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VOLUME 01 ISSUE 03

October 24, 2010

FAMILY ROSTER - Check it out!

SPANISH MOSS CAVING FUN

Those of you that know my 16 year old son Adam, know him to be a wonderful son. He is full of both energy and talents. He is not malicious, and he strives to look out for the feelings and needs of others first. But his greatest talent is that of being full of energy without a lot of thought for the outcome that results from inadvertently directing his energy. Let me take you back several years ago when Adam was midway through elementary school. Adam Leavitt

“Mr. Leavitt, thank you for coming in to see me today,” said the principal of Adam’s grade school as he sat across the formal desk in his formal office. “The reason I called you in today is that I have a report from a teacher about Adam that could result in the expulsion of your son from the school.”

My mind flooded with all of the things that Adam may have done, and kind of wriggled in my seat in anticipation of what deplorable thing my son might have done.

“Well you see Mr. Leavitt, as his class was walking down the hallway in the single file line to the lunch room, he stepped out of line and did a cartwheel.”

SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL 2010

Adam jumping boulders at the 2010 Shakespeare Festival at SUU in Cedar City, Utah - 10/09/2010

“And?” I said.

“And his inconsideration of others could have caused an injury to someone else,” he said with a completely straight face. Continuing without any remark from me, “The teacher that witnessed him doing this said it was done close to a corner in the merging hallway, and that somebody could have easily gotten hurt by him flipping in the hallway and hitting them.”

Dumbfounded, I just started laughing and said, “You’re really serious aren’t you?” Still laughing I said, “Mr. Pew, if that is the worst thing that my son is doing, then I am just fine with that. Now I will speak with him about being more aware of what is going on around him, but he isn’t swearing, he isn’t doing drugs, he isn’t stealing, and he isn’t being disrespectful with girls. In fact, he doesn’t display a malicious bone in his body. Sure he is a bit flighty and it is difficult for him to sit in a chair most of the day, but to consider expulsion for the hallway cartwheel is simply ridiculous.”

And with that, the Principal started to smile and we kind of giggled about what was happening. In an unofficial way, he was in complete agreement with me. He knew that I was very involved as a parent with my kids and the school. He knew that I had a good relationship with my son. And he also knew that Adam was a really good kid! But Adam was still a young man full of energy, and while this often resulted in unexpected cartwheels, that energy is one of his greatest assets.

As a result of the grade school moments of thoughtless energy outbursts, I made a commitment to get Adam lots of energetic releases. We put Adam in soccer, T-ball, baseball, ballroom dance, as well as numerous outdoor activities. Adam started backpacking early, canoeing, rowing, sailing, he ran junior high school track, played 10th grade football, and I have even taken him kayaking on the Provo River. Adam proved to be a good swimmer, and incredible on a trampoline and/or diving board. He expressed early interest to rock climb and I took him to a climbing gym. After the very first session, I knew that if he was let loose with the rock climbing crowd that he would be dead within just a couple of years. His climbing antics reminded me of the first time I took him caving in the Nutty Putty Cave at about 6 years of age. He loved crawling through the tight passages, and this led me to get back involved in caving as a way to let my son explore and climb in a much safer environment. Without his great need to climb, I never would have taken on the www.NuttyPuttyCave.com project. Rock climbing often results in great risk and great falls, while caving can generate as much excitement and burning of energy, yet without a majority of the risks associated with outdoor rock climbing.

So at 16 years of age, Adam is now an experienced caver. He is a member of the National Speleological Society, as well as a member of the local Timpanogos Grotto caving club. Adam was very willing to participate in the Nutty Putty Cave death rescue attempts last year just before Thanksgiving, and this was a sobering event that helped him reel into check some of his own thoughtless actions. Adam is also comfortable climbing, rappelling, and ascending vertical ropes, while being small enough to navigate even the most compact and longest of tight passages underground. His Boy Scout Eagle Project deals with photographing formations in the Spanish Moss Cave, and it was for this purpose that we took another trip to the cave this past Saturday. I will include the 175 photo slide show below, as well as the Trip Report that we submitted following our day of exploring and fun.

Turn your speakers up and enjoy the slide show!

SPANISH MOSS CAVE SLIDESHOW

SLIDESHOW MUSIC: Sugarland - Happy Ending, Tom Petty, Free Falling

CAVING TRIP REPORT

DESTINATION: Spanish Moss Cave

DATE: 10/16/2010

SUBMITTED BY: Michael Leavitt

TRIP LEADER: Adam Leavitt

TRIP PARTICIPANTS: Michael Leavitt, Arturo Jessop, Chris Clarke, Dave Dixon

DEPARTURE: 8:15 AM

RETURN TO PARKING LOT: 3:30 PM

EXPLORATION: We explored all of the known cave, including the tight southern side passage half way down the cave.

ACCIDENTS: Adam slipped while searching the possible south wall features while going down the big slide. He was on rope and found himself slipping and tumbling down the side wall. Still having the rope in his figure 8, it prevented his falling down the big slide and into the features below. This was a good reality check for a 16 year old young man because the temptation is always there to do this type of climbing exploration off rope. Michael (49) also slipped on the muddy big slide while coming back up to the drop in point. At 6’7” 220 pounds, any slip results in bruises. This one found him falling on his left knee cap. The protruding rock made solid impact right through the built-in knee pads of his caving suit. At the same time the knee hit, so did his right hand resulting in a wrist sprain. More bruised than anything was his ego as he realizes that he is getting older. The big downward slide is slippery and care should always be taken. This group used hand ascenders all the way up and that saved any major injuries.

CONDITIONS: The cave was extremely dry compared to other trips in the last 18 months. Even the little cascading water drip feature at the bottom where the register is placed was 98% dry with no visible water flowing. The majority of the cave floor was slick, but not to the point that hand lines were needed through the lower formation explorations.

TRIP PURPOSE: This trip was yet another to help complete Adam Leavitt’s BSA Eagle Project. The project is a photo logging trip that compares 1976 photos of the formations with 2010 photos.

ADDED TRIP PURPOSE: We left a Sun Nuclear 1028 radon monitoring machine inside the cave to take 100 hourly measurements to see what levels are present. The machine was tucked away in an unseen small passage as you start to climb up and over from the main cave passage. The hypothesis is that the readings will be above the EPA acceptable levels of 4 p/Cil since many of the homes along the same bench area below Rock Canyon have elevated radon readings.

FUN ASPECTS: The trip turned from scientific based to pleasure since two of the trip members had never officially explored the depths of a wild cave. Both Arturo and Chris deserved to experience vertical caving in a fashion that would allow them the greatest “Wow” factor. Both had practiced vertical caving indoors at the Timpanogos Grotto vertical caving training in the Hansen Mountaineering indoor climbing gym and they have been accumulating both gear and courage. Both have climbing experience and they were set to explore.

Once the rope was rigged by Michael, Adam dropped the first drop and waited for Arturo and Chris to drop to that point. Arturo was then double checked and sent downward to Adam. Adam triple checked his gear and let Arturo be the first to rappel to the cave floor. Slowly and cautiously, with wondrous awe, Arturo used his 300 lumen fireman led light to blast the large passage with light while he descended. With that much light he could see all the way down the big slide. Once off rope it was Chris’ turn and he became the second explorer in the main cave.

Exploring a beautiful wild show cave with first timers is an incredible experience, as their excitement is infectious and takes one back to their first experiences. We let Arturo and Chris use their maps and figure out where they were going. Neither of them had any real idea of what to expect, and they were blown away by the features. The hairy helectites drew much attention, as did the columns and bacon.

Without a doubt, Arturo was much more comfortable with the thoughts of tight passages and darkness. Chris is a great rock climber, but it was obvious that he was tackling some real fears on this trip. We signed the register at the bottom and then took off our harnesses to make the crawl back to the Coffin Room. Once there we talked about cave endings, recently rescued Columbian miners, being trapped in darkness, and an overall debriefing of our trip thus far. I then told them of a challenge I do with older Boy Scouts and that is to turn all of the lights off and try to climb back out through the tight passage with nothing but your non-visible senses and you memory of the passage. Arturo was game and he took off inching his way back out. Chris declined and I told him that was perfectly fine. Chris then shared a time when as a young Boy Scout his leaders took them in a dark cave, had the boys turn off the lights, and then the leaders took their lights and left them in the dark, only to jump out and scare the boys as they were trying to get out... Now that is an evil twist and one that left permanent emotional scars on the young men (Shame on them). Instead of building confidence, those leaders created long term fear. Every caving trip leader needs to understand that they are supposed to be building confidence in all of their trip participants.

I was impressed at the eagerness with which both Arturo and Chris were ready to explore the tighter and much longer southern side passage. Looking down the hole, I expected them to balk. Adam was great as he went in to explore with Arturo while the rest of us took all sorts of crazy great pictures. Once they returned, Dave and Chris fully explored the same passage.

NUTTY PUTTY MOMENT: Before Arturo entered the south side passage, I asked him if he had his 50’ of brand new blue 1” webbing, and he got it out of his pack and shoved it in his pocket. Not sure why he needed it, we had a Nutty Putty moment and I told him that even though the passage was clearly on the map, it might choke off too tight and the caver in front of him might need a pulling assist to back out. The webbed belting was to wrap around the feet of the caver in front of him. We discussed when it was appropriate to enter a passage head first verses feet first. It was a good reality check and gave him the chance to break out some of his new gear. It is interesting to note that new cavers want to know the best practices of safe caving. They really want to know how to be safe. They also want to learn from the errors of others, and we need to be willing/ready to both teach and share.

ENDORSEMENTS: I was very impressed with our newest vertical cavers Chris Clarke and Arturo Jessop. Both exhibited great dispositions and were wonderful assets on our trip. They were teachable, humble, and very good natured. I was also impressed with their preparations as both had been planning for the trip and preparing all week for the experience. Arturo and Chris were also very responsible in their caving ethics, and even though both of them do crazy risk-taking things in normal life above ground, both were extremely careful and deliberate underground. Chris loves rock climbing and mountain biking, while Arturo loves climbing, exploring, and his is a certified paragliding instructor. I have no reservations about including both in any future trips that I either participate, plan or lead. I completely endorse them as younger, stronger, excellent learning vertical cavers that will be an asset to any horizontal or vertical trip.