On 9 January, 2000, Ashley and I went to Rainbow Pit Cave which is just a short ways from our house, in the Rainbow Mountain Trails area which is under siege by developers. We met with two wonderful chaps from the Huntsville grotto of the National Speliological Society, Kurt Butefish and Carl Craig. They showed us how to rappel into the cave, and set us up with all the necessary gear. Here are some shots of Ashley's first exposure to vertical caving...
Here she is connecting the Jumar (an ascending device) to the rope. Carl Craig is a wonderfully patient fellow who showed Ashley how to rig her own gear and took great care to ensure that she wasn't frightened.
Here she has the Jumar and a rappel rack for descending - she's putting her weight on the rope and stepping into the hole.
Into the abyss!
I think she is enjoying this...
Bye! You can see the light of the other caver (Kurt Butefish) just to the right of Ashley. He is about 25 feet below her, and the bottom of the main chamber. Just a foot or two below her level in this picture, she was hanging free and controlled her own rappel all the way down. She claims to be ready to do this again anytime...
Here's a map of the cave:
We only went into the largest chamber. The lower part of the pit is pretty tight and not much to see. The upper part of the pit is very pretty, with a lot of flowstone and "bacon" or flat, hanging flowstone. This cave is in a heavily developed area, and only a few hundred feet from a subdivision. I suspect that the developer will seal the cave by placing a large boulder over the entrance to avoid potential lawsuits from idiots. Too bad...