8Well, everybody packed o<strong>ut</strong> the next day, all the way from La Paradato Tancoyol in one day! 1~e briefly celebrated M~rk's birthday and they split<strong>for</strong> the States.Jova . de Las ConchasAfter dropping Pat off in Valles, we hiked up to the El Quirino plateauahove La Purisirna. The objective was to finish off loya de Las Conchas, whichTracey and I had previously entered over Thanksgiving with Eric lteans andJim Jacobs. The first day of exploration was to be a light push trip, 50~eal, Tracey, and I carried 1200' of rope up to the entrance. Thinps went~,ell until Neal noticed a !:inber rattlesnake on a ledg;e 1 1/2' above ourhead~ in the entrance crawl. Rather than ~olcst the monster, ve ~ingerlvdropped past him and into the first pit. We quickly rig~ed to the pointof previous exploration, 5 drops down. After this the drops got bigger. Fourl'"1ore drops ann we lancied in a waist deep lake. The passa~e continued as asewer and apparentl'1 ended in a sump 100' further on. Then Nenl found atight hole in the ceilin~ which bypassed the sump. This led to a 25' serdhairyclimb dmvn to a far more terminal looking sump. It had 2" air space,b<strong>ut</strong> t,eal ~-7as convinced the passaRe v!ent. so under he ~.;ent -- back intoIvadinp, passar-e! This went lOa' to a 4 second drop! Far o<strong>ut</strong>. We ran o<strong>ut</strong> ofrope at that point and returned to camp.The next day all ei?ht of us planned to finish Conchas. We nabbed therattlesnake ~Jith a pole and slip noo"e, thus removing that danger. All~!ent according to plan, <strong>for</strong> a ,,,hiIe . Just as ~eal was preparing to rappelthe big drop, ~oy Jameson came cra~hin~ through the sump saving that therehad been an accident. Sheila had fallen most of the ~JaV down the 25' climhabove the sump wben a handhold broke and had to be hauled o<strong>ut</strong> at once.Damage lJas uncertain, b<strong>ut</strong> we suspected a concussion and fractured ribs tostart. Pe were C) drops down fror.l the entrance and the picture looked p.:rimindeed. Sheila would obviously have to be hoisted o<strong>ut</strong> all 9 drops. Afternegotiating the sump back to the base of the 140' drop we ~ot down tohusiness: 3 ropes were rigged o~ tile orop, one static line <strong>for</strong> Julia toguide Sheila up the drop, one belay line and one haul line which we rigr-edfrom the top of the drop, one to one pulleys with a double jumar safety.Tracey and I did the auling; Neal belayed. The system worked so well thatJulia had a difficult tine keeping up tJith. heila. This system workedexcellently <strong>for</strong> the hi? drops. The narrowness of the rig points on the smallpitchs demanded a different systen. l~e rigged a 2:1 pulley system with a<strong>ut</strong>olocking jumar safety directly on Sheila's harness and hoisted from aboveusing one man. Bv this time Sheila was cold due to inactivity and had tohe placed in a wet suit. All went smoothly from there on. The entire operationtook only 5 hour!;. Sheila \"a5 taken to camp and it was decided to waittill morning be<strong>for</strong>e attemptinp. a trip do~~ the mountain. The following morning~ve drov~ to the hospital in Valles, 20 hours had elapsed from the timeof the accident. The X-rays revealed no hreaks. just a badly bruised headand body. It is evident that had there been any serious internal damageour rescue ef<strong>for</strong>t would have been fruitless.T\,;o days Inter ~"e picked up 1'vfartvn· Farr on the recommendation of ~ealand Julia (who had to leave) to try once al7ain to hot tom Conchas. Sheilawas well enough to hike back un witho<strong>ut</strong> ~ear. We took the afternoon off inpreparation <strong>for</strong> what we knew was goi~~ to he a hear of a trip <strong>for</strong> 3 people.
The next day we left camp at dawn and Tracey, Martyn, and I arrivedat the four second pit by 10 a.m. Tracey descended and reported a mudsump -- the end. Not believing this possible, Martyn and I took down somerope. Sure 1 nuff a tight squeeze through the breakdown immediately lead toanother drop. I continued down this drop to another. Using all the ropewe had, Martyn came down and assured me he could free climb the drop, soTracey dropped the rope and went back <strong>for</strong> the other 4 sections. Martyndropped the next pit and disappeared <strong>for</strong> 30 min<strong>ut</strong>es. When he returned hesaid he was down another 200 1 + to a big frop. Far o<strong>ut</strong>. Tracey dropped 4ropes do,vn the big pit and "went back <strong>for</strong> a 5th while Martyn and I blastedon down. A 109 1 drop led to a 33 1 and 130' drop. God, this mother wasp,oing! We ran o<strong>ut</strong> of rope again and started free climbing pitches -- 4of them. The passage was now dipping steeply -- quite a change from the"drop-level stretch" character of the uprer <strong>cave</strong>. "This went on to a 30'free pitch. We couldn't climb this one, so we tied all our slings top,etherand Martyn descended. He followed this another 250', free climbing a 20'and 70' drop to a sol<strong>ut</strong>ion boulder choice. Upon moving a few boulders itopened to a 40 1 drop, the terminu~ of present exploration. All the dropshere have waterfalls, apparently the <strong>cave</strong> is collecting trib<strong>ut</strong>aries thefarther down we get. This necessitated two carbides running at once toassure both didn't go o<strong>ut</strong>. Nicad packs are a definite advantage downthere. On the way o<strong>ut</strong> we stopped every 5~' to sketch the passage, measurerope drops, and estimate climbs done.9By Bill Stone1976 Conchas Expedition -Return to ConchasOn Friday, March 12, 19 <strong>cave</strong>rs from Texas, Illinois, andEngland left Austin. In Mexico they rendezvoused with 18 other <strong>cave</strong>rsfrom Texas, Tennessee, Arizona, New York 1 and Indiana. ~ruch advanceplanning had been made; two group meetings had been held and variousaspects of the expedition had been discussed. The planning was to preparethe group <strong>for</strong> any eventuality and bivouacking in <strong>cave</strong>s had been one of themain topics of the discussions. An advance team of Don Broussard, ShariLarason, Peter Sprouse, Bill Steele, Bill Stone, Terri Treacy, Steve Ward,and Steve Zeman left Austin Thursday evening and drove to Falls City inSo<strong>ut</strong>h Texas where they spent the night at Gill Ediger's. The next daythey left Texas, drove through Mexico, and camped that night at the RioSanta ~aria. Paul Fa~bro, Pam Lynn, and Mike McKee left Austin in Paul'struck and picked up Ron Ralph at the San Antonio airport. Maureen Cavanaugh,Alexia Cochrane, Andy Grubbs, Robert Hemperly, Logan McNatt, and TerrySayther left in Terry's truck and Jill Dorman, Andy Eavis, Blake Harrison,Roy Jameson, Thomas ~oore, Walt Peters, Peter and John Strickland, and BobWhst left in Blake's "Hog of Steel." The various parties spent the night atdifferent camping places in northern Mexico. Saturday, March 13: The Austintrucks continued driving and camped just pa~t the town of La PurisimaWhere the road toward Conchas takes off from the highway. Early in themorning the advance team arrived at the end of this road. They hired amule <strong>for</strong> rope and caving gear, hiked in and set up camp. Sunday, March 14:~i1e the Austin 19 hiked in, the advance team started to rig the <strong>cave</strong>.
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ASSCCIATION FOR MEXICAN CAVE STUDIE
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3So the large-entranced sotano whic
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5MINA OTATES, T&~.: DSC. 25, 1974,
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MERIDA, YUC.: OCT. 1974, David McKe
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AMCSMEMBERSHIP ACTIVITIES LETTEREdi
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3Michael Schulte has been working o
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5To the right of the partition in t
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7Diamond Cave RevisitedAndy Grubbs,
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9CHE~-VEN-SIL-MUTSYSTEM\+--1000 ft.
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enU~«
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2April 1, 1977, marks the 10th anni
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TRIP REPORTSDestination: Cueva del
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5uestination: Sierra las Alazanas a
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The Fissure t..as located by T.P.
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11The next morning Francisco "Kissi
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12could scamper up a wed~ed log and
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14This idea was thwarted given an u
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16NEW YEAR'S DAY IN SAN AGUSTINan t
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1'1later Jim and I began the long c
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20Our group of six intended on rapp
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22here and poked around for leads.
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24and myself about trash and abando
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line didn't cross; nylon against ny
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...'"1IIc.21II .._1II~(,),-• c..'
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30Medical Report On The April 1977
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'32One caver alInost lost her voice
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34considered normal. The diabetic d
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36Jim Smit~ Has followinp, Blake Ha
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3~the spot would make a smaU slip.
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AMCSACTIVITIeSNewsLe TTe Rno. 7
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'International NewsTHE SIERRA DE GU
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International Newsin the entrance a
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The Ten Deepest Caves in Mexicoby B
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to a drop. t returned and dropped a
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to the entrance. From San Andres we
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stove in a semi-catatonic state. He
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above the roaring cascades. At time
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With two leads 'beckoning we began
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Chaining a passage in Cueva de Infi
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the cave. We pulled our rope down b
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increased the cave's depth to -197
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series of parallel ascending (+30 0
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La Sistema Purificacidn: a theory a
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Between the Cold and the" GlorybyTe
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Back tothe Bird PitsbyBill StoneSum
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'Getting Down in Peiiaby Bill Stone
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CUEVADELAPENAPROFI LEmetersoRanc ho