Transcript of Snowy River Passage Discovery Video

Fort Stanton Caves Snowy River Passage, within its confines, the Snowy River formation, at 4.1 miles, it is thought to be the longest calcite formation in a cave anywhere in the world.

The story begins in the early 1970’s when a group of cavers began digging in breakdown following strong airflow.

The passage they excavated was named Priority 7.
 
But due to the unstable nature of some of the areas of the dig, and the return of flowing water in the north end of the cave, the dig was abandoned.

Sept 2000 after the water receded, a trip was organized to look at some of the old digging projects.

Lloyd Swartz was very impressed with the air flow and decided to dig in a different area of priority 7

September 2001 after only 5 dig trips Lloyd Swartz, John McLean, Andrew Grieco, and Don Becker opened up Starry Nights Passage, named after the star burst gypsum that decorated the walls.

Surveying down passage it appeared that they had reached the end, but the roar of massive air lured them to a small duck under air gap.

After walking down a short passage they came to an intersection. Much to their amazement, a borehole passage, the floor covered with a river of white calcite.

Snowy River had been discovered.

But before exploration could continue, the Bureau of Land Management, the administrator of Fort Stanton Cave, required a gate to be installed to protect the Snowy River formation and the preparation of an environmental assessment to define the approach to further exploration.

Finally, in July 2003, the first expedition. Heading south, they surveyed a half mile of passage in Snowy River, and discovered a muddy side passage and named it Mud Turtle, after a rock formation at the entrance.

The Labor Day expedition began on August 30, 2003.

Two survey teams entered Snowy River.

One team picked up the survey in Snowy River South and added almost another half mile with no end in sight.

The other team headed north and surveyed a little over 2/3 of a mile, finding a large side lead and discovering Snowy Rapids.

The next day, September 1st, a single team surveyed about a quarter mile in Snowy River North when they encountered Flowing water, which they named Crystal Creek.
 
The environmental assessment stated that until water samples were taken, no one could enter the water, for fear of biological contamination.

So the team turned around and headed to the large lead to the east that was noted the day before.

Surveying up a huge unconsolidated breakdown pile they discovered a train sized tunnel about half way up .This they named the Metro.

But it was late and it was time to leave, only surveying a couple of hundred feet of passage.

October 2003, the Columbus Day expedition, three days were spent exploring the Metro netting almost 1 ¼ miles of passage before finding Disappointment Dome that marked the end of the passage.

There was also a trip to Snowy River South, adding another quarter mile and ending the survey where the passage had lowered to a two foot high, 20 foot wide crawlway.

But the most significant trip was yet to come.

October 14 Mud Turtle passage was surveyed, and when the map was plotted it was found that Mud Turtle passage ended in breakdown 40 feet down below Don Sawyer Memorial Hall.

Discovered in 1971, by digging in blowing rubble at Roaring Hill passage, the cavers could not find the source of the air flow.

Now the mystery was solved. The air was coming from Mud Turtle and diffusing throughout the entire breakdown in north Don Sawyer Memorial Hall.

When the October expedition ended, the Snowy River survey was slightly over 2 miles in length and with the Metro included, almost 3 and ½ miles of passage had been discovered.

But in November 2003 The Bureau of Land Management decided to Close Priority 7.

There were too many unstable areas, and all the traffic had made them even more unstable.

An alternate entrance to access Snowy River would need to be found.

The best option was to dig a shaft between Don Sawyer Memorial Hall and Mud Turtle Passage.

But before digging could commence, another gate would need to be fabricated.
April 2005 the installation of the gate was complete.

And on July 7, 2005 Senator Pete Domenici visited Fort Stanton Cave in Support of his Legislation declaring Snowy River as a National Cave Conservation Area.

Digging began in October 2005 by members of the Fort Stanton Cave Study Project.

At first, diggers could stand on the bottom of the shaft and hand buckets up to a line of cavers to be dumped.

As the dig progressed, temporary wood bracing was installed, and will be replaced with a more permanent solution in the future.

The diggers, hammered on rocks to break them into manageable pieces, prying, and digging with shovels and bare hands, they filled buckets.

Brimming with spoils the buckets travel up rope, through a landing, hauled up by an A frame hoist.

They make their way to a bucket tram, to continue their journey to the spoils pile located about 100 feet down the breakdown pile in Don Sawyer Memorial Hall.

Finally on June 30, 2007, Breakthrough, Members of the Fort Stanton Cave Study Project crawl from Don Sawyer Memorial Hall to Mud Turtle Passage.

After digging  over 40 feet, Installing 19 levels of bracing, four 8 foot ladders and removing 36 cubic yards of material, in six 9 day expeditions in which 4 to 5 days were spent digging, they made their way through Mud Turtle Passage, a 1,028 foot, mud floored, serpentine conduit ,  the gateway to Snowy River.

Rounding the last bend, Snowy River lies before them, and much to their surprise.

There was water in Snowy River.

It was dry in 2001 when discovered, even though there was left over water in Fort Stanton Caves Main Corridor from the flooding episode of 1975 to 1993, so it was thought the formation was ancient and no longer active.

In 2003 a sample of the top layer of the Snowy River formation was dated 150 years plus or minus 60 years.

This led us to believe that water flow was maybe a once in a century event.

In April 2007 the Main Corridor began to flood, but the absence of a deposit seemed to indicate different sources of water that would act independent of each other. 

But there it was   water in Snowy River.

Yep, they were surprised, and excited, actually seeing Snowy River in action.  But at the same time disappointed, for the unfinished survey and exploration would have to wait.

They didn’t waist any time, it was an opportunity for science to be conducted on an actively forming Snowy River.

Water samples for hydrological analysis were collected.

Water depth to calculate flow rate was performed, and temperature measurements were taken.

Dr. Penney Boston, and Mike Spilde, distinguished scientists, traveled to Snowy River to obtain samples of the black manganese coating on the cave walls

This crust is believed to be deposited by micro biological action, and precipitated as a byproduct of metabolism.

July 7 there was 14 ¾ inches of water, and on October 13, the last day of the October expedition it measured 13 ¼ inches.

October 30, 2007 one day before the cave was closed for the bat hibernation; a final water monitoring trip was scheduled.

The monitoring crew ware totally unprepared for what they found.

Snowy River was dry!

After falling ½ inch per month from July to October, 13 ¼ inches of water disappeared in a little over 2 weeks.

Every body had assumed it would take at least 2 years to dry out.

Everybody was encouraged; if the formation stayed dry, exploration could begin after the cave opened in the spring.

April 26 2008 Snowy River was still dry so the exploration could continue in the south where the survey left off in 2003.

The area was so low that team members had to roll interspaced with crawling and duck walking.

The survey ended at Snowy River Spring, the point at which the formation goes under the east wall and was not enterable.

But the main Snowy River passage continued, although muddy, to a breakdown room and was explored on April 29.

Surveying through the room, the south end went into a slippery mud funnel which lead to a hands and knees crawl they named Mud Lizard, at its end, another breakdown room that lead to the continuation of Snowy River.

May 1st, starting at the end of the Return to Snowy River Room, the passage was a hands and knees crawl with a few duck walks.

Eventually it became a series of low pools floored with calcite rafts.

Snowy River continued to increase in size, changing into a 15 foot high canyon.

With its 2 parallel lines running along the sides, it was named the Underground Railroad.

The April expedition added two thirds of a mile to Snowy River South.

June 28th, the first day of the July Expedition, following the meandering passage, the dimensions staying roughly 15 x 15 feet, a half mile was surveyed, ending while the corridor went on big as ever.

July 1st after a short distance a cross passage was found, the first since Turtle Junction, but the main focus was Snowy River , so they continued on, finding an area decorated with stalactites, a rare occurrence in Snowy River.

Rounding a bend, the ceiling jumped to 35 feet and another large opening appeared on a balcony above.

The exploration ended where some large breakdown blocks had covered the passage floor.

Naming the area Buenos Aires, meaning good air, the team finished up with a half mile of survey.

July 3, 2008 there was a congressional fact finding trip to Snowy River in support of the National Conservation Area designation for Fort Stanton Cave.

Representing BLM were Jeff Jarvis and Jim Goodbar, Clint Taylor representing Senator Domenici, and Jorge Silva representing Senator Bingaman.

The last trip of the July Expedition was on the 4th , crawling under the Buenos Aires breakdown, the passage continued, growing ever larger,  encountering additional breakdown areas, ceiling heights in the 50 foot range.

They found high leads, some with flowstone cascades, emanating from them.

Finally they came to a large breakdown pile that had collapsed over Snowy River, and with no easy route around they called it a night with over a half mile of survey.

July 27, 2008 Fort Stanton experienced a tremendous flood event when the remnants of Hurricane Dolly dumped around 3 to 4 inches of rain in the area and up to 7 inches in the Ruidoso area.

July 31 it was noted that Government Spring, the resurgence of Snowy River water into the Rio Bonito, was flowing quiet significantly.

August 3 a team went to Snowy River to investigate, Snowy River was flowing again.

Data loggers for water levels and temperature were immediately installed.

During the October expedition Hydrological measurements were taken by Dr. Lewis Land and Talon Newton, and water samples for DNA analysis were obtained for Dianna Northrup of UNM.

As the expedition drew to a close, the flow had slowed down and the level dropped from July.

The hope is that Snowy River will dry out by spring so that survey and exploration can continue in 2009.