Japanse New-Girl Monkey Network
Into the Hellhole and Back
As you may or may not have read, for the past couple of weeks, I have spent a few afternoons practicing rope climbing with a harnass, rappelling, and some other related skills in order to prepare for my first spelunking trip last Saturday. I went with a few coworkers to Alpental, WA, near Snoqualmie Pass on I-90. We hiked roughly three miles nearly straight up the side of a mountain to the entrance of Hellhole Cave, rappelled down, explored the cave for a few hours, then climbed back out and hiked back down to the cars.
Dave, his daughter Sonia, and Robert went up to Alpental the night before and camped in the parking lot. I didn't really have time to go on Friday, so I woke up bright (?) and early at 4 am, and carpooled with Bradley. We arrived in Alpental around 7:30 am with no other mishaps than my coffee spilling all out (wah!)
The hike uphill took around two hours. Despite walking around on snow a few times, the air was warm and I got hot quite quickly. There were mosquitoes and flies everywhere, and bug repellent seemed to be about as effective as sugar water. The scenery was gorgeous. The Cascades rose all around, tall pines and cedars stretching overhead. There was wild columbine, indian's paintbrush, strawberries and blueberries. Things were green and blooming, and the air was clean and smelled alive.
We lost the trail a few times, but managed to get where we were going. Dave, who instigated and led the trip, had been to this cave several times, and also had a GPS to help us find our way. There were places where the trail turned into a stream or seemed to disappear into the trees. More than once we ran into tumbled rocks or slippery dirt. We stopped pretty frequently to drink water and eat and rest.
By the time we arrived at the entrance of the cave, I felt pretty exhausted. We rested up and ate lunch, put on our climbing gear, and I felt better. Since Dave was most experienced, he went in first. The entrance to the cave was pretty small, you had to slide down feet first and then sort of sit down, and slip through a hole that pretty much was about as big around as an average person. You twist around onto your stomach, with legs dangling, unable to see your feet and unable to initially feel anything under your feet. It's already sort of dark and cold, and I would have felt a lot of trepidation had I been going in first. Fortunately, since I was second, I had Dave to help guide my feet to a secure foothold.
The entrance was deceptive-- after the tiny narrow awkward squeeze, it just seemed to widen into dark infinity, but once you crawled all the way in, you found yourself in a relatively comfortable anteroom. The walls are wet, covered with flowstone (watery-looking calcite deposits). It's dark, but your headlamp provides enough light to see in the small area.
Once we'd all crawled into the initial opening in the cave, we set up secure ropes to lower down our gear and ourselves. We didn't have enough harnasses or room for more than one person to go at once, so everyone sort of had a little time to mentally prepare for the fifty foot drop into darkness. I think most of us were a little nervous, but we had all at least practiced rappelling a few times, so we knew what to do.
I was third to go down, after Dave and Robert. There were some overhanging rocks that made the first part a little tricky, but after a few feet, it was an open drop. What a rush! descending down into darkness, then settling at the bottom.
The cave was cold and stale, it was hard to look up because big splashes of icy water would slam into your face from 50 feet above. The rocks were a mixed tumble of broken granite and marble and limestone carved by the water. The limestone was worn into strange folds and ripples everywhere, shapes that looked like they belonged to underwater plants. The colors were muted as underwater as well, cold grayscale, fading into nothingness a few feet away. It was amazing, ethereal, strange, quiet. There were moments where the cave felt perilous and times when it was utterly secure.
We clambered over the slippery rocks, Dave guiding us through familiar formations and sections that had changed, examining geological types, squeezing through narrow passageways and clinging to the handholds and footholds carved into the limestone. We spent about two hours exploring, and then took another rest before we began, one by one, to make the slow climb back up the rope.
I was third to climb up and first out of the cave. Even with ascending gear, the climb felt laborious, especially where the rock interfered with the gear and you had to hold the rope away from the rock face to move upwards. Going up, I had a lot more time to think about the long drop beneath me, and even though I trusted the gear, I got a little nervous if I focused my attention downard too much. I scrambled out of the anteroom and wriggled slowly out of the cave entrance, fueled mostly by the fumes of my adrenaline and an intense desire to just get back out into sunlight, warmth, fresh air.
Outside, it was blessedly hot, and even the mosquitos didn't bother me (for a while). I helped the others get the gear out of the cave, and watched everyone make funny faces as they squirmed out of the entrance. We sat and rested near the entrance, reintroducing ourselves to the world above ground and shooing away the biting bugs. We ate, took deep breaths, and "watered" some trees, looking over the mountains, then got ready for the trip back down the mountain.
The way down was easier and harder. I was really tired, but worse, had hit my knees enough while crawling around the cave that it made big steps down pretty painful. So I lagged behind, turning around backwards to step down off rocks and big slopes so I wouldn't put too much pressure on my knees. Fortunately, some ibuprofen and some natural endorphins took care of the pain and I made it through the last half hour of the trail by clambering down the slope hanging onto tree branches for support.
Getting back down the mountain was nothing compared to getting out of the car in the parking lot of the restaurant we all ate at for dinner. We all drove over to Hyak, ravenous, tired, and grubby. I called my parents so my dad would stop worrying about me. We hungrily scarfed down dinner and then said our goodbyes to head home. Since we were going past it anyway, Bradley and I decided to stop at the Krispy Kreme in Issaquah. They gave us free samples hot off the assembly line, and I bought another donut with a coffee, a decadent ending to a hard, long day. At home, I had just enough energy left to take a hot bath and then fall into bed.
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