Attendance on Cassell weekends has varied wildly. The highest turnout was the first weekend when 31 people showed up. One of the lowest turnouts was during the 2001 NSS convention. Lately, the survey crew seems to consist of roughly ten hard-core Gangstas. Dashed lines above indicate participants who did not perform in-cave survey but contributed in other ways, i.e., diggers, riggers and surface crews.
The total milage is steadily growing, though not at the rate it was in the early days. The historical length of the cave is 6.63 miles, a record we are a scant 50 feet from breaking. How long will Cassell end up being? Estimates have ranged as high as 8 miles. Only time will tell!
The distance surveyed is clearly a function of the number of teams in-cave and the remoteness of the survey. As attenance drops, so does mileage per weekend. The November '02 weekend featured a spectacular gain of almost a quarter mile of passage!
Efficiency is measured as total survey for a weekend divided by the number of in-cave surveyors. Our efficiency varies wildly but has dropped dramatically as unsurveyed territory gets tougher and farther from the entrances requiring long trips. Furthermore, digging and cleaning up leads takes time and nets relatively little new distance. Countering these effects are the many shortcuts which have been installed (cable ladders, alternate routes, etc) which allow faster access to the back of the cave and surveyors personal knowledge of the territory. Now that the far end of the South Fork has been completely surveyed, efficiency may rise again.
Breathing statistics are kept a little differently than Cassell statistics. Instead of keeping track of number of participants, I've charted here number of surveying teams. Each team is typically three or four people.
It's official! The historical distance of 4.7 miles has been surpassed with lots more cave to go. Despite fluctuations in attendance, the cave has been growing at a pretty constant rate since January of 2001.
After the initial few surveys of easy stuff near the entrance, we've managed to average of around 1600 feet of new survey per outting (since January 2001).
Efficiency is measured as total survey for a weekend divided by the number of in-cave surveying teams. It hasn't dropped as quickly or as far as in Cassell; in fact, efficiency has gone up recently!
Breathing Cave
Charles Danforth
Last modified: Tue Nov 19 12:50:26 EST 2002