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10Ediger, Sprouse, and Zeman returned after rigging to the "sump." Steele,Stone, and Ward continued till they bottomed the cave at a siphon 2 dropspast the end of previous exploration. They returned at 8 a.m. After settingup camp, Broussard, Jameson, Larason, J. Strickland, and Treacy starteda surface survey to connect all the known caves of the area. Monday, lfarch 15;Tracy Johnson and Henry Schneiker arrived from Arizona by way of train, bus,and foot. They reached the ~eneral area Sunday night but couldn't find thecamp in the dark. Jim Smith, Marion Smith, and Mark Stock arrived fromTennessee in Marion's car. Two teams started mapping in Conchas. Ediger,J1cKee, Sayther, and Schneiker started at the surface and mapped down to wherethe second team started. The second team of Cavanau~h, Eavis, Jshnson, andSprouse started mapping at the start of the "sump" and mapped down to -348m.They bypassed the "big room." Hemperly, McNatt, and Ralph started mappingin the "Sotanito," previously explored cave in the area. They mapped about75 meters. Cochrane and Grubbs returned to the trucks with a burro foranother load of rope and gear. The surface survey crew finished the connectionof all the caves. Tuesday, March 16: In Conchas surveying continuedwith Smith, Smith, and Stock surveying from the bottom of previous surveyto the siphon. They dove the siphon to a depth of 4m. but found no leads.On the way out they derigged the last 200m of the cave. Dorman, Hwrrison,Hemperly, and Steele took a 100m rope and checked out and mapped the "BigRoom." Cochrane, Grubbs, and Jameson made a biology, geology, and photographictrip dOtvn to about 300m and on the way out they hauled up the 100mrope used in the "Big Room." NcNatt, Ralph, West, and Zeman finished thesurvey of the Sotanito, 213m deep. An attempt to find the Rendijas "fissure"failed because of heavy fog. Wednesday, March 17: Broussard, Eavis, McKee,and P. Strickland went into Conchas; they photographed on the way down andderigged the cave on the way out. They derigged to the top of the "twindrops." A hikin2 team located the Rendijas "fissure" but found it to be asurface feature 30' deep. Cochrane, Smith. Stone, Stock, and otherschecked out a SOm pit near Mojonera. On the way back they stopped atSotano de Canoas and dug the log jam out of entrance. They went down asfar as their ropes would go. Jameson hiked to San Jose and mapped asmall cave, Cueva de la Mesa. He also found several 20-4Om pits and wasshown Sotar.o de Nogal, with an entrance drop of about 80m. Thursday, March 18;Kevin McGill, Barb Ransom, and Eric Valainis arrived from Indiana in Eric'sbehicle. Donald Spear arrived from Texas on the bus. The rest of Conchaswas derigged. Smith, Smith, Stock, and others returned tu Sotano de Canoas,mapped, and pushed till it ended in a siphon lOO-12Om down. Broussard,Cochrane, Grubbs, and Jameson hiked to Nogal. They checked the entrance dropand found a going passage, but further exploration was prevented by lack ofmore rope. Biological collections were made and air flow was noticed. Severalpeople went on recon hikes but no caves were found. Friday, March 20:Cochrane,Jameson, Stone, Ward, and Zeman returned to Nogal and mapped down to 247mwhere they ran out of rope at the top of a sOm drop. Air flow was noticedat several places. Except for Broussard, Ediger, and Larason all the othersleft and hiked out. A hurro load of rope and equipment also left. Once thevehicles were reached the first stop was a tienda with cold refrescos inLa Purisima. The next stop was the Rio Santa ~ria. From here the expeditionsplit up with persons going in several different directions. Some peoplewent directly back north, some went on south to Mexico City, and otherpoints of interest. Several of the vehicles went throuszh Xilitla. The "HOGof STEEL" then went to Golondrinas. On their way back they met the Nogalcrew several times near Cruta del Palmito. The final depth of Itaya de lasConchas is S08m. This makes it the 5th deepest in the Western Hemisphere.[see the loose map of Hoya de las Conchas]Andy Grubbs