Written by Maggie Brosky, first appeared in The Florida Speleologist September 2023 Issue

Those who know me know that I’ve been spending a significant amount of time in Warren Cave recently. On a recent trip, Alicia Bateman pointed out a section of the rope that she thought was concerning. Upon inspection, it was evident that there was a significant rub point a few feet above the rebelay. A 3-4 inch section of the rope was looking ‘fluffy’, and I could even see the clean white core when the rope was running through my bobbin. 

The exposed core through the 11mm rope

We notified Dave Lizdas, the preserve manager, who agreed that the rope needed to be replaced. On Wednesday, August 16, 2023, Fletcher Jacob led Priscilla Perez, Dallas Simpson, and I on a trip into Warren Cave to inspect the damage and rig a new rope. We hauled Fletcher’s 150’ rope to the second pitch, where I was volunteered to go up first to make sure the rope was safe enough for everyone else to come up. Thankfully, the rope was holding up (that would have been a lot of paperwork for Fletcher and Dave), so the whole group joined me at the top. We schemed about the best way to avoid rope rub and concluded that a permanent solution required more supplies than we had on hand that day. However, we had everything we needed to replace the rope with something that would allow a group of cavers to safely climb the rope for a sport trip planned for the following weekend. 

Maggie and Fletcher retying the new rope in

Fletcher clipped into a safe loop of the old rigging and started tying a double figure 8 on a bight (aka bunny ears) to hook into Andy Pitkin’s bolts, while I worked on the approach line. Once the top was set, the next task was to redirect the rope away from the rub point. We decided to tie an alpine butterfly knot in the lower rope and use a loop of webbing to pull the rope away from the wall it was touching. Fletcher went down first to set the rebelay while the rest of us carefully observed our handiwork to see if the redirect was pulled tight enough to avoid rope rub. Of course, it wasn’t.
Once Fletcher set the rebelay, I retied the redirect (a couple times) and sent the rest of the group down. I cut the old rope off of the bolts and coiled it to give to Dave after the trip, and then headed down. The new rope is a much smoother ride and doesn’t instill fear in the hearts of cavers like the old one. I’m confident that whatever permanent solution we implement will allow continued, safe access to Warren Cave!