Editor

Bowden Cave, east of Elkins about 10 miles, and right on Highway 33, is so handy that it is used by many cavers. Some of these are novices, and somewhat unprepared. Some, so much so, that they are lucky that they don't get lost or worse. At Bowden these numbers are great enough that the Elkins Fire Department (a cracker-jack team) gets a lot of cave rescue alerts for Bowden Cave. Bowden, in fact, gets more rescue calls than any other cave in West Virginia.

A reader of The Highlands Voice calls this to our attention. Cynthia Adam, from Ohio, wrote that my description of the cave as being "pretty easy and very safe" was misleading. She describes caving as "a wonderful experience, a journey into another world that many people will never see." I think so too. She suggests caving should never be ventured into lightly – that it is never "very safe." I think so too – that caution and particularly preparedness are necessary.

This was to be a Highlands outing, and a guided event. We were just going into the main part of the cave to the rock-fall end – not in Agony Crawl or the Wet Passage. There are no holes to fall into, and if you don’t climb up on the one ledge to jump across, no where to fall. It was planned to be a safe "wonderful experience."

We are cautioned by Ms. Adam that most caving, particularly the great adventures, are invariably dangerous. It is dangerous to simply get lost, and an injury can be catastrophic. They can be serious injuries. You can get lost just 1,000 feet inside this cave – in the first big room.

I appreciate her thoughtful, timely note. She is an experienced caver and a trained cave rescuer. It is she says, a consuming passion for her. Heed well her caution. If you haven’t done much caving, go with an experienced group. If you need to get connected, write us – or our caving organizational director, Judy Fisher. Addresses are inside front cover of The Voice.

Don Gasper

Editor

(Re. Cave Hazards - rebuttal to a letter to the editor.)

I take exception to the description by Cynthia Adam of Bowden Cave and more important the point of view that only some people are entitled to go caving. . . My friends who have visited this cave call it a very good beginner cave. The Elkins, National Speleological Society (NSS) Convention lists it as a beginner cave, and a 9/2001 publication lists it as a "4 mile. . . . big, complicated (passage wise ), and fun cave in which you can spend a lot of time trying to find all the entrances." The only mention of difficulties is the fact that the road cliff face is unstable, and the second entrance of 5 is now blocked by a Rockwell about 100 ft into the cave. This is very unstable and should be avoided. The high rescue rate is due to the high number of beginner visitors to this very popular and easy access cave, rather than any hazards unique to this cave. You can drive down old RT33 and see the entrance from the road.

Much more to the point would be a reminder that boots, plenty of backup lights (hand free type work well) and a hard hat are useful. Because of the wear and tear most cavers do not use boots as good as light back packers do, although I do. People new to caving don’t go far in a 1/2 hour. So I would put the danger/rescue level about the same as a hike in the wilderness on a damp day. Even the NSS did not use hard hats on their hydrology convention trip this summer.

A lot of Grottoes (NSS chapters) have trainee loaner equipment and some have outreach programs. Perhaps you or a Grotto would also like to assist.

A side comment:

In the September list of trips only this one makes any comments as to the level of skill/fitness needed. May I suggest the DC area rating system of one flat mile = one unit, each 400 feet up or down add another unit. Add on units for each other difficulty as judge by the leader. The beauty of this is that each person can judge what a mile/unit is to him or her and the effort needed, rather than comparing their level with someone else’s presumed level. Let’s see, how far is a mile?????

John Tichenor NSS 5670