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

Chaining a passage in Cueva de Infiemillo.(Tom Byrd)and Harry, were elected to scale the steep cliff face. The rest of us mannedstrategic points on the boulders to photograph the ascent into the cave mouth.The climbers tied a rope around a tree adjacent to the top of the cave andrappelled down at an angle to the entrance. A second climb was necessary tofree the entangled rope from the trees. A line was then dropped from the mouthto the cavers at the base of the cliff, and thus began the seven hour ascentof the novices supervised by Mark. A dense, tropical rain further slowed theupward trip. The main entrance of the cave measures 20 m in width with aceiling-of 25m. Piles of boulders intersect smooth sand banks along thegradual descent of the central passage. Clear puddles of water in which tinypieces of wood have been deposited dot the sandy areas. The wood indicatesthe possible existence of an upper cave entrance from which debris would becarried by the water through 1000 m or more of rock. Our exploration of themain passage was halted initially by a 6 m deep lake with a siphon and thenby a 23 m shaft with water in it. The side passages, however, proved to berambling and of varied feature. One in the vicinity opens into a compactroom filled with thick, pudding like mud.Dinner that evening consisted mainly of breakfast bars, as our rations atthat point were rather limited. With a great amount of rustling, we huddledtogether for siesta under the crinkly, flourescent space blankets.Unfortunately our body heat was absorbed in a short time by the cold sandbanks. At about 4 AM the cave exploration resumed. A pit in the rearof a dome shaped room with five entrances descends some 12 m and then opens19