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Jamaican Caving Notes |
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Jamaican Caving Notes |
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November 18, 2002 LIEBERT'S GREAT HOLE, MAROON TOWN, JAMAICA FIELD NOTES: I. C. CONOLLEY Cavers: I. C. Conolley, R. S. Stewart, M. Taylor (at the top) And now it’s November; the rains have battered Jamaica this year. And after heavy flood rains in May again the floods came in September and October and really gave us a washing. So once again not really the best caving time. But we are on the move again. and yes it is the Maroon Town area again. We are back at Magees to check out the sinkhole. We look down. It may be about thirty feet. Stef finds a tree and commences to secure the rope. We will have to use descenders and ascenders for this one. The drop is sheer. With the rope securely tied, he lowers the rope. That’s it. Malibu is on the other side of the hole to observe the rope’s descent. It’s a one hundred foot rope, more than enough. He has lowered all of it. “How’s that?” shouts Stef. “It not touching the bottom,” is Malibu’s reply. Stef is baffled. “How much more?” “About a foot or two.” Unbelievable, the hole is that deep. Well, there is enough rope but he will have to retie the rope around the tree with less of a loop. This done and the exercise repeated Stef again shouts to Malibu, “How’s the rope?” It’s good this time. By now I am all geared up ready for the descent. This will be my second descent and the first using my spanking new gear. It feels good. The sinkhole is possibly about eighty feet deep. Stef says he will go first. He makes sure I am good, expresses some reassuring words to calm any frayed nerves I may have on facing such a descent and he is off. Off the top and down the hole and moving pretty swiftly, using feet as well, until he is hanging free on the rope and lowering himself with the figure 8 descender. “Off rope”, we hear coming from the depths. And he looks like an ant there at the bottom of the hole. Now is when you get a sense of the depth. Indeed it is no thirty foot drop. I loop the rope and slide it into my descender, pull on the rope, leaning my weight against it, checking the tension, just instinct, I suppose. Stef had just come off the rope. It had to be strong and holding. I am off the top and lowering myself. My feet are on the side of this abyss. For a brief moment I am lowering myself and not simultaneously moving my feet. Then I remember, not a good idea. You don’t want your head to be lower than your feet. You know, your feet on the side of the hole and you are still lowering your upper body. Outside looking in it would be comical but upside down is not the descenders mode. Yes absolute danger. Get those feet moving down. Yes, bend the knees and push off from the side. Aha, there you go, and you swing out and back on to the dirt again. Get the co-ordination going. Push away, lower yourself, push, lower. Yea, that’s the hang of it. No pun intended. Then you are hanging loose. The diameter of the opening has increased some 15 feet down. There is not foot hold anymore and so its just a lowering action now. If you are expert you can do this very fast I think. And continue my systematic movement. You put your trust in a rope and your equipment. Really if these are okay you are okay. So you make sure they are. At times like these you reflect that the manufacturers earn their pay. Stef is down there poking around. Malibu is on top observing the rope. Then my feet touch the ground. Another easing of the rope and I have landed. “Off rope”, and I join Stef. The sink hole has a cave, but it is several feet up, and so we must have a ladder or another rope to get up there. It is an exciting observation. The opening is large, over six feet in diameter. This lends to further exploration. This sinkhole is not mapped so we will have our work cut out for us when we decide to fully explore this one. We had dropped the rope on the lower side of the sinkhole. The opposite side is perhaps a good ten feet higher; not possible to tell from the top. This opposite side has a peculiar rock. From the distance it seems like black mud and you expect to slide on it as you climb, prepared to sink you heels and feet in for a firm foothold only to discover it does not give and the semi-rough surface provides good traction so no slipping. But what is it. You strike it. It is solid rock. It is not crusty. There is some crusty flaking light brown dirt nearby but this is not at all like that. It is solid rock. Okay, something else to research. We poke around for a while longer then decide to emerge from our pit. Stef goes first. I make sure I recall what to do before I release him. Then there he goes sliding up the rope. He has suggested that I start my climb, like himself, higher on the floor to save myself a few feet of climbing. I agreed. It seemed like a good idea at the time. But I soon discovered that it was easier said than done. When he shouted off rope and I grabbed it, faced with the reality, I knew that I would not be starting from that higher point. I will climb the extra feet. I would have had to pull the rope away from its vertical location and on committing my full weight to it would find myself swinging hither and thither. I would find that a bit unsettling at this early time of my rope climbing career so opted to rely on my strength and endurance rather than on my love of new adventure. All geared up and linked to the rope, checking the grip on the ascender, and for a moment did not quite know how to get going, I was about to shout to Stef as to how to get started then chastised myself for my lack of faith and thought it through. I pulled on the bottom of the rope and yes that was all that was needed to give me to tension to make a start. Already I had put a rock in my knapsack which was secured at the end of the rope and which served to keep the end of the rope on the ground and thereby the tension. I then proceeded like a frog, hopping my way though space suspended by a length of 1/2 inch rope. Half-way up I paused and looked around and down. Stef had said not to look down. Well I did. Well it was far. And yes you would not want to fall. Heading up again, I commenced the climb. The hardest part was back in the area of the narrowing diameter, getting the upward movement yet having to use ones feet to stay away from the side. But soon it was up and over and once again on terra firma. Did he say up in twenty-five minutes and that was not bad for a beginner? Okay.. thanks. It was cool. Yeah, I would do it again. No, not nervous but just a bit confused as to how to get started coming up. Yeah man ... great. Ready again. |
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