The Cascade Caver'.

•fPublished by the Cascade Grotto of the N. S. S .

Mark Sherman and Ben Tompkins. Editors

VOLUME 25 NO. 10 OCTOBER 1936

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CASCADE CAYER

The CASCADE CAVER is published 10 times a year by the Cascade Grotto, a member of the NationalSpeleological Society.

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Meetings:

Officers:

Dues:

Overdues:

Mail:

Cover:

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7:00 pm on the third Tuesday of each month at the University of Washington, room 6in the basement of Johnson Hall.

Chairman: Mark Sherman (206) 524-8780Vice Chairman: Jeff Forbes (206) 524-2443Sec/Treasurer: A1 Lundberg (206) 365-7255

Regional Rep: Ben Tompkins (206) 546-8025Grotto Storekeeper: Jim Harp (206) 745-1010Grotto Librarian: Larry McTigue (206) 226-5357Map Librarian: Rod Crawford (206) 543-9853Editor: Mark Sherman (206) 524-8780

Membership in the Cascade Grotto including subscription to the Cascade Caver is$7.50 per year. Dues for additional family members is $1.00. Subscription to theCascade Caver only is $7.50 per year. Send subscription or membership requests togrotto treasurer:

A1 Lundberg at 19221 - 38th Place N.E., Seattle, WA 98155.

Please note the date on your mailing label that indicates when your dues expire.The following folks appears in arrears:

Last Issue: Jay Rohrer 5/86 Julius Rockwell 6/86

Due: Wayne Cebe11 10/86 Jeff Gi11ard 10/86James Richard 10/86

Due soon: Robert Martin 11/86 Art Tasker 11/86Dr. W.R. Halliday 12/86 Dave Klinger 12/86David Becker 1/87 Peter Carter 1/87Frank Hymes 1/87 Dan McFee1ey 1/87

All other correspondance should be sent to:

The Cascade Grotto, P.O. Box 75663, Seattle, WA 98125-0663.

Linda Heslop: "This drawing was made from quite an old picture of Steve Logan onJabawok Jump in Nakimu Cave, B.C. I don't even know if Steve is still caving anymore but it was a great photograph.

Oct 1986 Cascade Caver

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CONTENTS

Grotto Page • . . . . . . . • 48

Upcoming Events • . . . . 49

Meeting Notes • . . . . • 56

NSS Board of Governors Meeting . . . . . . . . . • 50

NWCA Regional Meeting. August 1986 • Dave Klinger 50

Newton Cave - The Definitive Survey. Jeff Forbes • . • 51

Newton Cave - The Dye Trace • . . . • Jeff Forbes • 55

u P COM I N G EYE N T S

Oct 11-12

Oct 21

Nov 8

Nov 8-11

Nov 18

Dec 16

Trout Lake area caves. camp at Goose Lake. Contact Bob Brown at 569-2724.

Grotto meeting at the University of Washington. See also previous page.

NSS Board of Governers meeting. Troutdale OR.

Vancouver Island scouting trip. Contact Bob Brown at 569-2724.

Grotto meeting at the University of Washington.

Grotto meeting at the University of Washington.

Cascade Caver Oct 1986 49

NSS BOARD OF GOYERNERS MEETING

From the Wi 11amet te Va11ey Grotto comes thefollowing invitation:

The Fa11 NSS Board of Governors meetingwill be held on Saturday, November 8, 1986 inthe Community Center at Troutdale CommunityPark, 1110 E. Columbia Street, in Troutdale,Oregon. The meeting will begin at 9:00 a.m.

Troutdale is located about 10 miles eastof Portland, Oregon on Interstate 84. TakeExit 17 off of 1-84 and go south for one blockto Columbia Street. Go east on Columbia aboutone-half mile to the Troutdale Community Park.(See map).

Plan to attend this BOG meeting at the"End of the Oregon Trail" and the gateway tothe Columbia Gorge. There will be cave tripson Sunday, November 9, and a1so on MondayNovember 10, to lava caves in the Mount St.Helens or Trout Lake areas in southernWashington.

For further information contact:

Willamete Valley Grotto,505 Roosevelt Street,Oregon City, OR 97045(503) 655-6609

MICA MEETING. AUGUST 1986Dave Klinger

(The fo11owi ng is a merger of Dave I s coverletter about the meeting and his officialminutes)

The regional meeting was held on August31, 1986, at Buttel Lake Campground onVancouver Island, B.C., Canada.

The meet ing was moved from Thanksgi vingCave to the campground as a result of theaccident at the cave on August 29. Caverspresent at the time began a rescue effort butthe victim died of his injuries before hecould be removed from the cave. VICEG put outthe call for additional equipment andassistance and a well organized, profession-ally conducted recovery operation took placeon August 30. They are to be congratulatedfor a difficult job well done.

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The accident at Thanksgiving Cave pointsup the fact that all member clubs shouldreview their cave rescue procedures andconduct training on an annual basis. Forinformation and assistance it is suggestedthat you contact Rick Rigg, 169 - 25thStreet, Idaho Falls, ID 83401. Rick is theNorthwestern Region Coordinator for theNational Cave Rescue Commission of the NSS.Rick's home phone is (208)-524-5688 and workphone is (208)-526-7816.

The first order of business was theelection of officers. Elected were:

Chairman Bob BrownVice Chairman Ben TompkinsSecretary Dave KlingerTreasurer Phil Whitfield

A treasurer's report from Phil Whitfieldwas read and dona tions were voted to theBighorn Project and to a memorial set up inresponse to the accident at ThanksgivingCave.

The next NWCA Regional Meet is scheduledfor Memorial Day Weekend, May 23, 24, and 25,1987 at Trout Lake, Washington. It was notedthat the Joint Regional Meet last year was asuccess but the turn out from members of theNWCA clubs was disappointing. The centrallocation and the timing of this meet shouldinsure that we have a good turn out.

The Bighorn Research Project had a greatturn-out this year and accomplished a greatdea1 of important work. The 1987 Bighornsession will be held from August 8 to August16 which is the week after the NSSConvention. Contact Bob Brown for moredeta ils.

Member clubs are reminded that they mustsubmit a complete and current roster of allofficers and members and include thedesignation of the NWCA representative and analterna te to represent the club on the NWCAExecutive Board. While this roster is notdue until 15 February of each year, it wouldhelp me if the name, address, and phonenumber of your representative and alternatebe sent to me as soon as possible. Yourcooperation will be appreciated.

Dave Klinger, Secretary, NWCAP.O. Box 537, Leavenworth, WA 98826'

Oct 1986 Cascade Caver

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Newton CaveThe Definitive Survey

Jeff Forbes

History - During my flatland years, backhome in Indiana, I was perusing the List ofLong and Deep Caves for the U.S., whichappeared in the now defunct publication InsideEarth. Newton Cave was there, listed as the26th deepest cave in the States. with thehighly suspicious depth figure of 500 feet.Probably an estimate. I thought. neverdreaming of actually going there.

Discovered in the late 1950's and namedfor an earl y explorer. the cave had a nastyreputation as a difficult and wet verticalsystem. Sitting up there on scenic CaveRidge. it was long known as the deepestsolution cave in Washington. Upon moving toSeattle. I was surprised to learn that no pub-lished map was available. At least threepri or a ttempts had been made to survey thethi ng. but for one reason or another. thesehad been unsuccessful. Trying to dig upinformation on the old surveys provedfrustrating at first. It seemed that everyonei nvo 1ved in the previ ous efforts had eitherdied. moved away. gotten re1 igion. or somecombination thereof.

The map in Caves of Washington was good.though it showed only a portion of the knowncave. and depths were estimated rather thanmeasured. Hearing rumors ofaXanadu Grottosurvey trip in the late 1970's. I wrote toMike Dyas. who had lived in the area at thetime. He recounted an ill-fated dusk-to-dawntrip. which had failed to reach the bottom dueto 1ack of rope. He bel i eved. however. thattheir survey showed that Newton was probablynot 500 feet deep as often quoted. Mikerecommended a complete resurvey from theentrance down, and I was inclined to agree.Bob Brown later produced an old sketch mapdone by Dave Mischke. Rob Stitt. and V. Fresein 1966. This map showed nearly all of theknown cave. but gave no depth or lengthstatistics.

Lurking Magnetic Anomaly - Talk of a newsurvey at the monthly grotto meeting producedmuch interest. but some suggested that anaccurate survey was impossible due to local

Cascade Caver Oct 1986

magnetic disturbances which would invalidatecompass readings. As a geologist. I had someknow1edge of thi s. and I was s kept i ca 1 ofthese claims. Although the existence of amagnetic anomaly seemed quite reasonablegiven the geology. I felt that it wasunlikely that this would seriously hamper ourmapping. Magnetic disturbances can beclassified as either local or regional inextent. One such anomaly was said to derivefrom magnetite-rich rocks in the vicinity ofChai r Peak. some three mil es wes t of CaveRidge. I reasoned that for a source at thisdi stance, all compass bearings should beaffected in like manner, and that therelative bearings should still be useful.

If. on the other hand. we encounteredsmall lenses of magnetic rocks in the cave.the range of the disturbance should be1 imited to di stances comparable to thedimensions of the magnetic source body.Accordi ng to phys i cs. the i ntens ity of themagnetic field should fall off rapidly awayfrom the source. If local anomalies didexist. I felt that these would at least berevealed by forward and reverse compass bear-ings, which would fail to agree in this case.At any rate. the vertical component of thesurvey would be unaffected. and a resurveyseemed in order if for no other reason thanto establish Newton's depth.

The Best Laid Plans - Given what I hadseen of the cave. I was not at all sure itcould be surveyed in one trip. Though short.there were a number of side passages. fourrigged pitches. plus there was the water.Just going to the bottom of Newton and backcould be challenging under anything but thedriest of conditions. But mapping was anothermatter. The rope work had to be second natureor little would be accomplished. And a slowlymoving survey crew might soon become chilledif not dressed properly. And so it was thatI was overjoyed when veteran Canadian caversPat Shaw and Peter Norris agreed to come downfrom B. C. When in doubt. ca 11 in the prosfrom Vancouver.

On July 19. the three of us set 40survey stations from the entrance to thebottom. finding the pits nearly dry. Thefinal 19 meter deep Wet Pitch was still asteady drizzle. but with our waterproof suits

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and by prussiking very fast, we were able tostay reasonab ly warm, if not dry. During thecourse of the trip, we were consistently ableto get agreement of forward and backwardcompass bearings to within two degrees, and Ibreathed a sigh of relief.

The trip lasted well into the night, andwhen we surfaced, Snoqualmie Mt. was cast inthe eerie silver light of the full moon. Forme, such rare moments make wilderness cavingthe spice of life.

Two months elapsed before the naggingside passages prompted a return trip. Rob,Mike, and Ron Lewis of Tacoma enthusiasticallyvolunteered to help, as did fellow geologygraduate student John Garver.

Towards the end of the nine hour trip, wefound a genuine magnetic anomaly in the areanorthwest of the first 3- meter climb leadingdown to the Cement Mixer. Our compass readingswould not agree, and the cause was found to bea meter-size block of dark metamorphic schist,apparently loaded with magnetite. When thecompass was put against the block, the needlepegged toward it, but when moved away by halfa meter, the needle returned to normal. Therumored magnetic anomalies, though present,did not prove to be a problem.

Results of Definitive Survey - The surveyshowed Newton Cave to be 141 meters deep (462feet) from entrance to the very bottom. I amconfident that this figure is reasonablyaccurate given the use of forward and reverseshots and the fact that 3 survey loops in theupper part of the cave closed within less thanone meter.

The prospects for extending the depth atthe bottom are not good. The water leaves viaa narrow gravel-choked canyon which shows nosign of opening up. This point may well benear the contact of the marble with the sur-rounding volcanic rocks. The depth of the cavecould possibly be increased by about 3 metersif a connection could be made (Le. dug) tothe small pit on the surface known as Devil'sIcebox which lies about 10 meters northeast ofthe entrance. This pit nearly overlies thepassage above the Cement Mixer, and fresh aircan be smelled in the cave at this point.

Depth notwithstandi ng, severa 1 areas ofthe cave could yield more passage to curiouscavers. The passage marked with a ques tion

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mark just above the Dry Pitch was incom-pletely checked out, and may continue withlittle or no digging. Likewise for the dashedconnecting passage above the Water Well. Thebreakdown area on the way to the Flute Roomis fairly complex, and could contain a fewhidden secrets. Lastly, a narrow descendingcanyon was dug open by Ron Lewis justnorthwes t of the promi nent red flows tone atthe south end of the cave. This is said toend shortly, but may warrant another look.All other leads shown as question marksrequire substantial digging to proceed.

Rigging the Pitches - The entrance maybe free-cl imbed, though some may prefer ahand line or rope. Aside from this, fourropes are needed to reach the bottom. A15-meter rope will rig Bolt Pitch if tied offconservatively on the two stout bolts at thetop. Provide your own 3/8" hangers and nuts.The Water Well is easily rigged with a10-meter rope using a natural wall flute. Thesmall diameter bolts above the Dry Pitchshould not be trusted, as they are loose. Rigoff natural projections using a 15-meterrope.

The Wet Pitch requires a 3D-meter rope,as the rig point is well back from the lip.The old names "Dry 60" and "Wet 80" were notused on the map since the pits are only 25and 60 feet deep, respectively.

Geology - The geology of Newton Cave issufficiently complex that it is not easilysummarized. The cave is developed in marble(metamorphosed limestone) of unknown age. Theage of the marble is difficult to determinesince metamorphism was sufficiently intenseto destroy all fossils which would otherwiseserve as useful time guides. Suffice it tosay that the marble is much older (probablyPaleozoic) than the 24 million year oldgranodiorite of the Snoqualmie Batholith.Snoqualmie Mt. is composed of thisgranodiorite, which was emplaced into thesurrounding older rocks as an igneous (magma)intrusion which must have cooled and crystal-lized slowly at a depth of perhaps 10 kmbelow the surface. Although the heat releasedfrom a cooling igneous intrusion can causemetamorphi sm of the surroundi ng rocks, such"contact metamorphism" is usually limited toa zone quite close to the intrusion.

Oct 1986 Cascade Caver

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too low

"141

r12R 12m rope drop

~ passage height (m)

6 depth below entrance (m)

Explanation

3C 3m cOmb

--':The Water Well-'4C 6R

10I

meters

Slope Length 417 m

HorizontalLength 285 m

Vertical Extent 141 m

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Plan View

-The CementMixer-

:"":::••=~""~'1\

4 ~~~ red Ilowslone. 6

Suunto & Tape Survey

July 19, 1986 by:Jeff ForbesPeter NorrisPat Shaw

Sept 20, 1986 by:Jeff Forbes Rob LewisJohn Garver Ron LewisMike Lewis

Newton CaveKing Co., Washington

Flute Room

If\0.5c-.:-.:=::4 ~

anr+

("')coVInCO0.Il>

I~

U1W

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Profile Looking North

.~

20I

10I

meters

.Wet Pltch--19R .~,

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Newton CaveKing Co., Washington

"Boll Pitch"....- --'~

12R I\.' ......

90

80

120

100

110

50

40

30

o

60

20

III..'* 70E

130

140

'.

141 streamleaves

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54 Oct 1986 Cascade Caver

Since all of the rocks on Cave Ridge arehighly metamorphosed, and since the grano-diorite of Snoqualmie Mt. shows no sign ofhigh pressure metamorphism, it is likely thatthe limestone was converted to marble by"regional metamorphism" long before intrusionof the batholith. This process occurs wheneversedimentary rocks are deeply buried (40+ km)by tectonic movements of the crust. Such meta-morphism also tends to destroy bedding planesinitially present in the limestone. Themarble has been subjected to great pressure ascan be seen by the large crystal size andsharp folds evident in the walls of NewtonCave, particularly near the Flute Room. Thistype of isoclinal folding may only occur ifthe rock behaves in a plastic manner underhigh pressure. Once pressure is released, byuplift and erosion, the marble would exhibitbrittle fracture.

Long after deposition of the limestone,metamorphism to marble, emplacement of theSnoqualmie Batholith, and uplift of theCascade Range beginning about 6 million yearsago, Newton Cave was born of rain and snowmelt working its way down through the crackedmarble. Like the rock in which it isdeveloped, the age of the cave itself is alsodifficult to determine, but it is almostcertainly less than 100,000 years. The hangingvalley between Cave Ridge and Snoqualmie Mt.was filled with ice during the last glaciationending about 13,000 years ago. Looking northfrom Cave Ridge, the approximate upper limitof ice in this valley can be seen on the southflank of Snoqualmie Mountain. This appears asaline about halfway up the mountain, belowwhich the rocks are smoothed off by the valleyglacier and above which are rubb1y due to thelonger period of weathering. Based on thiselevation, the top of Cave Ridge may have beencovered by a this veneer of ice, but was notheavily glaciated. The orientation of cavepassages is highly controlled by geologicstructure. The parallel set of northwesttrending passages near the entrance tend to befairly horizontal, and may represent strike-oriented passages developed along parallelfaults in the marble. The passages trendingnortheast are much more vertical, droppingsteeply in that direction. These include theslide down to the Cement Mixer and the section

Cascade Caver Oct 1986

just above the Water Well. These appear to befollowing the dip of faults, one of which wasmeasured as 60 degrees to the northeast.Whether these faults bear any relationship tothe re1ict beddi ng planes of the 1imes toneparent rock is not clear, but this seemsunlikely given the relatively high grade ofmetamorphism.

The dead stra ight east-west passagethrough the Flute Room and Bolt Pitch isalmost certainly aligned with a nearlyvertical fault. Large chunks of darkinso1ub1e rock can be seen protrudi ng fromthe walls and floor throughout the cave. Thefirst of these is encountered at the entrancec1 imb-down. These can be described asphyllite or schist, which is themetamorphosed version of shale. Beinginsoluble, these rocks weather more slowlythan the surrounding marble, developing rindsof clay on their surfaces which makes themvery slippery.

The Not-So-Deep Caves List - And so theglory days of Newton Cave are gone. With adepth of 141 meters, it will no longerqua 1ify for the List of Deep Caves, the cutoff being 150 meters. Crossing caves off theDeep Caves List is a thankless job, butsomeone has to do it.

Newton Cave Dye TraceJeff Forbes

Overheard at the bottom of Newton Cave,August 1985:

Dan McFee1ey: "I wonder where that watergoes?"

Jeff Forbes: "I've no idea. Let's do adye trace."

It sounded reasonable at the time. Butnow the time had come and I was having somedoubts. What if one pound of dye isn'tenough? What if we can't find all of thesprings? What if the cave stream simply goesinto groundwater storage for thousands ofyears as Larry McTi gue suggests, rechargi ngsome unknown aquifer? Wait a minute!Armchair dye tracers never prove a damnthing! Just get out there and give it yourbes t shot, and if that I s not good enough,

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well. at least you've tried. And that's a damnsite more than most of our spectator societywill ever do. Besides. fate favors the brave.Guaranteed.

June 21. 1986 - Today is the day we dumpthe dye in the cave. Potent stuff. thatfluorescein. one tenth part per billion beingeasily visible. Given a few tons of the stuff.we cou 1d turn a11 of Puget Sound ••••no. theentire north Pacific. a brilliant fluorescentvenom green! Hold the worl d for ransom. SayGreenpeace did it. Frightening.

But where does that 1eave Newton Cave?First. we've got to put the charcoal traps inthe surface streams. Thrashing through thecentra 1 Cascade bush can be discouragi ng, andthe rea 1ity of the situation is comi ng downhard. Do we really stand a snowball's chanceof success?

After p1aci ng ten traps in the vari ousstreams around Cave Ridge, Larry McTigue,Roger Cole, and I finally reached Newton Cavelate in the afternoon, only to find theentrance plugged with snow. Not about to letso minor an obstacle spoil weeks of planning,we had the thing dug open in ten minutes flat.A sizeable stream was flowing in from snowmelt, perhaps one liter per second. Ideal dyetracing conditions. We dumped slightly underone pound of fluorescein, turning the wholeplace vivid green.

Roger and Larry headed for Seattle, whileI set up camp on Cave Ridge. That night Islept the sleep of the just. dreaming of greenrivers coursing through caverns measureless toman. The next afternoon I checked most of thetraps. 24 hours after the dye release. A11were negative.

I did not return for three weeks, atwhich time all but the most remote traps werechecked. The charcoal in the north fork of

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Corrmonwealth Creek conta ined a 1arge amountof fluorescein. The exact spring from whichthe Newton Cave stream resurges was notascertained, but it is somewhere along thesoutheast corner of Cave Ridge near itsjunction with Guye Peak. There are severalswampy areas in this region that are likelycandidates. At any rate, the water does notemerge to the west near Alpental and theSnoqualmie River, as previously suspected.

SEPTEMBER GROTTO MEETINGThe September grotto meeting was

attended by 17 people and began with JimHarp, Jerry Thompson, and Ben Tompkinsdiscussing of the accident at ThanksgivingCave in which Glen Peppard of BritishColumbia was killed. The grotto voted $50 tosend to VICEG for the memorial fund for Glen.

Ben then expressed some concern aboutwhat would transpire if we had a cavingaccident in the northwestern Washington area.Rod Crawford stated that the Sheriff's officeis responsible for rescue operations and thatthey must be contacted in case of anaccident. Jim and Jerry will be lookingfurther into the rescue situation.

At the October meeting we will beaccepting nominations for 1987 officers.Make sure you attend or you might getnominated.

Rob Stitt mentioned that the NSS BOGmeeting will be held November 8 in Troutdale,OR. All are welcome to attend.

Rod Crawford gave a good talk and slideshow on marrmals found in caves and how toidentify them. The program for October willbe Bob Brown with the latest Bighorn Projectslide show.

Oct 1986 Cascade Caver

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