Trip Report – 2025-03-16
Carroll Cave Trip Leader Training

Participants: Bill Gee
Rita Worden
Marty Griffin
Shane McCurdy
Jerel Waters

Time in: 10:10 am Time Out: 12:15 pm.

Trip report by Bill Gee

Last year I led a trip leader training session. The response was very good and lot of people turned out. I decided it was time to run another session this year. Turnout was a bit disappointing, but for those who were there we learned a lot.

Sunday morning the weather started with low temps around 30 and a bit of snow on the ground. The sky was clear, so when the sun rose things warmed up a bit. The wind was blowing and rather chilly.

I called the start time for this training session as 10:00 am. We waited a few extra minutes but no one else showed up. There were four other people who had indicated interest. Since it was a small group, we went inside my camper to get out of the wind. I had a heater running, so it was comfortably warm.

The agenda this year was the same as last year, except we did not cover use of the safety cable sleeves. Rita and Marty have both been over this in the past. Shane and Jerel were new to it. The first part of the agenda took about an hour. We had some good discussion about several items.

From there we moved into the silo. No heat, but still out of the wind. I went over all the safety and rescue gear that we have. Everyone got a chance to work with the winch.

When we went to practice getting out of the cave even when locked, there was a problem. The hidden bolt for the hatch was a bit corroded and had just enough mud on it to make it impossible to unscrew by hand. We wound up using a pair of pliars. Once it came apart, we used some WD40 and a wire brush to clean it up. It went back together with no issues.

We finished the session shortly after 12:00pm. Everyone packed up, and we were out of the campground about 13:20pm.

There are six things that need to be addressed.

First: As far as anyone knows, there is exactly one key for the hatch padlocks. If that key gets lost, we have a serious problem. I think the padlocks should be replaced anyway since they are probably 20 years old. They still work – but are likely on borrowed time. If we replace them, we can also get several keys.

Second: The IRT and keep-warm bags in the garbage can need to be opened and reviewed. There is probably stuff in them which has expired.

Third: The field telephones and wire should all be tested.

Fourth: The tube of maps is outdated. The contents need to be reviewed and updates maps put in the tube. These maps are for Incident Command in case of a rescue, so they need to be fairly current.

Fifth: We need to get with Mid-County Fire Protection District. It has been years, 10 or more, since we did any training with them. Their procedures have probably changed. We need to get back in sync with them.

Sixth: Secondary callout. After calling 911, who is the next set of people to call? We need a callout list of cavers.

Seventh: Approved trip permits should have the name and phone number of the callout person. Also lines for the names of the actual participants.