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

22here and poked around for leads. This could very well have been the lasttrip into the area so we wanted to m~~e sure of all possibilities. Jancewiczand I followed the stream into breakdown below the waterfall, findinga gorgeous passaRe adorned with banded swirls of stone and solutionedflowstone. The others had said we had a half hour to check it, so weexplored to our dissatisfaction, vowing to return and survey.Arriving in Camp II on the heels of the other party, we learned thatReller had left a note stating he was exiting, heading ho~e to Boston.We hadn't realized he was doing so. Marion writes of the next morning:Don soon came, aroused our camp, and said he and Stevewere leaving. At c 11:15 r~rald said he was also leaving.So those who were-planninp. to leave slowly packed. Geraldstarted first with Richard. Richard was planning to takesome ropes to the top of the 318 and get some canned goodsand return to camp. By about 2 P.}!. Don and Steve had gonealso. I shot the breeze in camp with Bill and Jean eatinggorp. At 3:30 P.~. Pichard returned to camp saying, "Peoplewe have a serious problem," meaning that apparently Hellerhad pulled his pack up the 318 and that the rope did notget back down! We were trapped until someone from the surfacecame in. Richard had freeclimbed maybe 50' up and didn't evensee the rope. Also he swam the pool at the bottom lookingfor the rope. Don and Steve took quite a look also. Sooneveryone was back in camp -- all seven of us at Camp II.The situation was compounded by the fact that today Donhad taken his last insulin shot. The whole trip see~d to bequite strange and uncoordinated, especially because we don'tknow what's goin~ on on the surface, how badly Blake was hurt,and it or when wnyone would come into the cave. Don said thattomorrow he'll start feeling the effects of having no insulinand after three days probably wouldn't be able to get out onhis own. The group immediately elected to watch food consumptionmore closely.The following day, April Fool's Day, we awoke with endless speculationabout what to expect from the surface. My note (Steele) left when we enteredthe cave had stated that at latest we would exit on this day. Heller howeverwho had exited two days before knew there was plenty of food at the top ofthe 318, left by the accident crew. It was of course out of reach for itwas at the top of the ropeless pit. A trip to the bottom was decided upon.Jancewicz, M. Smith, Schreiber, and I took three hours from Camp II toWhere we carried on in the left hand trunk area at -75Om. Three leads werefinished off including the downstream tributary that ended at a sump. Fromhere we took to the waterfall passage off the Sa1a Grande de 1a SierraHazateca and began a survey into it. The survey led to a very wet pit thathad been overlooked on the probling trip Jean and I had taken into thepassage. We elected to return to the large room above to get the Samson2 in 1 that was there and see what happened below. lIarion writes: