A few years ago I learned a valuable lesson about vertical caving.  Tony Roper, Tammy Freelen and I met a caver local to the Buffalo National River area of Arkansas, Wade Baker, to drop into Devil's Den pit, which is on the upper trail to Fitton Cave.  The pit is only about 20m deep I think, and probably 10 to 15m wide, however, there is a pretty steep incline down to the edge of the pit, at a good 45 degree angle, and about 10m down to it from the trail.  It's not safe to go down to the edge of the pit without a rope.

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Tony & Wade

The day was a cold Sunday in February, it was about 40 degrees fahrenheit, with a cold northern wind blowing.  When we arrived at the cave, I immediately started rigging the drop, wanting to get out of the cold wind and into the cave.  While rigging, Wade informed me that the drop into the cave was beautfiul, and encouraged me to have the camera ready.  He said that the waterfall would be to my left as I dropped in, and would be worthy of a few pictures.

I declined to bother with the camera, since this was my first drop into this cave, and didn't want to bother with something else in my hands until I was familiar with the cave.  As a safetey precaution, I was having the group up on top run a safety line on a 2nd rope to me, since I was still a novice at vertical caving, and this was a new drop for me.   Little did I know that this would cause me a lot of grief.

Once I was all ready to go, gear checked out, all suited up, cave pack on, I worked my way down the slope to the edge of the pit.  As I perched on the lip, ready to drop down, I could hear the roar of the waterfall.  As previously mentioned, Wade had said the waterfall was pretty, and I've always enjoyed waterfalls.  This waterfall was loud, making communication hard, and I could almost feel the vibrations from it.

Whenever I do the first drop of the day into a pit, that initial step off into nothingness always puts a few butterflies into my stomach.  Fear of heights has never been an issue for me, however, fear of falling is natural for a lot of people, including me.

This pit was pretty big across, but there was enough of an overhang overhead to make it completely dark, since my eyes were adjusted to daylight, and my little 1 watt LED headlight wasn't doing anything to penetrate the darkness below me.

With butterflies dancing in my stomach, I stepped off backwards into nothingness and started descending.  After about 10 to 15 feet, I was far enough down to be able to start seeing a few things in the darkness with my headlamp.  Another 10 feet or so and I started feeling some moisture from the waterfall.  Something else to note, thats all I could hear, it was roaring away.  After a few more seconds of descent, I was starting to get wet, and could start to see the floor in my headlamp, plus my eyes were becoming adjusted to the lower light of the cave.

As I continued to drop, I continued to get wet, and was getting worried.  The water was ice cold, and Wade had said it would be off to my left, however, it seemed that I was going right into the water.  I briefly thought about switching over and ascending, but I didn't want to give up, so thought I would just hurry to the bottom.

This is when that silly safety line became the bane of my existence for the day.  I couldn't hurry, and I was drenched, cold and my hands were going numb from the combination.  At about 5 or 6 feet from the bottom, I stopped.  Well, the safety line stopped, I couldn't go any further.  The waterfall was pouring over me, my body was protesting any movement due to the cold, and yes, in February, the water was ice cold.

Turns out that the rope that was being used for a safety line wasn't long enough.  The rope I was rapelling down on was a 60m rope, the safety line wasn't.  I struggled to pull myself up, take the weight off of the safety line, disconnect the carabiner for the safety and rapelled the last few feet to the floor and worked my way out from under the waterfall.

By this time I was exhausted, the cold was sapping my energy and I could hardly move.  After getting the attention of the group up on top, I let them know in no uncertain terms to not use the existing rope, but to drop another over the edge from the back side of the pit, and I was coming out.  It was hard communicating due to the noise of the waterfall, but they finally got the idea and I started out.

Even ascending out, I couldn't get warm, and it was a struggle to even go up that short distance.  I was never so happy to see the top edge of the pit and get off of the rope, but the wind certainly didn't help me with my chilled bones.

A very wet Charles

I hiked the half mile or so back to the truck and changed out of the wet caving clothes while Tony and Wade dropped into the pit, using the path I took out to stay out of the waterfall.  Turns out that Wade had never dropped into this cave during the spring, so the waterfall was much bigger than he had ever seen it.

Lesson learned, always check what you are about to rapell into.  A valuable lesson that I learned the hard way.  I also was too much in a hurry to get into the cave, I had a 1 million candlepower spotlight in my caving pack, I just didn't want to bother with it when at the edge of the pit, since then, I've always checked!

Warm again!