Pancake Weekend - 3/15/2025
Several Charlottesville Grotto members joined in at the Butler Cave Conservation Society Pancake Weekend. Below are several trip reports.
Big Bucks Pit
Cavers: Renee Erickson, Aidan Ward (reporting)
Renee and I made it to the dig a little after an hour after entering the cave at 12:30pm. The way to the dig is through a small downclimb branching off near the end of the main trunk passage, which turns into a series of crawls and small rooms. The dig is at the end of a 45 degree upward crawl and it's a 4ft by 6ft room that's made almost entirely of dirt and mud. This was where the Buckwheat team's digging was heard the loudest last year. This time, however, we didn't have a team on the other side, and so with no sound to give us an idea of which direction to dig, it looked pretty grim-- a flat dirt surface with no opening, below a precarious-looking packed dirt ceiling. But we were there to dig, so dig we did.
Renee started digging while I dragged out spoils, then after a while I swapped in. I wasn't sure at first, but I thought I started to feel airflow on my face. This didn't make sense since there was no opening in the wall, but Renee confirmed that she also felt it. Then I looked up into the top of the dig face, and noticed that the dirt gave way to packed cobble with small gaps in between the rocks. This must've been where the air was coming from, which was confirmed by the air getting stronger as I dug out more cobbles.
The excitement from this didn't last long, though, because as we dug, dirt from the ceiling started to collapse onto us. First it was small amounts that would dislodge after I pulled out a particularly large chunk of rock, but eventually dirt started to fall down on us even when we weren't making any contact with the wall. After a larger collapse where what must've been more than a gallon of dirt fell on my head, we both decided that we weren't too thrilled about the idea of being buried alive in the most unpleasant part of Big Bucks. We called it quits after about an hour or so of digging, and spent the remainder of the trip enjoying all the spectacular features of the cave.
For future trips: that particular dig is just too unstable to work on safely, but there are a few other nearby spots that could have potential. If a team were to go back there, they should do so with another team regularly tapping/digging on the Buckwheat side so they might be able to find another place where it sounds close. Apart from that, it seems like digging on the Buckwheat side might be the more promising option.
Upper Cathedral Spring Basin
7 folks went out to geologize, ridgewalk, investigate sinkholes, and dig in caves including Cville Grotto members Casey Tucker (reporting) and Eric Shuler. After all of us poked around in a hole where a spring disappears into the earth. It will be a big digging endeavor as a lot of earth will have to be moved in order to get down and hopefully find some bedrock. From there, Eric split off with two geologists while I headed of for Counterfeit Pit with my team. Eric and crew found lots of sinkholes, but no promising cave leads.
My team worked on small cave called Counterfeit Pit. The airflow in there is intense and screams “come find more cave in here!” The first 20’ crevice, even after digging it bigger, is barely passable for me with vertical gear on. It is the limit of width I can get through with a croll attached. Below that is another constriction that opens into a 46’ pit. The 2 smallest members of the party made it down after we enlarged it a and reported more cave than was indicated in the original description. It is an exciting prospect at the uppermost reaches of the Cathedral Spring basin that drains over 4 square miles.
The team also located 5 other features which includes 3 very small, new caves (Daniel’s Crawlway, Phaedra’s Folly, and Martha’s Revenge) and a tube with air blowing out of it. It’s 8’ down on a steep angle, but gets too tight. It will be a lot of digging and will be a secondary project to Counterfeit Pit. It was pretty good day of digging and discovery!
Butler Cave – Sand Canyon Snake Box Dig
By Mark Minton with Victor Bennett, Yvonne Droms, Mátyás Gyimesi, Dave Socky, and Gabriella Wong
After a wonderful pancake breakfast at the very well attended 2025 BCCS Pancake Weekend, the six of us entered Butler Cave just before 11 am on Saturday, March 15. Just outside of the SOFA entrance we encountered a freshly fallen block that was separating into extremely thin slabs. We headed for the Snake Box Dig, downstream at the first hard bend in Sand Canyon, arriving at the dig site shortly thereafter.
Much had changed since Yvonne and I were there last. There had been at least two more dig trips, and the passage had progressed considerably. The dig face was now at the beginning of a low, wide, ‘pancake’ room where the ceiling had risen a couple of inches higher, and a small, dry water course had developed in the floor (apparently flowing into the dig). There were even a few small formations adorning the left wall. This was encouraging except for the fact that we could see no obvious exit from the room. The ceiling came back down to within an inch or two of the floor around the entire perimeter, and it was not obvious where to go. There was better airflow than I have noticed in the past, in spite of it being a relatively neutral-temperature day.
We opted to follow the water course, which headed slightly to the right of straight ahead toward one of the higher gaps at the back of the room. (What had previously appeared to be a junction at this spot was really just subtle variations in the mildly undulating ceiling and floor of the pancake room.) We made good use of everyone, with a couple of people at the front, a few people along the route making improvements and helping the sled along, and one person pulling and emptying sleds. Where the spoils enter Sand Canyon there used to be a vertical wall of fill, but it has now subsided, leaving behind a steep ramp.
Working the front was quite satisfying, as the compacted dirt could be pried up in large slabs, placed in trays cut from a water jug, and passed back for dumping into the sled. There were few if any cobbles in the upper foot or so of sediment, although we did encounter some farther down, a few of which were quite large.
We rotated through the various positions until about 3 pm (with a break for lunch). At that point, Gaby, Mátyás, and Victor left for a tour of the Crystal Gallery, Moon Room, and Hanging Dong. Dave, Yvonne, and I continued digging a while longer. Our improvements (removing humps and smoothing corners) made it possible for a single person to pull the sled out without any intermediate help. We worked until we were worn out, around 5 pm. We estimate that we advanced the front by about 11 feet. We still can’t tell what happens at the back of the pancake room, but the air is enticing. The dig goes on.
Backdoor Dig
Official cave report still to come.
About twelve people, including Harriet Flynn and Katie Vik (with guest appearance from Scott and Josh) worked on the Backdoor Dig. Many buckets of rock and dirt were extracted from the face of the dig and view of the next passage of the cave is slightly visible through a small hole. Photos below are from Backdoor Dig.
