asscciation for mexican cave studies box 7672 ut station austin ...

a pack had fallen and spilled out its contents. Leaning out and lookingfar below, some eight meters, I spied a pack frame. Climbing down to seeit closer, I came upon' the scene. Blake's pack, a full duffle bag, layunopened. Van Note's had been emptied in haste, the contents damp andstrewn.about. A shirt with small blood stains below the nape of the neckwas there. Then, Harrison's vertical gear. He was hurt. He hadn't gottenhimself out of the cave. But how? The packframe had a name label on itwith Bill Liebman's name. Odd. How had he gotten there? t~y hadn't theycome for us? How badly was Harrison injured? There was no note to befound. We were 400 meters below the entrance, the accident was 28 hourspast, and we had not expressed any plans to leave the cave with thoseat Camp II. We were only to get what we needed and go back down. Itfelt like grave robbing to go through Blake's duffle bag.In Camp II, speculation ran rampant. Why, how, and how badly? Someonewill be in tomorrow. :Haybe we should exit. t.fuo wants to cave? ~:[ebedded down for another night hoping to see some surface people uponwaking. t~aking up brought us to the 30th. The plan for the day was forall people in Camp II to go to the bottom area. Dividing into two groups,one group would continue the survey to the sump found on the last trip,the other would go into the left hand trunk passage and survey it and sideleads.In the bottom area the left hand trunk was surveyed into by Schreiber,H. Smith, and ~nL Marion's underground journal entry reads:Richard, Gerald, and I mapped c 1590-1800 feet in branchingborehole passages to the left as you go into the cave. Wealso followed an incoming streao a ways until we encounteredsome very steep climb-ups. We mapped several side leads offthis main left branch. At survey station 844 Knutson's Suuantocompass got too cloudy to read. Finally, at 7:10 P.~. weheaded to Camp II.Broussard, Knutson, Jancewicz and I took the survey to the sump, plumbingits 29 foot depth as our last survey point. I climbed into a tight chimneytype fissure for over 30m above the sump but found no way beyond. Wethen began a survey upstream a ways into the Sala Grande de la SierraMazateca. Broussard led the way up into the void of this gigantic roomand we followed with the survey. It was immense. ~e stayed on the left walldeciding to survey around the perimeter to do it justice. The floor was asteep average of 25 degrees. Don could be seen way above as a shrinkingform. The ceiling of this passage continued at the same angle above a 22meter high crumbly dirt wall that ceased our advance. At the top of. thiswall the passa~e appeared to continue on. I attempted the climb, gettinghalfway up to a committment move and backed down. It would take lonp. mudpitons -- maybe made of re-bar to aid the climb up.Our survey down-climbed the opposite wall heading for a side roomcontaining a waterfall descending from the ceiling. !Je ended our survey21