The exploration of Jumpoff Horror Hole

THE EXPLORATION OF JUMPOFF HORROR HOLE

Marion O. Smith

On November 13, 1988, Gerald Moni and I conducted a ridgewalk on the south side

of Jumpoff Hollow in Marion County, Tennessee. After Gerald showed me In the Creek

Cave and Natural Bridge Pit, both of which I yoyoed, we proceeded to the hollow's oe
major south-trending ravine. There, on the east side at an elevation Of 1280-1300
feet, I found a hole which needed enlarging. After each of us took turns digging it
was soon of sufficient size to enter. I squeezed in and chimneyed down fifteen or
more feet to a small room. An additional climbdown of ten or fifteen feet led to a
hundred foot or longer meandering canyon oes part walking height, to a tight stream
crawl dig just past a single block of breakdown.

I returned to the entrance and convinced Gerald to join me. We first tried to
follow the top of the canyon, and went maybe 200 feet, the last half being a distinctly
different passage. Near the end I freeclimbed fifteen feet down to a fifteen foot
diameter room which had rat nests in a too-tight-to-do passage six or eight feet off
the Fibes We next backtracked to the tight stream crawl dig, which I soon forced,
although it was chest tight. After perheps seventy-five feet there was a three foot
down-step, forming a small "room" some four feet high. Beyond, the passage became
grim and low. Moni made it to the little "room" and waited while I dug myself fifteen
feet forward in the wet crawl until I got too cold. A reasonably strong breeze went
into the crawl-dig.

Over a month later, on December 18, Gerald, Thanny Mann, and I trekked to the
“entrance of our new discovery, already dubbed Jumpoff Horror Hole, with the intention
of donning wetsuits and digging in the low. crawl. But once there we changed our minds
a gens eyaeeeeiees again, discovering a nearby saltpeter caye with a thirty foot
Dit.

The fact that Jumpoff Horror Hole did have a vertical potential of 400 feet
eventually inspired me to re-new the miserable stream dig. So, wearing full wetsuits,

Jeff Dilcher and I returned to that task on September 9, 1990. Ina 3:15 hour trip

FIT

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I dug about about seventy-five feet forward, around right and then left wet bends.

The further I dug the more behind Jeff became. He only inched his way about fifteen
feet into the new passage, claiming he could not fit at a spot just past the right
curve. He then retreated to the small “room” at the start of the crawl. After a
while I felt rather lonely in the half water-filled dig and abandoned my effort,

although sure the crawl "went."

Two more years passed before I put together a third trip to the cave. On October
3, 1992, Alan Cressler, Shirley Sotona, and I zealously attacked the partially
re-sedimented crawl. Since they were shale Bt gend, and pee T “placed” Alan in
front and Shirley in the middle, while I hung back in the vin Shirley's light died
almost immediately, and except for a puny glow of her Wheat lamp had no light.

Alan had to re+dig the seventy-five or more feet I had originally enlarged in
1990, and at length he reached and slowly dug through the mud bar where I had stopped,
Beyond, the passage improved somewhat, and after maybe 150 or 200 more feet we aes
four foot high passage. Next, were some snug dry oyerpass tubes to a squeeze-down at
at a right turn and twenty more feet of very low stream crawl, where Alan and Shirley
abandoned their hardhats.

Some thirty feet past the twenty foot crawl the route became relatively spacious,
but we had to decide whether to go high or stay low. Shirley and I climbed to a dry
upper leyel but we were immediately twarted. Alan remained in the stream crawl and
that way proved negotiable so Shirley and I joined him. The passage became tall,
narrow, and twisting, and after a few hundred feet we reached a twenty foot pit.
Inspired and undaunted, we traversed around the pit and Alan led us down a slick and
scary bypass climb. Shirley and I were less skillful in making the climb and hy the
time we got down Alan had vanished.

Below, the clean-washed passage cut down more and continued twisting, sometimes
configurating in such a way that even I could walk. After seyeral hundred feet we
met Alan heading upstream some 150 feet from a second pit he had discoyered. He

returned with us to the pit, which was unclimbable and about twenty-five feet deep.

Altogether, on that breakthrough day, we explored 800 plus feet of passage and saw a
depth Of perhaps 125 feet. The cave seemed to be opening up and we fully expected that
the next trip would see us exploring a new multi-drop cave to the valley floor.
Excitedly but slowly we exited the cave. We all agreed that the next trip, requiring
ropes and vertical gear, would be a grunt.

The “pig” push trip took place a week later, October 10, during the TAG Fall
Cave-In. Alan Cressler, Heath Many, Andy Porter, Shirley Sotona, Jim Smith, Ted Wilson
of Indiana, and I composed the crew. I entered the cave first, carrying a pack laden
with a hammer, A OE a feet of rope, a survey tape, and vertical gear, plus
dragging a forty Foot rope. Others brought additional ropes. After the initial dug
out low crawl I let Alan pass me. Heath, Shirley, and Andy remained fairly close behind
me.

By the time I reached the twenty foot pit we had bypassed the previous week, Alan
almost had a bolt set. He and Heath descended first, and the other three of us followec
When we reached the virgin pit Alan already had it eed, but I asked that we wait
until Jim and Ted caught up.

After a few minutes we heard Jim, and erronously thinking that Ted was immediately
behind him, I descended the virgin twenty-six foot pit, followed by the other four
already cheval tia complaining about his back hurting him, turned around and left
the cave. Ted was further behind than we thought, and although he kept coming forward,
the rest of us never saw him again until much later.

We expected and hoped the cave would become more yertical and easily lead to the
valley floor. But we were dismally Poa oitas. Instead, we encountered thousands
of feet of HORRORzontal passage, which was predominantly crawl. Shirley, Andy, Heath,
and I pushed several hundred feet to a twenty-five foot high dome, where there were
two options, another LOW belly crawl in water and a climb up. Andy checked the climb
up and traversed 100 or 200 feet to a pit which dropped back to the stream. About then
Alan arrived, after waiting in vain for Ted.

So, with no choice, I pushed the stream, and after forty or fifty feet came to

Fug

a forey foot high side dome. Ahead it was a more spacious crawl and we again thought
the cave was going to open up. WRONG: It continued as a hands and knee wet crawl for
a few hundred more feet until the stream channel became too low to traverse.

But there was a dry gypsum san crawl bypass which I led through for several hundred
feet before it looped back to the stream. Yet agin we hoped the cave would open up.

I went high into a sort of Spacious dry passage and soon reached an eight by twenty foot
room, four feet high.

Here, I lost the lead. Alan went via a steam route and entered the same passage
I was in about thirty feet in front of me. I tried the stream from where I was, thinkin
it would be an easier way to follow Alan. It wasn't, and by the time I extracted myself
Heath, Andy, and Shirley had also passed me.

I caught Shirley once but that was it. The young "pushers" were gone. More
hundreds of feet of low sand crawls followed, which "did me in." My battered back and
"old age" were little match for this passage. ‘In time, after several rest breaks, I
found the stream passage once more, where the lead crew. had left a Cairn. 2 thought
that surely this time the cave was going to become a decent dimension.

But it didn’t,

There was more dry crawl. Everything became a blur and the details of the passage
were not noted. But after several hundred additional feet the cave really did seem
to be opening up. There was a narrow, meandering stream passage which in areas could
actually be walked through, sometimes decorated with small white helectites. At last
there was a five foot waterfall and signs we had reached the Hartselle Formation. I
thought that by now the others had. certainly found a pit punching through the Hartselle
revealing Pie pare to the valley floor.

But thirty feet past the five foot waterfall climbdown there was a breakdown room
where I found Alan and the others (Andy's light was "dead" too). The Hartselle had
not presented us a nice open pit to the depths below. It looked as if we were stopped.
While the rest of us waited, Alan made a valiant effort to penetrate the breakdown.

He squeezed a couple body lengths through tight, muddy holes to a small "room" and

found a vertical hole too small to fit through into a "15 or 20' deep canyon below."

A tilted breakdown slab was the "roof" of this hole and Alan throught it was so Lert
that even blasting was impractical. —

We soon headed out and several hundred beet toward the entrance, beyond the tall,
meandering stream channel, we at last met doa. Ted had been way behind Jim in the
entrance crawls and generally had a tough time route finding. He too turned around.

Soon, Alan and Heath zoomed onward. Andy ae found batteries for his mini-mag
and he and Shirley then moved at a more brisk pace. Ted and I kept them in hearing
distance for a while but then it was just us, the old men. We derigged the twenty and
twenty-six foot pits, and after a slow and epic retreat, finally surfaced after an 8:53
nour trio. It nad rained and a few drops were still falling.

We had not are to the valley fiser, bat we definitely had gained a lot of
horizontal distance, 2000 to 2500 feet beyond that previously known. Our guesses for
the total length of the cave ranged from 3500 to 4000 feet, with the depth physically
reached being perhaps as much as 190 feet. This was based on the Gerald Moni theory
that the Hartselle Formation in that part of Marion County was usually encountered at
that distance below the Pennington—Bangor contact.

To say that enthusiasm to return to Jumpoff Horror Hole waned was an understatement
It plummeted to near zero. All of us had been battered by its long and sometimes very,
very grim crawls. Some of us, especially me, eccasionally talked about returning,
emphasizing the fact that there was more depth if we could force an opening. But talk
was cheap and nears three years passed before the cave again had visitors.

Finally, I mustered the courage to ovis the effort. So, on June 4, 1995, Andy
Porter joined me for a re-dig sef-up trip. We proceeded to the long, grim, wet crawl
250 feet from the entrance where I had to re-excavate Bis of the worse areas. Qnce
that was doneAndy dragged two ropes through which we transported to top of the twenty
foot pit, we aid this: in order to make the succeeding trip a might easier.

The main 1995 push in the cave took place June 17, with the participants being
Neeld Messler, Pete Hall of England, Teresa Williams, and myself. The object was. to
force Cressler'’s 1992 lead at the Hartselle. We had three additional short ropes, an

electric power drill (wrapped in two trash bags inside two dry bags inside a cave pack)

which I had borrowed fromJerry Reeves (hauled in by Neeld), and eight one-third sticks

of "instant cave."

The trek to the "Termination Room" was no more fun than three years earlier. Once
there it took a while to even find Cressler's lead. Neeld eventually located it and
he, Pet, and I fuck turns digging at the vertical squeeze below the diagonally tilted
slab. Neeld was by far the main digger. I actually spent more time enlarging the
route into the little "room" above the slab. Pete called the lead a "shop of horrors."

To keep warm Pete and Teresa explored an incoming side passage off the "Termination
Room" for about 300 feet. I never understood if it was virgin or had been explored in
1992. Pete reported that there were iddtcaticn of an entrance somewhere at that level,
noting leaves and plant 7 > matter, plus a different movement of the wind.

After waiting two hours in the "Termination Room," Teresa got cold and began making
noise about leaving. Neeld was in a high state of "stress" about needing to pack and
leave the next day for the western U. S. and a subsequent trip to New Guinea. I was
tired and indecisive, and we squabbled about what to do. The trip came bery close to
falling apart without any achievement.

Ultimately, Neeld decided, with my "approval," to not use the drill but to try one
blast. The drill was given to Pete and he and Teresa immediately started out of the
cave.

Neeld mixed three sticks, packed them very well with mud, and I ran the wire. The
ensuing boom achieved a success, Cressler's lead was at last man-sized. But the wind
from the hole blew smoke babe at us, and we had to wait a bit. There really must be a
hole to the surface Borers near the "Termination Room" because the long route from
the entrance to that room had air going inward.

We rigged a fifty foot rope, and while I wimped, Neeld made a quick solo descent
of what proved to be a thirtyish foot canyon drop. He used one "Funky" re-belay to
past a ecteing fone by four foot boulder without getting killed. At the bottom he

probed fifty to a hundred feet horizontally, went down a five foot climb, and stopped

at another dig-blast site with breakdown on one side of the passage. He also did some

poking in upper levels, but not thoroughly. His report did NOT sound very promising,
but he had been the “hero” of the day by just getting down this Chara pit. One nore
. trip would be needed to make sure the end had been reached.

The next attempt was scheduled for June 29, 1996, but was SVequed with tnaoréaih ic
buffoonery. Andy Zellner of Marietta, Georgia, Gary Chambers of Nashville, Shane
Snyder of Sevierville, Tennessee, and I were to have been the crew. But, amazingly,
while we were walking and talking along the ‘valley floor road, I allowed us to overshoot
the turnoff and we went up the mounteen at the wrong pisces While floundering on the
idee we died an cnet nese and I aborted the trip.

The final effort, August 24, 1996, was made by myself, Alan Cressler, Forest
bevaee Pea" Blatt of Atlanta, Gary Chambers, Andy Zellner, and David Cole of Memphis.
This time I designated Cressler as our navigator to the entrance, which duty he flaw-
lessly performed.

We made it to Neeld's ae after over ies and a half hours of hard traveling.

En route, Alan photodecumented the cave. He even dragged a large tripod although he
never used it, occasiening a spate of jokes. What was he Padaking? This was NOT
Lecheguilla! For much of the cave the passage was not high enough to even set up the
tripod.

At Neeld's pit Alan descended first, going down the top ten foot slot. Then he
went the opposite direction Neeld must have gone and straddled twenty or mare feet in
the downstream direction. He installed a bolt and soon all of us descended a tight
thirty foot canyon drop. Immediately beyond, we climbed up twelve or fifteen feet and
traversed a high route a few dozen feet. Then we Ba altnbed a little, curved right,
then left, lost eight more feet at an awkward sharp right oe and went left again,
losing in all probably more than the fifteen feet we had climbed up. Then a fourth
pit, a fifteen footer, was found and it dropped into a thirty plus foot diameter roon,

showihg signs of back flooding. At the lower end of the room we took turns hammering

on a slot which blew air strongly at us. Eventually, Zeliner, our smallest person,

squeezed through and gained ten more feet of depth and explored a thirty foot high

. . ih
upstream canyon about seventy or eighty feet antii Te got. oo Harrow. "Downstream,

he reported, "the passage ended quickly in a hole about 4 inches wide." Then, aftes
a tough struggle and assistance from Gary and Alan, on aerate to get back to us”
through the squeeze. So, our trip netted only about 180 ,0£ virgin passage and a vertica
gain of twenty-five feet, but the bitter ea been reached. We weren't ae to
the valley floor.

We soon began our long retreat from the cave, derigging as we went. in the worse

spot in the grim water crawl near the entrance I had total light failure, adding to

my "enjoyment." I was the last out, after a 10:55 hour trip, and I at long last

e€ °
ie ager the Jumpoff Horror Hole Exploration Project over. The cave is 4000 to 4500

or more feet long, and around 250 feet deep. None of us feel any guilt for not stretch-

ing a survey tape. Someday, some very ambitious surveyors will map it and they will

probably even find some virgin passages. But I suspect it will be well into the

twenty-first century before cavers are that desperate for a survey project.