Local cavers explore the depths and
beauties of Columbia's underworld
The Chouteau Grotto
The shadowy corners and limited
lighting of G&D Pizza & Steak
is appropriate for
the group that meets there monthly - a group of active, adventurous
people, accustomed to little
or no light and friendly camaraderie above or below ground.
These are the members of the Chouteau Grotto, the Columbia chapter of
the National
Speleological
Society (NSS). Sitting around a cozy table at G&D's, they use this
time to
socialize after their
monthly meetings.
The Meetings
Imagine you've dropped through a hole
into water up to your chin.
There's only
about two or three
inches of airspace, so in order to breathe, you have to press your face
up
sideways against the
ceiling of the cave. The good news is there's a light at the end of the
tunnel...
literally. So you shrug
and plunge ahead through the cramped space toward the promise of an
exit, where
the water is
rushing out, pulling you along with it. Does this sound like your
average weekend
excursion?
Grotto member and Missouri
Speleological Society Representative Daryl
Greaser
survived this
challenge. At the last meeting, he told his story with excitement and
energy.
Although the group does love a good
story, Grotto meetings consist of
much more
than tales of risky
caving experiences. During the meeting, Grotto members discussed as
many issues as
they could
squeeze onto the agenda. The group addressed topics such as current
caving trips,
cave mappings
and recent caving fatalities.
Being such a dangerous hobby, the
group spends a lot of time discussing
proper
emergency plans
and procedures.
"Do we have a list of what's in the
cache in the Icebox?" asked
Greaser. His
question brought about
a round of debate on what to include in rescue kit kept in the Devil's
Icebox, a
cave in Rock Bridge
Memorial State Park.
The kit currently includes first aid
items, food, water and warm
clothes in case
of possible
entrapment by rising water levels or other unavoidable circumstances.
The cavers also discussed what items
to include in the emergency kit at
Hunter's
Cave. Members
jokingly suggested including a cyanide pill along with all of the other
goods in
the emergency stash.
The room erupted into laughter, reflecting the lightheartedness of the
meeting.
"The two high priority things we need
are a heavy duty plastic bag with
two
candles per bag for heat
tents and rescue blankets," said Rickard Walk, a club member.
The heat tents can save lives. When a
caver gets too cold, the plastic
bags are
put around the head
and body, and the candle is lit.
"What you're going to be dealing with
more than anything is hypothermia
if you're
stuck in there," Walk said.
The cavers in the Chouteau Grotto
don't just play around in the caves.
They also
clean them up.
Cleaning cave graffiti and mapping caves for future use can take as
much energy as
the fun.
In the '50s, the cavers were called
the Little Dixie Grotto, but the
group changed
the name to make
the club sound less exclusive.
"They didn't want it to sound
closed," said Mike Morgan, chairman of
the Grotto.
"So they named it
Chouteau after an old French explorer."
Latest to join the Grotto family is a
class of MU students. Their
teacher, Joe
Hobbs, leads cave
tours, teaches the class and is also secretary of the Grotto. For the
first time,
this graduate level
geography class has joined up with the Chouteau Grotto caving club.
Their trips, along with the
excursions of other members, are reported
during the
monthly Grotto club
meetings.
Into the Icebox
This month, the MU caving class took
a trip down to Devil's Icebox in
Rock Bridge
Memorial State
Park.
Before leaving for the cave, members
took their time as they
meticulously checked
their gear and put
on their caving clothes.
"You don't wear cotton because cotton
holds water against your skin,"
said Julie
Blubaugh, who was
accompanying the class and is training to become a caving tour guide.
"The caves
are like 56
degrees
year-round, and the trip took about eight hours last time. You have to
be able to
stay warm."
Cavers get a list of the things they
will need, she said. Necessary
caving gear
includes items such as
warm clothes, shoes with good traction or cleats, hard hats, three
sources of
light, extra batteries and
snicker bars for energy. The group, which leaves around 5 p.m. and
returns
sometime around
midnight, will need all the energy they can get for the climbing and
crawling that
will come.
Before the class ventured out, Hobbs
offered some advice about the
challenging
caverns they would
be facing.
"We'll be going into the Roller
Coaster. It'll be two feet high, on
your bellies -
crawling," Hobbs said.
"You can hold back as long as you're together. You'll be tempted to be
casual
because you've been
there before, but we really need to be that much more careful."
The six attending members then
trooped out of the parks center where
they had been
gathering their
gear and drove down to the main entrance of Rock Bridge Memorial State
Park. Once
there, they
hauled out the canoes necessary to get them into the cave. Carrying
these above
their heads, they
began the short hike to the mouth of the Devil's Icebox.
As they wound along the cliff wall
leading to Devil's Icebox, the group
began
plunging, one canoe at
a time, into the cave. As the temperature dropped sharply, they
crouched next to
the low entrance of
the cave - and slipped through.
Rushing water and darkness - the
canoes splashed into the water and the
members
switched on their
lights. Then they paddled away into the darkness to experience such
subterranean
wonders as the
Bat room, the Chocolate Vanilla Room, the Roller Coaster, and the
surreal landing
of canoes on a
beach that would never see sunlight.
The members of the Grotto are used to
experiences such as these, and
although
their hobby is filled
with danger, it is also filled with an otherworld beauty that few
people see or
even know about.
"It gives me a sense of
accomplishment," said Jennifer Wolff, a member
of the
caving class and the
Grotto. "I've fallen in love with Missouri as a state. Before, I had no
idea of
the natural beauty that
was there."
This love to explore is shared by
many of the Grotto members. Their
camaraderie
carries throughout
the caves, into the meetings and even to G&D's, where everyone
relaxes - pushing
tables together to
make room for the jostling, chatting group of friends.
"We're a very unique group of
people," Wolff said as she sat back in
her chair at
G&D's after the
April meeting. "We come from different walks of life. But we're all the
same
in the Grotto."
SPELEOLOGY 101
For anyone who has ever considered
caving or protecting the
environment, the
Chouteau Grotto is
always looking for new members.
"Just come to the meetings and get to
know us," said Mike Morgan,
Chairman of the
Grotto. "You
just have to be conservation-minded and not afraid of dark places."
Morgan said the group is open to
anyone who is at least 18. If a member
is under
18, they must
have a guardian or a parent with them.
The annual dues are $18 per year, and
students get a discount.
Members of the Grotto also enjoy
other
opportunities such as the chance to become a member of the National
Speleological
Society (NSS),
or the Missouri Speleological Survey (MSS). However, membership in
these
organizations is not a
requirement of membership to the Grotto.
The group meets at 7 p.m. on the
first Wednesday of each month in the
community
room of the
Boone County Electric Cooperative, located at 1413 Rangeline Street,
Columbia.
For more information on the group or how to join, call Mike Morgan at
#(573)687-3254.
Copyright 1999 The Missourian -
University of Missouri
