1993 FISHER RIDGE SUMMARIES

Compiled from the DUG SCOOPS

Fisher Ridge Summary January 1993 V11 N2 By Peter Quick

There was one trip into Fisher Ridge since the last reporting period. The trip took place over the New Years weekend. Peter Quick, Steve Miller, Larry Bean, Jeff Brumell and Mike Fitch made up the Michigan group. In Kentucky they met up with Tina Shirk and Joe Oliphant from Indiana. There were also some cavers from Cleveland who came down to meet Joe Saunders at the fieldhouse but after an unpleasant confrontation about bunk space and fieldhouse "rules" they left sputtering and swearing for calmer quarters.

Two mapping teams entered the cave and headed for the Chartres Maze area. Peter took the two Indiana cavers as a team and did some major loop mop-up. They put in 60 stations for a total of about 1700 feet. They ended their survey near station PTX63 (near where Steve's team started) at a dome and an undropped pit. They turned up a few good leads to return to.

Meanwhile Steve took the other three Michigan cavers and started surveying at station PTX65 they dropped down into a small dome pit and crossed it to the passage continuation on the other side of the pit. They put in 30 stations for about 700 feet. The passage trended to the north northwest. They ended at a traverse over a 40 foot pit. Overhead they saw what was thought to be an intersecting canyon passage, if so, perhaps the connection to the postulated overlying trunk passage continuation of Chartres Ave.

A major push trip is planned for the anniversary weekend of February 14th. Deep penetration into Northtown Ridge is hoped for.

Fisher Ridge Summary February 1993 V11 N3 By Peter Quick

One trip took place over the last reporting period. Keith Ortiz led a trip into Fisher Ridge with Joe Oliphant and Danny Dible to the continuation of Chartres Maze. Chartres Maze beyond the Cheese Grater Crawl should now probably be renamed. I propose the Northtown Grind. Keith's crew took up survey at Peter's lead near station PTX63. They placed about 60 stations for around 2200 feet. The passage trended to the north. The first 1000 feet contained much more cheese grater crawling, grim going indeed. The passage improved and they ended in nice walking passage. Many side leads were noted, including a big pit and some upper level canyon complexes. They were in the cave for around 27 hours.

The Fisher Ridge Cave System has now made it into the main body of Northtown Ridge. Prospects are now good for a major breakout and large expansion of the cave system. Trips however will be very long and arduous. Thirty hour trips are likely. If the cave keeps going new techniques will be necessary. Setting up a base camp will be a strong possibility.

Other news relates to the new access policy to the Fisher Ridge Cave System. See the article on page four for the details. Hopefully it will satisfy Doc Fisher and he won't consider any further restrictions on the use of his property. Doc Fisher will be provided with the list of the official ten trip leaders.

The next trip to Fisher ridge is on the weekend of February 13th. It has already been filled with the nine caver limit. The next scheduled trip is proposed for the weekend of March 13th. Sign up will start on February 16th. After that there has been a proposal for the weekend of April 3rd and another for the Memorial Day weekend. Check with me for the alternate trips.

Fisher Ridge Summary March 1993 V11 N4 By Peter Quick

During the last reporting period there was one trip to Fisher Ridge. It took place over the annual discovery anniversary weekend of February 13th. This weekend marked the 12th year since the first mapping trip into the Fisher Ridge Cave System.

Seven mappers arrived on the ridge with breakout on their minds. They were Bob Anderson, Jeff Brummel, Brian Davis, Chip Hopper, Dennis Kendrick, Keith Ortiz and Peter Quick. Two teams were formed. Brain, Jeff and Dennis took up survey at the end of Steve Miller's survey at the end of Chartres Maze. They put in 50 stations for 1300 feet heading to the north into Northtown Ridge. The passage was mostly walking and ended at a huge dome and pit that they could not traverse across. They noted a number of leads during their survey. The other team consisted of Peter, Keith, Bob and Chip. They traveled down Penny Lane, the grim 2000 foot crawl that Keith had mapped at the end of Chartres Maze on his last trip. The passage quickly improved from crawling to walking after a few stations were placed. The survey progressed very quickly. A major north trending side lead was passed, 12 feet wide by 5 feet high. After that the main passage got larger, typically 16 feet wide by 9 feet high. Many side leads were passed. Ultimately a side lead was checked and it popped up into a very nice trunk passage, Northtown Ave. Its dimensions were typically 15 to 18 feet in height and 30 feet or more in width. Ten stations were placed heading to the northwest and 30 stations were placed heading to the south. The trunk passage kept going in both directions. All in all 106 stations were placed for 5400 feet in survey. About 40 side leads were noted, some of course will be loops. Both teams were in the cave for 27 hours.

The Fisher Ridge Cave System is now 57.5 miles in length. Major penetration has been made into Northtown Ridge. Many more miles of passage are sure to follow. Trips into the new area will be long and grueling, bring lots of food and water.

Fisher Ridge Summary April 1993 V11 N5 By Peter Quick

There was one trip into Fisher Ridge over the weekend of March 13th during the last reporting period. Eight cavers showed up at the cave. They were Bob Anderson and Chip Hopper from Virginia, Joe Oliphant and Danny Dible from Indiana, and Peter Quick, Jeff Brummel, Mike Fitch and Larry Bean from Michigan. Half the group made the mistake of entering via the Historic Entrance in order to avoid the cold wait on the way out at the bottom of the Remington Entrance. They added at least 1.5 hours each way onto their trip, along with a lot more work. The Historic Entrance took about 10 hours to enter the cave and a similar amount of time to exit the cave. The Remington crew took about 8 hours each way.

Two teams were formed when everybody finally arrived in Northtown Ave. Peter led the team of Joe, Chip and Mike to the North in Northtown Ave. They netted 3200 feet of survey in 50 stations before the trunk passage ran into a sinkhole and mudded up. Numerous side leads were noted. After a rest they headed back to a nice lead heading northeast in the Northtown Throughway. They placed another 23 stations for a little over 800 feet in a nice walking canyon, Eveready Canyon, taking a large amount of air. It was checked ahead for a few hundred feet and it kept going and going and going....

Bob led the other crew of Danny, Larry and Jeff to the south in Northtown Ave. They had an enormously productive trip and placed 81 stations for 5700 feet of survey. The trunk passage went to the southeast then switched to the northeast. They passed many nice leads, a couple being trunk sized in dimensions. They passed a lead, 20 feet wide by 8 feet high, heading to the southeast toward the present end of Chartres Ave. just 900 feet away. They left off their survey in nice continuing trunk passage heading to the northeast.

The two teams combined mapped 1.85 miles of passage on this trip. The cave now stands at 58.824 miles of mapped passage with .523 miles of excluded footage, thus putting the caves true length presently at 58.301 miles.

The next planned trip is an extended 4 day base camp trip from April 1 to April 4. Joe Saunders may be taking a trip later in April. The next scheduled trip is over the Memorial Day weekend at the end of May. There is a chance that a trip might occur earlier in may. Check with me for trip scheduling information.

The last motivating bit of information is that Lechiguilla Cave now stands at 60.5 miles and the Ropple section of Mammoth Cave also stands at 60.5 miles. These ought to be easy marks to surpass in length over the next few months, thus letting the Fisher Ridge Cave System regain its position of the 4th longest cave in the U.S. and make it into the worlds top 10 in length list.

Fisher Ridge Summary May and June 1993 V11 N6 By Peter Quick

During the last two month reporting period (there was no newsletter last month) there were a few trips down to Fisher Ridge. The first was an attempted four day base camp trip to the new breakthrough area, Northtown Ave. from April 1st to 4th. The participants were; Peter Quick, Jeff Brummel, Keith Ortiz, Larry Bean, Steve Miller and Reid Beauchamp. For much of the week before the trip the ridge experienced heavy rains and generally wet weather. The cavers were concerned when entering the cave that the 1000 foot crawl out to Chartres Ave. would be either sumped shut or might sump closed when they were on the other side. After a couple of hours of hauling their heavy camp packs the reached the beginning of the 1000 foot crawl. They encountered a stream running into the passage and a sump a short distance further in. They found it impossible to get excited about poking about elsewhere in the cave when on the other side of the sump there were untold miles of unexplored passage waiting. They decided to leave the cave and try to salvage their weekends at home. They were all home by Friday night. There was another trip planned for the weekend of April 17th but that was also canceled because of very wet weather in Kentucky.

Sometime in late April, Joe Saunders spent a better part of a week in the vicinity of Fisher Ridge, primarily digging at possible entrances to Northtown Ave. on Northtown Ridge. Joe also reports that the Nashville Grotto has a dig in a small blowing cave located near the sandstone contact on the western edge of Northtown Ridge. They need to blast to continue. Their cave plots out nearly directly above recently mapped passage off of Northtown Ave., although it is 200 feet higher in elevation.

The most recent trip into Fisher Ridge was another planned four day base camp trip out to Northtown Ave. over the weekend of May 29 to June 1. The participants were Peter Quick, Jeff Brummel, Larry Bean, Brian Davis, Steve Miller, Reid Beauchamp, Bob Anderson, Lewis Carroll, Joe Oliphant, Danny Dible and Ron Adams. At the fieldhouse on Saturday morning it was found that Bob and Lewis didn't plan on camping in the cave, rather they would have a very long trip and nap along the way. It was also found that Joe, Danny and Ron planned on being in the cave for three days rather than four. Everyone entered the cave together but soon split up into various small groups slowly working their way back into the cave for the nine to ten hour one way journey. Steve and Reid were lagging behind and disappeared. They never showed up at the base camp and weren't seen for the rest of the trip. Apparently they made it to the beginning of the Cheese Grater and then turned back.

Upon reaching the southern parts of Northtown Ave. everyone except Bob and Lewis set up camp, ate and crashed for the night. Bob and Lewis took up survey at station NT54 where a number of nice walking leads took off. They managed to place about 90 stations in three different passages for about 4000 feet of survey adding to the passage layout complexity in the vicinity of station NT54. They were in the cave for about 44 hours.

On Sunday the others awoke and split into two teams. Joe, Danny and Ron went to the eastern end of Northtown Ave. to push the two trunk passages to the northeast and southeast. They placed about 3100 feet in the trunk passage heading mainly to the east and slightly northeast. The passage terminated in a breakdown and flowstone fill. They then mapped the southeast trunk passage for nearly 900 feet where to a low belly crawl constricted with formations. There was no air flow noted. Subsequent data processing places the end of this passage not more than 30 feet away from the present northwestern end of Chartres Ave. They returned to base camp and slept a night before leaving the cave on Monday.

On Sunday Peter's crew of Larry, Jeff and Brian took up survey in the upper trunk passage overlooking their base camp. During that trip they placed 114 stations for 6100 feet of survey. The passage mainly trended to the northwest crossing over the top of Northtown Ave. somewhere in the vicinity of station NT30. The passage split up to the northwest. One of the passages ended when the floor was swallowed by an estimated 70 to 80 foot deep pit. This new area extended passage under a blowing dig of the Nashville Grotto mentioned earlier in this summary.

On Monday as the Indiana crew exited the cave, Peter's crew started methodically mopping up various loops and leads from basecamp working their way slowly back toward the beginning of Northtown Ave. to the northwest. They finally tired of mop-up and made their way to station NT13 where there was a nice walking lead. They figured they were going to loop up to a lead at NT3. Instead they mapped the passage for 800 feet to the southeast. They left off survey in nice walking canyon passage taking strong air flow. Their survey total for the day was about 3400 feet and about 70 stations. They returned to camp for a meal and some sleep and later headed out of the cave in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

The Memorial Day weekend of 1993 netted 17580 feet of surveyed passage in four survey trips, about 3.3 miles of new passage. The cave now stands at 62.1 miles of mapped passage. Since last September when the route under Chartres Ave. into the Cheese Grater was found, 8.71 miles of passage have been mapped. Over 80 side leads still remain to be checked and mapped. Some of these will be loops, some won't go very far, but others will lead to many other leads. Northtown Ridge still holds great potential.

In related news, word of the major extension of the Fisher Ridge Cave System under Northtown Ridge has set off quite a bit of ridge walking on Northtown Ridge by other caving groups in the area. There is a chance that another cave group may stumble across or make an entrance to this part of the cave system. If that happens we should be as accommodating as possible. We could use a new entrance out there. We should also try to avoid some of the controversy that we have been so good at stirring up in the past.

Fisher Ridge Summary May and June 1993 By Peter Quick

The base camp trips in to the Northtown Ave. area will require a little coordination on equipment. I will list a few items that will be absolutely necessary to have on the trip, and some other items that I would recommend to have on the trip. The prime consideration of hauling equipment back into this new area is small size and weight due to the 8 to 10 hours of one way travel, much of it crawling.

NECESSARY ITEMS

Stoves: One stove per two or three people. Butane canister type stoves are recommended, the compact Scorpion stove is highly recommended. Stove $35.00, canister $ 3.00 each. Plan on one canister of gas per person per 7 days. This presumes that only water will be boiled for freeze dried meals and hot drinks. On our most recent base camp trip over Memorial Day one canister cooked 4 meals for 4 people plus 4 hot drinks for 4 people, in other words about 16 meals. Cooking food will use more fuel.

Water Pot: The same ratio of water pots for boiling water is needed as the stove ratio per person above. The ideal size pot for boiling water is at least 1.5 quarts to heat water for three people. Do not plan on cooking food in the pots, only boiling water, unless you want to carry in your own stove, fuel and pot.

Water Bag: One compact water bag, 2 to 3 gallon capacity, per stove group is recommended. These can be bought in camping stores. These are not the heavy plastic bags with the rotating nozzle that can be found in the camping sections of your K-Mart stores. These are thin plastic bags that have a toggle rubber switch/spout such as found as plastic 2.5 gallon water jugs.

Sleeping Bag: The Mont-Bell sleeping bags "Mountain Overbag" or "Summer Breeze" are highly recommended. The Mountain Overbag sleeps a little cool in Kentucky caves, wearing a full set of long underwear, hat and socks are usually necessary with this bag. It weighs either 1.25 or 1.5 lbs. depending on length and is very compact. The Summer Breeze weighs between 1.5 and 1.75 lbs. and is a little bulkier but is a good bit warmer rated between 40 and 50 degrees F, perfect for Kentucky caves. Six cavers used the Summer Breeze bag in Fisher Ridge over the Memorial Day weekend and all gave it rave reviews. Both cost around $130.00 retail.

Sleeping Pads: The only pad to go with is the 3/4 length Thermarest ultralight costing around $43.00. It has the best packing size to insulating ratio that can be obtained. Without it your fancy sleeping bag will be less useful. You might be uncomfortably cool. The sleeping and pad together weigh only about 3.25 pounds.

Food: The main meals should be freeze dried meals such as Mountain House meals, $5.00 a crack. A four day base camp trip into Fisher Ridge will require 6 meals. Try not to carry in any cans of food. Other types of food will be necessary during the survey. Candy, meat sticks, gorp, etc.

RECOMENDED ITEMS

Long burning candle, extra long undies, water purification tablets or iodine, plastic ground cloth or space blanket, cup for warm drinks, spoon, lots of carbide, toilet paper, large hauling pack with shoulder straps to put all this junk in, and a resigned attitude to a hard trip into the cave.

Fisher Ridge Summary July 1993 V11 N7 By Peter Quick

During the last reporting period there was one trip into Fisher Ridge. Keith Ortiz and Bob Anderson entered the cave over the weekend of June 17th. The trip back to the basecamp in Northtown Ave. took over 12 hours to complete, due to Keith's large and heavy camp pack. After a nice sleep they commenced surveying. They placed 100 stations for about 3600 feet of survey. Their trip consisted of doing about five loops. They tied in the big walking passage at NT3 to the NT13 canyon after just a few stations. After tying that loop they backtracked a short distance to a hole they crossed in the floor. They dropped down the hole and into a nice passage that averaged 12 feet wide by 10 feet high. They mapped this passage (the Lower Crust Survey) to the south for about 2500 feet until it tied in to a passage that Bob had mapped on his previous trip. The Lower Crust passage also continued to the north with similar dimensions, but was not checked out. They also did a few smaller loops in various places along Northtown Ave.

Fisher Ridge Summary August 1993 V11 N8 By Peter Quick

During the last reporting period there was one trip to Fisher Ridge. The trip took place from July 17 to July 20. Brian davis and Peter Quick drove down from Michigan and met up with Joe Oliphant, Danny Dible, Greg McNamara and Tina Shirk, all from Indiana.

In the cave two survey teams were formed with Danny joining Peter and Brian. They first pushed the Too Low For Comfort Trunk for 550 feet to a mud termination with no air flow. They moved toward the north end of Northtown Ave. and picked off the large walking lead at station PXM 99. They placed 10 stations for 460 feet to a sandstone fill. They backtracked to a 3x3 tube they passed and decided to place a few stations in it. Fifty five stations and 1300 feet later they dragged themselves out of the "Crazy Dog Crawl" and to a connection in N.W. Northtown Ave. at station K 28. At this point Danny Dible headed back to Base Camp to take a nap before heading out. He and the others were only in the cave for a regular weekend trip. Brian and Peter continued their survey in a large walking canyon/tube, 10' high by 12' wide. It turned out to be a lower level to Northtown Ave. They placed 20 stations for 830 feet before calling it a day. The passage continued and a very promising lead was noted to the north.

Back at Base Camp it was found that the other survey team of Joe, Tina and Greg had placed about 80 stations for 2600 feet in Eveready Canyon. They ran ahead for another 500 feet and the passage continued with the same dimensions, 10' high by 5' wide. The passage was still moving strong air flow. Thus far Eveready Canyon has been pushed for over 3800 feet, nearly due east. After a short sleep the Indiana cavers headed out of the cave.

The next day Brian and Peter headed back to their lead under Northtown Ave. They mapped about 2000 feet of passage heading back to the east and south and tied in their survey to a sandy crawl in the Northtown Throughway at station PXM75. Numerous leads in the Northtown Throughway area were seen. They made their way back to their previously noted promising side lead to the north. The lead turned out to be a semi-parallel passage at a slightly lower level to the lower Northtown Ave. passage. This area was named "The Other World". Thirty stations were placed to the east and numerour side leads were passed. They turned around in nice walking passage. They then surveyed the other direction and placed another 30 stations, this time headed to the northwest. They stopped surveying when the passage fell apart and turned into a sharp bedrock crawl. It was moving good air and has a good placement under Northtown Ridge for continued survey to the northwest toward the Green River.

In summary Peter and Brian Placed about 200 stations for about 7700 feet in their two days of mapping. That combined with Joe's team's 2600 feet of survey added 1.95 miles of passage to 5the cave. Presently the cave stands at 64.79 miles in length.

The next planned trip to Fisher Ridge will take place over the Labor Day weekend. Entry into the cave will be on Friday morning, Sept 3rd and exit will be on Monday morning, Sept 6th. It is hoped that three miles can be added to the cave's length on that weekend.

Fisher Ridge Sept and Oct, 1993 V11 N9 By Peter Quick

During the last two month reporting period there was one trip to Fisher Ridge. No trips took place during August and no articles were submitted to the DUG SCOOPS. Thus the lack of a September issue. There was a trip over the Labor Day weekend, the first weekend of September. On Friday morning nine cavers assembled at the Fisher Ridge field house. Attending were Keith Ortiz, Chip Hopper, Peter Quick, Jeff Brummel, Dennis Kendrick, Mike Fitch, Joe Oliphant, Danny Dible and Tony Akers. All were prepared for a four day base camp trip into the cave. The objective of the trip was to map as much cave as humanly possible. Three miles was hoped for.

On the way to the base camp, Joe Oliphant, Danny Dible and Dennis Kendrick split off to camp at the Eveready Canyon junction to cut down on travel time to their objective, the continuation of the Eveready Canyon. They planned to move to the main base camp the next day if their survey crapped out. The others continued to the main base camping Southern Northtown Ave. On Saturday the Eveready team continued where Joe and Danny had left off on their previous trip. Shortly after they started surveying the passage turned south. At this point they noted a good lead heading north. They surveyed about 3000 feet and placed 100 stations before calling it a day. The passage headed mainly south and crossed under the end of the Dolls Head Trunk. The passage continued ahead as a stoopwalking height canyon and was still moving good air.

At the main base camp on Saturday morning two teams were formed. Keith, Chip and Mike formed one team. Peter, Jeff and Tony formed the other team. Keith's team headed over to a crawling passage at station NT3. The passage had good air flow but turned out to be quite sinuous. Many short survey shots were placed. They grew tired of the survey and returned back to camp after netting 1100 feet of survey and about 80? stations. The passage continued low and twisty.

Peter's team resolved to push the northwestern end of The Other World. The survey improved from the sharp belly crawl that Brian and Peter had left off in on the previous survey to a low stoop walking height passage. The survey continued to the northwest. After many stations the passage picked up a major infeeder and turned abruptly to the southwest. The passage got a bit bigger but also became filled with breakdown soon after which it broke up into a few smaller components. 100 stations were placed for a total of about 3750 feet of passage. The passage continued as a stooping height sinuous canyon and was checked out for another 300 feet or so. It continued and still had good air flow.

On Sunday the teams changed a little bit. Tony joined Joe, Danny and Dennis, while Mike teamed up with Jeff and Peter. Keith and Chip surveyed together because they planned to leave the cave after they finished surveying without spending another night in basecamp. The Eveready crew went back to the northern lead they encountered the previous day in Eveready Canyon. They surveyed perhaps 900 feet to the north before being stopped at a dome-pit and a tricky climb to an upper passage. They also surveyed another lead to a 450 foot long trunk segment, Fizzle Trunk. All in all they placed about 96 stations for about 2000 feet of passage.

Keith and Chip surveyed a series of loops in the Northtown Throughway and Northtown Ave. intersection area. They knocked off six or seven leads in their loop closing mania. I'm not sure of how many stations were placed. Somewhere around 2000 feet of passage was mapped.

Peter's crew first went to the continuation of the NT13 canyon, hoping it would lead to a connection with a canyon passage at the end of Chartres Maze, thus bypassing the endless Penny Lane crawl. After 10 stations the a small pit was encountered that could not be free climbed. The passage was seen to continue on the other side of the pit. They then decided to go to the southeastern part of The Other World and map toward the Northtown Throughway. Sure enough after about 1800 feet of survey they connected into the Throughway in four different places. They also encountered a downstream piracy passage that spiraled down under itself. They ran out of mapping energy any scooped ahead for a few hundred feet where they encountered a steeply sloping passage that led down to a baselevel pool, The Lost Lagoon. It could not be determined if the pool was actually a passage. It was 25 feet wide and extended over 40 feet in either direction. To the right to what looked like a mud bank and to the left perhaps to a low ceiling a couple of feet above the deep water. The Lost Lagoon looked very deep. They totaled about 80 stations and about 2500 feet of survey.

In summary there were six survey trips over the Labor Day weekend that added another 2.7 miles to the Fisher Ridge Cave System. The cave now has a mapped length of 67.45 miles, passing Lechuguilla which at the Labor Day weekend stood at 65.8 miles in length. The Fisher Ridge Cave System is once again the fourth longest cave in the United States.

Future prospects for miles of additional passage are good. There are still some large ridges to the north and west of the end of the Other World passage. Base level could contain miles of passage as could an upper level above the main trunk level. The seven mile Vinegar Ridge Cave lies just to the north, perhaps only a few thousand feet away from mapped passage Fisher Ridge. It is speculated that Vinegar Ridge Cave is the projected downstream continuation of Ice Cave Ave. A connection with Vinegar Ridge Cave would easily catapult the Fisher Ridge Cave System to over 80 miles in length. Time and some really hard caving will tell.

Fisher Ridge Summary November 1993 V11 N10 By Peter Quick

During the reporting period of October, Fisher Ridge was visited on from October 23rd to the 25th. Peter Quick, Jeff Brummel, Mike Fitch, Joe Oliphant, Danny Dible, George Cesnick, Ron Adams and Tina Shirk entered the cave for a short basecamp trip of three days back to Northtown Ave. In addition, Steve Miller showed up with Raquel Fitch and Eric Fehlauer to dome some blasting at the end of Chartres Ave. in hopes of creating a bypass to the endless hours of crawling that it takes to reach Northtown Ave.

Steve's team entered the cave and made their way back to Chartres Ave. Is was Eric's and Raquel's first trip into Fisher Ridge. They did quite a bit of lead checking at the end of Chartres and turned up numerous bits of unsurveyed passage. They dug for many hours at the end of Chartres and then placed a charge. Because of the lack of air flow the blast fumes did not clear quickly. They exited the cave, planning to return in the future to do some more digging. They had an 18 hour trip.

The other eight cavers made it back to base camp in a leisurely 8 hours, ate a meal and went to sleep. On Sunday morning two survey teams were formed. Jeff, Joe, Ron and Tina formed a team and headed back to the Eveready Canyon area. Their survey focus was the northern crawling continuation of Fizzle Borehole and the northern continuation of the dangerous climb that Danny Dible had done on the previous trip. They first pushed north from Fizzle Borehole. The passage trended mainly west-northwest. At station 67 they encountered a side lead. A few hundred feet beyond this intersection the passage hit a wide room and then turned into a sinuous 6 high by 2 wide canyon. They went back to the side lead and mapped many stations more to the west. They decided to stop the survey although the passage continued, to scoop some bigger passage at Danny's Dangerous Dome. This passage took the team through a series of migrating shaft complexes and ultimately ended in breakdown. They returned to Base Camp having placed 80 stations and 2400+ feet of survey.

The other survey team consisted of Peter, Danny, Mike and George. They journeyed back to the northwestern Other World. The passage was taking very good air flow. It was mainly crawling and some stooping. They placed 55 stations to KK185 where they intersected a 15 foot diameter tube trending north south. The World Beyond turned into the world with no floor. The tube had a canyon in the middle of the floor that ranged from one foot to eight feet wide and up to 40 feet deep, belying out below. The tube was covered in mud making for treacherous footing. The team was only able to survey in the southern direction. After about 400 feet and a couple of dangerous traverses the tube terminated in breakdown. To the north the tube was too dangerous to traverse. A rope and vertical gear will be necessary to continue. They did some mop up survey and on the way out picked off a northern lead at station KK97. They placed 20 stations in this passage before encountering a low slimy crawl blocked by some breakdown that needed moving to continue. They returned to Base Camp with 100 stations and about 2300+ feet of survey.

In summary two survey teams placed 180 stations for approximately 4780 feet to increase the length of Fisher Ridge Cave to 68.35 miles.

In related news of cave lengths I recently called the folks at Wind Cave and found that Wind Cave is presently 73 miles in length, a mere 4.65 miles longer than Fisher Ridge. Wind will continue to grow, but Fisher Ridge is growing faster.

Fisher Ridge Summary December, 1993 V11 N11 By Peter Quick

One trip into Fisher Ridge occurred during November over the Thanksgiving weekend. Only three cavers, Peter Quick, Larry Bean and Brian Davis, entered the cave for a short three day trip from Saturday to Monday. On their way back to the basecamp in Northtown Ave. they stopped to do some mop up survey in Chartres Ave. They mapped two loops for 350 feet of survey. Sometime later on their inward trip they took a detour in the Northtown Throughway to finish the survey down to the baselevel Lost Lagoon. They added another 340 feet of survey. Basecamp was finally reached 11 hours after entering the cave.

The next morning camp was packed up and the team headed to survey the high tube at the entrance of Eveready Canyon. The survey progressed smoothly nearly due south paleo upstream for 1000 feet where the passage split. A nice tube 4 feet high by 8 feet wide took off to the southeast. The survey kept to the right, the due south direction, where after a few stations it intersected a large dome complex. After a half hour of poking around Brian realized that the team was in the same dome complex that had terminated Steve Miller's old survey off the end of Chartres Maze. A tube was followed to an overlook to another passage on the other side of a 35 foot deep pit. A traverse to the other passage was not possible. A flagged survey station on the other side could be seen. After about a half hour of lead checking Brian found a low mud tube that wound its way over to the other passage around the side of the impossible traverse. Peter tossed the tape across the pit to him and they completed the loop. A bypass to Penny Lane had been found. They then turned their survey sights on the end of a canyon passage near the dome that Brian had left off in last January. After 160 feet they intersected a large canyon passage 5 feet wide by 15 feet high. Peter reckoned it would lead to the NT13 Canyon. They named the passage Eclipse Canyon. They surveyed paleo downstream and after 350 feet, tied their survey into the NT13 Canyon survey.

The final part of the survey pushed Eclipse Canyon in a southeast direction for 820 feet. The passage was scouted ahead for another 500 feet with no end in sight. The much anticipated trip out of the cave bypassing Penny Lane then commenced. The bypass passage had no name. It was named The Other Way. Peter decided that The Other Way exit bypassing Penny Lane was like the medicine that cured the disease but killed the patient instead. It sucked. There were many hundred feet of flat out belly whomp on damp gritty sand and rocks, along with a good amount of cheese grater rock crawls. There was more stoop walking however, for what it was worth.

All in all 110 stations were placed for 3260 feet of survey for the weekend pushing the cave's length to about 69 miles.

FIVE DAY BASE CAMP PLANNED

The next planned trip to Fisher Ridge is going to be a major five day base camp over the New Years weekend, from Friday morning Dec 31 to Tuesday afternoon January 4th.

OTHER KENTUCKY NEWS

There has been increased activity in Vinegar Ridge Cave since the Northtown Ridge breakthrough. Trips are being made to the southern parts of Vinegar Ridge to push toward Fisher Ridge. The Fizzle Trunk area of Fisher Ridge is now no more than 2000 feet away, probably less, from the southern end of Vinegar Ridge. The Vinegar Ridge Cave system is the downstream extension on the Eveready Canyon section of the Fisher Ridge Cave System. During a recent conversation with Vinegar Ridge surveyors it was found that their cave was 8.3 miles long. Depressingly it was also found that their survey standards were not very good. Their vertical control was nearly non existent. Meaning that they didn't bother with inclinometer shots for the most part. It amazes me that folks will spend the time to do a lousy survey but not the extra few minutes to do an excellent survey especially in what anyone in the Kentucky area could guess would either turn into a major cave or tie into a major cave system.

In other Kentucky news an attempt to put together a regional cave/topo overlay map is underway. The map will be at a scale of 2000 feet to the inch and will range from Hidden River cave to the east to Wigpistle cave to the west. All major caves in between are to be included. Over 500 miles of mapped cave will be represented. Groups involved in the project include the CRF, the CKKC (Ropple cavers), James Cave cavers, the ACCA, the Fisher Ridge Project and various other interested cavers. The map will be five to six feet long and about three feet wide and will be made available only to members of the contributing cave survey projects. It will be titled "Caves of the Dripping Springs Cuesta" the local geomorphic name of the Chester Cuesta, the area where all the caves to be included on the map are located. The exact cost and production methods are not yet known. The map should be completed by the spring of 1994 if not earlier.