Nirvana: Another New TAG Find

The day a large group of us were touring Dorton Knob Smokehole on February 6th, 1993, Gerald Moni, Ed and Tracey Loftis, Ross and Tina Barnhardt, and Chuck Mangelsdorf went ridgewalking around the Dorton Knob mountainside. They found a small sink and began to dig on it. Opening a small hole, they squeezed in and crawled under a roof of loose boulders to reach the edge of a very deep pit. They tied two ropes together and one person made it to the bottom. They named the pit "Nirvana" and it was later taped to 226 feet deep.

The night after our trip to Dorton Knob Smokehole, we found out about the new find. The next morning, we planned on locating the entrance and then go drop another pit. Instead, we found Gerald in the entrance "digging it bigger." He said the others did not want drive back from the restaurant, so we had permission to push the cave.

The original entrance was a 1x1 foot hole you had to squeeze down four feet within wedged boulders. You then had to crawl 5 feet horizontally under a roof of loose death rocks to reach the edge of the pit. Alan set a bolt on a large boulder above the pit to rebelay the rope. Alan went down then I followed. The pit drops along a large flowstone wall for 25 feet to a flowstone bulge. From there the pit drops free 180 feet to a major ledge. At this point we rebelayed our rope. The remaining 30 feet is along an eroded flowstone and jagged limestone wall.

The bottom is an actively eroding breakdown chamber 30 by 50 feet. At the end of one side, Alan found a small stream that pinched off in a too-tight crawl. I pushed the down dip side of the room. I free climbed up to some canyons along a wall. They led to mud fill or dead ends. At the floor, a 10-foot deep hole through breakdown led to the bottom of the breakdown pile. Through a fist sized-hole, I saw a little moving water.

Having nothing better to do, I began excavating from around the hole. Shortly, I cleared out enough stuff to reach the hole. It was a layer of chert

which I hammered out to body size proportions, The space between the ceiling and the water looked only to be eight inches high. but it had to be checked. Barely able to stuff my body into the hole, I backed in and upstream. In front of me, the crawl got even smaller and wetter.

I was not wearing any water protection, but I grimly pushed forward taking my helmet off. The ceiling gave way and I could move a bit easier. Going downstream, the passage broke open into hands and keens crawl. This went 300 feet to a point where the water rapidly cut down through a tight canyon. I tried climbing up into a ceiling conduit before hammering open a tight squeeze.

On the other side of the squeeze, a 20-feet climbdown reached the water which led to another squeeze. While hammering out the constriction, Pete Hall unexpectedly caught up. We each barely squeezed through the tight spot and saw the cave continued. From there the cave stayed crawling dimensions as it went down dip. Formations started to come in along the walls. After 400 feet the passage opened up at a junction.

To the left, an infeeder came in, forming a crystalline floor along it's path. Forward up high was a overflow route and below was a continuation of the wet crawlway taking the water. Pete and I first followed the water into a series of tight 90 degree bends with deep pools of water.

The last 90 degree bend sent water going into a 6-7 inch wide canyon 8 feet tall. The middle of the canyon was the widest. I could fit if it was a belly crawl. If you went in sideways and you slipped, you could slide down and get permanently wedged. I did not even try it. Backing out, the other two leads were pushed to flowstone chokes. The overflow route led to a crawl that ended at a rimstone pool.

Pete and I added 700-900 feet of length to the cave and a new depth of 270-300 feet.

Note: Soon after Nirvana was opened up, the original entrance collapsed. The entrance was blasted open again, but then it recollapsed. After more work it was opened once more. Today it is an open air pit. For awhile Alan's bolt-hanger remained on the boulder. It got smashed up and was removed. If you look close today you will see the bolt stud left in the rock.

The end of the cave needs a second opinion by a very skinny crew or someone with a little rock solvent. I pushed this back when I was only 23 and skinny. We had all the water and air. This lead could yield a 1300 foot deep cave! I would hope that this fact might motivate a second hardcore group to revisit the lead and push it. To my knowledge, no one else has ever been to bottom of Nirvana since Pete and I first did back in February of 1993.