ5c...eature=related

Found this one
too.http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...8878&ei=lnVGS7...
I was s'posed to go on this trip and backed out at the last minute (I
had been in this pit a year before). Tom and Paul called the day
before this happed to ask me why I would not go. I told em I thought
this group of cavers was full of macho BS and I didn't trust em to be
safe.
Sure enough, Tom was goaded into being 2nd into the pit AND to use
only part of his descent device on a new slippery rope. Tom had only
been on rope two other times so had no idea of what he was doing. On
the slippery rope, he lost control and fell roughly 180' (the pit is
280'). If the first guy down had ANY experience, he should have
grabbed the rope and put all his weight on it and this would have
stopped Tom's fall.
Tom is paralyzed from the waist down.
If the first guy down had experience, this would have been exciting
but would have ended well. The exact same thing happened to my wife
in a pit. She lost control after getting her glove caught in the
rapell device and fell. I was on bottom, saw it happen and put my
weight on the rope and stopped her about 15' above the ground. She
burned all the skin offa her hands but was otherwise ok.
You just cannot do dangerous stuff with people whose judgement you are
not sure of.

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Interesting. I think I'll stick to caves with steps and lighting. ;-)

--Mike

The cave is called Moses' Tomb because it is impressive enough to be
the Tomb of Moses. At the top, is the tiny entrance shown in the
video but it bells out into a free rapell. 100' down, you rapell past
an enormous fallen column that has fallen all the way across the
chamber. At the bottom, it is immense with fluted vertical walls
rising into the gloom. It is one of those places that when you see
it, your jaw drops in awe and amazement.

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Cool, but I stand by my statement. ;-) I've been in a couple of improved
caves in gold country where my jaw dropped in amazement, and I didn't have
to worry about a slippery rope.

--Mike