Cave of the Winding Stair,
(Click to enlarge pictures)
I claim to
have been a caver since the age of 12, when I visited my first wild cave, and
that’s probably valid. Still, it’s not the same as having freedom to range and
roam, where things get tougher and require more care and training. Winding
Stair was just such a challenge, and when the opportunity to explore it came to
me, I took the chance. It did necessitate learning single-rope climbing
techniques, and here I am at a railroad trestle outside of
Here is Gordon Fulks,
a former Windy City Grotto stalwart (that’s how I got hooked up with this trip)
and, at the time, at least, an orchid fanatic. He was my SRT teacher, and he
must’ve done at least a pretty good
job: I am still alive, after all!
Of course, in most vertical caves you must
go out the same way you came in, which is back up the same rope. I built myself
a “Mitchell” system with which to climb, and I used pretty much the same rig with
a few minor variations for the next twenty years. Here is my first awkward
attempt at developing a smooth style…
…yeah, surrre.
Smooth. It ain’t easy, folks.
Gordon used a “ropewalker” rig, and he was
awfully fluid with it. Here he demonstrates how it should be done!
After
an afternoon’s labors, Gordon either deemed me fit for the trip, or perhaps
decided he could at least get me in and out of the cave safely enough. We
packed up his brand-new Suburban and headed out to Mitchell Caverns, at the Providence Mountains State Recreation Area,
where Winding Stair is located. It is a pleasant drive from southern
Winding
Stair is pretty much wholly contained in a single ridge of limestone and
consists primarily of a series of pits with very little horizontal passage. You
climb up the ridge to get to the entrance, which affords a spectacular view of
the surrounding desert. Here is out team, minus Gordon, who took the most (but
not all) of the pictures on this page. Clockwise from upper left: Gary
Johansen, me, Alison Krueger, and Dennis Krueger.
To see a map of the cave
created by award-winning cartographer Bob Richards, click here.
From
the gate at the entrance, it is a short distance to the small room called The
Office. Here you rig your first drop, which is something like ninety feet or so
to the floor of the Broken Rock Room. The first part is interesting: the
initial descent is through a narrow crevice just wide enough for me to pass.
Just. It opens up about six feet down and from there on it’s wonderful.
Alison makes a soft landing.
My first in-cave rappel!
My landing was not as gracefully as
Alison’s, but it was at least upright…and more important, it was safe. The
exit, on the other hand…
While the cave is in the middle of a
desert, it wasn’t always bone-dry.
Here Dennis admires some beautiful dripstone that proves that dry does not mean
dull. This is in the Dog Leg Room, and the pretties continue well above the top
of this picture. In fact, I have a second shot somewhere that looks up from
here, and if I can ever locate it, I’ll put it out here someday.
From the Dog Leg Room you scoot through
the Gopher Hole (I believe this is Dennis going through it) and toward the
drops leading to the bottom of the cave. It’s not as tight as it looks.
Past the Gopher Hole you have several
options for getting to the bottom of the cave. The quickest way, or course, is
to jump, but this is discouraged for
the mess it tends to create…the route can be free-climbed, I understand, though
I certainly wouldn’t attempt it myself, and there a couple of points from which
you can rappel. We chose this one, and you can see the rope leading downward
off to the left of Dennis. It’s an initial drop of about fifty feet to a ledge,
then another 115 feet or so to the floor of the Round Room.
All along the walls from the top down are
massive displays of flowstone and “popcorn”, which looks pretty much like its
namesake, except that it is not a tasty treat when served with butter and salt
and it is very tough on one’s clothing. Dennis is seen here descending.
Our lunch room.
The Register Room is next door, and is the lowest point in the cave, I think a
little over 310 feet below the entrance, and, interestingly (and in a perverse
way, infuriating) you are at the same level as your campsite! Notice please
that everyone seems to be dressed alike except for me. Used to caving in the
…which made a quick nap
not only prudent, but probably necessary.
The climb out is pretty straightforward,
at least for the experts. Here Alison shows the boys the way. Mind you, at this
time I was resting on the “two-thirds” ledge about 50 feet below, having hauled
my furry butt up as far as I could go without a significant rest!
But eventually Gordon insisted I finish
what I started, so I did. This picture is one of my all-time favorites, and
it’s what you get when you ask an exhausted Polack to smile at the end of a
climb.
Dripping with sweat and nearly give out, I
rest before climbing the final pitch. It was an interesting experience, that
climb, in that about twenty feet of slack rope got wedged into a narrow crack
on the wall about fifty feet off the floor of the Broken Rock Room. Not aware
of the slack I struggled to free it so I could continue climbing, and once I
got it loose I dropped till the rope caught me and stretched yet another ten
feet, for a total fall of between 25-30 feet! I then pendulumed
into popped the wall quite soundly, terrifying Gordon, who was more concerned
with explaining to my death to Mom…who had warned him before our departure that
he’d better bring me home alive! I was dazed, but not injured, and eventually I
struggled out the crack in the floor of The Office, and out of the cave to what
was, I think, the best spaghetti supper I’ve ever eaten.
Our campsite at Winding
Stair. I was positively awestruck with the beauty of the desert, and I
would come back again and again. And eventually I would write a story…
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