[Nmcaver] New Mexico Magazine Jan. Issue

[DONALD G. DAVIS]

	Lee Skinner wrote:

>The New Mexico Magazine January issue has 4 pages about FSC Snowy 
>River.  Just picked up a copy at Hastings.

      I just read it--I noted the following rather amusing remarks:

      "The cave, which experts say took about 500 years to form..." 
(Well, yes, and then some...)

      "...digging at Fort Stanton in what the BLM considered a Priority 7
project..."  (The name has nothing to do with any numeric priority scale
BLM might use.  Early digger Jim Hardy named it, in an arcane reference to
the highest-priority hardware interrupt in the IBM 360 mainframe computer
he worked with at the time.)

      "...digging with a coffee can [in Priority 7]...so it would be
easier to find artifacts and other important geological material..."

      "...river of snow is a combination of crystal and calcite..."

      "...it is believed to have taken 500 years to form Snowy River..." 
(Closer than for the cave itself, but still no doubt much too fast.)

      "At the time humans were pulled out of Snowy River...the path of
pristine, white floors still went on as far as the cavers' light would
carry through a 40-foot diameter borehole passage."  (Snowy River North is
40' high but doesn't have white floor; Snowy River South has continuing
white floor but is only 20' by 2'.)

      "[cavers wear] big 'bunny slippers' [on Snowy River]"  (From caption
of a photo showing John McLean's experimental "Snowy River snowshoes.")

      Why can't they let us edit these things?  Oh, well, I shouldn't
complain--at least they printed a picture of me standing behind Sen.
Domenici.
							--Donald Davis