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Salt, Smoke, and Sketchy Slopes:
11 Miles of Survey in Grand Canyon Caves
Presented by: Beth Cortright
October 2, 2018
In Grand Canyon National Park, expedition teams have surveyed over 11 miles of new cave passage in the past 2 years. A new cave with large passages and impressive calcite, gypsum, epsomite, and mirabilite formations, called Gryffindor Cave, was discovered in 2016. The following year, surveyors mapped a connection between Gryffindor Cave and Double Bopper Cave, which was already the longest and deepest cave in Arizona.
Expeditions in fall 2017 mapped 5.7 miles of new survey in this system and brought the length of Double Bopper Cave to 36.7 miles. Several accomplished cave photographers were present on these expeditions, providing spectacular photographic documentation of the passages, formations, and the antics of the cavers involved.
Beth Cortright has been caving for about 11 years. She began exploring underground while attending college and primarily caved in south central Kentucky, where she learned to survey. During this time, Beth also got involved with a group surveying caves in collaboration with archaeologists at Maya sites in the Yucatan, Mexico. Through her adventures with the caving group in Kentucky and Mexico, Beth was invited on a weeklong expedition into Lechuguilla Cave in Carlsbad Caverns National Park in 2011. Beth has since returned to Lechuguilla many times, and to many other New Mexico caves as well, for more day trips and expeditions. Beth also participates in expeditions to Montana's Bob Marshall Wilderness and Grand Canyon National Park. (54:48) Download a copy (109 MB)
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