San Antonio area Natural Bridge Caverns reveals more secrets in never-before-seen passage

[Elderberry]

Houston Chronicle by Richard A. Marini May 13, 2019

It’s not often, in this day and age, that someone gets the opportunity to walk where no human being has ever walked before.

Brothers Travis and Brad Wuest, along with a team of experienced cavers, believe they did just that last week when they explored more than 600 feet of a never-before-seen underground passage in Natural Bridge Caverns, located northeast of San Antonio.

It is the biggest discovery at the cave system in more than half a century, the brothers say.

“It was like being an astronaut on the moon,” said Travis Wuest, 42 and vice president of the family-owned entertainment complex.

“The floor was just a powdery coating of undisturbed mud,” said Brad Wuest, 46, the company CEO. “You’d look behind you and see your tracks, and then look in front and see nothing because no one has ever stepped foot there before.”

The Wuests have always known of the passage’s existence. The so-called lead, or opening, was visible from the floor of the 120-foot-high Dome Pit, a large underground chamber near the north end of the cavern system, far beyond where visitors walk during guided tours. Cavers had also been able to peer at the opening across the void of the Dome Pit from an upper level section called Satan’s Pit Passage.

What no one knew, however, was how far the as-yet unnamed passage went, where it led and what it would reveal to scientists about how the cavern formed over millions of years.

But first they had to get to it.

The only way to reach the passage opening was by climbing the Dome Pit walls. To do that, they enlisted the services of Lee White, one of North America’s best cave dome climbers, and Bill Steele, an experienced speleologist, or cave explorer.

In addition, the expedition team included Orion Knox Jr., one of the four college students who first explored the cave in 1960. A photographer and video crew were there to record the expedition.

More: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/local/article/San-Antonio-area-Natural-Bridge-Caverns-reveals-13840563.php


Natural Bridge Caverns vice resident Travis Wuest, left, and president and CEO Brad Weust,
were part of an expedition team that found a new 600-foot-long passage off the Dome Pit,
a chamber with a ceiling height of more than 120 feet. The 600-foot section is the largest
discovery at the popular attraction since 1976.

[Smokin Joe]

Most "new" cave is tight, small, and short. Adding a significant chamber or passage would be neat.

A crew I was on in W VA found a small side passage in a large cave with no foot, hand, or knee prints, and it was outrageously tight.

Starting with the largest person on the crew, and working our way down to the smallest, each of us got to go where no one had gone before, at least as far as we could tell. It's a neat feeling, even if it is not a major discovery.

[Sanguine]

Cavers are special people.