Prince of Wales Island 2023 caving expedition

This past week July 8th thru July 15th, I returned to Prince of Wales Island for a week long caving expedition. I was there for a week last summer as part of a Glacier Grotto/US Forest Service expedition to explore and map unexplored caves on the island. This year we were returning to continue exploration of caves we left going last year, and to start exploring new caves in the area.

I was most excited to return to Fast and Heavy Cave, a cave on El Cap Peak (several hundred feet from the famous El Cap Pit, the deepest pit in the US) that we first entered and started exploring last year. Last year we made it down several drops to ~270 ft deep and turned around at an open pit taking water and sucking air because we ran out of bolts on the last day of the expedition. I had been thinking about that lead for the entire year since then! What lie beyond that pit? More and bigger shafts descending deeper into the mountain? Miles of borehole taking all the water that seeps into the earth on the mountain and reappears thousands of feet below? Now it was time to return and find out!

We had 13 people on the expedition this year—Amelia Fatykhova, Anna Harris, Christian DeCelle, Ellen Whittle, Gooseberry Peter, Hannah Keith, Ian Chechet, Ian Clark, Jared Higgs, John Dunham, Michael Ketzner, Reilly Blackwell, and myself (photo credits to all of them for the pictures on this blog post!). The plan was for 6 of us (me, Christian, Michael, Amelia, Reilly, and John) to hike up to El Cap Peak and camp up there for 4 days, close to the caves up there, to continue exploration of the caves up there that we started last year. We were only hiking up to 2400 ft, but the peak is without real trails and full of dense vegetation, so the approach still took some effort. Christian, Michael and I would return to Fast and Heavy, while Amelia, Reilly and John would return to Jessica’s Razorblade Rodeo, a cave they found and started exploring last year. The others would stay at basecamp next to the ocean and the El Cap guide cabin and spend their days exploring caves on the neighboring Kosciusko Island and lower down on El Cap Peak.

The 6 of us (L to R: Amelia, Michael, Reilly, Christian, Me, John) at the El Cap guide cabin down at the ocean, about to head up El Cap Peak for 4 days

After way too long packing and repacking our bags that morning (as always), we set off for El Cap Peak at 9am. This year we had a cut and flagged trail to follow most of the way up, which was a nice contrast from last year when we were questing through dense brush and up steep gullies with big boulders for most of the way. Christian, Hannah, Ian Clark and Jared did an excellent job of cutting and flagging the trail up there in the weeks leading up to the expedition—huge shoutout to them! Another pleasant difference from last year was that the brush was dry because it had been sunny without rain for several days prior, so we didn’t get soaked from walking through wet vegetation, as we all did last year.

One of the many gorgeous views on the hike up to El Cap Peak

We arrived at our high camp right at noon. 3 hours for that approach is not too bad considering it took us that amount of time or longer last year with daypacks. This year we had camping gear, 4 days worth of food, much more rope and drill batteries and bolts, in addition to all of our caving gear. I had the big 18V Bosch drill, not the lightweight M12s that all the other teams were using, so my pack was especially heavy. The cut and flagged trail (and some of the rope and bolts being stashed most of the way up) really made a huge difference.

 

Ready to hike up El Cap Peak with 525 ft of 11mm rope, among other things. Heavy!

Despite carrying so much weight up the hill, one thing we stupidly did not pack enough of was day food. We all had plenty of food for breakfast and dinner (me and Christian shared a darren drum full of dinner mix that I made, very loosely based off the Cheve dinner mix recipe), but for some reason when we packed day food we all just grabbed a few fistfuls of snacks, shoved it into our packs, and thought “good enough”. Well, it was not good enough—we were all consistently hungry during the days despite eating huge breakfasts and dinners. I even devolved to bringing a stick of butter into the cave (which we had to add to the dinner mix) and eating that straight off the stick in the cave for the calories. Next time bring more snacks!

 

One food item we did have that was quite nice was homemade dried salmon. The previous week, Anna caught a bunch of salmon, and Christian dried them in the oven and vacuum sealed them so we could take them into the caves for snacks. Eating chunks of delicious Alaskan salmon in the cave was quite the morale booster. Thanks Anna and Christian!

 

Some freshly caught Alaskan salmon, courtesy of Anna, that we cooked for dinner one night at basecamp

Cooking dinner at high camp up on El Cap Peak

Our campsite was a set of flat, open shores next to 2 small ponds for water. The ponds were brown, shallow, stagnant, and full of mosquito larvae. Not the ideal water source, but it would get the job done. We had a filter, altho we quickly clogged it trying to filter the sediment-filled water. Christian and I decided to just drink the water straight, as we were annoyed trying to deal with the finicky filter. The others instead treated the water with the backup chemical treatment options they brought, and used a cloth bag to filter out the larger sediment and the mosquito larvae squirming around in the water. Neither of us got sick.

Our scenic camp up on El Cap Peak, with our gross brown water source visible

I didn’t want to haul a tent all the way up there, but rain was a real possibility, if not a certainty (Prince of Wales island is a rainforest after all). So I decided to experiment with some tarpology for my camp setup. I strung a tarp over a flat piece of ground by tying the corners to trees and rocks, and used a contractor trash bag as my ground sheet. This setup did indeed keep me dry when it rained later that week. A shelter setup with weight comparable to those $$$ ultralight backpacking tents, with $10 of parts from the hardware store—not bad!

 

My “ultralight” shelter setup: a tarp, which I tied to some trees and rocks, and a contractor trash bag as my ground sheet. This kept me plenty dry in the rain. Ultralight backpacking on a budget!

We broke this filter trying to filter water with too much sediment in it

        
We took our time unpacking and repacking our bags at camp, as we were carrying a mix of gear to be left at camp and to be brought to the caves. By the time we got to Fast and Heavy it was already 4pm. The others down at basecamp wanted us to radio that we were OK every day before 8pm, so we only had a few hours to cave that first day. That day I just rigged down to last year’s low point, while fixing some of the janky exploration rigging from last year (making all rebelays 2 bolts, putting some pitch head anchors in a better spot, etc). This took longer than it should have because the 400 ft rope I was using to rig was in a caver coil that got all tangled up as I tried to uncoil it. I can’t stand caver coils! While I dealt with the horribly tangled rope, Christian and Michael resketched some parts of Fast and Heavy from last year that lacked detail.

Christian near the top of the cave (at A5) adding detail to the sketch, while I took my time rigging

I got to the low point from last year (A12 [the profile lineplot is at the end of this blog post, so you can see where these survey stations are in the cave]), rigged the pit that we turned around at least year, but the drill battery died before I could get a rebelay below the lip, so we turned around there day 1 without getting to the bottom of that pit. From above, it didn’t look that promising—it looked like a breakdown plug. We would have to return tomorrow to see where that pit went, if it went anywhere.

 

Christian approaching the second rebelay in the Fast and Loose Shaft (between A10 and A11), the nice big drop we dug into last year

Me doing some rerigging near the entrance, at A4. My cave suit is as clean as it will be all week!

The next day I continued rigging while Christian and Michael surveyed (which is how it went the whole trip). I got to the bottom of that short, 30ft pit, which had a breakdown floor with a too tight breakdown filled crawl going off from the bottom (A15). Altho the crawl was too tight as it was, it looked like a super easy, highly promising dig, as I could easily remove small breakdown from the floor to make it passable, and the too tight passage continued out of sight. I immediately jumped in the crawl and started hurling rocks out of it as fast as I could.

 

Michael rappelling down the first new pit we explored in Fast and Heavy this year (A13)

One thing I noticed when digging out this crawl that was new from last year was strong airflow. The crawlway was sucking quite a bit of air, very noticeable. Last year there was some air at the small pit entry that we turned around, but it was quite faint—you couldn’t feel it, but rather you could see the mist moving in front of your headlamp, probably because it was cold outside. Now there was a genuine wind in the crawl that I could feel chilling my face. I knew this cave was gonna go! There was also some wet sloppy mud in this crawl cementing the rocks together. The mud was quite cold (we used the BRIC4 to measure the cave temperature: 37.8 F, colder than we thought). With the ripping air and the wet mud I had to dig vigorously to stay warm.

 Me covered in mud, in contrast to Michael who is squeaky clean, after digging out the muddy crawl. Somehow this always seems to happen when I cave: I always get covered in slime while everyone else stays clean!

Another interesting thing I found while digging open this crawl was a set of 3 bones, likely from a bird (?), buried in the breakdown. Christian took them out of the cave (with official USFS permission) so they can be identified and dated. I look forward to hearing about what they are and how old they are—I bet they are quite old, given that they were buried in the breakdown several hundred feet deep in the cave [update: the forest service got the bones dated, and they are 3430 years old. And they are raven bones. Cool!].

Bird (?) bones we found in Fast and Heavy (collected with USFS permission)

The passage was open enough for me to fit thru after around one hour of digging. Towards the end of the dig, I started throwing rocks down the passage and heard them free fall for 2-3 seconds followed by several seconds of crashing down the walls of whatever pit lay beyond. We had a big pit in front of us! Once I saw the passage was large enough to fit through, I squeezed through and saw the pitch head as a large pile of blocks. I kicked at one and the whole floor started collapsing beneath me. Yikes! I quickly retreated to further up the crawl where there was no danger of the floor collapsing beneath me into the pit. Digging closer to the pitch head would have to be done on rope. The huge crashing sounds made by all the falling rocks as the floor fell away told me that this pit was huge, and that we certainly didn’t have enough rope for it. I told Christian and Michael to return to the top of the 400 ft 9mm rope that we had used to rig all but the entrance pit, and start cutting it between pits so we would have more rope available.

While they did that, I continued trundling in the part of the crawl far away enough from the pitch head that there was no risk of falling in the pit. When I was done with that, I put 2 bolts in the crawl and started trundling closer to the pitch head. Christian informed me that he could hear (and feel, through the cave walls) the deep rumbling bass sounds of the large rocks crashing below, even when he was several hundred feet above the pitch head cutting ropes. For that reason we ended up naming the pit The Bass Drop. After around 3 hours of trundling, the pit was ready to drop. I rigged down to a sloping ledge; another half hour trundling there. Rebelay around the corner (to keep people and the rope as far away as possible from rockfall) and repeat at the next ledge. Below the second rebelay is where the pit opened up from a merely 10ft wide, pleasant pit, to a monstrous, gigantic chamber, ~30ft wide by ~100 ft long. I rappelled to the backup knot at the end of the rope and was dangling in space, away from any walls, with my headlamp on high to see a breakdown ledge at the bottom of the pit below me, with several large holes in the breakdown. There was a massive boulder on the breakdown ledge, which I called The Iceberg, as it resembled an iceberg sticking out of the water. I came back up, Christian and Michael surveyed to near the end of the rope, and we exited the cave, triumphant and eager to return with the next day more rope.

Christian rappelling down the top pitch of The Bass Drop

Golden hour on our hike back to camp from Fast and Heavy on day 1

The next day, we returned with 325’ of 11mm rope that we took from the other team. Their cave, Jessica’s Razorblade Rodeo, ended up not going (altho they said there is a good looking high lead in it), so they didn’t need that rope that day as they were back in ridgewalking mode. We hauled that rope down the cave and I rappelled to the large breakdown ledge that I saw from far above the day before. The Iceberg was actually a large bedrock square-topped pillar, not a boulder. I poked around the breakdown ledge a little bit before rigging down the most obvious large, stable hole in the breakdown straight below the rope. There was at least one other spot to go down that I noted as a lead. This led to a small ledge with one more 10 ft nuisance rappel down to a nice tall 6 ft wide walking canyon passage. The pit ended up being 380 ft deep in total—quite deep! The floor of this canyon was steeply descending breakdown. I followed it around a corner and the breakdown floor disappeared and gave way to a very tight, but passable, crack in the floor (A28). I chimneyed down it, got to a small space where I could barely turn my helmet, and saw another constriction to my side. Beyond that I could see a bigger (~5 ft diameter) pit. I could clearly fit into this pit, but not with my bobbin on, which was a dilemma as immediately beyond the 2 constrictions is the pit.

Me in the breakdown filled “horizontal” canyon passage near the bottom of Fast and Heavy (A26)

I dug at the breakdown before the crack while Christian and Michael surveyed down to me, figuring that that might be away around the tight crack. They had some trouble surveying down the long, 180 ft pitch in the large part of the pit, and they had to redo some shots on the way up. That pitch should probably have been broken up by a rebelay—for one, to make it so people don’t have to wait as long while the person above them ascends that pitch, and two, to keep the rope a little more out of the water, as that pitch does get drippy at the bottom.

Digging the breakdown floor before the crack wasn’t very promising, as some of the blocks were too big to move by hand. I rigged a rope above the crack and attempted to rappel into it, but I couldn’t fit with my bobbin on me. I then squeezed down the crack to the small space before the next restriction that leads to the bigger pit, then tried to get on rope, but I didn’t even have the space to turn my head downwards to look at my descender as I set it up. I pronounced that rappel too sketchy to do as is, and chimneyed back up.

Me squeezing through the constriction near the bottom of Fast and Heavy (A28). I fit through this constriction, but not with my descender on, which was a problem as right there I am dangling at the edge of a pit

Next, Christian gave it a shot. He got on rappel, got into the constriction, and knew he would fit, but figured it would be unwise to continue if we couldn’t follow him. We figured that that was it for Fast and Heavy this year, and turned around, content to leave that tight crack as an extremely promising, easy dig.

Christian setting up to attempt to rappel thru the constriction near the bottom of Fast and Heavy (at A28)

Team Fast and Heavy after our excellent day exploring to the bottom of the cave

The next day, which was day 4 and our last day up at our camp on El Cap Peak, we woke up to clear, sunny skies, which was a welcome change after the previous few days of rain and clouds. We pounced at the opportunity to dry off our soaking wet gear, so we wouldn’t have to put on wet clothes yet again, and also so we wouldn’t have to hike down with several pounds of water absorbed into all our stuff. After a slow, leisurely morning spent enjoying the sun, drying gear, and packing up camp, the 2 teams set off for our objectives for the last day. The other team wanted to return to a cave they found yesterday, Butter Sweet Cave, where they ran out of rope. This time it was their turn to take our rope because they had a going cave where they ran out of rope. Team Fast and Heavy wanted to just ridgewalk around a small knob ENE of camp. We were pretty beaten down, not from the caving and bushwhacking with heavy packs so much, but because we didn’t bring enough day food. We had a short ridgewalking day that day, and returned to camp to pack it up then hiked back down to the truck once we killed the last of our day food and started getting hungry.

Everyone drying off their gear during that rare sunny moment on the last day of our camp up on El Cap Peak

Me checking out a crack in the earth on our short ridgewalking day on El Cap Peak. This one didn’t go

We got back to our base camp by the ocean at a reasonable hour in mid-afternoon. It was hot and sunny out, so we drove straight to the dock to jump in the water and cool off instead of stopping at the cabin first. Jumping in the cold (in the 50s I think) water was so incredibly refreshing—swimming in large bodies of water was something that I had been missing in Albuquerque and was desperately craving. Jumping in the cold water after the long sweaty hike satisfied that craving for sure.

Team Fast And Heavy starting the hike down the mountain back to basecamp

When I stopped by the El Cap cabin after my swim, Ian Chechet was there. I told him all about everything we found, including the status of the crack at the bottom, that I fit but not with my descender on. He suggested that I try rappelling with a rappel device extended from my cowstail. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that! I figured we would try that next year when we returned to Fast and Heavy, as the next 2 days we were planning on caving on the adjacent Kosciusko island and in lowland caves near the road near basecamp.

The dock right next to basecamp where we would go swimming, and where we would start the boat ride across El Cap Straight to Kosciusko Island

The next day we were excited to check out some pits on nearby Kosciusko Island, or Kos as the locals call it. Kos is accessible by a half mile boat ride across the El Cap Straight. Anna shuttled us over in multiple rounds using a small inflatable skiff. After the short and scenic boat ride, we started hiking the 900’ up the hill on a nice flagged trail that Christian made. All the pits we were interested in are right at the edge of a muskeg, where the naturally acidic water drains off the muskeg into the forest. Where all of the little surface streams in the muskeg hit the forest at the edge of the muskeg, they immediately sink into large, open air surface pits. The acidic water is very promising for cave development.

 

 

The approach up to the muskeg on Kos. The lowlands in this are are all lush, green rainforest like this

The scenic half mile boat ride across the El Cap Straight from basecamp to Kosciusko Island

My task for the day was to continue rigging down Laser Eyes Pit, which Ian Chechet and Ellen Whittle and others had started down previously and left off as a visible, open pit that required a short traverse along a canyon to access. Right as I was gearing up to enter the cave, we got some bad news from Anna via our InReach that the inflatable skiff we had used to boat to the island had popped! She told us to stand by and not enter the caves until they figured out a plan.

We waited around for a few hours, longing for the caves and waiting to hear back from Anna. Thankfully, her and Gooseberry were able to repair the boat, and they gave us the OK to enter the caves, but they wanted us back early so we would have plenty of daylight to figure out how to get everyone back if the repair failed. With only a few hours of time left before we had to hike down, we all dashed in the caves, hoping to get as much done as possible in the short time we had.

Milling around on Kos island, waiting to go in the caves until we get a status update about the popped skiff

I started rigging down the beautiful entrance pit of Laser Eyes, which is reminiscent of the big open air pits you find in TAG. But I ran out of rope before I even got to the lead that Ian described to me. Silly me, we were supposed to bring more rope! I forgot about that in the mad dash to get into the cave that afternoon. While I was turning around, Christian noticed that there was another pit in the breakdown/dead log floor of the canyon that we were in, with a tight entrance. We chucked some rocks down it and they rattled for 4-5 seconds. While Christian surveyed the part of the cave we were able to get to, I started trundling rocks at the lip of the pit so we could use the remaining rope we had to go partway down it.

 

 

Two of the several beautiful, large, open air pits on Kos Island

 

By the time Christian was done surveying, I had trundled enough rocks down the pit for it to be safe to enter, and not even that tight at the entrance anymore. While I was digging I noticed incredible airflow going down the pit, although it was gusty, which means this passage must be very closely connected to the surface, likely via the other pits in the area. I suspect all these pits along the edge of the muskeg will connect into one nice little system.

One of the big open air pits on Kos Island. Where does it go!?

We were running low on time so I set a single bolt rebelay below the lip, quickly rappelled to the end of the rope, and came back up. At the end of the rope I was 10 ft above a ledge, and the pit continued visibly down below the ledge. An exciting lead for next year!

We all made it back to camp on the repaired skiff without issue that night. We had one more day left on the expedition before we had to pack up camp and head home, and people were discussing what objectives they wanted to do with that day. While most people wanted to do an easier objective, something closer to the road after a week of long, steep, off trail hikes to get to the caves, I was only thinking about that tight pit lead in Fast And Heavy.

Anna and Gooseberry repairing the popped skiff

After Ian suggested that I should have tried rappelling thru the squeeze with an extended rappel on a cowstail, I kept kicking myself for not trying that. I would have easily made it down the pit that way! That night, I suggested to Christian that we return to Fast and Heavy the next day as a day trip. I was mainly interested in dropping into that large hole in the breakdown on the other side of the breakdown ledge near the bottom of The Bass Drop, across from The Iceberg. But I also wanted to try rappelling through the squeeze. The suggestion to day trip back up there the day before we had to break camp at 4am was half-joking, but to my surprise he tentatively agreed, saying he would make the final decision that morning. Michael was not interested in returning the next day, but thankfully Reilly was very interested in going to Fast and Heavy—no surprise after how much we hyped up the cave.

The next morning Christian, Reilly, and I started up El Cap Peak one last time, planning to drop into the breakdown hole across the iceberg and possibly squeeze through the last pit if that lead didn’t go. This time we used one of the little M12 drills, instead of my massive Bosch, and carried Christian’s 50ft 8mm PMI dyneema+aramid rope as our only rope (we planned to enter via the second, horizontal entrance to avoid the need to carry the 200ft entrance rope, and we grabbed the 80ft entrance rope of Butter Sweet Cave that the other team had stashed near that entrance). Still, my pack felt heavier than I had hoped—more like an overnight pack, not a light daypack. At least we brought plenty of day food this time! Still, we made good time up the mountain, arriving at the cave in under 2 hours.

Christian, Reilly and I about to begin our one last day trip to to Fast and Heavy

I went in the horizontal entrance for the first time, which had one awkward small section. We blasted straight to the staging room (at 300 ft deep, the bottom of the first new drop we went down this year), and I unpacked and started gearing up there. I realized to my horror that I forgot the bolt kit at the surface. No worries, Christian went back up to the entrance to retrieve it while I went down and derigged the bottom part of the Bass Drop to use that rope to get to the other side of the huge breakdown ledge. By the time I was done derigging that rope and climbing back up to the second rebelay from the top, Christian had just gotten there with the bolt kit for me. I rigged an extra rebelay on the way down that keeps the rope out of the slightly drippy part of the pit and broke up that long 180 ft pitch, then rappelled over the saddle below The Iceberg to the other side of the breakdown ledge across The Iceberg. I rigged down into the black hole in the breakdown visible from far above (D3). From right above, it didn’t look good—looked like a breakdown plug. When I got down there, it was in fact a breakdown plug. I tried moving a few rocks and throwing small rocks into little gaps in the big breakdown—no signs that it was gonna go easily. Plus, the pit seemed likely to connect into the existing bottom of the cave, based on its direction. Another hole in the breakdown next to D3 visibly connected to the other way down to the bottom we took previously. Yet another hole in the breakdown on the other side of the iceberg (the side we originally went down) also ended in a large breakdown plug that could be dug on, but seemed to be heading towards known passage.

Me rigging the small pit at D3, which ended in large breakdown

Although none of the leads in that massive breakdown ledge complex ended up going, it was still cool to do that mopup just to explore that cool chamber. Previously we just rappelled straight down thru that huge chamber to the bottom. So it was nice to stop and really poke at all the side holes and understand what that massive chamber was doing, even if it wasn’t doing much. Interestingly, at the far side of that chamber was another small trickle of water, different than the main water we had been following since the bottom of the Fast and Loose Shaft. The large chamber in the middle of The Bass Drop is right at the confluence of 2 infeeders.

It was quite a refreshing change from the previous days to actually have enough food to eat during the day. That was the only time we finished the day with any food leftover, instead of finishing it long before the day was over. We brought a ziploc bag stuffed full of peanut butter as part of our food, which was a great calorie source (very efficient in calories per weight and calories per volume terms!). Here’s a funny video of Reilly feeding me by squeezing peanut butter out of the bag and into my mouth, because my hands were too muddy to handle the bag: 

 

 

With all the mopup leads from the large breakdown ledge in The Bass Drop killed, it was now time to return to the bottom and try to fit through the squeeze on rope. I rerigged the rope back down to the bottom. I let Christian go first, since he was definitely going to fit and it would be easier to have him take the drill thru the squeeze and rig a rebelay after the squeeze. He went first, set a bolt beyond the squeeze, and it was my turn to follow. I set up a munter hitch on my long cowstail (which had a locking carabiner on it) and carefully rappelled thru the squeeze, carefully verifying that I could move the other way back up thru every spot I squeezed thru. At the bottom I was greeted by yet another large breakdown plug. We spent an hour trying to dig thru the breakdown, but we were limited by the large size of the rocks and the lack of space to store the spoils we did manage to move. There was no air, and small rocks we threw down the breakdown didn’t echo or go anywhere. After an hour or so of digging while getting soaked by 38F water raining from above in the small pit, I pronounced the dig hopeless and started heading up. I got a proper survey thru to the bottom (770 ft deep!) before going thru the squeeze at the top of the final pit. Getting back up thru the tight squeeze was more difficult than I liked—I had to remove my ascenders and go off rope to fit. I wouldn’t want to do that on rope squeeze again without enlarging it at least a little bit.

Interestingly, there was no air at that constriction, despite there being howling air right above the bass drop and fainter but still visible air movement in the horizontal canyon passage right above that last pit. Where is that air going? At the last pit, you go down thru the constriction, then sideways thru one more constriction before popping into the bigger pit that marks the bottom. One can also follow that long skinny crack straight down, altho it’s tighter. It seems like a separate passage tho, as the part of that crack going down doesn’t appear to reconnect with that final pit. Maybe that tight crack takes the air? We would have to dig it open.

We exited the cave without any derigging—I merely took the carabiners we used (leaving all of the quicklinks, that we had on some of the bots, in place) and took some hangers that were no longer part of the rigging. I exited from the bottom in a little over an hour. Not bad for a 770 ft deep cave. We got back to base camp around 10:30 pm, not terribly late, but still inconvenient considering I had to pack up all my things and wake up at 3:30 am the next morning to drive to the ferry. It was after midnight by the time I got to bed that night.

ESPN stats time now! The cave ended up being 770 ft deep—the deepest cave on Prince of Wales Island, 2nd deepest cave in Alaska, and 43rd deepest cave in the US (26th if you exclude lava tubes). The Bass Drop at 380 ft is the 14th deepest in the US at the time of this writing.

Me right after exiting Fast and Heavy Cave for the last time that year

Me and Reilly, just after exiting Fast and Heavy and about to hike back down to base camp

The next day I made it to the ferry and made the first leg of my flight home before my overnight layover in Sea-Tac. Although I’m bummed that Fast and Heavy is more or less dead (with some promising but high effort digs left over), I’m still psyched for next year’s expedition. I want to know where that pit in Laser Eyes goes! And I want to drop into the infinitely many sinkholes and pits on El Cap Peak—I’m sure one of them will go deeper than Fast And Heavy.

 

A profile line plot of the cave

 

One last note: I'd like to thank the organizations that gave us grant funding for this trip. The Tongass National Forest generously funded all of the caving gear purchases for the expedition. We also received a Sara Corrie grant from the National Speleological Society and a Northern Rocky Mountain Grotto Small Grant which covered other expenses. Thanks all!