Aid climbing INSIDE a muddy cave - Exploring Topless Dome Part 1 of 3

Topless Dome is a 396 foot tall dome with a water fall coming down the center of it. This is the 1st video about the project where I lead from Rachel Saker's "Disillusion Window" up to "Horse Tooth Pit" which is about half way to the top. The next episode we make it all the way. Tumbling Rock Cave in Alabama and protected by the SCCI (permitted required to enter the cave) has a 396 foot dome with a waterfall coming down the center of it. Topless Dome was first climbed in 1978 by Don Davison and Cheryl Jones where they climbed straight up the dome and then rappelled down two side pits named Mushroom Forest and Horse Tooth Pit. Allegedly, someone tried to climb back to the top in 1996 without a permit and got arrested right before they could top out and you can still see their rope up there (2nd episode). No one has officially been to the top since 1978. Rachel Saker loves vertical cave exploration and was exploring ceiling channels in the Hall of Great Mysteries until one of her discoveries, Disillusion Window, tied back into Topless. She installed a via ferrata to go to the other side where the map said the Mushroom Forest and Horse Tooth Pit existed only to find out they were behind her. I joined Rachel in this episode and lead aid climbed from her Disillusion window up to Horse Tooth Pit. See the other two videos about the project Tumbling Rock Cave is SCCI protected and permits are required to enter the cave Project leader: Rachel Saker https://www.instagram.com/petzlprincess Photo Credit: Ethan Reuter https://www.instagram.com/ethan_reuter_photography Video Credit: Derek Bristol https://youtu.be/OXVyEgixpWU Behind the Scenes This was my 3rd time entering a cave and i got to lead climb a portion of this dome that has never been climbed before to enter a space only 2 people have ever been before, and they only spent 15 minutes in it. It was amazing to have this opportunity to use my big wall skills under ground as most caves, once climbed, are just fixed ropes and no one lead climbs them again. I had to figure out what was solid limestone and what was just brittle flow stone to build an anchor for Rachel to follow. The trick was everything was under an inch of mud! The climax and crux of this was filming while moving from aid to free climbing in boots on mud while gripping a mud lip and pulling my glove off while hanging on still so I could pull out my cell phone and film. Overall, this was a very unique experience to me at the time. Be sure to check out the other two videos as it shows the entire project. After Posting Thoughts This and the 3rd video got 30k views after 3 months and the 2nd video got over 250k views so I do wish I made them into one full documentary instead of breaking them up but who knows, maybe it would have just got 30k views as a 40 minute film. It's really awesome to see that people really liked it in the comments, as I put in about 20-30 hours of editing into the 3 video series. It makes me want to put a lot of effort into more documentaries. Topless Project Photos