On July 30 myself, Sam Kirschner, and 2 Moldovan friends, George and Sasha, decided to go to the river Nistru, which is located on the west side of the Country to BBQ and go through a cave. The cave is located very close to the border crossing between Moldova and Transnistria, just north of Ciruleni on the Moldova side and just south of Dubăsari on the Transnistria side. What I thought would be a nice casual stroll through a cave on a warm summer day ended up being one of the toughest and most rewarding experiences from my time in Moldova. I know a trip through a cave should not be more rewarding than my work I do every day, but let’s not fool ourselves the majority of my day is spent sitting alone in a dark office thinking of project ideas that nobody is going to listen to unless it personally makes them money.
Anyway, back to the cave. The cave is known by a few names, but the one that I feel is most appropriate is Cave of Surprises because that is exactly how I felt when I made it out alive. The entrance of the cave (see below) is a small whole that you can fit through quite easily; it drops down about 5 feet and then opens up into a small cavern. Upon entering the cave the temperature dropped substantially which you expect going underground. I remember thinking to myself, “I probably should have brought a jacket”, but as we move along the story you’ll see why that is a huge joke. The next part of the cave was a small drop of about 8 feet, but there was a wooden ladder so it wasn’t much of a problem. The last step was missing, but all 4 of us easily traversed the decaying wood without any problems. Directly after this drop there was another drop, this one a little scarier. The drop was about 5 feet to a large bolder that had fallen and then around the bolder it dropped off another 5 feet. What was used to span the gap between the top of the drop and the bolder was a branch of a tree about the size of my leg the spanned the gap in a declining angle. Sasha was the first to go across, him being the guide and all, and then me. We both made it to the bolder and then Sam’s turn came. He made it about half way and decided that his ankles and life would be better served taking a nap in the sun by the river. So we helped Sam find his way out and then continued across the branch again and on to the next challenge. As this story goes on it will show what a great decision Sam made to turn back.
Now just three we climbed off the bolder and made out way to the far end of the small cavern that we were in. Once we made it to the end I see Sasha disappear into a hole just big enough to get his shoulders through. I stopped, assessed the situation and thought, why not, if he can fit I sure as hell can fit. So I judged the angle I would have to stick my head in the hole to make it fit and went for it. Once I got most of my body into the hole I realized that I was in such a tight spot that the only way I could move was to go inch by inch using my toes to push myself forward. At this point you might think I would freak out right? Well I did a little, but wiggled, squeezed, and inched my way forward until I made it to the end of the hole where Sasha was waiting for me with a smile on his face congratulating me. He told me that was the first “filter” and many people don’t make it past it.
Once we all made it through the “Filter hole” we were continuously met with the same types of situations. Holes the same size, smaller, longer, more awkward, but after that first squeeze that a person goes through I believe something clicks in their brain and they either become a “cave person” or not. Every squeeze we made from that point I made it through relatively easily.
As we continued through the cave the squeezes were tight and awkward, but I made it. However, what I was not prepared for was the climbing. You may think that being from Utah I would be a pro climber because the south of Utah is riddled with some of the most famous climbs in the world. I however have never taken advantage of Utah’s climbing advantages. I have never climbed in my life except for jumping from bolder to bolder in the Uintas on my way to a lake to fish. As we made our way through the cave I was encountered time and time again with climbs that were way above my climbing level (Which is probably…1). We chimney climbed pretty much every ascent that faced us and many of those ascents were 15 to 20 feet high and full of sharp rocks at the bottom.
A few climbs stick out in my mind, but because my memory has blended the whole cave into one blur I can’t remember which climb belongs were in context, but I still am going to describe them. The first climb was not a climb, but a decent. As we were going through the cave we squeezed through a whole, which was normal at this point, but as we exited the whole we were face to face with a drop that dropped 15 feet down and was too big to chimney climb down it. However there was a rusted old chain that hung down the hole spanning to the bottom. In order to reach this chain you had to chimney climb out into the middle of the hole, turn around while hovering over the hole and make a leap of faith to the chain at which point you descend the chain “gym class style”. This little decent was one of the hardest things I have ever made my brain do. The will it took me to jump to this chain I never thought I had, but once I made it to the bottom and my adrenalin was pumping I felt like I conquered the world.
The next climb I am going to describe was one of the few moments where my brain actually said “I’m going to fall and it’s really going to hurt!” Throughout the cave there were red arrows pointing the way through, but it was still very easy to walk right past one and end up at a dead end. On one of these few occasions we ran into the dead end, but decided that the path must lead straight up. So up Sasha went chimney style, up up up. As he made it to the climb he yelled back down, “come up, I think this is the way”. So I considered my way up this 15ft. crack and started up. I tried to follow the path that Sasha took only making a small change to where I would end the climb. As I get 3/4 of the way up he yells back down, “wait, I think this is wrong”. So there I sat, wedged in a crack that I was barely holding. “Yep, it’s wrong”, I hear a few seconds later and at that point I look down to my doom. There is nothing below me, but smooth rock wall and jagged rocks at the bottom. My arms and legs were gassed, and my knees were bruised and on the verge of bleeding, but there really wasn’t much of a choice that to go for it. As I started my shaky way down I had the help of George below me who as soon as I was in reach was putting pressure on my feet to provide more friction. Eventually I made it down, arms, legs and brain shaking, but I was down. Back to the firm safety of the pitch black, uneven, cave floor.
The final climb just happened to be directly after the wrong turn and was no less of a climb we just encountered in our mistake of direction. About 20ft. back in the direction we came we found the arrow pointing up. This climb turned out to be our last climb which broke us to the sweet sweet sunshine. As usual Sasha started, made it up, yelled down confirming it was the right direction and I began my climb. The first part of the climb was again way over my level, but I made it. Hanging 10ft. up on a small foot hold I look up to see none other than an overhang! This overhang had a hole in it that I thought maybe I could fit through and avoid the life threatening climb I would have to take if it wasn’t there. So I climbed my way up into the whole and to my dismay my head would not even fit through it. So back around the rock I went. At the foot hold that I had started from I reached up over the top of the overhang and into the hole that was just a bit too small. I made sure I had a good hold and then let go of my feet and hung. With everything I had left in my body I pulled myself up and over the overhang to safety, for the moment. Once over the overhang I was faced with another chimney climb, but it would have to be done horizontal with the ground, a fall back to where I started to my right and on all of that the crack was one of those where you can just barely wiggle through. Being so close to the end I had no choice to go for it. I wiggled my way out there, kept my mind on that light I could see coming from the next climb and finally made it to the end! Once through the horizontal chimney climb of death I looked up to my glorious light shining through the next climb. Up I went. A pretty standard chimney style climb at this point, but once at the top the final hole is looking me in the face. The whole is again just big enough for me to shimmy through, but the scary part being the crack that ran all the way to the exit. Once stuffing myself into the hole I find myself 10ft. from the exit. With each half of my body on either side of a deep crack I wormed my way through the 10ft. Arms shaking, legs not responding to the desperate calls of my brain I pulled my body, drenched with sweat (Jacket?), caked with dirt (now mud) back into the world. Rebirth!
