Mystery Falls, Chattanooga, Tennessee

Doesn't Monday sometimes seem like this, a terrifying uphill battle?

At 281 feet, Mystery Falls is the deepest pit in Tennessee and one of the most spectacular cave pits anywhere. Images like this are such a team effort. Kent Ballew (in the red suit) spent countless hours rigging ropes out into the pit. Neeld Messler is suspended on a rope below him firing a flashbulb to light the waterfall, a third assistant is hidden behind Kent, and a fourth is above me controlling a flood light. Where am I? Hanging on a rope with the camera on a tripod bolted to the wall.

This isn't the image that I intended to make. I wanted to shoot the cave from the bottom looking up at the pit, but the water was too high -I'll post that cave picture later (it's the cover of this book). It is good, however, to change perspective. This image is very much what it is like to be there, struggling by the waterfall. Difficult, scary, but also very exciting.

Happy Monday

-Stephen Alvarez

Canon EOS 1n 20mm lens, Fuji Velvia 50

Comments

[Stephen Alvarez]

Norm,
In the lost cove picture we are looking down the cove toward the saddle.

[Norm Feaster]

Stephen,

What is the orientation on the Lost Cove shot? I assume you are looking S-SW above the Sewanee end of the Cove, with Champion Cove coming in from the left beyond and The Saddle visible to the right.

Norm