The sole pristine feature left is the Soda Straw Pillar, and that is-no doubt-only because it lies on the far end of the Sideways Crawl. The location of IXL was already quite well known when I first started exploring it 35+ years ago, and the cave itself was already in rough shape by then as well. Why don't any of those expertly made maps come up in an on-line search? I totally get wanting to protect the cave, but I'd argue that that ship has pretty much sailed. I certainly don't dispute their existence (like I said, I've always believed they had to exist somewhere) but I've never seen them. I assume there are other, different names for some of the features on those original, awesomely accurate maps of which you speak, but I don't know what they are.īecause I have never seen any of those maps. I included those on the 3.0 version, along with other names that came from some more recent Hell Hole cave explorers I've had conversations with. Nick Rivera and his crew added some names to his version of the map he posted in 2018. It lasted down there about a year before it too disappeared.ĭid the name, or did the original statue come first?
So we replaced it with a really cool little wooden Buddha statue he found at a yard sale, posed with its arms above its head like he was holding up the earth above us. My buddy who first took me to IXL said there had once been a Buddha statue down in that tiny space, the physically lowest room of the cave. Where the Hall of Faces came from is obvious, but the origins of the Buddha Room are less clear. Then if they stick, take on a life of their own and ultimately become canon. The names of features in caves are born of a moment in time. The “Sphincter” got its name because that was where the people who presumably drank those beers appeared to have sometimes relieved themselves. The “Party Room” came from the fact that we'd often find empty beer bottles in there. (“Tom Sawyer Cave” was another early name of IXL, according to available histories.) “Map Trap Chute” is a tribute to one of the early historical names of the cave: “Map Trap Cave”, a moniker that came about because supposedly someone once got stuck in that very spot. It's been a long time, but I'm pretty sure all the rest of the names on the 1.0 version of the map from 1989 (that went on-line in 2015) were ours. Many years later I was able to definitively dispel the OTHER myth, when I joined the fire service myself and learned that, no, the UCSC Fire Department never did have a map of IXL.Īs I recall, the only names we knew about back then were the Buddha Room, and the Hall of Faces (also the Corkscrew and Birthing Canal, but those are pretty common names for similar features in caves everywhere). One of those myths was soon dispelled when we met some cavers who claimed to know the guy who started the whole “IXL goes to the ocean” rumor as a joke. Oh how we longed to get our hands on that map! Mostly because of ANOTHER rumor that was floating around back then: That IXL went all the way to the ocean. When my buddies and I began exploring IXL/Hell Hole (names used interchangeably from here on out) in the mid 1980's, there was a rumor that the UCSC Fire Department had a map in case they needed to perform a rescue. Thank you for verifying that I was correct all those decades ago :) The reason I drew that map back in '89 was because, although I was sure there HAD to be other maps of IXL/Hell Hole that existed, we could never locate one. r/alpinism Take hiking to the high slopes Please join the NSS, find your local grotto (cave club) to learn caving and cave locations.įind a caving group in your own country: International Union of Speleology No pictures of cavers without helmets or doing anything else unsafe.
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