Submitted by Bryan Crowell

Somehow, during the Rupert Fall MAR, which was, by the way, quite excellent, I managed to get in on a Big Ridge Trip led by Pat Minnick and Ed Kehs, Sr.. We drove up the access road to the cave, and proceeded to gear up. After Mark had the joy of opening the gate (head first at the top of a 150 foot drop), we went into the cave. The trip's purpose was basically recreational, with the familiarization of new people to the cave's entrance series as a secondary goal.

Ed entered first, followed by the 5 of us who had never been there before, and then Pat entered last. We first rappelled the sloping 150' rappel and then moved over to the second drop. After everyone dropped the 80 feet (+-) of this drop, Mike decided to decline on the last drop, since he didn't have his ideal ascending rig with him. The remainder of the group dropped the 3rd drop of about 100 feet, which was definitely the nicest drop in the cave. We then ditched our vertical gear and headed out throught the fissures, passing some clear stalactites, to the formation room, with it's wonderful white cascade. We then climbed down to the watercrawl to look at all of it's misery. After Mark hopped in the crawl so Ed could take a photo, the group retreated to the base of the drops. The group successfully exited, with Ed checking the condition of anchors on a side rope for a future trip and Pat successfully showing the young boys (Mark and myself) how fast you can ascend when you have a finely tuned, efficient system.

All in all, a great trip. Time in cave 4-5 hours,depending on exit position order. We then returned to Rupert to enjoy the pig roast and cerveza.