I recently took a spontaneous trip to Georgia at the request of a friend who is a tree climber as well. He called me four days prior and asked me if I would like to join him and another climber to do a rope access into Ellison’s cave to descend and ascend what is known as “the fantastic pit” it is the deepest pit drop in the continental US. Of course, I said yes. I have a deep passion for rope access, hiking, and climbing. This would be my first unguided trip into a cave. Little did I know what I’d be in for. I would be on my way for Georgia the following Friday to embark on what would become one of the most empowering and amazing adventures I had ever been on.
I decided to look up the cave that I would be accessing and I came to find out that this was no joke. There have been numerous accidents that had resulted in death, including the recent tragedy of two college students from Florida who died of hypothermia when their descent lines became tangled and they were stuck on line in the middle of the waterfall that flows down into the grotto. The fantastic pit is a 600ft drop into sheer darkness by rope. As I began to think more and more about just what the hell it was that I would be doing, anxiety and fear started washing over me.
The descent would be easy enough, but there is only one way out..back up the rope you just came down… the tallest ascent I’ve ever done was a 176ft tulip poplar that I climbed with some friends out East. I would now be multiplying that by three..that is a long way up, totally exposed in free space in the pitch black (besides what you could see with your headlamp) and with a waterfall raining down on you. I couldn’t shake the fear that was gripping me. Anxiety would grab hold whenever I thought about how dangerous this was. But I had agreed to go and I wasn’t going to cancel.
All I could think about was the rope snapping while I was suspended in open space some untold hundred feet off the floor. Or maybe the anchors in the rock would give way and send me plummeting to my death. Either way, I could not shake the fear. The day came to board my flight to Georgia. I was on the flight and all I could think about was how scared I was. Now, I’ve been working on ropes for years now and I am no slouch when it comes to rope access, and the two gentlemen who I was with are professional rope access technicians and tree climbers as well, but I could not shake how gnarly this trip was going to be.
My friend picked me up from the airport and we linked up with our other buddy and went to camp on the mountain where the next morning we would hike a mile up the mountain to descend into the darkness. We began vigorous training until nightfall, going over our knots and our ascending and descending changeovers. We checked all of our gear, double-checked our packing list and got everything packed and prepped. It was time to rack out and get some shut-eye. I lay in my hammock all night, looking at the stars and thinking about the drop. Honestly, I cannot remember being more afraid of anything in my life.
I did not sleep but a few hours here and there but was awoken by the anxiety of what I was about to do. Then the morning came. We set out at 600 am and drove to the trailhead. We grabbed our packs, each weighing roughly 40 lbs and hiked a mile straight up to the mouth of the cave. The hike was brutal. When we got to the mouth of the cave, we sent our position to our emergency contacts. The instruction was that if we had not been heard from in 13 hours, they were to contact rescue personnel immediately. When we sent that text, the gravity of the situation set in, as well as the adrenaline.
We entered into the mouth of the cave the water streaming beneath our feet. Headlamps, on. As we got deeper into the cave, the daylight disappeared and the only thing you could see was what was right in front of you. Everything else was pitch black. It was cool, you could hear the stream rolling through and echoing off the walls. It was damp and chilly. As i observed everything around me, the awe and wonder began to set in. It was so spectacular. But it was nothing compared to what I was about to experience.
We hiked in for a while until we reached the first drop. To access the fantastic pit, we had to rappel down what is known as the warm-up pit. It’s a 125ft drop over a ledge and down into the pitch-black right next to a waterfall. We put on our harnesses and anchored our access line to the preset bolts in the rock. It was go time. Taylor opted to go first. He attached his system to the line and disappeared over the ledge into the darkness. I was next.. and I was as anxious as I was exhilarated. Then I heard his words signaling that he was in the floor and off line..it was my time kids.
I attached my system to the rope and started descending toward the ledge. I looked at my friend, all I could see was the light from his headlamp. I inched closer and closer, leaned back and sat down in my system as I saw his headlamp disappear. I was now descending in free space into pitch black. The waterfall was spraying all over me as I descended. I couldn’t help but laugh. It was the most exhilarating experience of my life. All I could hear was the roar of the waterfall. And all I could see was right in front of me… and I praised the Lord in my spirit for the experience. 125ft. I changed over my systems to pass the knot where we had attached two lines because we didn’t have a long enough rope.
I struggled because I had a 40 lbs pack on my back and I was suspended in free space, working my system over the knot. My anxiety began to peak. I was stuck on the rope next to a waterfall and My arms and core began to burn from the effort. I paused shut my eyes and took a deep breath and took in the experience. I gathered my bearing and accomplished the task at hand. When my feet touched down on the rocks below, I let out a shout of excitement..it was the gnarliest thing I’ve done to date.
Spiritual principle one: Before, during, and after, I was thinking about one bible verse. Hebrews 6:19 says “This hope we have as an anchor for the soul, a safe and steadfast hope that enters within the veil” When on rope, the anchor is the static point that keeps you from plummeting to death.
“The importance of a strong anchor cannot be overstated when your life is on the line. Before making the descent, I purposed in my heart that I would choose to trust that the anchor was strong. I would CHOOSE to trust the anchor.”
When I did that, fear was eliminated and I was able to be present in the experience because I wasn’t worried about the anchor holding me.
I was able to enjoy the experience even though I was completely exposed. My entire life was dependent on the anchor holding. Of course, I had a part in it. I did what I was trained to do. I tied my knots, I worked my system, I made the right moves, but still, the anchor is what held me. Ponder this with me As I relate this to my spiritual condition, especially recently, I understand that the Lord was showing me what it meant to trust. How often in our lives do we live in fear, anxiety, or worry? How often do we take things into our own hands because we cannot accept living our lives so exposed, so vulnerable?
Foolishly, we grasp and flail to get our hands on something that we feel will offer us more stability, more safety, solidity. We grasp frantically in fear that the anchor is not enough, that the anchor is going to fail, so I must secure myself or I will surely die. This is not trusting the anchor.. and in our fear, we miss out completely on the experience, we miss out on what is going on around us because our thinking has been obsessing over our safety.
We miss out on our connectivity to everything and everyone around us, but most of all, we overlook our connectivity to our Lord…our anchor. It is our connection to Christ, our anchor, that holds us securely. When we live in fear and in what we try to control, we demonstrate our mistrust. How it must hurt His heart when His flock says by action “you are not enough, you are not strong enough to hold me safely” We tell Jesus, the rock that cannot move, the rock that has never moved, that the weight of our life and the baggage that we carry outweighs His strength to sustain us.
God does not call us to a life of safety, but to a life of complete trust.. and we must CHOOSE to trust Him. We muse CHOOSE to abandon fear, we must set our hearts and minds to this one thought..that the anchor will hold. When I am in complete exposure when the wind and the water batter me in the darkness..we are connected to Him..and the anchor WILL hold. When I chose to trust the anchor point in that cave, my fear subsided to the grandeur of the experience.
And when I conquered that descent and my feet were planted on solid ground, I felt alive for the first time in a long time. I saw the beauty of the cave walls on the descent, I saw the grandeur of the underground formations and of the waterfall seemingly washing away all the hurt I had brought into that cave. I enjoyed every bit of that experience. I took my time on both the descent and the ascent of that rope when we climbed back out. I had no fear because I made a conscious decision to trust.
The holy writ says “TAKE courage” “TAKE heart” these things are not given to us, but they are there for the taking. So come, let us rise up and shed the chains of fear that dominates our senses, dominates the way that we conduct ourselves. Let us CHOOSE this day to trust the Lord our anchor will never fail, that we are connected to him and he will never fail us. Let us CHOOSE to trust in times of uncertainty and let us live our lives in the exposure with no fear.
Let us conquer our fears that we may enjoy the experience. And when we pass through it, on the other side we will give a shout of praise and victory. Let us let go of our need to control our circumstances as if we are the anchor of our own life and entrust our lives to Him who has never failed. Amen Lessons from the cave to be continued…
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source https://www.saltydogspodcast.com/blog/lessons-from-the-cave-part-1
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