2006 Lechuguilla Cave Dome Climbing Expedition Summary
Dates: 7/2-7/7 2006
Expedition
Leader: Patrick Cicero
Team Members: Stan Allison, Dave Levy, Aaron Stockton
New Survey: 1200ft
The intent of this six day expedition to the Southwest Branch was to climb into the Trepidation Dome, a large approximately 30ft diameter opening in the ceiling of the Prickly Ice Cube room to look for continuing passage. The opening to the Trepidation Dome has a large stripe of corrosion residue, which often is indicative of airflow. The team consisted of four cavers, three of whom are technical lead climbers: Stan Allison, Patrick Cicero, and David Levy. In addition to the Trepidation Dome climb, the team intended to climb several other shorter high leads in the Southwest Branch.
The team started with one of the shorter high leads, a 25ft blank wall up on
the Prickly Ice Cube Room Overlook. Patrick, Dave, and Stan took turns leading
sections of this short but hand drilling intensive climb dubbed “HammerTime”.
The team used a combination of hooks, 5/16” removable bolts, and 3/8”
stainless steel bolts to aid their way up the A2 rated climb. Only two 3/8”
permanent bolts were placed for protection. This climb led to the discovery
of a new area that was named Crazy Tasty Town in honor of an excellent cave
delicacy known as the Spam Single. Crazy Tasty Town was quite delicate with
massive gypsum, aragonite, and popcorn on the floors and walls along with several
clusters of possible endellite and some bat skeletons. In the main room there
was breccia on the floor with massive limestone on the ceiling. Off from the
main room, the passage consisted of boneyard with corrosion residue in many
of the passages. The team surveyed very carefully to minimize the impact to
this new area and only a few small tight leads remain. Several other high leads
on the Prickly Ice Room Overlook were eliminated since they led into surveyed
sections of Crazy Tasty Town. The total new survey for Crazy Tasty Town was
1030.6ft.
When the team climbed up into the Trepidation
Dome they used a combination of freeclimbing and aid climbing via hooks, tricams,
slung popcorn, removable bolts, and stainless steel permanent bolts. The lower
part of the climb consisted of very delicate (A2+) climbing on aragonite/popcorn
covered massive limestone. On this section, the team discovered that aragonite
crystals imbedded into the palm feel like prickly pear cactus spines. Thus the
wall below the entrance to the Trepidation Dome was named the Prickly Pear Wall.
To minimize damage to the aragonite crystal/popcorn wall coating and to reduce
the risk of falling, the team climbed slowly and methodically up the wall.
To further reduce the impact to the cave, they placed only four 3/8” diameter
stainless steel protection bolts in the 80ft of climbing required to reach the
first ledge system inside the Trepidation Dome. On this ledge system, fourth
class climbing allowed access to the other side of the dome, but no leads or
passageways were found. The Trepidation Dome continues upward for another 75ft
and another ledge system is clearly visible near the top of the dome. On the
next expedition, the top of the dome should be reached and the second ledge
system will be investigated and surveyed. The total new surveyed passage for
the Trepidation Dome thus far is 170.15ft.
This brought the total survey for this expedition
to 1200.75ft, with two new climbing leads explored. Overall, the expedition
went quite smoothly. The team worked together very well, climbing was completed
without falls and with very minimal impact to the cave environment, and 1200ft
of new passage was discovered.