, Annalisa, Mike, Brian, Andrea, and Shaun leave for the New Year's party
 Annalisa drops into Hell's Throat |
Hell's Throat is the name we gave to Beaver Cave--a 150' deep hole in a ravine on Beaver Mountain Ski Resort's backside. After shoveling a few thousand gallons of snow into the opening to smooth the cave bottom for sleeping on, we tied off and rapelled inside, dangling our packs below us so they wouldn't pull us over backward. |
| Once on the cave floor, we leveled off the snow, set up
camp, and cooked dinner. A latrine was set up in one corner of the cave and blocked off
with a tarp hung from stoppers placed in cracks in the wall (if you plan to camp there,
commit everyone to sing loud rounds for as long as necessary). Then it was time to explore
the lower intestine (the name we assigned to a 90' drop reached by scaling one wall for
about 20', sliding along a narrow slanted passageway, and rapelling through a small hole
in the floor).
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A third drop (the Appendix--40') can be reached through a hole in the floor there, but we didn't take the time to explore it again this year.
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After ascending the ropes out of the lower intestine and setting up base camp, we broke out the sparkling cider (non-alcoholic) and wine glasses (carefully packed along) and toasted to High Adventure, good friends, nature, and everything else we could think of till the bottles were empty. |
