Crevice June 5, 2010

[Chads93gt]

In attempts to resurvey the sump to the Eternity Room bell formation, in preparation for the sump dive mapping trip in July with the OCDA, Tyler Allen, Shawn Williams, Chris Doerhoff, Ian King, Krista Bartel and I dropped Echo Pit and headed out towards the Eternity Passage. We made good time until Ian's boot fell apart at the sole. It literally ended up coming off, which was unfortunate. By time we reached the junction at the Paradise room he had to perform surgery on his boot with some zipties I brought. Apparently his roomate stole his caving boots and he was forced to wear his steel toe boots from walmart. I have to say, my walmart boots are still going strong and haven't failed me in about 8 months now. Some boots simply fall apart without notice. I've had it happen to me in a cave before, and it was a painful experience.
After he got his boot repaired so he could at least walk on it, I called the survey trip to an end before it even got started, for obvoius reasons. We left via Merlins passage and out of the Pipistrel entrance. I took some of the guys through Independence Avenue to look at the lilly pads, and then up into Broadway to look at the gypsum crystals that have formed there. Everyone made it out safely and we were only in the cave forr 5.5 hours once we got started. Not too shabby considering one person's foot fell off.