8MB PDF - Association for Mexican Cave Studies

PLACES INTHIS ISSUELORETO\- II PURIFICACIONQUINTANA ROOIXHUATLANCHILCHOTLAHUAUTLASAN CRISTOBAL

AMCS ACTIVITIES NEWSLETTERNumber 16 August 1987PublisherAssociation for Mexican Cave Studieswith assistance fromWilliam Russell and Terry RainesEditorTerri Treacy SprouseStaffKatie Arens, Tyler Gill, Mark Minton,Bill Mixon, Dale Pate, Jim Pisarowicz,William Russell, Peter Sprouse,Mary Standifer, Duwaine WhitisTranslationsKatie Arens, Erika Heinen,Peter Sprouse, Luisa TapieContents4 Mexico News18 Long and Deep Caves of Mexico20 Nanta-Huautla Tie-in Mark Minton21 Chilchotla '85 Alan Warild30 Caving in Tabasco Jim Pisarowicz38 UN AM Expedition to Veracruz Andrea Raz-GuzmanMacBeth43 Chiapas-The Dutch Expedition Laurens Smets51 Belginan Explorations at Zoquitlan Georges Fellers,Patrick Bestgen, &Richard Grebeaude59 Underwater Caverns of Quintana Roo James Coke64 Sotano de Ocotempa Terry Raines68 Sea Caves of Loreto Dave Bunnell72 Camp Challenger-PEP 1986 Peter Sprouse &Carol Veseley80 Camp V-PEP 1987 Peter Sprouse89 Cueva de la Llorona Dale Pate, PeterSprouse & TerriSprouse94 Cueva del Tecolote Terri Sprouse, PeterSprouse, & CarolVesely100 Book ReviewsEDITORIALAlthough an Activities Newlsetter did not appear in1986, this in no way means that the caving activitieshave been slack the past eighteen months. On the contrary,caving activities in Mexico have been numerousdiverse, and at the forefront of world-class speleology:Most significant is the connection between Sotano deSan Agustin and Nita Nanta. On 26 March 1987Huautla cavers succeeded in making the elusive connectionthey had sought for six years. With a depth of 1353meters Sistema Huautla is now number three in theworld. Good going, cavers!This issue of the Activities Newsletter brings youinformation on caving projects in thirteen differentstates, by cavers of ten different nationalities. With theinflux of these various cultures comes differences instyle, technique, attitudes, and results. If you have beenreading the NSS News lately, you know that theEuropean-style of re-belay and the use of bolts in Mexicancaves has been an issue of hot debate. And with theresurvey of Ocotempa in Puebla, that shows an 80 meterdiscrepancy in the depth of the entrance drop, surveytechnique and accuracy is sure to become a lively issue.Let's keep the lines of communication open and flowing,so that we may all glean the knowledge and experi.ence from our collective methods.Before releasing you to devour this informationpackedbook, I want to pat some deserving people onthe back. First off, kudos go to Terry Raines for hisexpertise and support over the last several years as ourprinter. Aside from the actual expenses incurred in producingthis book, his services have been for the mostpart gratis. That includes the extra work involved inprinting the color covers. Thank you, Terry. Thanks alsogo to Bill Russell, who has continually put up the frontmoney,interest-free, to cover the printing expenses.Two other names appear on the staff list year afteryear without proper recognition. Bill Mixon, along withhis red pen, Chicago Book of Style, and humorouscomments, has been an invaluable asset to this publication.Steve Boehm has donated many hours of his professionalskill in the darkroom by helping us shoot anddevelop the negatives. And last, but not least, thanks goout to all the people who volunteer their time to helpwith typing, editing, proofing, translating, drafting, andwriting. Now, please read and enjoy.TerriThe AMCS Activities Newsletter is published by the Associationfor Mexican Cave Studies, a non-profit group dedicated to the conservationand study of the caves of Mexico. Articles, maps, and photographson caving and speleology in Mexico are solicited. A list ofpublications and prices is available on request.Cover Photo:Frontispiece:Back Cover:Tokamak River in SistemaPurificacion (Peter Sprouse)Bottom of entrance drop toSotano de Ocotempa (MarcTremblay)Dale Pate "ncounters theubiquitous death coral inSistema Purificacion (TerryRaines)Association for Mexican Cave StudiesP.O. Box 7672Austin, Texas 78713Copyright 1985 by AMCS Membership Committee.Printing by Terry Raines of the Speleo Press.

Bot Roost10ometers5I1mprojected profile146 0 view5o morganic debriswoven materialandCUEVA DEL GUANO DE SAN ANTONIOLas Adjuntas, CoahuilaSuuntos a tope survey I Feb. 1987M. Kilpatrick, P'Sprouse, t SprouseDrawn by P. Sprouse AMCSLength: 24m Depth: 10mEntranceRESUMIDERO DEL IlOTElaxco - Guerrero·Mex.•• IS'INA5,.

SOTANO DE TAMPEMOCHEAQUISMON. s. L. P.8uunios .. tape survey 31 August 19888. Raines. T. Raines. P. 8prou8BDrawn by P. 8prou_,T.8prOUMoLeng'h'112mDep'h,46m1018m20Profile: 100 degree view304010...Ui!m4& met-ere"oI10IMETERS20IPlan

The large entrance chamber to Cueva de laSelva. (Peter Sprouse)TABASCOPeter lDrd and other cavers from Villahermosahave been exploring various cavesin the Teapa area. Near Grutas de Cocona,they have explored a cave (Ed. note: thisis referred to as Cueva de Teapa in thearticle in this issue by Jim Pisarowicz)with a stream that may be the source of thewater in Cocona. Sixty kilometers east ofTeapa, near Melchor OCan\po, they have beenexploring Cueva de Aqua Blanca, a resurgencecave developed in massive, gentlydipping oligocene limestone. Two and a halfkilometers of passage have been explored,with many lakes. In cooperation with thetourism department of Tabasco, they will bemaking recommendations as to the suitability of the cave for development as a showcave.source: Peter LordThe Sierra las Anonas, north of AquismOn,S.L.P. (Peter Sprouse)side. A trunk passage 40 meters wide and120 meters long with large formations ledto another drop, taking air.on a return trip one year later, manyof the same team returned along with TerryBolger, Bill Mixon, and Brian Smith. Thenext drop turned out to be 18 meters, followedby a third drop of 19 meters. ThisTAMAULIPASUsing aerial photographs as a guide, agroup of cavers from Austin were able tochop a jungle trail to a new pit in theSierra de El Abra in March 1986. JerryAtkinson, John Gilliland, Margaret Hart,Jeff Horowitz, Mark Minton, William Russell,Kent Sanders, Paul Smith, Kyle Walden,and Nancy Weaver chopped 6 kilometersin from the west to Hoya de los Guacamayos,named for the flock of military macawsliving in the entrance. The pit is 70 by 80meters across, is 31 meters deep on the lowside, and is a 46-meter drop on the highView down the entrance pit of Hoya de losGuacamayos • (Margaret Hart)14

I I i I 0:il g ·" ,.E:ilIa:W..Ju::o a:Q..........., .../QwI­o Ẉ.,o a:Q.>­..J..Jcei= a:ceQ.

Long Caves of Mexicocompiled by Peter S. Sprouse1. Sistema Purificacion2. Sistema Huautla3. Sistema Cuetzalan4. Coyalatl5. Cueva del Tecolote6. Sumidero Santa Elena7. Cueva de la Pena Colorada8. Atepolihuit de San Miguel9. Sotano del Arroyo10. ActUn de Kaua11. Sumidero de Jonot1a12. Sotano de Las Ca1enturas13. Gruta del Rio Chonta1coatlan14. Gruta del Rio san Jeronimo15. Grutas de Juxtlahuaca16. Veshtucoc17. Cueva del Nacimiento del Rio San Antonio18. Sotano de la Tinaja19. Sotano de Japones20. Sistema San Andres21. Sotano del Rio Iglesia22. Sistema Zoquiapan23. Sima del Borrego24. Aztotempa25. Sumidero San Bernardo26. Sumidero de Pecho Blanco No. 227. Sotano de Agua de Carrizo28. Nita Nashi29. Cueva del Rio Jalpan30. ActUn Xpukil31. Cueva de la Laguna Verde32. Sumidero Yochib33. Cueva de El Chorreadero34. Resumidero la Joya35. Cueva de la Llorona36. Atepolihuit de Nauzontla37. Sotano de Tlamaya38. Sistema de Montecillos39. Resumidero de Toxin40. Sotano de Huitzmolotitla41. Sumidero de Atliliakan42. Sotano del Rio Coyomeapan43. Tamazcalco44. Sotano del Tigre45. Cueva de Los Hornos46. Cueva Quebrada47. Boca del Rio Apetlanca48. Cueva Ayockal49. ActUn Loltun50. Cueva del Cinco de AbrilTamaulipasoaxacaPueblaPueblaTamaulipasPueblaOaxacaPueblaSan Luis PotosiYucatanPueblaTamaulipasGuerreroGuerreroGuerreroChiapasOaxacaSan Luis PotosiSan Luis PotosiPueblaOaxacaPueblaGuerreroPueblaPueblaChiapasOaxacaoaxacaQueretaroYucatanOaxacaChiapasChiapasGuerreroTamaulipasPueblaSan Luis PotosiSan Luis PotosiJaliscoSan Luis PotosiGuerreroPueblaPueblaSan Luis PotosiSan Luis PotosiQuintana RooGuerreroPueblaYucatanSan Luis Potosi67,59952,11022,43219,0001l,08478847793770072006700638160325827560050984900457045024500447142064107408740003931379037483524344033533350331632803245313630663057302230053002300030003000300029602759275027022682263218

CHILCHOTLA '85Australian Expedition to Mexicoby Alan WarildAlan Warild in the strearrMay of Guixani at about -350 meters.(P. Cole)21

Chilchotla is a newly discovered cavingarea in the northwestern corner of theSierra Mazateca, in the state of Oaxaca,central Mexico. While in the same massifas the well-known Sistema Huautla, the arealay unexplored by cavers until we visitedit in April 1985. The area had been spottedwhile we were on a reconnaissance ofXincinteptl, a limestone massif to thenorth. We were fruitlessly bashing throughburnt-out scrub and looking across at theMeseta Huautla on the other side of theriver. The hills to the south of thetownship of Chilchotla looked good, and anexamination of the map and air photosshowed it to be not the area of SistemaHuautla, but an overlooked area of karst atan altitude of 1700-2000 meters above sealevel.After four weeks on Xincinteptl, we hadfound only a few dry shafts, so we movedacross the river to visit the SistemaHuautla and do some real caves. But withintwo weeks we had tired of touristing andwere looking for more constructive thingsSQNDANGAGUINJAO'v:THIa THAO GUINJAOeMcANITANITA XONGA.CHATSI GUINJAOZONGOLICA CAVESZONGOLICA-CHILCHOTLA,OAXACA,MEXICOSurvey by CHILCHOTLA '85,April, November-December1985Computing by K200 ,PLANVaughan-TaylorZONGOLICA CAVES ZONGOLlCA-CHILCHOTLA, OAXACA, MEXICOSurvey by CHILCHOTLA '85, April, November-December 19852000GUINJAOPROJECTED SECTION180"-0 016001600SONYANCE1400120NITA1000Computing by KVaughan-Taylor22

Anne Gray in the Mulligrubber, Nita Chaki.(P. Cole)it only connected back, so our total depthstayed at 740 meters. Not bad for thefirst one, but we were hoping for better!Simultaneously with Xonga we werepushing down Nita Chaki (Cricket Cave).Smaller, wetter, and cleaner than Xonga, itkept us entertained for a few days, but theenjoyment turned to horror as the qualityof the rock became abysmal. We had beensuitably impressed by the Clean BowledPitch, got down for the Mulligrubber, butwere mercifully "all out" for -493 (meters)in an impenetrable bedding-plane squeeze.the upper section eventually gave way to apitch series that took us to the bottom, asand choke at -940 meters. The bottom wasquite unpleasant, so a good climbing leadwas left in favor of trying to connect insome higher entrances. The gear shortagehit us again. We had to derig Guixanibefore we could push any of the othercaves.Another hole, Sonyance (Place of theTrees) , came to the fore. Unlike the previouscaves, it was very clean and began tocollect other streams from the outset.Hopefully this time we had found the "maindrain" and would have great caving all theway down. In two weeks (interrupted by aflood) we pushed this truly superb cave to-750 meters. Only in two spots were weforced to search for bypasses through dirtyrockpiles when we couldn't follow the water.A fine cave and once again a chanceof continuation; only 50 meters from thebottom we lost the draught.'00NITA CHAKIZONGOLlCA-CHILCHOTLA, OAXACADEPTH-493 metres LENGTH 1060 metresSurveyed by CHILCHOTLA '85.November1985 using Topofil'IWO GOING CAVESAt this stage (early December) we hadeight people and no caves left, but oneday's surface bashing fixed that. Nca Nita(Hole 20) went easily, but with some interestingclimbs to -240 meters, whereexploration halted at the top of a 30-meterpitch. Another cave we called Puta, afterthe toilet-wall style graffiti on the roof,but that eventually got changed to GuixaniNdia Guinjao (You're About To Get MarriedCave!), which the locals insisted was itsreal name. We had two good, going cavesand not enough rope to do themsimultaneously. We chose Guixani.For two weeks Guixani had us rushing inday after day. The gentle streamways of300'00•• 3DII All out for 493\.Bodylina SeriesPROJECTED SECTION180'_0'Computing by K Vaughan-TRylor25

GUIXANI NDIA GUINJAOZONGOLlCA-CHILCHOTLA, OAXACADEPTH-940 metres LENGTHSurveyedDecemberby CHILCHOTLA '85,1985 using Topofil1950 metresom100200PROJECTED SECTION180°-0°300400500600Pltch Lengtht.l Rop~("1 AnchorsI 20 ~5 nUl. oat 15.12 12 nat, nat-J.3 40 50 2 nu.t, 1"",,12, 2 nat -JO.4 2C 4 nat.5 7 10 Mit.G 8 10 .. pro'a'7 5 8 nnt.A 20 25 oa' lb.9 10 15 ,.t lb.10 10 12 2 nat.II 12 15 '.1 lb.12 8 15 2 nat.I:! 15ntit. nllt-3.14 12 15 2 nat (Vi."15 10 13 nat. nl:lt·2.16 10 13 nat,lb-J.17 20 30 nat. traverse to Ill-3, Ib-IS.18 30 35 ,.t .. pc, ,at -3.19 ,8 ,.t (rubs).20 13 13 2 nat.21 JC 10 lb.22 12 15 2b, 1",5.23 6 10 2 n~l.2.•8 Ib .. nat.2' 6C 6 nat.26 II 13 ,.t lb.27 8I' 2 nat, Ib-4.28 5 6 oat .. pc.29 30 35 nat, nat-3. r-15.30 3C 5 nat h811dllne.31 30 35 nat. r-3. 1"-6.32 30 40 Ib .. pr, r-t5 .33 25 27 lb, nat-2.34 2 3 nat.35 35 40 nat .. Ib, r-20, nl!ll-23.36 10 75 oat Ib, ~b-6 (rubs).J7 100 130 lb .. Zb (V), nl!lt-JO, 1"-13.r-15, Ib-20, Ib-10.38 50 60 1b .. pr, nat-l5 (poor).39 .0 60 Ib pr, nat-S, Ib-30, Ib-35,r-50.• 0 12 nat.Touch Monkeynat = nBlural behy. lb = bolt. r = redirection (deviation)pI" = previous rope. Y = Y beJay. Computing by K Vaughan-TaylorShaftI 70080027

Om100SONYANCEZONGOLICA-CHILCHOTLA,OAXACADEPTH-745 metres LENGTH 1785 metresSurveyed by CHILCHOTLA '85,January 1986 usingTopofil200PROJECTED SECTION300Whirlpool Series Pit..:h Lengthl .. } Ro')p~{,.1 Anchors400 I IOC 12 not • peg.3. ••t lb, 1'"-4, r-l0, ("-15.5003 10 Ib .. pro4Ib .. pl'.5 35 '00 lb pt, 1'-10, r-30."6 '5 ••t pt, r-I5.7 10 .0'.. pro8 IS lb pt.9 I'Ib pt.I I. IS 2 nat.11 I' 15 Ib • pro60P/C 90 "Hydro Horror" .1II8ny nats. lb-40." 13 15 '0 2 tlat, flut -10.14 , 6 nat.15 2 10 .., (pool lrllversel.16 40 50 .0'.. pr, Ib-3, Ib-6, lb~lO.net-J~. Ib-20.17 I' 15 aat, Ib-S.18 50 55 tltlt. r-5, Ib-lO. Ib-15, r-JO.19 45 50 ... . Ib, Ib-J, lb-8, nat-15,r-20. Ib-25. nat -40.'0 I' 15 ••t lb.45 55 nat .. Ib, Ib-IS (opp. side)."'0 I' nat, nat-6.'3 10 15 2 nat(Y).SWIMS'4 '5 40 nal. Ib-15. r-20.'5 4 6 .., .. pro'7 35 45 2 nat, r-15. oat-25.6028 30 40 nat. n8t.-2, nat-IQ, nat-12(poor) .- - --31'9ISC 15 ••t (h.andline) ..3. 4. nat, Ib-3.3. ISC ,. .., (handline)nllt :: nalural belay. Ib :: bolt. r'" redirection (deviation).pr :: previololS rope. Y : Y belay.700SCG745Computing by K Vaughan-Taylor28

GUINJAOTHI GUINJAOCrystalCylinderSSpSONDANGAZONGOLlCA-CHILCHOTLA, OAXACAOEPTH-213 metres LENGTH 354 metresSurveyed by CHILCHOTLA '85,December 1985 using Topofll3SpPROJECTED SECTION180 0 _0 0PROJECTED SECTION60 0 -240 020p" 1,',/'lSp YCompullng by K Vaughan-Taylor\~~'---------CHILCHOTLAEspeleologos australianos exploraron algunas cuevas en el area norte deOaxaca, cerca de Chilchotla. El area se localiza en el angulo noroeste de laSierra Mazateca, al norte del Sistema Huautla. En abril de 1985, un gruporevise el area en busca de cuevas. La mas sobresaliente que encontraron fueNita Xonga, la cual topografiaron hasta una profundidad de 430 metros, endonde les falto cuerda en la punta de un profundo tiro. El grupo regreso alarea durante noviembre y diciembre de 1985 y continuaron la exploracion enXonga, llegando al fondo a los -740 metros. Otra cueva, Nita Chaki, se avanzohasta una profundidad de 493 metros. Guixani Nelia Guinjao, la mas profunda,terminG en los -940 metros. Sonyance fue avanzada hasta una profundidad de 750metros. Varias cuevas mas fueron exploradas y trazadas. El grupo planea regresaren 1987.29

CAVING INby Jim PisarowiczI was standing in the middle of Teapa,Tabasco, framing a picture of a church.Suddenly I felt a sharp tug on my shirt.Surprised, I turned around to discover thatan Indian woman was trying to get my attention.When I looked down at her, she saidin Spanish, "There are lots of beautifulcaves around here." I was dumbfounded!Was it that obvious that I was really moreinterested in caves than churches, or wasit an omen that I should return to theTeapa area to look for caves?That encounter with the Indian womantook place on 15 February 1986. Later thatday, Karen Rosga and I drove around theTeapa area and looked at the limestone. Itwas classic "haystack" karst. Roundedlimestone hills rose to the east of town,and to the south one could look up into thehigh limestone plateaus of Chiapas. Tabascowas on the itinerary for 1987!Few of the cavers I knew wereinterested in venturing into a new area,three days drive south of the border, tolook for caves. Fortunately I convincedone caver, Warren Netherton from Iowa, thata trip to Tabasco would yield wonderfulcave discoveries, and on 31 January 1987 weleft Austin for a three-week venture intothe karst of the Teapa area.Above: Haystack karst of the Sierra Madrigal, Tabasco.(Jim Pisarowicz)30

GRUTAS DEL COCONAFinding a cave to begin mapping wasrelatively easy. Upon driving into Teapa,it's pretty hard to miss the bright bluesign that says "Grutas del Cecore" Thiscave has been developed as a show cave, andalthough AMCS cavers have visited the cave(David McKenzie and James Reddell in theearly 1970s), no map has ever been publish~Cocona would be our first project.Warren wanted to take the tour of thecave before we began our survey, so on 4February 1987 we waited around for the caveto open. We waited until 10:30, when theguide turned on the lights and turned usloose. The tour cost 200 pesos ($0.20).The cave is worthy of being displayedas a show cave, for stalactites and stalagmitesabound almost everywhere throughoutthe cave. It is a very beautiful cave.More striking to the average gringo caver,though, is the temperature of the cave. Inthe entrance passages the temperature was awarm 19.5 Celsius, and beyond a constrictionin this passage it really heats up, to23.8 degrees.Past the constriction, the trailforks, with the small right-hand passageturning into a duck walk that leads to adrop with a lake about 25 meters across atthe bottom. The main passage continues toget larger until a room is encountered, 35meters wide with the ceiling rising as muchas 25 meters overhead. Huge stalactiteshang from parts of the ceiling in thisroom.Past this large room another lake isencountered. A bridge has been constructedto get across this lake without having toswim. Huge flowstone displays and massivestalactites and stalagmites can be observedfrom this bridge. The trail then goes upan incline past very fine rimstone, and thepassage pinches to a close in a beddingplane/flowstone termination.After the tour, we changed into cavingclothes, which throughout our venturesunderground consisted of T-shirts, gymshorts, boots, and kneepads, then returnedto the cave to survey. The surveying waspretty easy, considering that we had atrail and electric floodlights to illuminatethe cave. The main hindrance to surveyingCOcona was the constant stream ofColumns in Grutas del Cocone!:. (JimPisarowicz)people visiting the cave. Seeing that weappeared to know what we were doing,everyone stopped to ask us questions aboutcaves in general and cave surveying inparticular. Before long we were actuallygiving cave tours (in broken Spanish) toall the tourists. It was fun.By the end of the next day we hadcompleted the survey of Grutas del Cocona.The total survey was just under 600 meters.All that remained to be done was to take afew photographs of the cave, which we didthe next night after all the tourists hadleft and the lights had been turned off.CUEVA DE TEAPAMost of the cave tours into Coconawere led by one of a group of seven boyswho spent their days playing in the vicinityof the cave. We figured that if anyoneknew of other caves in the immediate area,he would. At the end of our first daymapping in Cocona, Jorge led us to a rathersmall hole about 200 meters from theentrance to Cocona. This hole did not lookvery intriguing, but was better than theother cave, called Grutas Hueco, he showedus, a small resurgance cave that sumps inabout 10 meters. When asked the name ofthe cave, he said that it did not have one.We christened the cave Cueva de Teapa,which met with Jorge's approval.On 6 February we began the survey ofCueva de Teapa. Inside the entrance, thepassage became just large enough to walk31

The Grutas del Cocona cave guides: Robbin,Ernesto, Hernan, Jorge, Tomas, and Roberto.(Jim Pisarowicz)upright. Huge spiders and amblypygidsscurried up and down the passage. We namedthis area Arachnid Walk. Arachnid Walk hasa very muddy floor, and in places we werealmost up to our knees in mud. This passagecontinued for five stations, and thensuddenly the passage enlarged as we intersecteda stream gallery. We excitedly randown the mud slope and then downstream in agallery about 10 meters across. The littlehole had led to a good cave.The passage continued about 10 metersin diameter for about 90 meters, and thenthe stream filled the passage. I waded onahead, and with every step methane gasbubbled up to the surface. Fortunately wewere both using electric lamps. Soon wewere swimming, and the passage was gettingnarrower. After we swam 40 more meters,with all the floating trash that had washedinto the cave, the passage sumped, but westill had upstream leads.Returning to the junction withArachnid Walk, we continued the surveyupstream. The passage got larger and larger,until we were standing on breakdown ina huge junction room. The room was 20meters wide by 20 meters high. We calledit Incredible Dimensions, and continuedsurveying in the left-hand passage. Wenamed this the Parachute Passage, as itseemed that every nook and cranny had parachute-shaped spider webs.Five stations later, while making ourway up and down the breakdown in this largepassage, Warren dropped the survey book,and it went between the breakdown blocksand splashed into the water. Luckily wecould retrieve the book, but it was hopelesslysoaked. We called it a day, andleft to dry out the book.On 8 February we were back in theParachute Passage where we had left off.The passage remained 15 to 20 meters wide,until we got out of the water and climbedup a steep slope. The air was blastingthrough this passage, and we were reallyexcited. But just a short distance fartheron we could see light. We had found a domethat led up to the surface. The passagecontinued on along the same trend for ashort distance, but was breakdown filledand required crawling through the breakdownin the water. Large catfish swam among theboulders as we tried to make our way on.After several attempts to follow the trend,we gave up and started making our way backto Incredible Dimensions to try the righthandpassage.We dubbed that passage the ParasolPassage because the parachute/parasol webswere found throughout this area also. Toour surprise, this passage was even largerthan the Parachute. As we made our waythrough the water and breakdown, the passagegrew to 30 meters and then to 40meters wide. The ceiling was 20 to 25meters above our heads, and huge stalactiteshung seemingly everywhere!Two hundred meters or so later, wewere climbing out of the water and upthrough breakdown into another huge room.This we called Fantastic Dimensions. Itwas a shattered room filled with breakdownand had a ceiling 35 meters high. This wasthe end of our second day in Cueva deTeapa.The tenth of February saw us blastingour way back to Fantastic Dimensions toclimb the breakdown to see where that wouldlead. At the top of the breakdown welooked down into a fog-filled passage. Theclimb down was done very carefully, as atany moment it seemed the entire mountain ofbreakdown might collapse. At last we wereat the bottom and again in the river. At32

GRUTASTDEL COCONAeapa, Tabasco~ c:WSurvey 4 bY Warren Nethert .M,5 February 1987 an, Jim Pisaro .ap by' Jim p'WICZPlot by' SMAP~saraWiCZ, Jeff HorowitzLength' 588 meters~a ~ujer de laar a del Grecoo==="--' ,,15metersgoes down fissure\BeautifulDreamerCUEVA DErea rEAPApo, ToboscoEntranceSurvey by Warr 6 -14 ~ en Netherton J'M ebruary 1987 ' 1m Pisarowiczop by- Jtm Pis .Plot by: SMAPS orowrcz, Jeff HoLength. 1184 metersrow.tz~5metersEntrance

this point it occurred to us that we hadnot named the river. One of the locals hadtold us that catfish were locally calledbobos. The river became the Rlo Bobes.The passage was still large, 15 meterswide, but not nearly so high (only 10 to 15meters). After a couple hundred meters ofthis, we began to hear the sound of fallingwater, and soon we were looking at a smallsection of rapids and a 1.5-meter-highwaterfalL We called the waterfall Gastro­POd Cascade.Not far beyond GastroPOd Cascade thewalls began to fall away again as anotherhuge room was encountered. This room isperhaps 25 meters wide and 10 to 15 metershigh in places. In the Rlo Bobe just offthis room we found a white crab with ashell 25 centimeters across. I have neverseen such cave fauna in all my years ofcaving. We named the room Crab Cove.Back near the GastroPOd Cascade therewas a walking side lead with a lot of airbeing sucked down it. We started surveyinginto this area and were rewarded by a passagedecorated with the most amazing stalactites,stalagmites, columns, rimstonedams, and helictites. This became theBeautiful Dreamer passage. I was in thelead as we were mapping down the BeautifulDreamer, and the wind was really blowing.Suddenly I heard a barking dog. I shoutedback to Warren that I could hear a dog, andhe and I began looking for the entrancethat we knew had to be close by. After afew minutes of looking around we had foundthe entrance, but it was a mere crack.Warren excavated the crack, making it justlarge enough to crawl out. We left thecave knowing that we now had a cave over akilometer long.In the time we had remaining we madeonly one other trip into Cueva de Teapa,and we mainly mapped side leads. The surveyedlength of this cave is now 1184 meters.Although many of the passages arevery large, the cave is prone to flooding,and after one downpour we noted that thewater rose 6 meters! Because of this wedid not get any photos in Teapa.OTHER CAVES IN THE TEAPA AREAerable amount of time hiking around thearea looking for caves and asking localsabout cave locations. On the western sideof these hills there has been a considerableamount of limestone quarrying for cementand agricultural dolomite. Near thislarge quarry we mapped a small 60-meterlongcave called Cueva Cerca de Cantera,which was just behind a house.In a valley in the center of thesesame limestone hills we found four smallcaves. Only one of these caves was mapped.o 6, ! , ,metersotight andmuddy,;' ~~:-;.~-::----'~CUEVA CERCA DE CANTERATeopo, ToboscoSurvey by Worren Netherton, Jim Pisorowicz15 Februory 1987Mop by' Jim Pisorowicz, Jeff HorowitzPlot by' SMAPSLength' 60 metersCUEVA ELECTRICOTeapa, TabascoSurvey by Warren Netherton, Jim Pisorowicz17 Februory 1987Mop by' Jim Pisorowicz, Jeff HorowitzPlot by SMAPSLength' 78 meters\1/The limestone hills just outside Teapahave many small caves. We spent a consid-34ometers12m

Themilky-white sulpher river that flows out of Cueva del Azufre. (Jim Pisarowicz)Passage walls in Cueva del Azufre are coated with sulpher, gypsum,(Jim Pisarowicz)and epsomite.35

It was under the power lines that runthrough the hills and was named Cueva Electrico.This cave is about 80 meters longand contains a large bat roost.The eastern side of these hills alsocontains several caves, but most of themwere not very extensive. In these caves,alony with all of the other caves that wevisited, collections were made of the cavefauna. These are currently being analyzedby James Reddell at the Texas MemorialMuseum.The hills immediately outside Teapaare actually the smallest set of limestonehills in the area, and this was where wespent most of our time underground. We didscout out the karst south and east of Teapain the Sierra Madrigal, Tapijulapa, andPlana. Several cave entrances were locatedin these areas, but no cave explorationswere done.CUEVA DEL AZUFREAfter two \\leeks in the Teapa area, wedecided to check out a cave that many ofthe locals told us we should visit. Thiscave is located near the town of Tapijulapa.Tapijulapa is a small town at theintersection of the Rios Tacotalpa, Arnatan,and Almandro. Upon arriving in Tapijulapa,we asked directions, and before we knew itwe were on the trail to the cave. Thedirections that we got to the cave weredecidedly simple. Hike through the jungleuntil you come to a stream and then followthe stream to the cave. Soon the streamappeared. It was milky white. The streamwas of sulphur water, and it was flowingout of the cave entrance.Taking out our survey and caving gear,we were soon in the cave, and what astrange cave it was. The water flowingthrough the cave, as one might expect fromlooking at the surface stream, was a milkywhitish-blue color. The walls of the caveare covered with spiders and other invertibratescrawling over gypsum and what appearedto be epsomite crystals. I haveseen much gypsum in caves, and occasionallyepsomite crystals, but I have never seensuch displays of these minerals in anycave. But this was only the beginning.Further into the cave the walls appeared tobe yellow in color. Upon closer inspection,the walls proved to have coatings ofelemental sulphur. I some parts of thecave, large sections of the walls werethick with sulphur crystals.As if these surprises were not enough,when we reached several areas a long distancefrom the many skylights in the cave,we found stalactites made from what appearedto be moonmilk. These strange speleothemshung down like calcite stalactitesbut with a texture of partially dried moonmilk.A cave mineralogist would have afield day in this cave.The water seems to course through thiscave in many directions, and after a couplehundred meters of survey we concluded thatwe could not complete the survey of Azufreon this trip. We spent the rest of our timein the cave taking photos and scouting outthe maze of passages.Many of the water courses in the caveare shallow, incised vadose trenches inwhat appear to be phreatic passages. Thetravertine in the cave is strangely redissolved,and we found several interestingkinds of flowstone and stalactites withbizarre features. Some chambers are ofconsiderable size, 20 meters or more wideand 10 meters high. In some places thewater temperature was measured to be over30 Celsius.Also of interest in Azufre is theabundance of cave fauna. Biologists in theearly 1960s collected specimens from Azufre,and in studying the fish concludedthat a hybridisation was occurring betweenthe surface fish and another species, notyet discovered, which is totally caveadapted. We collected several fish, crabs,snails, and many spiders and other invertibrates.CONCLUSIONThe limestone of Tabasco is quiteextensive, and the karst development isvery interesting. It is surprising thatfew cavers have ventured into Tabasco insearch of caves, for the area seems riddledwith them. The cave fauna is the mostdiverse I have ever seen in any area. Andcaves such as Azufre provide some of themost bizarre speleothems that I have encountered.I plan on returning to Tabascoduring February or March of 1988. If anyor all of the above sounds interesting toyou, contact me at Wind Cave National Park,Hot Springs, South Dakota 57747.36

cne of the many skylight entrances to Cuevadel Azufre. (Jim Pisarowicz)Moonmilk stalactites against a wall ofgypsum crystals in Cueva del Azufre. (JimPisarowicz)TABASCODurante febrero de 1987, dos espeleologos exploraron algunas cuevas cercade Teapa, Tabasco. Primero topografiaron una cueva turistica, las Grutas delCocon~ Esta apenas alcanza los 600 metros de largo. Es una hermosa cueva connumerosas formaciones. En la Cueva de Teapa, siguieron el pasaje rio abajo decasi 90 metros hasta llegar a un sifo~ Hacia arriba el pasaje se dividfa envarios tUneles. Tambiem encontraron varios salones colapsados y un riachuelo,y finalmente, una entrada superior. Cerca de Tapijulapa, fuera de la Cueva delAzufre, flufa un riachuelo de aguas blanco-azulosas. En la cueva se puedeencontrar yeso y muchos cristales de epsomite, y hasta en algunos lugares sepueden observar las paredes cubiertas de azufre. Debido al corta tiempo con elque contaban los espeleologos y a la extension de la cueva se decidio regresarel ana proximo. Las personas interesadas en incorporarse al autor, favor decomunicarse con el al Wind Cave National Park, Hot Springs, S.D., 57747, USA.37

UNAM EXPEDITION TOVERACRUZbyAndrea Raz-Guzman MacBethThis expedition was planned as a combinationsports and scientific research project,a true speleological expedition. Wevisited the municipalities of Tepatlaxcoand Ixhuatlan del Cafe in the state ofVeracruz from 14-27 April 1984. Members ofthe expedition were Ing. Eduardo Martinez,Geo!. Jorge Ortiz, Ing. Josue Escobar, Ing.Alejandro Sanchez, BioI. Hector Guzman andmyself, under the leadership of Ing. GuillermoMora.In this area of prominent karst development,drainage is mainly subterranean inthe dry season, and water holes are common.The geology of the area comprises quaternarysediments of clastic conglomerates ofextrusive rock, clayey sands, calcareousrock, and volcanic ash, over which liecretaceous sediments of three formations:the Mendez, rich in foraminifera, benthicclays, and calcareous sands; the SuperiorEscamela, rich in macrofossils, calcareoushorizons, and dolomite; and the MedianEscamela, rich in calcareous algae,sponges, gastropods, and bivalves. Thearea has a warm, damp climate, with a sum-38

mer rainy season and vegetation that variesfrom jungle to forest.The objectives of the expedition were,first, to explore the previously unexploredarea we had selected on a map, find as manycaves as possible, and map as many as timeallowed; and second, to sample the animals,plants, rocks, and fossils of the area, andmake observations on the geology. Thepaleontological and geological aspects areespecially rich, this being one of Mexico'stransgressional extensions of reef origin.Also, notes were to be taken on ethnologyand anthropological findings.Our equipment consisted of the usualnecessities for caving and surveying, aswell as jars, plastic bags, alcohol, tags,etc., for the collection of samples. Eachperson fulfilled a particular role in theexpedition's organization, from writing andpreparing letters of introduction and datasheets to organizing caving, topography,and collection equipment. Others organizedphotographic equipment, planned the expeditionmenu, and bought food and first-aidsupplies.CAVESIN THE AREAThe expedition was divided into threegroups. Group 1, Guillermo Mora, AlejandroSanchez, and I explored an area that comprisedthe villages of El Triunfo, Buenavista,La Palma, and Alta Luz del Castillo,located 1000 meters above El Pedregal, thebase campsite. Group 2, Eduardo Martl.nez,Jorge Ortiz and Hector Guzman, explored theareas of Ocotitlan, Guzmantla, and ElBajio. Group 3, Ricardo Salas, Josue Escobarand Raul Sanchez, explored Ixhuatlanand Ixcapantla.A total of 36 caves were explored,varying between 20 and 150 meters deep, ofwhich 75 percent were mapped. Samples ofanimals, plants, and rocks were collectedin most of the caves. Some fossils werealso found and collected.As it was not possible to get all themaps together, included here are five inthe area that my group explored. Cueva delos Castillos, located in La Palma, is anample horizontal cave with many bouldersand no large drops. Cueva de Don Miguel, inEl Triunfo, is also an ample horizontalcave that ends in a blocked-up verticalpitch of only 8 meters, inhabited by arespectable number of harvestmen (opilionidsof the Phalangodidae family),grasshoppers and polydesmids. All animalswere identified at the Acarology Laboratoryof the Facultad de Ciencias of the UniversidadNacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM).Sotano de Guadalupe Garcia, in EI Pedregal,was found after exploring throughdense tropical vegetation. It is mostlynarrow, with calcite formations only nearthe entrance, the remainder being halfburied in sticky mud. We stopped explorationat the point where it is too narrowfor a person to pass through. Since largelogs were found lodged along the way, andsince the cave is located in a big doline,we assume it carries a fair amount of waterin the rainy season. This was the onlyCUEVA DE LOS CASTILLOSRoncherio La PalmoMunicipio de TepatiOlteo. Verocruz(clave VTB-019)CUEVA DE DON MIGUELSuunto • T..pe Survey25 April 1984 byA. Rt..-:-GllzMn. A. S&nche&.c. Nor.suu"to"T"~Sur"lty19 Hay 1984 byA.it.u.-Guwn.A.sinch.:..G. MoraOpposite: One of the large dolinas typical of the area.39

cave in which a uropygid (Mastigoproctusgiganteus) , commonly known as a vinegarroon,was found.SKULLS AND BONESSotano de los Huesos or Sotano de laCaja de Agua, in Buenavista, is one of themost interesting caves. It combines aspectsof caving, local folklore, archaeology,and ancient burial traditions. It islocated at the bottom of an uvala. The mainentrance originated from a roof collapse,giving way to a boulder-scattered ramp thatends in a 9-meter drop. The walls have beengreatly corroded, making them dangerous forropes. After passing three side leads, wedescended to a lower level and followed anirregular, narrow, sharp-rocked passageuntil we came upon a sandy drainage bottom.There we found a human cranium, some bitsof bones, and bits of painted pottery.These, after talking to the village heads,we packed up carefully and sent to theOsteology Laboratory of the Institute ofAnthropological Research of the UNAM to bestudied.We were later informed that the bonesbelonged to a 25-year-old man. From theceramic style of the pottery fragments, thefind is presumed to belong to the ClassicMesoamerican Horizon (approximately A.D.200-800). The skull shows an intentionaldeformation of the erect fronto-occipitaltabular intense type (determined by craniometry)that was traditional in prehispaniccultures for reasons of physical beauty orof ritual. The global analysis of thebones shows that there were at least oneadult and six children of different agesburied in the cave. We also found opilionidsof the Hoplobunus genus.The villagers told us many stories offamily feuds, fighting during the Revolution,and the burial of fortunes in cavesof the region. One of their legends tellsthat on the 29th of June, the spirits thatcare for the treasures abandon their caves,giving the villagers an opportunity tosearch for them. Naturally, this has favoredthe sacking of caves believed to hidetreasures.NmEntranceSOTANO DE LOS HUESOSRancherfa de BuenavistaMunicipio de Tepatlaxco, Veracruz(Clave VTB-009)o,PlanMeters- 34.16mpot sherdsand cranium,,.,.,Suunto & Tape Survey24 May 1984 byA. Raz-Guzman, A. Sanchez,G. Mora40

Looking up towards the entrance ofSatano de los Huesos.SEDIMENT CAVEAmong the other caves we explored, therewas one in Buenavista that was, to us, of acompletely new type. It started out as awater passage, easy to walk through, andwas followed by a very muddy 6-meter pitch.We then PaSsed through a very low crawlthat became a vertical fissure throughwhich we were forced to proceed halfway up.This was most difficult, since the wallswere formed by the differential erosion oflayers of sediments differing in density.The sharp ledges caused our clothing to becaught and torn if we were not careful, andin the end made it a very tiring cave toexplore. Nevertheless it is interesting,as it might connect with Satano de losHuesos and other caves of the region,considering the direction of the main passageways.Several side leads were left forfuture exploration.The very last cave we explored, Cuevade El Pedregal, turned out to be a verynarrow cave, intricate, multi-leveled, andvery nicely decorated in calcite formations.When we arrived at a lO-meter pitchwe had to turn back, having taken no rope.Fortunately, I had kept the surveyingequipment in my knapsack, and we thought itworthwhile to map the cave on the way out.This area turned out to be 50 rich incaves, and the people 50 kind, we plan toreturn some day, in spite of the distanceand difficulty in getting to the area.EntranceSOTANO DE GUADALUPE GARCIARancherfa de El PedregalMunicipio de Tepatlaxco, Veracruz(Clave VTP-007)PlanCUEVA DE EL PEDRECALRancherfa de E1 PedregalMunicipio de Tepatlaxco, Veracruz(Clave VTP-014)~ Meters 1~ 1M (Nm

VERACRUZVarios espeleologos I bajo la gufa del Ing. Guillermo Mora, exploraronalgunas cuevas en los municipios de Tepatlaxco e Ixhuatlan del Cafe, en Veracruz,en abril de 1984. Se exp10raron un total de 36 cuevas, variando entrelos 20 y 150 metros de profundidad, de las cuales se trazaron 27. El autordiscute cinco de estas cuevas, de las cua1es se inc1uyen mapas.MORE MEXICO NEWSChihuahuaThe mountain ranges to the southeast ofOjinaga were explored via mountain bike byJurgen Heise and Terry Bolger over theweekend of 17 to 19 April 1987. The SierraEl Mulato and the Sierra Rica are primarilyof igneous origin and no caves or karstfeatures were found in these ranges. Acanyon through the Sierra Azul containedmany holes in the limestone walls. Withoutclimbing equipment we were able to get toonly two of these caves. Both of these onlywent about 15 meters. There are at leastfive other holes in the canyon wall thatneed to be checked. A return trip, viamountain bike, is planned for the summer of1987.source: Terry BolgerWest Texas cavers, Terry Bolger andBill Greenlee, spent the weekend of 3 to 6July 1986 ridgewalking in the Sierra LaQuemada, northeast of OJ inaga. They weretold by a local rancher that they were theonly norteamericanos he recalled havingseen in this isolated region. From anotherrancher they learned of a large bat flightoriginating high in the mountains. Theapproximate location of the bat flight wasascertained, but no bat flight wasobserved, (possibly due to stormy weather),nor were any caves found. This was thefirst reconnaisance trip into this largelyunexplored region.source: Terry BolgerSan Uris PotosfS6tano de Apetzco, was explored byTerry Bolger, Mike Goar, and Bill Greenleeon 26 December 1986. The pit was exploredto a depth of about 140 meters, butcontinues beyond that point. They weretold by a local that the pit had beendropped three years previously, but the pitappeared to be virgin beyond the firstdrop.Several other sotanos, believed to bevirgin, were found but not explored duringhikes into backcountry areas near Xilit1a.source: Terry Bolger42

CHIAPASThe Dutch Expeditionby Laurens SmetsThe primary objective of the DutchExpedition to Mexico was to search forcaves in the Sierra los Altos de Chiapas.Chiapas, the southern-most state of Mexico,borders Guatemala and has an area more thantwice as large as Holland. In 1824 Chiapasbecame independent from Guatemala andjoined Mexico as a state. There are parallelmountain ranges, with the highest inthe west called the Sierra Madre de Chiapas.The most important rivers in the areaare the Rl.oS Usumacinta, Jatate, Grijalva,and Suchiate. The northeastern part of thestate has a tropical climate with lushvegetation.The Sierra los Altos de Chiapas, whichrises to an elevation of 2780 meters, consistsmainly of limestone. San Cristobalde las Casas, at an elevation of 2100 meters,is situated in a polje containingseveral sinks or sumideros. The Rio Chamulasinks there and resurges from Cueva delAgua, which is located near El Zapotal (SanLucas) at an elevation of 700 meters. Inthe rainy season the sinks could not drainall of the water from the plateau, andtherefore a tunnel was constructed throughthe mountain to drain the surplus. At thebase of the mountain there are two mainresurgences: the Rio Blanco from Cueva delAgua and the Rl.O Salado.SANCRIHOBAlZ1..m~,/ TUNNE~SUMIDUO'SSUMIDERO'SVESHTUCOC180m.....--~-~--~ 700mDJO OE AGUA -- ~--~ElZAPOTA l43

Entrance to 5 kilometer long tunnel.THE BRITISH EXPEDITIONIn the years 1982-83 a British expedition,including Laurens Smets from Holland,went to this area. The group vainlysearched for access to the cave system onthe plateau. After two months, they foundthe resurgence cave, Veshtucoc, near EIZapota!. The cave was explored for alength of over 3600 meters to a height of288 meters. At some point during the Britishexpedition, most of the team memberscontracted histoplasmosis and were forcedto terminate exploration in Veshtucoc.THE DUTCH EXPEDITIONContinued exploration in Veshtucoc becameone of the major goals of the Dutchexpedition to Mooco that took place fromDecember 1984 through February 1985. ByAugust 1984, the team members had beenchosen and extensive organizing was takingplace. Letters requesting sponsorship werewritten to organizations and comPanies, andthe team received much publicity in thenewspaper and on radio. They receivedsleeping-bags, underwear, boots, and medicalsupplies, as well as donations from 25individuals. Much of the caving equipmentwas lent to the expedition by regionalsections of Speleo Nederland and privateindividuals. Each team member was given acertain task, and together they practicedcaving and rescue techniques on severaloccasions. An interpreter was recruitedfor the expedition, as well as a Germangeologist-photographer.The group equipment was sent in advanceto Houston, Texas. On 23 November 1984 thefirst team left for Houston. In Austinthey bought a 1975 Ford pickUp and headedfor Mexico. The trip down was characterizedby flat tires and oil problems. Onone occasion the gear-box had to be dismantledbecause of a leaky oil seaL On 12December the team arrived in Tuxtla Gutierrez,and here the authorities gave permissionto the expedition by means of a letterof recommendation. A house was rentedin EI Zapotal for use as a base camp. Theother team members arrived between the 17thand 21st of December.VESHWCOCWhen the cavers arrived at the entranceto Veshtucoc, they found the entrance"sump" to be completely open. The waterlevel in sumps 2 and 3 appeared to be thesame as two years before. The sumps werepassed on 23 December, and new handlineswere attached. Several trips werenecessary to carry all the needed equipmentto the end of the cave. Sump 3 caused alot of trouble because the bags of equipmentgot stuck.On 18 January 1985 a trip was made toMoctezuma's Revenge, the spot where theBritish expedition had stopped. The Dutchsecond sump in Veshtucoc.44

Jl:SRTUCDCCHIAPAS.EL ZAPOTAL.MEXICOSURVEY GRADE 50ESTIMATED CaOAD 9:1' -43' 1371831347880MAF> ACALA E1S.061LENGTH -4930 METRESHEICHT 380 METRESOUTCH - EXF> 'e4~eS I e.lensian1BRITISH MEXICO EXP. 'B2Sw~ythe Loldsdescended an unstable boulderchoke for about 28 meters,after which they foundthe river again. Theypushed the cave for an additional1300 meters of passageto a wide and deepsump. The last part of thecave contained a lot ofwashed-in materials such aswood and plastic. They suspectedthey were quite closeto the surface, within 100meters or less. They foundwhite shrimp 10 centimeterslong and flies.The exploration ofVeshtucoc took nine workingdays with a total of 60caving hours, the longesttrip lasting 18 hours. It is4930 meters long and has aheight of 380 meters.FURTHER EXPLORATIONCueva del Agua is a resurgence cavenear El Zapotal, and the main source ofwater for the area. It was first exploredby the British expedition in 1983. A newshaft was found with a height of 66 metersthat ended at a flowstone constriction.Cueva del Cascada del Rio Blanco islocated at the bottom of the waterfall ofthe Rio Blanco, 3 kilometers northwest ofEl Zapotal. It is a small maternity cavefor bats. Exploration ended at two smallinlets.RECONThe group spent several days checkingthe area to the north of El Zapotal. Theyexplored several small caves around SantaCruz and looked at the area near Paste,Elarnbo, and Buena Vista. The area aroundPaste is inhabited by the Zinacantecos, agroup of Indians recognizable by their pinkponchos. They speak little Spanish, andwhen the word cueva or ch'en is mentionedthey become very stand-offish. Althoughthe area looked very promising on the map,permission was unobtainable. Several smallcaves and karst features were noted betweenPaste, Elambo, and Buena Vista.Dolinas west of Zacualpa were explored, butthey don I t look very hopeful because of theamount of clay. South, towards Santa Cruz,about twenty other dolinas and karst featureswere visited, but no further caveswere found. The water in the large dolinasmostly sinks through sand and clay. Recentsubsidences were often observed. Thecaves in this part of the Sierra los Altosde Chiapas are all very small, sharp andoften full of unstable boulders. In otherwords, not very promising. Locals told of45

I ".J'.. ,']$.. j•. ' .4'...Jt40........!I..... .,1].9. ~II 21 :-:--:;:.".... ...... ................,....+..nK11c.2teT'8.~ 1/ Zacua!va.} Buena Vista II de EcatepecNSanta Cruz (La GarralJata)Ecologia) to look for caves in the ParqueNacional Can.on el Sumidero. This naturalarea is located just north of TuxtlaGutierrez. They visited three caves on theplateau at around 1200 meters elevation,and an additional three caves lower down inthe the canyon at 600 to 700 meters elevation.EXCHUCFrom 16-20 January the group checkedthe area around Exchuc for caves. Thisproved difficult because the Indians wererather hostile and suspicious. The caveswere often on property that was owned byseveral people, making permission hard toobtain. A cave with a stream was exploreddownstream for 66 meters, but explorationhad to be stopped since no further permissionwas granted•4 Cave,length 25m. 5a Cave,length 30m,depth 8m.Sb CUeva del Paco,length 20m.6 Sumidero. Sumidero. 8 unexplored cave,depth Bm. 24 Two caves,length 10m each.25 Cave,very $.ll\511. 26 Two small caves. 27 Cave,depth an. 28 C.ave,length 1Cku.29 Deep dolina,on private property,unexplored. 30 Blind dolina. 31 eave,depth 3m.32 Cave, length 7m,depth5m. 33 Blind dolina. 34 Sumidero,t.oo small to enter.35 Surnidero,too small. 36 Cave,depth 10m. 31 Large OOlina. 38 Sima sin Luz,Depth 5Sm. 39 Pothole,depth 7m. 40 pothole,depth 8m. 41 Cave.depth 12m.42 Cave,rot fully explored. 43 15 caves, longest 15m.PARQUE NACIONALCANoN DEL 8UMIDERO-10caves around the village of San Antonio,but that area remains unchecked.The caves found were all inactive fossilsystems in which further explorationwas stopped because of too much calcite inthe passages. The western plateau (1200meters elevation) has a very dense overgrowththrough which paths had to be cut toget to the cave entrances.The dolinas marked on the map whichlooked very promising, were in realitysilted up and overgrown. In the rainy seasonsome of the dolinas contain smalllakes, but none of them could be consideredactive sinks. After a week, it appearedthat the area had very little potentiaLKilometersNCANoN EL SUMIDEROThe group received permission fromSEDUE (Secretaria de Desarrollo Urbano yFTool: 1:50.\XXJ topo IIlBpOrlcoasen E15 r.5'J10 Cueva PenjMD,length 24Qn. 11 Sima Frans.depth ISm. 12 CUeva de Monte Cristo,length 105m. 13 Cliff with 8 caves,longest lQn. 14 eave,leJ¥;Jth lCkn. 15 cueva decanon del SUll'Iidero, length 14an.46

ELEVATIONPLANI '1 11 JI .,.-,. metersCUEVA PENJAMO (101tuxtla gutierrez, chiapas, mexicoparque nacional "canon del sumidero"estimated coord 93 OS'06"11650'49"11160map tk 50/e15 c59length 240 m, depth 90msurvey grade 5cdutch expo 'S4,'S5CUEVA MONTE CRISTO (12)parque nacional "canon del sumidero"estimated coord. 93 06'56"/16 51'22"map tk 50/e15 c59length 105 msurvey grade 5ctuxtla gutierrez, chiapas, mexicoI\ dutch exp, 'S4,'S5\PLAN-~ ---'"- - - -- ---- -1 N..PLANCUEVA DE CANON DEL SUMIDERO (15)canon del sumidero, tuxtla gutierrez, chiapasmexico, survey grade 5cestimated coord, 93 03'57"116 49'2S"1500map tk 50 e15 c59length 148"mdutch exp, '84,'S5___No 1020met.,..

FRONTERA COMALAPADuring the last part of January, thegroup traveled to a small limestone plateaunear the border of Guatemala. They attimes observed a lot of tension and militaryactivity. On the other hand, thelocal people were friendly and offered themhelp. The caves found were mostly situatedon the east side of the Rio Grijalva, 500meters from the border with Guatemala. Mapsof some of these caves appear here. A lotof help was given by Senor Humberto, alocal agricultural secretary who used to bea teacher and who has much influence in thearea around Chamic.PROMISING NEW AREAAs a result of some conversations withlocals, the group decided to check anothernice mountain area in another part of Chiapas.Much ridge walking was done, and theycame up with 20 new caves. Because of thepromising nature of the area, the group hasdecided to launch another expedition in thefuture. For the time being they prefer notto give the exact locations, but they haveprovided maps of the some of the caves theydiscovered.TRINATARIA AREAThe group visited CUeva de San Francisco,situated near Trinataria. The cave is aplace of pilgramage for Mexicans. It is ahorizontal system with two inactive sinksfor water. Mike Shawcross and PeteThompson partially surveyed this cave in1972. The total cave length is 1750 meters.Towards the end of February the expeditionmade its way north, stopping along theway to visit the lava caves at Teotihuacan,and then on to Sotano de las Golondrinas.Not having one continuous rope, they had topass four knots in Golondrinas. They describedit as a "great sensation." At thebottom of the sotano, their rope elasticitywas 35 meters. Some of their people gotseasick!They had two injuries during thecourse of the expedition. One person brokehis foot and had to return to Holland.Another caver was out of circulation for afew weeks because of a burned arm and leg,caused by a gas stove.ESPEI..ID NEERLANDESAEn febrero de 1985, un grupo de espeleologos holandesas fueron a Chiapasa continuar la exploracion de Veshtucoc (primeramente explorado por una expedicionbritanica en 1984). Estos avanzaron unos 1300 metros hasta un ancho yprofundo sifon. La longitud de la cueva es de 4930 metros y 380 metros dealtura. El grupo paso varios dias revisando el ah'rea en busca de cuevas. Verlas mapas de localizacion.48

\9}"CAVES OF FRONTERA COMALAPA~CUEVA TINOgerero, chiapas, mexicocoord. 92 OS'S1 "/15 35' 16"/840map d15 b23length 95 m, depth 28 msurvev grade 5ddutch eltp. '84-85CUEVA MALPASOchamic, cerca ccma1apa, chiapassurvey grade 5destimated coord. 92 09'41"/15 35'lS"'680length 121m, depth 19mdutch expo '84·'85Nm_~-,.,.~~.oCJC>CUEVA DE NUEVO MOREILLAcoma1apa, chiapas, mexicoestimated coord. 92 08'51 '/1536'09"1780mapd15b23length 302 m, depth 48 msurvey grade 5ddutch expo '84·'85cerca de comatapa, mexicocoord. 92 07'55"/15 35'46"1880length 8S,7msurvey grade 5ddutch eMp. '84,'85Lo--a~CUEVA PURESAgerero, chiapas, mexicoestimated coord. 92 09'51"/15 35'1760map d15 b23length 1032 msurvey grade 5cdutch expo '84-'85[~-, ...~.!~~~ii.SIMA OJO DE AGUAcia de agua. chiapas, rnel(icomap d15 b23depth 67 mdutch eJl.p. '84,'85~~:~ =:C!: ,,:cI10" ~• j~..".1\t

oooIII_.~r~.:?~ ~··=1r·r;,:-,~,~ L_.-\,.............~-I,f••~... ~"I= b -;C = '.::'"~I~~_....;~t·elnlUen.,,~_l.~.J~CJcunA SAil FRAIICISCO 081TRINATARIASURVEY GRADE"mlgn IIScLENCTH 1750M.DEPTH 75M.DUTCH EXP. '8" _'85oD~_.....­olos Morgarrtos.-~ComnanL~ M.EL POlEJDlII Monte B.1l0r9~LO TrinltorialIE"'A SNr4 ,.MlClSCO ""Ni,--~ • 'r I ..us / GL\IIt/Qmete's 20406080 100(~

BELGIAN EXPLORATIONSAT ZOQUITLANMEXICAN PR~T '85by Georges FellerWithout a doubt Mexican karst has formany years shown that the El Dorado ofSpeleology is truly found in the land ofsombreros and tequila. That alone is agood enough reason to organize a remoteexpedition. It's not that our ten years ofexcursions into Austria were boring (farfrom that), but the need to uncover newhorizons and other ways of life far fromthe beaten path justified the trip as well.From information gleaned by previousreconnaissance expeditions, we decided toinvestigate a zone in the heart of theSierra Madre Oriental We spent afascinating two months on this limestoneplateau between the desert and the jungle.The difficulties we encountered representlittle compared to the discoveries made.One can judge for oneself: threearcheological sites, 35 kilometeres ofpassage, including two rooms that countamong the largest in the world.COYOLATLThree days out of Belgium we were on abad road that shook our truck interminably.We were the resurgence team, a sort ofsuicide commando team let loose on thetropical forest. Our goal was to locatethe presumed site of the resurgences thatdrain the plateau. The rest of theexpedition would explore the plateau.In Tlacotepec de Diaz we met a guidewho offered to show us the entrance to aresurgence cave. From a high point on aridge 3 kilometers away, we could see theentrance to Coyolatl as well as hear theresurgence echoing through the Wholevalley. We continued on to the cave,chopping our way through the jungle.In the entrance room of the cave wefound a lake that resurged as the RIoCoyolatl. We measured the flow to be 10cubic meters per second. The cave blew alot of air, in fact as we headed in it blewour lights out. We went through severalswims and climbs and soon came to a vastroom with a skylight entrance. As wegalloped around the immense room we found ariver and large stalagmites up to 20 metersdiameter. After getting lost for about anhour in the large room, we found our wayout of the cave.On 9 March we returned to Coyolatlwith camping and survey gear to find theriver had risen to 15 cubic meters persecond. After mapping the large room,which we named Sebastopol, we mapped alarge infeeder. The passage, La Fluette,was carved out of blue marble with aseries of emerald green lakes separated byflowstone cascades up to 20 meters high.The rock became very jagged. We turnedback at this point, although the passagecontinued.On 13 March the river was back down to10 cubic meters per second. Near theentrance, Francois and Michel found somearcheological remains in good condition.Meanwhile, others mapped a kilometer ofpassage up the main river from Sebastopolto a sump.The 15th of March saw Francois andMichel retreating to the village to findout what had caused the red dots whichcovered their bodies. The rest of the groupsystematically explored all the passagesoff the river to find a way on. We foundour way around the sump in a canyon passagewith strong current. It was not possible tocontinue against the current, so we beganlooking for an upper level fossil route.Several days later we found a highlead with a violent air current. We mapped51

+150PLAN+240COUPECOYOLATLPROJETEE:::l ~\~'0: .~~>:~rC~';;;~==~=======:=: . _several kilometers of passage. Some of itwas highly decorated, including gypsumneedles that were 50 cm long. We namedthis passage La Fuite en Avant.After a week of no rain, we returnedto the canyon passage and were able toproceed upstream for several kilometers.Altogether we mapped 19 kilometers ofpassage in Coyolotl, to a height of 240meters.THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACKby Patrick Bestgen and Richard GrebeaudeThe resurgence group had joined theplateau team at Lorna Bonita to look forcaves that might connect to resurgencecaves below. They went to Palapa, which isin a dry valley above Alcomunga. Theyexplored 800 meters of a fossil maze cavecalled AL7. Meanwhile, four of the groupwent to San Migue1 to check a pit found theyear before. It turned out to be 90 metersdeep.They turned their attention to thearea around Q::otempa, where they had threepit leads. They noted that the pits wereall located along the same fault.Las Abejas or OC2 is a rectangular pit(30m by 7m) and is about 120 meters deep.The vegetation around the pit made itdifficult to rig the drop on the free side.Instead they had to rebelay. On the bottomthey found three human skulls and otherbones.OC3, or Pozo Verde, was explored tothe -150 meter level on the first trip.They returned with survey equipment andmapped it to the -380 leveL At the bottomthey found a large room with no apparentway 011.Another cave, with a small stream init, was explored down a series of pits tothe -150 meter level. The group decidedthat aside from some pretty pits, this areadid not seem too interesting.52

AVCOUPES TRANSVERSALES I t 15MG~MON()B~ J G 0~~ K~ 0C-=« L~U ~ pOE ~ Q 6,D~:t::~~~~~~AO~R DES CHOUXr;: rcll_ A-6,Q - 15 U- 26 ~~~3~/30U-4INf'-.;\:I.~.AL7I:t PUIE: LCO l,1... L.4 1,1 UNGAPl GSAB IEXICO~ 85R~~~~~~AMONT -RALES DESERTEURSTEMPORELSDESCHOUXERRANTS- 64L

,'. ..'\...-..,ISOTANOx:y:OCOTEMPAZ: 1.700m(OC3)P 380Pozo VERDEAffluentamont504030201010 20 30 40 50 melresEtr.

w'"ill~0'" a:w

-360 '_.,COUPE PROJETEEPAATlEllE.E-W.~-655'"

eakdown collapse and a 2~meter pit. Aspart of the group surveyed from there backto their previous station, Serge and theLittle Swiss went ahead down the 20-meterpit. Eventually they came to a deep dropof nearly 140 meters. To avoid the water,multiple rebelays were necessary. A futuretrip saw Serge, Georges, and Richard returnto the 140-meter pit. Beyond the bottom ofthe pit they encountered numerous drops andwaterfalls. They had a difficult timenegotiating the drops without getting wet,and the wind in the passage alwaysthreatened to extinguish their carbidelamps. The passage eventually became verymuddy and then intersected a larger streampassage. They followed the new stream downa series of small drops for 150 meters to asump at a depth of 700 meters. Beforeretreating to the surface they looked atsome high leads back up the passage, butthey were iUlpossible to get into since itwas so muddy. They also mapped 150 metersupstream to a dome and a pit. They took abath in a waterfall and headed out.Another group returned to the 25-meterpit Serge had discovered in the fissurenetwork. They found an alternate routedown to the bottom and explored downstream.The large passage soon turned into acrawlway with lots of sharp formations.They intersected a large cubical room withdimensions of 30 by 30 meters, but acrawlway led out of this room. Theyfollowed it for about 150 meters. Itcontinues with some airflow.The same day another team surveyed thelarge hall, took photos, and discovered avery large pit-passage in the lower sectionof the room. That re-fired interest in thecave and a team returned later to exploreit. They discovered that it connected intoknown cave at the -350 level above the 140­meter pit.About 4 kilometers of passage wasdiscovered in Aztotempa. The depth of -700meters was the deepest point reached by theexpedition. The potential for morediscoveries is great. Two downstream leadsremain, one at the ceiling at the -670­meter level, the other in a passage atabout -250 meters, and there are fourupstream leads. All of the leads hadperceptible airflow.Expedition Members: Patrick Bestgen, MarcBirchen, Serge Delaby, Michel Dupuis,Georges Feller, Richard Grebeude, FrancoisGUinand, Jean-elaude Hans, Philippe Hubert,Jocelyn Kirsch, Jean-Claude London,Francois Saussus, Rene-Marc Thirion, ManuelTries, Francois Vivier, PatrickVanstraelen.BXPEDICION BELGICA 1985El expedicion 1985 a Puebla descubrio un total de 35 kilometros depasajes en varias cuevas. La·s dos mas importantes son Coyalatl y Aztotempa.Coyalatl es una resurgencia cerca de Tlacotepec de Diaz con una longitud de 19kilometros y una altura arriba de la entrada de 240 metros. Aztotempa, 10calizada a los 1400 metros a1trua snm, tiene 4 kilometros de pasajes, yterminaron a -700 metros de profundidad en un sifon. Tambien exploraronmuchos sotanos profundos y cuevas chicas.58

Underwater Caverns ofQUINTANA ROOby James CokeIn the last few years a whole new areaof cave exploration has opened in Mexico'snewest state, Quintana Roo. This is thesystematic study of underwater caves byproperly trained and equipped explorers.The Yucatan Peninsula has long been knownas a rich karst area. One could cite thefamous Sacred Well of Chichen Itza and theBolonchen as prime examples. These northerncaves have become favorites for touristsand explorers due to their accessibilityand proximity to several large cities.Quintana Roo, however, has had relativelyfew speleological studies due to past remotenessfrom civilization. Only in thelast decade have modern roads and townsbeen built, largely as result of growingtourism.At the present time more than 20 individualunderwater cave systems have beenexplored, each having its own particularcharacter. caves laying 6 to 10 kilometersfrom the coast tend to be different thanthose caves nearer the coast. Large domerooms, complex tunnel systems, and highlydecorated ceilings and walls constitute thecharacter of these inland caves. Access isgained to the inland cave systems throughcenotes. Cenote is a Mayan word for acollapsed sinkhole filled with water.Above: Johanna deGroot in Cenote Hermana de Naharon.(James Coke)59

CENOTE NAHARONTULUM. QUINTANA ROOCompas•• Line Sun',,)'1 ,,]...... 1981 byJ""""" C. Coke, Job"n... deGroot;,PI.1I1DoltLQI.ch,JohnZworlckCENCJI'E NAHARONNaharon is one of the inland cavesthat has received much attention from localand visiting divers. To date, farthestpenetration on the spring side is beyondthe 1000 meter mark, and there are 1794meters of surveyed passage, all entirelyunderwater. Characterized by dark wallsand ceilings, it is considered one of thelargest underwater cave systems in QuintanaRoo. A halocline, the delineation betweenfresh and saline water, exists at a depthof 20 to 25 meters. Remipedia, a type ofcrustacean, have been collected below thishalocline.The siphon side of Naharon was exploredfor only 20 meters, due to the veryrestricted nature of the cave. In orderfor divers to enter the siphon side, theymust remove their tanks and push them aheadas they explore. Not being a particularI ycomfortable position, this was being donewith a purpose in mind - the possible connectionto be made with Cenote Hermana deNaharon.Hermana de Naharon (also called MayaBlue) is characterized by bright walls andceilings. The main tunnel system headsdirectly towards the Naharon system. Maximumpenetration on the spring side is now1000 meters. According to land and underwatersurveys, the end of the permanentline in Hermana was only 100 meters fromthe siphon side of Naharon.On 23 February 1987 a connection wasmade between the Naharon and Hermana deNaharon. Concerted effort of a number ofindividuals over four long work days foundthe elusive connection passage. This teamof individuals used 2750 cubic feet of airto make the connection. Underwater propulsionmachines (scooters) also played alarge role in this accomplishment. Theywere used to ferry tanks in order to createan air- station 600 meters back into thecave, and to make the final push to thesiphon cracks of Cenote Naharon.CENOT8S K!!:Rlo'oANA Y NAKARO~T\J~. QUINTANA ROOComp,UiS , Line SurveyDrawn by J4mes C. Cok. IV1 Ha...:h 1987ExplQred '"' Surveyed by O. AUilUlon.B. aeekar, J. Colle, S. Decarl!;>.J. deCroot, P.~r.o.eh. N. De~.S. Gerrard, It. Hile,., L. Hir•••.... J ..sper. K. I'ladde'n. H. ,..44.n.T. Mo.... i •• J.o3. TOuc:et. P. 'l'urr....r.J. zl,IIlIClek/Chuny&Xche... ,N......

CENOTES DOS OJOSXEL-HA, QUINTANA ROOCompass & Line Survey1 July 1986 byJames Coke, Johanna deGrootLength: 958.6 metersWO EASTOJO WESTI:jp.507.5m10metersAir PocketChamber10A-"..~CI~.atJ.,~·2p.158.5rn~,.,,':o....'..•••,..'0.",..'"Q.~ :0o ~:'.,. .1J(;i f?N\'. "tZ.'p.465mMap Symbols as per NSS Cave Diving Section:-..,... ..."­.../:////Footpath fromjeep roadxo 30 60I I ImetersP_RXSZPenetrltlon (one-wly .wlmming dlstlncl) 10 Ihll point Iromthlneere.lenUlnee"Minor" ,••.,Iellon (Irel 01 elVI 100 nlrrow for two aVlr~"zed diver. with doubtl 72', 10 txJddy·brlllhe throughs1de-by·,idl)'oMltor" r••trlelion (Irll 01 cave 100 narrow for one divlr wilhdoubll 72's 10 piSS through without 'Imoving links)51", (arl. 01 elve wllere only Clreful experilnced clve diver.~ go wllhout totilly obKuring vl.lblllly by .Urfing up.111)Notl: A/mo,t any ~'Slge tnoIy be ,illed our by improper,wim techniquI,Zero visibility can be expecled by even c.rllul experilncedclve dlvlrsJGC!TTSXel-Ha 2.5 km.=====================1986 James Guthrie Coke IV

REM:J1'E CENCYI'ECenote Dos Ojos is a very interestingsystem just recently explored. Requiring a4-wheel-drive vehicle in order to transportequipment, it is one of the more remotecaves explored. Travelling on the road toDos Ojos can be as exciting as the dive.Large cats, troops of monkeys, and flocksof parrots are seen regularly. Althoughnot a particularly extensive system, themain room shared by both cenotes is thelargest underwater cavern found yet inQuintana Roo. Mayan artifacts are alsopresent near the edge of the water at theWest Ojo.UNEXPECI'ED DISCOVERIESCenote carwash is perhaps one of themost famous cenotes in Quintana Roo. Bothspring and siphon cave systems have beenexplored, revealing diverse cave character,with an exciting and unexpected discovery.Spring-side penetration is at the 500­meter mark, terminating in a beautifullydecorated double dome room. The Room ofTears was a chance discovery, and it is nowa highly coveted goal for the advanced cavediver. Soda straws, oddly shaped speleothems,and helictites festoon this dome,which is 10 by 15 meters.The siphon side of the Carwash has amuch different terminal room. Only 120linear meters from the cave entrance liesthe Chamber of the Ancients. At a depth of30 meters, well below the halocline, acarved stalagmite holds the charcoal remainsof a fire. Other bits of charcoallitter the floor, and worked limestone handtools have also been found in this room.All items that have been found has beenleft in place for others to view.This chamber is also the first placein Quintana Roo where Remipedia were sightedand collected. Remipedia is a new classof crustacean first discovered in the Bahamasand described by Dr. Jill Yager. Oncethought to be confined to the LucayanCaves, it has now been found in the CanaryIslands and Quintana Roo.COASTAL CAVESUnderwater caves closer to the oceanare also being explored with the same en­62thusiasm as the more inland caves. Theenvironmental factors present in thesesystems, though, create more hazardousconditions for the dive team. caves moreproximal to the ocean are entered on landthrough cenotes or from the ocean throughlagoons or Ojos de Agua (springs). Thehalocline is much shallower in depth here,and as the diver passes through it thedisturbance of the salt and fresh watercreates visual impairment. If the flow offresh water is strong enough, mixing occursnaturally. Since flow tends to be strongerand the haloc1ine higher, the actual limestonecomposition of the caves is remarkablydifferent than those inland. Soft,white, friable limestone is present inthese smaller tunnel systems. Extremesiltation becomes unavoidable in mostcases, as the diver's exhaust bubbles dislodgesilt from the ceiling. On the returntrip, teams are greeted by a "snowstorm."Many of these caves are generallysmall and limited in tunnel size andlength. There are some exceptions to this,however. Cueva QUebrada on Isla Cozumelhas a maximum penetration of over 2500meters, with average depths of 8 meters.The cave is not continuous, as cenotes areencountered during the dive. Laguna No-Necon the mainland is another exception. Oneof the first underwater caves to be exploredin QUintana Roo (c. 1982), it has morethan 500 meters of surveyed passage.Many other cenotes, lagoons, and drycave sumps have been explored. Aerialsurveys have revealed new cenotes tantalizinglyclose to existing roads, while somecenotes are inaccessibly deep into thejungle. As the local population grows andmore roads are built, new cenotes willbecome accessible to the underwater caveexplorer.L(X;ISTICSProper training and specialized divingequipment have allowed much of this kind ofexploration to take place. Local dive-shopsupport has been invalUable for logisticservices. The sheer amount of equipmentneeded to perform some of this explorationcan been staggering. Longer dives requirefour tanks for each diver. Extra equipmentprovided by the dive shops makes this longerexploration possible.

Future exploration in these underwatercaves will take two directions. The firstand obvious direction will be deeper penetrationand longer dives. More specializedequipment that is not presently availablewill be needed for these excursions. Lessobvious side passages will eventually fallto light and reel, as well. The seconddirection of exploration will take us furtherfrom the Tulum-Akumal hub. More accessiblecenotes will be explored furthernorth and south along the main coastalroad. We have only seen the tip of theiceberg so far. Perhaps longer cave systemsand new archaeological sites will befound. The future of cave explorationlooks bright for Quintana Roo.CUEVAS SUMERlGIDAS DE QUINTANA ROOEste articulo discute algunas de las cuevas bajo el agua de Quintana Roo.El Cenote Naharon, esta considerado como una de las cuevas sumergidas maslargas de este lugar. La penetracion mas lejana desde la entrada sobrepasa los1000 metros, y hay 1794 metros de pasaje topgrafiado. La direccion de Hermanade Naharon tiende hacia Naharon, y en febrero de 1987 se hizo una conexionentre las dos. Cenote Dos Ojos es una cueba muy vieja que tiene como entradasdos cenotes. EI salon principal es la caverna bajo el agua mas larga enQuintana Roo. Cenote Carwash (Lavacoches) es una cueva muy bien decorada conmuchas popotes y helictitas. En una parte de la cueva, el Chamber of theAncients (Camara de los Ancianos), se encontraron restos de carbOn tallados enuna estalagmita y herramientas de caliza hechas a mano. Estos artefactos sedejaron ahi para atraccioo de otros. El autor tambien describe las cuevas bajoel agua de la costa, como generalmente mas pequenas que las cuevas que seencuentran tierra adentro, y que la sedimentacioo es mucho mas problema enestas.BATSNEEDFRIENDS63

50taoo de Ocotempaby Terry RainesMarc Tremblay in the Wind Crawl.(Terry Raines)64

s6tano de OCotempa has become a sagaof cave exploration in quite a short time.The story began in the spring of 1985 whena group of cavers from Belgium went cavehuntingin the mountains east of the townof Tehuacan in the state of Puebla. Whenthey eventually reached the village ofOcotempa, they were shown some pits in thearea by the local people. Just below theschoolhouse was the largest pit, S6tano deOCotempa. The Belgians explored and surveyedit, and reported in Speleoflash No.148, "We reached (at last) the bottom ofthe entrance pit and landed in a greatroom. An upstream and a fossil networkwere quickly explored but they both end."The notes were calculated and the depth ofthe entrance drop determined to be 380meters. A map was also drawn up and publishedin this issue of Spe1eof1ash.In France Paul Courbon was finishingup his 1986 issue of Atlas de GrandesCavites Mondiales and evidently liked whathe read in the Belgium report because helisted the S6tano de Ocotempa entrancedrop, Pozo Verde, as the fourth deepest inthe world and the deepest in the New World.When the book made it to this side of theAtlantic I read it and wondered about thatnew deep pit that I had not descended, andthus our group became involved. The groupconsisted of Aspen Adams, Dave Black, DonBroussard, Nancy cantin, Holly Cook, AlanCressler, John Donovich, Glenn Lemaster,Greg McNamara, Martha Meacham, LaurentOuellett, Susie Raines, Terry Raines, TinaShirk, Marion Snith, and Marc Tremblay.When we arrived at the entrance on 1January 1987 with our rope, we were lookingforward to the 380-meter rappel. I guessedthat the depth would be within 20 meterseither way of the 380-meter figure whenmeasured exactly with our electronic distancemeter, but what a surprise we were infor. We rigged from the natural bridge asshown on their map and found two dropswhere they had found one! At first I wonderedif we were in the same cave. Explorationand comparison with their map showedthat we were indeed in the same cave. Butour survey showed the entrance to be twoseparate drops of 221.3 meters and 82.4meters, a total of 303.7 meters.We continued the survey on down theknown passages, and as we neared completion,news came that Alan Cressler haddiscovered the Wind Crawl and then chimneyedup the Conglomerate Climb beforebeing stopped by another climb. We surveyedin this new discovery with an additionalthree stations and started to leave. Atthis point I noticed that the tremendousamount of air that was blowing through thecrawl was disappearing down a head-sizedhole in the wall at eye level. Somethingstrange was happening here, but I couldn'tpossibly get into this hole, so I resortedto going up the Conglomerate Climb and thenclimbing up the impossible climb and pickingup the airflow again.Immediately I found myself approachinga window on hands and knees, trying to keepmy light from being blown out. I was atthe edge of a great pit with air rushingdown into it. A rock bounced for five tosix seconds, and I was very excited as Irushed back to tell the others. It was theend of our time, so we left the cave andheaded for home. We were already planning areturn trip.We did return, exactly one month later,this time the group being John Gilliland,Susie Raines, Terry Raines, MarionSmith, and Mauricio Tapie. We entered thecave on 2 February 1987 and proceeded downthe two entrance drops and on to where wehad left off surveying, a point just beforethe Wind Drop. Here we began, and soon hadthe drop rigged and Marion going down.This one proved to be right at 100 metersdeep, and immediately we found ourselves atstill another drop. This time rocksbounced for up to' 13 seconds, but we estimatedthe drop to be a little over a hundredmeters, and we were out of rope forthe day. After about 12 hours undergroundwe returned to the surface for a day ofrest and more gear.The following day found us back undergoundwith all our rope at the top of thegreat drop, which was later to be named theRain Drop. It proved to be 125 meters deepand quite spectacular. It led to four moredrops one right after the other. Now wewere wondering what we had gotten ourselvesinto as we stood at the top of what we knewwould be the last drop we could descendthis trip with the amount of rope we had65

Mauricio Tapie on the Overhung Climb.(Terry Raines)brought with us. Marion descended to thebottom, and I to a ledge part way down tohelp get the measurement. This drop provedto be 63 meters, and our total depthreached below the surface was 647 meters.This time we were at the end of our rope,so we left the cave and headed for home,once again planning a return trip.This time the earliest we could planand organize the return was for the firstweek of May, and indeed on 4 May we were inAlcomunga once again. We arrived late atnight, and early the next morning our oldfriends from town greeted us. We arrangedfor six beasts of burden to carry our 23duffel bags, and off we went to the cave.This time there were ten of us: Brian Burton,Dave Doolin, Ray Gregory, GregMcNamara, Susie Raines, Terry Raines,Marion Smith, Paul Smith, Mauricio Tapie,and Marc Tremblay.Late on 4 May the first of our groupentered the cave to begin rigging and lateon 9 May the last of us left the cave.During this time we accomplished greatexplorations and left greater leads undone.First, Marion and Ray rigged the two entrancedrops and left ropes at the top ofthe Wind Drop. The next day another riggingcrew consisting of Marion, Marc, Greg, andPaul entered the cave and went deep. Pastthe Split Drop, which was the furthestpoint of exploration in February, theyfollowed a fissure gently downward untilthe bottom dropped out. They rappelled 35meters into the Junction Room, where severalgreat infeeders converged. On the farside of this room they continued a shortdistance before finding themselves at thetop of yet another drop. Out of energy,they returned to the surface. What a greatday of exploration.Now it was our turn to survey what hadbeen discovered. Brian, Dave, SUsie, and Ientered the cave just after noon on 6 Mayand headed toward the bottom. At the SplitDrop the surveying began, and it endedseveral hours later at the top of the dropwhere the rig group had called it quits.It was late for us, but we went ahead andrigged it, discovering a three part dropleading to a permanent streamway. Itseemed that we were now in a major system,with the passage continuing in both directions.We headed out, but instead ofreturning all the way to the surface we seta camp at the bottom of the second drop.Marion, Marc, Greg, and Paul returnedto the cave as we slept and reported thatit was raining outside. After a short restthey continued on into the cave to continueexploration. It was a damp trip down tothe new streamway. They were wet by thetime they got there, and wetter on the wayout because of the continuing rain. However,they did discover new and excitingwaterways. Upstream from the drop, alittle more than one hundred meters wasexplored to a climb-up. Downstream aboutthe same horizontal distance was explored,but in the process several downclimbs weremade that got wetter and wetter until itwas impossible to see or hear down the lastdrop reached. With a premature rainy seasonupon us, derigging was begun, and we allmade it out.With the 1987 caving season at an end,66

we said goodbye to all of our friends ofOcotempa, promising to return just as soonas the rains stop to continue explorationin this new cave system. The surveyeddepth of S6tano de Ocotempa is -763.2meters, however, an additional 100 metersof depth has been explored Horizontally,the end of the survey is 108 meters southand 108 rreters west fran the entrance.Terry Raines found and photographed thiscarbide dump (left) and food wrapper withFrench writing (above) in S6tano deOcotempa. Since only one other group ofcavers has ever visited this cave, theorigin of this trash seems obvious. Thepoint here, though, is not to pointfingers, but to urge everyone to keep thecaves of Me xico in their pristinecondition.PACKIT IN • • • •PACK IT OUTI67

SEA CAVES OF LORETOby Dave BunnellOn previous trips to Baja Californiawe had found numerous and large sea cavesnear Punta Banda. While we expected tofind more sea caves along the Pacificcoast, we would never have bothered tolook for sea caves in the relativelyplacid sea of Cortez had not Walt Petersentold us that large sea caves were said toexist in the Loreto region. Walt iswriting a reference book on Baja and has aspecial interest in caves. I had also seenreference to large sea caves on the Isladel Carmen in "Baja Book II," so armed withthis information we planned a trip to theLoreto area over the Thanksgiving weekendof 1984, which coincided with some very lowtides.Thus it was that Carol Conroy, BillLiebman, Ed Moody, Bob Richards, JohnSchmidt, and I arrived on an Aeromexicoflight to Loreto. We found a hotel only ashort walk £rom the town I s little marina.Saturday morning we ventured out on a pangawith a Mexican guide, and headed towardsIsla del Carmen, located about 9 nauticalmiles east of Loreto. It is one of thelargest islands in the Sea of Cortez,measuring about 32 kilometers in length and11 kilometers in width. The island isuninhabited, but salt was mined there inthe past.Much of the northern part of theisland is composed of volcanic rock in 10­to 15-meter-high cliffs. However, as weapproached the island on its northwestshore we saw little in the way of caves inthe volcanic rock. About midway betweenthe two points on the north coastline weentered a small bay with cave-studdedwhite limestone cliffs and beautifulturquoise-green water. We beached the boaton a lovely sandy beach and donned oursnorkel gear, since all the caves wouldrequire swimming to reach. As we snorkeledAbove: The Puerto Napolo caves are located in the peninsula in the left foregroun~(Dave Bunnell)68

:-CUEVAS DE ISLA DEL CARMENESTADO DE BAJA CALIFORNIA SURCUEVA #1CUEVA #2CUEVA #3(Cueva Punta Lobos)Q

CUEVAS DE NOPOLOESTADO DE BAJA CALIFORNIA SURGULpOpCUEVA #5C,

along the cliffs we were impressed with thedisplays of tropical fish, particularly thelarge purple Cortez Angelfish.As we swam into the caves they didn'tappear too large, but most went back a good30 meters or more. Several had low areasin the rear that only opened at low tide.We explored and mapped seven caves in thisarea, mostly water-filled. The mostimpressive of these contained largecolonies of orange tubastrae corals, whichin the reduced light of the cave were open.(Normally, corals only "come out" of theirshells at night). Most of these caves werein the cliffs on the east side of the cove.On the west side were some interestingrelict sea caves about 3 meters above waterlevel.Although these caves were interesting,they were not the huge sea caves weexpected; indeed, on Santa Cruz Island,California these would be considered smallpotatoes. We questioned a number of folksin town, but none seemed to know of anyother caves. We decided to head back toIsla del Carmen the next day. We weren'texpecting to do much but snorkeling thatday, but did find an interesting cave inthe volcanic rocks at Punta Lobos. Itbasically cuts through the point. I did myfirst real cave dive here. Seeing a blueglow at the end of an underwater passage, Ifree dove, swimming 10 meters and coming upin a small third entrance. On the waythrough I was swimming so furiously that Ilost both fins! I had to swim back throughwith a light, and I found them wedged up inceiling alcoves! In one side passage intotal darkness we saw large masses of whiteencrusting sponges, tubastrae corals, andschools of yellow snapper, which seem tofavor the dark.Unfortunately, our last day was toowindy to revisit Carmen, so we did someland-based exploration. We headed south toPuerto Escondido. This is where a hugehotel complex was to have been built, butonly one, the El Presidente, was evercompleted. Just south is a large sea stackand some cliffs of conglomerate. In thestack we found a few small caves and aseries of fissure caves, which we mapped.Some of these were impressively tall (seemap). All in all, it was an enjoyable trip- Loreto has some outstanding seafood andsome good diving. From a sea caver'sstandpoint, though, I'll stick to thePacific coast.Postscript: On a later trip to theCabo San Lucas region, we spent some timesearching for caves. We found only one,behind the huge sea-arch at Land's End, onthe tip of the Baja peninsula. We lackedsurvey gear that day, but we swam over toit and explored a large chamber and someshort side passages that probably totalled60 meters or more. The most notable thingabout the cave was that it took water fromtwo oceans, the Pacific and the Sea ofCortez. Not many caves can make thatclaim!Bill Liebman prepares for the "big ones"on Isla del Carmen. (Dave Bunnell)LORETOEste artIculo describe cuevas de lacosta exploradas en la Isla del Carmen,cerca de Loreto en el mar de Cortez. Seexploraron siete cuevas, casi todas conuna longitud de 30 metros 0 mas. Tambiense exploraron algunas cuevas pequenasen Puerto Escondido, y algunasotras cuevas con grandes grietas. Y enCabo San Lucas, se exploraron otra cuevade 60 metros de largo.71

SISTEMA PURIFICACION 198672by Peter Sprouse and Carol Vesely

In March 1986, twelve cavers of theProyecto Espeleo1ogico Purificacion madefinal preparations for the most ambitiousunderground camp in the ten-year history ofthe project: a seven-day push in thesouthern-most area of Sistema Purificacio~The site chosen for Camp N was 5500 metersin and 600 meters below the Cueva delBrinco entrance. It was in this area thatmany promising leads trended south underthe high sierra, giving tantalizing hope ofmany kilometers of borehole and of higherentrances in the tower karst of MesasJuarez. Attempts in previous years to findan easier route into the remote SouthboundBorehole area via the lower Cueva de Infierni110entrance had been fruitless, sonow the decision had been made to force acamp in through Brinco's tight and wetroute to the bottom. Taking some advantageof gravity, the plan was to leave the cavevia Infiernillo, hopefully by a yet-to-bediscoverednew connection, or by the originallink between the two caves, which wouldinvolve some vertical backtracking.Camp IV was nick-named Camp Challenger,in memory of the recent space shuttletragedy that had killed seven astronauts,and also because of the challenge involvedin getting there. The members of the expeditionwere Marcus Buck, Phil Deacon, BillFarr, Dale Pate, Jim Pisarowicz, SusieRaines, Terry Raines, Peter Sprouse, TerriSprouse, Mauricio Tapie, Carol Vesely andCyndie Walck.FIRST ENTRYDue to tight obstacles like the crackof Doom, Mudball Crawl, and the MainSqueeze, standard-size military duffle bagswere deemed too large and had to be re-sewnto a smaller diameter. Compounding theequipment problem was the fact that waterproofingbags would be required to keepgear dry in the long swims, thereby increasingbulk. So a pre-camp supply run wasneeded to deliver group gear and the carbidesupplies.On March 17 at project headquartersnear the Brinco entrance, Bill, Marcus, andPeter loaded their duffles with surveygear, rope, and carbide, then charged intothe cave. A number of round trips had beenmade to the Southbound Borehole from thesurface, but not with these loads. Afterthe bleak squeeze through the Crack ofDoom, the flowstone cascades of the R10Verde were a pleasure. Once in the levelborehole of the World Beyond, it was easygoing, until Bill discovered that his loadof carbide barely allowed him to keep hisnose above water in the long lake swims.Then, after the last swim, his companionsdetected a dread odor from his duff: acetylenegas. Apparently, some of the waterproofinghad failed on the carbide bundles,requiring inspection and repackaging. Fortunately,fX)t too much was lost. Once downthe two subsequent rope drops and into thedry Medusa's Maze, the cavers found thatthe dreaded Yawndwanaland tubes weren't sobad, since the duffles could be rolledthrough much of them. The bags themselvessuffered, however. They were full of holesand still had to be used on the camp trip.The low, sandy campsite was reached after13 hours, and, after unloading the bags,Bill, Marcus, and Peter took a much neededtwo-hour sleep.The trip out was slow, but after a lowpoint around the rope drops, second windkicked in to carry them to the entrance,twenty four and a half hours after entering.Meanwhile, the other team membershad shuttled vehicles down to the lowerentrance, and on the advice of the returningsupply runners, they took an extraday to get their duffles in past the Crackof Doom, the earliest and most arduousobstacle.FAREWELL TO THE COMETAfter a final view of the SPeCtacularcomet Halley, the crew entered Brinco on 20March. Only a few hitches marred the tripthat had been planned so long. At the lowMudball Crawl, no amount of force wouldcoax Phil's duffle through, so he had tounpack the thing to free it. Pulling ropesdown behind them as they descended, thecrew had passed the last rappe11 and wereleaving the Connection Passage when SusieOpposite: Solution domes arch over the upstream section of the Tokamak River.(Peter Sprouse)73

slipped on a down climb and twisted herknee. She was able to proceed to camp, butunfortunately was only able to participatein one survey trip. Luckily, she recoveredsufficiently for the trip out at the end ofthe week.CAMP CHALLENGERThe last of the cavers wearily stumbledinto Camp Challenger after 17 hours oftravelling. The camp area was sandy, warm,and relatively dry, but the ceiling waslow. To find flat spots, several peoplechose to sleep where the ceiling was only ameter high. A silt-bottomed lake besidecamp, named Flamingo Lake for the inflatablepink flamingo Jim had carried in, wasthe source of drinking water. A bit of acrawl over death coral was necessary to getto the sandy trench that served as a latrine,but it was worth it to keep thesmell away from camp.Arising late and sore after a muchneededrest, the group discussion of thefirst survey projects centered on findingan easier route between the Brinco andInfiernillo sections of the cave. Thestill-fresh thoughts of dragging duffles upthrough the steeply-dipping tubes of Medusa'sMaze and Yawndwanaland made finding anew connection for the trip out the Infiernilloentrance a high priority. So on thefirst day Terri, Marcus, and Phil went topush the end of the ColUmbia, since the mapshowed that this passage was close to connectingto the Wind Sump area in Infiernillo.After some digging and rockrearranging,mainly on the Part of Marcus,they actually did connect. Unfortunatelythe route was rather tight and unstable,and would be tricky to push dufflesthrough.Meanwhile, the remainder of the groupsplit into two teams to survey two passagesnear camp which headed north toward Infiernillofrom near camp. Both took off fromthe Southbound Borehole and rejoined nearShamrock Shores, a lake that had been exploredfor a long way by David Honea on asurface push in 1982. carol, Jim, and Cyndiemapped the eastern leg of the loop, theWimpering Way (they were a bit sore), whichwas mostly stooping and crawling, withnumerous side leads. They tied into theArctic Way, mapped by Peter, Bill, andMauricio, so named for the frigid windblowing through it. Peter's team mapPed alittle past Shamrock Shores to where thewater was unavoidable. The teams had onlymapPed 719 meters for the day, but consideringthat the group was not yet completelyrecovered from the long duffle haul, thiswas understandable.A SECOND CONNECTIONSince the Columbia-Wind Sump connectionwas so unstable, Terri, Cyndie, Jim,and Marcus set off the next day to ShamrockShores to try to find an easier alternativeroute to Infiernillo. They mapped 611 metersof stream canyon that often doubledback on itself in 170-degree turns. Itbecame a low maze at the Fornicating Tubesbefore connecting through a breakdownsqueeze into the Foggy Mountain Breakdownnear the Netherhall in Infiernillo. Thissqueeze was more easily negotiated than theWind Sump connection, and it was unanimouslyselected as the route of choice forhauling duffles out at the end of the week.For others it was time to turn attentionto the south. Dale, Mauricio, andPeter took the Southbound Borehole for 500meters to the south, where it intersectsBill Farr and Carol Vesely huddle in thelow confines of Canp Challenger.(Peter Sprouse)74

Death coral guards the edge of the firstlake in Anticline Alley. (Peter Sprouse)the Tokamak River at Fusion Chamber.Climbing up a cascade to the south, theymapped a nice but short section of streamwayto a sump. A possible higher bypass offof Fusion Chamber, Southbound Burrito,proved to be only an alternate route to theBeeline Borehole, the southmost passage inthe system, which ends at the RedrockBreakdown. So then they mapped downstreamTokamak River, to the north. Here thestream shoots down numerous cream-coloredflowstone bosses to sump in a flowstoneconstriction. A climb into a dry, dippingtube led to a continuation of the river,which flowed underneath huge breakdown in ared limestone borehole. After several hundredmeters this ended in a large sumppool, with a possible low airspace that wasnot pushed. They shot photos of this beautifulpassage on the way back, having netted504 meters of survey.Meanwhile another wetsuit-clad teamconsisting of Terry, Bill, and Carol headedthrough the long stoopway called AnticlineAlley to attempt to extend the cave farthersouth under the mountain. The previoussurvey to this area in 1985 had stopped ata death coral lake. From there the passagecontinued at a comfortable walking heightwith a breakdown floor interspersed withoccasional waist-deep lakes. After about100 meters, the passage intersected a largejunction room, where a stream could beheard flowing beneath the breakdown. Surveyingdownstream in the newly-dubbed TexasTunnel, the group passed two good-lookingwalking leads and came to an overhungclimbdown to a beautiful lake. A smallwaterfall entered on the far side, andgolden rimstone dams covered the floordownstream. On downstream, the passage was3 meters high and 8 meters wide, with ashallow stream cascading down the rimstonefloor. Shortly the passage narrowed and ledto a deep wall-to wall rimstone pool. Afteranother 50 meters and two more swimmingpools, the passage sumped. A dry southtrendingpassage, the Red Zinger, was followedthrough red, scalloped rock downseveral climbs to where it rejoined the(presumably) Texas River. A series of lowlakes leading to sumps were explored butnot mapped.Returning to the Junction Room, theysurveyed upstream as the Texas Tunnel continuedat a grand size, enabling them tomake a number of 3D-meter shots. There wasair movement, and the passage was headingin the preferred direction: south. Nextcame a beautiful, deep, almost-circularaqua marine pool that Terry christened TheCenote because it reminded him of similarfeatures in the Yucatan. Just past theCenote was a promising high lead in theceiling that was impossible to climb intowithout a scaling pole. Then the ceilingdropped lower, and a deep pool stretchedinto blackness. Bill swam in until theairspace got low, but he could feel slightair movement. With over 727 meters surveyed,the group returned to camp. Thethree teams had mapped a total of 1842meters, making Sistema Purificacioo 57,640meters long.SOUTHBOUNDWith an easy connection finally establishedbetween Brinco and Infiernillo, allattention turned to the main goal of theexpedition: to find a way under the mainpart of the mountain and extend the systemto the south. So on 23 March three surveyteams set out again. The first team ofPeter, Phil, and Mauricio investigated asouth-trending lead near camp, the Twelfth75

There was some airflow, but it looked grim.Surely there must be a better way on.The third team, Terri, Jim, Cyndie,and Susie, decided to push the continuationof the camp passage across Flamingo Lake,which served as the camp drinking watersource. On the far side, the passageopened into a large south-trending borehole.Excitedly they raced down the passage,stretching the tape to almost fulllength on each shot. The passage made al80-degree left turn to the north, and soonthe sound of a small stream could be heard.Then Terri had to stop to change carbide.In her hurry and excitement, she picked upher bottle of gorp and dumped some into hercarbide lamp, then tried to swallow somecarbide from her other bottle. Hence thepassage was christened the Flaming NoseRiver. Emerging from bedrock, the streamsumped 50 meters downstream. Between thethree teams, another 905 meters had beenmapped in the cave.MEDUSA'S MAZECarol Vesely admires the numerous helictitesthat adorn Medusa's Maze.(Phil Deacon)Lead, which rejoined the Southbound Boreholesouth of the camp latrine. A bit fartherto the north, a lead in Fantasia developedinto some interesting tubes that,if pushed farther, probably would haveconnected back into the Southbound Boreholealso. Bill, Carol, Dale, Marcus, andTerry headed to the Redrock Breakdown, ablowing boulder choke at the southernmostpoint of the system. This had been discoveredin 1982 during a surface push andhad been given only a cursory look. Afterpersistent searching on the part of Billand Marcus, Bill eventually made his wayinto a fair-sized room and the others surveyed32 meters into it. At the base of theroom was a tight phreatic tube with waterin the bottom; it obviously served as adrain. It led to about 10 meters of tightbelly-crawl, and then filled with water towithin a centimeter or two of the ceiling.With the southern effort seemingly runup against an impenetrable wall, the nextday attention turned elsewhere. The mapshowed dozens of unchecked leads off theMedusa's Maze section of the cave. The areawas named for a fantastic helictite formation(Medusa's Head) that had been seen ona recon trip into the maze in 1978, butnever relocated since. Only one routethrough the maze had been surveyed. Whichof these many leads went to the Medusawas anyone's guess. So Bill, Jim, and Carolformed one team, and Terri, Dale, Mauricio,and Marcus formed a second team to thisarea.The two Maze teams had dozens ofleads, but not surprisingly, most of theseformed loops rejoining other sections ofthe maze. One lead near the upper sectionwent for about 100 meters through a seriesof crawlways and tight squeezes, with a fewbranches and small rooms. In search ofbigger passage, Jim, Carol, and Bill decidedto survey a walking-height tube thatthey suspected was just another loop. However,in addition to looping back, thepassage continued as a nice phreatic tubeheading steeply down-dip. A few surveyshots later the group came to some 150-76

Cavers traverse the spacious Texas Tunnel.(Peter Sprouse)centimeter soda straws and a massive helictitebush! Surely this was the long-lostMedusa's head. After a few photos theyresumed surveying, noting numerous smallside leads as they headed down, down, down.Eventually the passage leveled, branched,and got smaller, but there was airflow. Thegroup turned around in some low, branchingmud crawls after 550 meters of survey.Meanwhile Peter, Phil, and Cyndiemapped into a lead off the Southbound Boreholethat climbed up into the dipping faultmaze to the south of the Medusa section.The Mashed Potato Tubes, which zig-zaggedup into the mushy, weathered rock, becametoo steep to climb just shy of a probableconnection to the Callisto Borehole, anupper-level passage that comes off of the10 Way closer to Brinco. After 310 metersof survey, Cyndie, Peter, and Phil wereback in camp early, as were Terry andSusie, who had been shooting photos nearcamp.A MAJOR MALFUNCTIONAs Cyndie was changing butane canisterson her stove, she got her carbide lamptoo close and KaBCXJM! - a tower of flameshot to the ceiling. A classic O-ringfailure - Camp Challenger lived up to itsname! Miraculously, Cyndie emerged totallyunscathed. Probably the worst part for herwas the teasing she had to put up withafterwards. When someone mentioned that theday was Sunday the jokes really began.Before the trip, Cyndie had helped shuttlethe trucks down to Infiernillo. When facedwith a long, hot hike back up to town,Cyndie had pleaded, "God, please send me alogging truck to carry us up the hill and Ipromise I'll go to church on Sunday." Toeveryone's amazement, a truck appeared fromaround the bend and gave everyone a lift.Well, now it was Sunday and Cyndie hadn'tkept her promise.77

Low displacement fault in scalloped limestone,a comrron feature in the SouthboundBorehole. (Terry Raines)One of the many varied forms of deathcoral. (Terry Raines)DISVERYIt was already the last day tosurvey in the cave. Where had the weekgone? Four survey teams headed off indifferent directions to maximize the amountof surveying accomplished on the last day.Jim, carol, and Phil headed back to Medusa'sMaze, but their lead got muddy andsmall. Peter had said it might connect toanother Part of the cave, so they continuedthrough a tight, sleazy area that Jim aptlynamed Thanatos (death wish). Hopes pickedup when it opened into an abandoned streamway,but this was short-lived. After 320meters of survey, the main leads ended withonly a few loops and small side passagesremaining.A second team, Dale, Marcus, andMauricio returned to the Wall, betweenMedusa's Maze and Yandwanalan~ Marcus ledthe way up the IS-meter climb, unstable andexpose~ At the top, the passage continuedascending steeply, then levelled out in anorth-trending passage that still goes.Meanwhile, Terry R. and Terri S. (the Tteam) pushed the Tuba Rosa, a small tubeoff of the Columbia that could connect tothe Wind Sump area with some moresqueezing.The fourth team consisting of Peter,Cyndie, and Bill went to check wetleads off the Texas Tunnel, the largesouthbound borehole that had been discoveredearlier in the trip. While takingpictures of the Cenote, Bill noticed a highlead that had been overlooked on the firsttrip. They abandoned their original plansand started surveying this new lead. Atfirst it went north as a hands-and-kneescrawl on soft sand with a helmet channel inthe ceiling, the Perfect Crawlway. Soon itteed into the north-south trending TexasAvenue, and they chose south, of course. Ittook 150 meters of uncomfortable crawlingover cemented shards before they were ableto drop down through a tight, unstablechimney into a larger passage with a greatringing echo. They quickly mapped south forseveral hundred meters in the Tex-Echo towhere it began to split up. Bill pushedahead through a low-airspace crawl thatopened up, while Peter explored a righthandlead that split and seemed like itwould lead to where Bill stopped. As isoften the case, you find what you arelooking for just when it's time to leave.So with 550 meters of survey, they returnedto camp with the good news.The following day the group throughlycleaned up the camp area and repacked theduffles for the long haul out. Althoughmost of the food had been eaten, there wasthe group gear brought in on the supply runto carry out, and, of course, spent carbidewas packed out too. The route out of Infiernillowas about seven kilometers, butwith less elevation change and fewer tightsqueezes than the route in. Taking a totallydifferent route out of the cave was a78

truly fine experience, especially for thosewho had never seen the giant Netherhall orbeen to the grand Infiernillo entrance. Itwas a perfect ending for a very successfulcamp trip: 5775 meters of new cave surveyed,making Sistema Purificacion 60,861meters long, still by far the longest inMexico. Two new connections between Brincoand Infiernillo had been discovered, andgreat leads remained for the next journeyunder the mountain.SISTEMA PURIFlCACION - CAMP CHALLENGEREn Marzo de 1986, doce espeleologos del Proyecto Espeleologico PurificaciOn,instalaron un campamento subterraneo de siete dias dentro del SistemaPurificacion. El Campamento IV, tambien llamado Campamento Challenger (Desafiante),se localizaba 5.5 kilometros dentro y a 600 metros bajo la entradade la Cueva del Brinco. El objetivo principal era el de atender pasajes endireccion sue de esta area. En total, se topografiaron 5775 metros de pasajenuevo, incluyendo varios pasajes llenos de vapor, algunos muy largos, y otrosmuchos pequenos. El Ultimo dia se descubrio una ruta prometedora en direccionsur, perc ya no habfa tiempo para continuar la exploracion. Los primeros d1asde la semana se hizo una conexion a la seccion de la Cueva de Infiernillo. Apesar de que los espele6logos habian planeado salir por la entrada de Infiernillo,la nueva ruta recien hecha, era mas dipida y mas faciL La longitud enel Sistema hasta Marzo de 1986 fue de 60,861 metros.Mountain House Freeze Dried Foods gives substantial discounts to expeditions placinglarge orders. PEP wishes to extend its sincere thanks to Mountain House for thisvaluable assistance.So Much Karst,So Little Time79

SISTEMA PURIFICACION 198780by Peter Sprouse

Given the successof the Camp IV expeditionin 1986, therewas no doubt among theProyecto Espe1eolOgicoPurificacion caversthat there would beanother camp in 1987.It was only a matterof where. Since thenew connection to theSouthbound Boreholegave easier accessfrom Infiernil10, aremote camp could beput in from that entrance.Some goodspots were known nearthe Nile River, wherethere were also a numberof leads knownfrom earlier years.So it was that on9 March 1987 fourteencavers hoisted theirduffles and set off onthe trail to Cueva de Infiernillo. AftersPending the previous day in meticulous finalpacking, all were ready, in theory, fora ten day stay underground, the longest yetattempted in Purificacion. Expedition memberswere Dave Bunnell, Bill Farr, JimGoodbar, Jude Larkin, Dale Pate, SusieRaines, Terry Raines, Ron Simmons, TerriSprouse, Mauricio Tapie, Carol Vesely, JackWhite, Brad Wilson, and myself. Two ropeswere rigged on the entrance climb, and thelast cavers left the huge Infiernillo entranceat 12:30 p.m. For a group so largethe trip into the cave went remarkablywell. Duffles were hauled up the more difficultclimbs on the way to the confusionTubes, and all went well until the BreakdownMaze.Suddenly, we could smell gas leakingfrom a stove in someone's duffle. There wasa brief panic as carbide flames were extinguishedand the leak was traced to Jack'spack. That was soon remedied and we wereoff to the NetherhalL Climbing the longnorth s lope of theNetherhall with campduffles was a first,but it was no problem,and we made it up inthe normal time of 30minutes. At the WindTunnels I went aheadto choose a campsiteamong several candidates.The firstchoice was off of CommunionHall at theedge of a low-air lakethat connects to theNile River. The conditionswere good: lotsof soft sand, drinkingwater, and though itwas a bit low overhead,it was betterthan the year before.Soon we were allarranging sand andsettling into our newhome. I t had been onlya 12 hour trip from the entrance, and 15hours from the truck, which was quickerthan anticipated.61,181 METERS - AND GROWINGAfter duffle hauling, the followingday was naturally a bit slow. We startedout lead-checking near camp around CommunionHall and photographing the spectacularHorseshoe Bend of the Nile River. Mauricio,Ron, and I found a lead up a small cascadenot far from the Nile. Although we couldnot get all of the way up the climb, we didget into an upper level mud passage goingnorth and south. We mapped north for 150meters to an interesting looking pit, thenreturned to Communion Hall where we surveyeda previously known 50-meter-Iong loopover to the Wind Tunnels. OUr total surveyfor the day was 211 meters.Terri, Jude, and Dave mapped a shortloop off of the Horseshoe Bend, then went ashort way upstream in the Nile to a lead onOpposite: Peter Sprouse enjoys the water cascading over the flowstone in the DownstreamNile. (Dave Bunnell) Above: Hauling duffles up the flowstone-climb heleM' the ConfusionTubes. (Dave Bunnell)81

the right side that was left unpushed froma trip in 1979. This went straight souththrough various degrees of death coral andultimately tied into Never Stops Going, aparallel passage originally accessed from apoint father up the Nile. This was a fortuitousconnection, since with only onewade it eliminated the need for wetsuits inpushing Never Stops Going, a principalsouthbound lead. They added 305 meters tothe survey. Meanwhile Carol, Bill, Brad,and Susie descended Enigma Pit, anothersouth-trending lead near the Nile that hadbeen seen in 1985. At the bottom of the 15­meter drop they followed a passage thatzig-zagged to the west to intersect a newflowing stream, the Enigma River. Theirsurvey was 241 meters, making a group totalof 758 meters for the day. Mexico's longestcave was now 61,937 meters.RIVERS ANDDEATH CORALOn March 11 we mustered our full complementof four survey teams. Terri, Susie,and Bill returned to the Enigma River,finding that it sumped both upstream anddownstream. But they found a small infeederthat went a good ways, giving them 180meters of survey for the day. Dave, Jack,and I suited up to map downstream in theNile River, which had been a mystery sincethe halcyon days of summer 1978. We beganmapping at a 5-centimeter low airspace,which quickly opened up into a large lakeroom. On the left was the low airspacewhich connected to Camp V, and ahead thepassage narrowed to small cream-coloredtubes with water crashing down them. BothJack and I agreed that this was some of theneatest caving we had done in our decadesof caving experience. After a series ofalternating cascades and small horizontaltubes, the river got very vertical andfinally pinched in flowstone after about a30-meter descent from our starting point.Since we were done a bit early, we decidedto map a bit near camp. The other teamstrickled by us as we mapped a loop toCommunion Hall and a side lead called the26 Year Passage leading to a terminal lake,which got us up to 270 meters for the day.Dale, Terry, Mauricio, and Ron headedsouth from camp to Goes 2, to push a stoopwaythat Dale and Dave had left in 1985. Awrong turn led them into a virgin passage(Hay Chihuahua Mamacita!), which they mappedout of to tie into the survey. They got258 meters of survey and ate lots of deathcoral. Death coral also impeded Carol, Jim,Brad, and Jude in Goes 1, where they endedup in a side lead. They mapped 101 metersin what became known as Gcxl Let It End. Alltold we had done 809 meters of survey,making the cave 62,748 meters long.TEX-ECHOOn 12 March we were ready for the longpush back to the Tex-Echo, our best southtrendinglead from the 1986 camp. Nine ofus set off bravely without wetsuits, hopingfor just a few wades to deal with. In theShamrock Shores passage we found waterlevels higher than we had expected, includinga neck deep wade. But we all warmed upas we proceeded through Anticline Alley tothe Perfect Crawlway. There Terri, Susie,and Jack mapped north in a virgin lead thatlooped back down to the Texas Tunne L Proceedingnorth to the. next lead they mappedan extremely tight and windy tube whichtied into the middle of Flatrock Chimneynear Tex-Echo, for a total of 217 meters ofsurvey.A team consisting of Carol, Bill, andJim continued the survey at the end of Tex­Echo, which soon became very wet. Needlessto say, surveying in IS-degree Celsiusswims with no wetsuits makes for a lowendurance factor. After 244 meters of flowstonecrawls and stoopways, they stopped atanother swim. Meanwhile Dave, Brad, and Ihad leapfrogged ahead, giving Carol's teamwhat we thought was an appropriate amountto survey. Actually we went a bit too far,perhaps because we were blasting ahead atfull speed to keep warm! Where we startedwe mapped up a steep chimney that led to anupper level heading south in a linearcrawL Just as we were really beginning tochill from the wind we dropped into a largerlower level. We looked across a lakeinto a passage where the sound of a flowingstream originated. Another river! Bradwaded across and reported a large breakdownpassage with the river sumping downstream,but going upstream. Having already gotten225 meters and being a long way from camp,we left it for the next trip. On the way82

ack we discovered that the others had notbeen able to map as far as our startingpoint, so ours was a hanging survey for thetime being.The fourth team for the day consistedof Dale, Jude, Ron, Terry, and Mauricio.First they went up the cascade near theNile and descended the pit my team had lefta few days before. It soon looPed into themain passage near the Nile. They then proceededon to Never Stops Going via the newconnection route. It bore due south throughever larger death coral that reached up to2 meters in height. They halted at a lakewith 338 meters of survey under theirbelts. All told we had added 1024 meters tothe system, for a total of 63,773 meters.The following day was going to to be arest day of sorts, but we got motavated andwandered off to the Wind Tunnels for alittle surveying. Susie, Terry, Dave, and ImapPed side loops off of the northern WindTunnels, and area that had been a bit hastilysurveyed in the connection race in1978. Even many of the undrilled stationswere located after nine years, using theoriginal survey notes. We tied up a numberof loops and side leads for 184 meters ofsurvey, and found an interesting new crawlthat seemed to head north underneath theNetherhalL Dale, Ron, Bill, and Mauriciowent to look at Anderson's Climb, a highlead near the Netherhall. They made it upand surveyed quite a bit, going up numerousclimbs and finding horizontal tubes headingsouth. They left several leads after havingcompleted 513 meters of survey.The third team of Carol, Brad, Jude,and Jack went back to Never Stops Goingwith wetsuits. The passage continued on itssouth trend past the lake, but got smallerand grimmer. They felt that the previousAbove: The Horseshoe Bend of the Nile River.(Dave Bunnell)83

Dale Pate crawling over SOIre of the ubiquitousdeath coral. This passage wasfound above Anderson's Climb. (Ron Simmons)good airflow had perhaps disappeared upsome small ceiling holes. Their survey was254 meters, the day total was 951 meters,and the system total was 64,724 meters.TIME SHIFT - 14 MARCHAt this point in the trip we wereexperiencing fairly serious time shiftsamong the crew. Some stayed out cavinglonger than others, and everyone was awakenedby others during their sleep periods.But still we managed to get together toplan work teams. Two groups pulled on wetsuitsfor the long trip out to Tex-Echo.Dave, Susie, and I worked on filling in thegap between the hanging surveys, as well asdoing two loops and two side leads for atotal of 248 meters. Several high chimneyswere left unchecked in this area. Dale,Bill, and Jim went past us to survey thenew river. As Brad had found, it quicklysumped downstream, but they were able tomap the Midnight River for 311 meters upstreamto the south before it sumped inthat direction also. So we had now run outof major south-trending leads in the Tex­Echo area, although more hard pushing inthis area should payoff, considering theairflow. But access is difficult, remote asit is.Closer to camp, Carol, Brad, Jude, andMauricio began working on the numerousleads in the south Wind Tunnels, not farfrom Communion HalL At first their passagesformed a series of loops that weretied to the Wind Tunnels, but their lastlead broke into a nice lower level pa$sage,the Tetricos Trunk. This walking passagewent well, enabling them to get 356 metersof survey in for the day. Meanwhile Terri,Terry, and Jack looked around in the ArneSaknussem Borehole (ASB), where it isjoined by the original Connection Passage.They mapped a descending passage off of theConnection Passage for 87 meters, and foundan intriguing pit off of the ASB. Altogether,the four teams added 1000 meters tothe length of the system, making it 65,725meters long.BUILDING LOOPSNow it was the Ides of March, and ittook some discussion and mota-vation beforewe all set out on survey projects. Dale,Bill, and Ron returned to the Goes 2 areasouth of camp to continue the never-endingbattle against death coral. Having foundHay Chihuahua on a previous trip, theyproceeded through Hay Tamaulipas and HayNuevo Leon, coming up with another 143meters of survey, and more abrasions totreat, no doubt. Carol, Mauricio, Brad, andJude returned to their good leads in thenew Tetricos Trunk, mapping a number ofloops, including a major passage which tiedinto the end of the ASB, making their survey266 meters.Working above them were Terri, Terry,and Susie, who dropped the pit at the beginningof the ASB to find a large passagethat soon joined the Tetricos Trunk. Theyalso mapped a side lead for a total of 120meters of survey. On another level abovethem were Jim, Jack, and me, mapping oddsand ends off of the beginning of the ASB, amaze of eroded flowstone. Then Jim, Terri,Susie, and I opted for more survey after aphoto session in ASB, and worked a complexseries off the north end of the ASB, thePitufo Maze. We passed numerous side leadsand ultimately looped back into the ASB.With my team I s 269 meters, the day totalwas 799 meters, for a system total of66,524 meters.84

RETURN TO THE SOUTHWith our schedule shift, the surveytrips for the 16th of March soon turnedinto the 17th. After eight days undergroundit could perhaps be said that a slightdiminishment of enthusiasm was discernableamong some of the crew, but after a lengthysession of camp photography, three teamswere formed. Carol, Mauricio, and DavemapPed a crawl that I had noticed leadingoff of the northern Wind Tunnels thatseemed to be heading north under the Netherhall.They pushed it about 70 metersbefore it got grim, and named it SleazyDoes It. Then they returned to the TetricosTrunk area, mapping more side leads andloops to bring their total for the day to192 meters.Terri, Susie, and I put on wetsuitsand proceeded south to the Tex-Echo. Climbingup into Texas Avenue and down FlatrockChimney, we started to survey downstream(north) in Tex-Echo. We passed a deep lowairspacelake, and after 100 meters we tieddirectly into the upstream end of the TexasTunnel. Being done so soon, we set out foranother area to look for leads - the RedZinger. This was the downstream portion ofthe Texas River, and none of us had beenthere before, nor did we have notes on handfor it. The scalloped red limestone wallswere exceptionally beautiful. Past the endof the previous survey we looked at thedownstream portion of the river. Two downstreamleads and one going upstream allsurnpe~ Not completely certain of the surveystatus in this area, we retreated to adry side lead we were sure was unmappe~This we named the Green Zinger, due to itbeing St. Patrick's day. This looped backto the Texas River after 100 meters, via atight ripping crawl named Shredderdale.We had still not gotten our fill, soon the way back to camp we stopped at ahole in the floor in the Arctic Way. It ledto a small lower level tube with occasionalpools. The Uncle Arctic Tube, as we namedit, eventually looped into the SouthboundBorehole, giving us 340 meters for the day.While on our last survey, we were visitedby the third team, Bill, Jude, and Brad.They had made the long trip south to theRedrock Breakdown to try again to find away through. They were able to follow thePolished limestone and flowstone in a sidepassage off the Tetricos Trunk.(Dave Bunnell)wind for a ways, but finally could notproceed without explosives. Although theydidn't survey, the two teams that did got atotal of 636 meters, making the cave 67,160meters long.FINAL SURVEYSOn the evening of 17 March we dividedinto teams for the last surveys. Terri,Carol, and Dave returned to the TetricosTrunk area where they squeezed out another115 meters of survey, mapping more tubes toa lake. Jack, Susie, and I worked the southWind Tunnels area, mapping side leads andloops neglected since the first explorationsin 197& We got 213 meters of surveyand did not complete the area by any means.Dale and Bill bravely gave the "Hays" areain Goes 2 another push, gaining only 38meters, but - it still goes! Death coral85

eeze, only seven hours. So it was stilldark when we reached the Infiernillo entrancein the early hours of the 19th ofMarch. Not wanting to find our way throughthe forest in the dark, we huddled in achilly pile until first light. We laughedat the irony of spending ten days in acave, then not wanting to leave because itwas dark outside! But leave we eventuallydid, with Dale and I rappelling last ondoubled rope for a pull-down. After thehike back up to the trucks, Terry, Susie,Brad, Jude, and Jack left for civilization,while the rest of us headed up the mountainto unwind at project headquarters in ConradoCastillo.DRAGON RIVERDale Pate proved his adeptness at findingthose death coral crawls. (Ron Simrocms)gives up secrets slowly. This final dayproduced 366 meters of survey, bringing theexpedition total to 6341 meters (fieldcalculation), and making Sistema Purificacion67,526 meters long. We had increasedthe number of surveyed loops up to 278, andthe total of survey shots in the cave to8772. Mexico's longest cave marches on_.As the teams returned from work inshifts the morning of the 18th, we all wentoff to sleep one by one, awaking (arising,I should say) at 6 p.m. We broke camp andhoisted duffles at 9 p.m., planning onreaching the Infiernillo entrance afterdawn. Jude and I were last out of camp,checking to make sure nothing was leftbehind that we had brought in. The onlyevidence was a large sandy mound down thepassage, a gold mine for future scatologists?Perhaps due to our conditioning fromten days of caving, the trip out was aEveryone took it easy except for BillFarr and I - we had a score to settle. Ihad promised him a trip to the Dragon River,since our trip there three months earlierhad been thwarted by high water in theOyamel Nose Dives. The others thought wewere crazy to go on such a long trip theday after a ten day camp - and we were!This time we went in via the Cueva delBrinco entrance, a longer route but withmore guarantee of success. At the WorldBeyond we headed upstream in the EerieCanal. Forsaking a dry bypass, I led usstraight up the long swim as we used to do,back when we used thick diving suits ratherthan the thin surfing suits we now ha~ Thecold water and reduced flotation sapped ouralready reduced energy level, putting acrimp in our endurance for the rest of thetrip. We gradually warmed a bit through thefantastically beautiful Helictite Paradise,and the cable ladder we brought got us downthe Gates of the North. Then through thelow airspace called Locomotive Breath, andwe were in the Dragon River.Our first lead was in a downstreambranch called the Rhino Run, which ended ata semi-sumberged belly crawL Bill eased inon his back with no helmet, feeling for apassable route with his nose just out ofthe water, scraping the ceiling. Just beforereaching the black void beyond, itbecame too tight, making underwater demolitionthe only option. So we wrote that offfor the time being and pursued drier leads.We decided to go all the way to the source86

REDROCKBREAKD(J,,'NTEXAS RIVERCU:EVA DE lr\FIERNIWJffiNFUSION TUBESCUEVA DEL BRINCOSUMIUERO DE OYA.v£LSlSTEMA PUR1F1CAC10NLENGTH: 67,599 METERS DEPTH: 895 I>lETERSPLAN: ROTATED 248.0 DEGREESt SOt tOoyIETEA.~

of the Dragon River, high over Infiernillo.We knew that waterfalls pouring in from theceiling must hold the key to progress tohigher entrances. At one cascade I was ableto climb an eroded column to gain access toan upper stream passage that I followed forabout 80 meters. Another waterfall requiredan overhung traverse to get into. After afew more cascades, I decided it would bebetter to return with a little climbinggear. Being the worse for wear, we electednot to survey, since we knew we would nowbe coming back to the beautiful DragonRiver another time. Five hours later wetrudged up to the fieldhouse to be greetedby a roaring fire and all our friends, whohad kindly stayed up late awaiting ourreturn. Great way to end a fine trip.PURIFlCACION 1987Catorce espeleologos del PEP pasaron diez dfas en el Campamento V dentrodel Sistema Purificacion en Tamaulipas, en marzo de 1987. Se encontraronmuchos pasajes nuevos, incluyendo el Midnight River, el cual se extiende alsur mas lejos que ningUn otro pasaje en el sistema. Tambien se descubrio elEntronque de los Tetricos, un pasaje de bajo nivel y con un sistema largo delaberintos. En total, se topografiaron 6341 metros de pasajes nuevos, haciendodel Sistema Purificacion 67,599 metros de largo, la caverna mas larga deMexico.Mountain House Freeze Dried Foods gives substantial discounts to expeditions placinglarge orders. PEP wishes to extend its sincere thanks to Mountain House for thisvaulable assistance. ,I~~ , .I,Y'I ! ..!88

CUEVA DE LA LLORONAby Dale Patewith Peter and Terri SprouseThe obscure entrance to Cueva de laLlorona lies hidden in a brush-filled dolinasurrounded by large oaks near the crestof a hill in western Tamaulipas. The twometer-highentrance, situated at an elevationof 1820 meters, opens into a steeplydescending passage trending northwest towarda large valley. Near the northern endof this valley, three kilometers distantand 400 meters lower, lies the entrance toSotano de Las Calenturas, a six-kilometerlong, 120-meter deep cave system. And fourkilometers to the southeast is anothervalley that drains into Cueva de Tecolote,11 kilometers long and 220 meters deep.THE SURVEY BEGINSOn 20 November 1984, during a ProyectoEspeleologico Purificacion expedition toCueva de Tecolote, Gabino Torres showed thecavers the obscure entrance to Llorona,89

named after a ghost of popular Mexicanlegend. The cave looked promising, so twoteams entered to begin the survey and exploration.The first team, consisting ofJerry Atkinson, Mark Minton, Alan Williams,and Peter Keys proceeded in with a smallamount of rope, and began rigging. Theyexplored a fair amount of passage beforebeginning their survey. The second team,consisting of Paul Fambro, Erika Heinen,Bill Mixon, Peter Sprouse, and TerriSprouse began at the entrance and surveyedin. The passage immediately started descendingat a 40 degree angle, with noticeableairflow. Numerous short drops wereencountered, many of which were free-climbable.Others needed handlines, and somerequired full rigging and vertical gear.They also surveyed an interesting sidepassage, the Tricycle Run, a prettyflowstone stoopway.The passage was a nice comfortablesize, averaging 5 meters wide and had aceiling 5 to 6 meters high. The floor wasbeautiful, dry flowstone. At the bottom ofthe fourth rope drop, Fried Egg Falls, aflowstone blockage stopPed exploration. Thepassage continued above this blockage, andan hour's work with a lasso was successfulin securing the rope to a stalagmite ontop. Leaving it at that, the team hadmapPed 460 meters into the cave to a depthof 90 meters. On 23 November 1984, thepush continued, with two teams entering thecave. Beyond Lasso-up Drop, the cavedropped back to its previous leveL A teamconsisting of Jerry Atkinson, Mark Minton,Dale Pate, and Alan Williams leap-froggedahead, beginning their survey at the top ofa 20-meter drop. The bottom was a blindmudhole, and the only lead was a climb-up.This easy free-climb led to another seriesof beautiful flowstone drops. The lastpitch in this series dropped into a tallroom 15 meters by 18 meters wide, dubbedKnots Landing. The descent into this roomhad been accomplished by stealing the ropefrom another drop a short distance back upthe passage, the Stolen Rope Drop.Several passages off of Knots Landingled to a dry upper level complex named theDarth Vadose Maze, which eventuallypinched. But a small hole at the bottom ofThe initial passages in Cueva de la Lloronadescend very steeply. (Peter Sprouse)the Knots Landing room carried on throughstoops and crawls to open into RagtimeBoulevard. This linear passage averaged 5meters in diameter, and sloped steadilydown through sculptured flowstone and bedrockto another drop. A window one meteracross dropped into what appeared to be avery large passage. OUt of rope, the eagercavers had to turn back at that point.Meanwhile, Paul Fambro, Roy Glaser, ErikaHeinen, and Peter Sprouse had begun theirsurvey back at Lasso-up Drop, and they wereable to map through several crawlways thatwere the smallest passages so far. Theyeventually tied their survey into the leadteam's first point. Total length of thecave was then 919 meters, with a depth of273 meters.REl'URN TRIPThe PEP cavers returned to Lloronaduring the week of 12-19 October 1985 withOpposite: The Blue Flowstone Roan at -300 meters in Cueva de la Llorona. (Peter Sprouse)90

The longest drop in Llorona is Knots Landing,a 25-treter flCJIfJstone descent.(Dave Bunnell)more rope and high hopes. On the expeditionfor the week were Jerry Atkinson, PaulFambro, Erika Heinen, Pat Kambesis, MarkMinton, Bill Mixon, Dale Pate, SusieRaines, Terry Raines, Rich Rohwer, PaulSmith, Peter Sprouse, Terri Sprouse, NancyWeaver, and Alan Williams.On 13 October, a rigging team enteredthe cave, followed by two survey teams.The pitch at the end of Ragtime Boulevardwas rigged and it dropped 15 meters intothe center of a large chamber, landingprecariously at the edge of a flowstoneprecipice. This chamber was well-decorated,in places with blue-gray flowstone, hencethe name Blue F1owstone Room. A search ofthe room turned up numerous crawls andpits, several of which led to an even largerroom, the California Chamber.The floor of the California Chamberwas covered with sharp, angular breakdownblocks, including one such block named theRock of Gilbraltor, that was 12 by 10 by 6meters. The room itself stretched for approximately80 meters in length and was 60meters wide at its widest point. Severalpassages off of the western side of theCalifornia Chamber were given a cursorylook during the initial exploration of thisroom. Dale, Erika, Rich, and Paul S. spentthe day surveying the northern and easternportions of the Blue Flowstone Room. Anotherteam, Peter, Terri, Paul F., and BillmapPed the southern and western sides ofthe BFR.Four survey teams entered the cave on15 October. Both Pauls and Bill mapped aseries of rooms off the east end of theBlue Flowstone Room called the Shirt PocketRooms. These rooms were beautifully decorated,with lots of flowstone and meterlongsoda straws. Peter, Terri, Terry, andSusie began the survey of the western sideof the California Chamber. Dale, Alan, andPat mapped along the eastern wall, and bothteams eventually united to complete thesurvey of the large chamber. Of note wasthe discovery of a new genus of schzomidand a probable new species of psuedoscorpionfrom this room. Numerous photoswere also taken of the room while such alarge contingent was on hand for firingbulbs.THE DESCENT CONTINUESJerry, Mark, and Rich surveyed down apit series heading west off the lowestpoint of the California Chamber. At firstthey followed the airflow through a jUmbleof cemented breakdown, but when they turnedaround they were back into good bedrock,with two leads. As the cavers left thecave that night they were surprised to findwater beginning to pour down the drops. Therope climbs on the way out provided a refreshingshower, and on the surface storieswere told of a heavy downpour that day.On 17 October three teams enteredLlorona for the last push of the expedition.Jerry, Bill, and Pat finished up thesurvey of the Darth Vadose Maze, while theother two teams worked on the leads belowthe California Chamber. Mark, Terry, Dale,and Paul S. worked on a blasting lead,where they removed a sharp rock from aflowstone mound that restricted a smallhole with good airflow. The blast opened itup, but it immediately pinched.91

Meanwhile Peter, Terri, Rich, and PaulF. followed the other lead to a muddy canyonbearing northwest, just the right directiontoward S6tano de Las Calenturas.But soon a series of blind pits in thefloor hampered progress. The other teamcame up to help scout leads. Mark rapelledthe first one and found that it ended in asump, while Rich reported that the secondhole in the floor got too tight. The surveyteam continued across the second pit andthe canyon was followed to where it got tootight, then a squeeze to a higher level ledto a continuation to a short pitch. Unfortunately,they had no rope, but Peter managedto get down using his seat sling webbing.He was stopped shortly by a drop heestimated to be 15 meters deep. This areawas now the deepest portion of the cave at-398 meters. On the way out, Peter andTerri mentioned that it was their anniversary.Paul whipped out a candle and passedaround some beef jerky - a true caver-stylecelebration.This expedition brought the length ofCueva de la Llorona to 2,256 meters.THIRD EXPEDITION, 1986The most recent expedition occurred11-17 October 1986. Along this time wereDave Bunnell, David Dodge, Paul Fambro,Bill Farr, Bill Mixon, Dale Pate, PeterQuick, Susie Raines, Terry Raines, PeterSprouse, Terri Sprouse, Mary Standifer,Carol Vesely, and Cyndie Walck.Three teams entered the cave on 12October to continue the exploration andsurvey. A team consisting of Peter S.,Terri, Terry, Susie, Paul, and Peter Q.headed to the virgin drop at the bottom ofthe cave. This turned out to be yet anotherblind well, but a traverse partway down ledto another horizontal continuation. Theywere able to map another 70 meters beforebogging down in a maze of crawls that allpinched hopelessly. Although there wasairflow, a lot of effort produced no wayon.The second team, Carol, David, BillF., and Bill M., began their survey at theupper end of Ragtime Boulevard at a climbthat Mark Minton had checked on an earliertrip. Their passage went up 20 meters, thenturned and dropped 30 meters down a seriesCavers illuminate the expanse of Llorona'sCalifornia Chamber. (Peter Sprouse)of parallel pits and canyons that theynamed the Jumble Jungle. At the same time,Dale, Cyndie, Mary, and Dave went to lookat side leads off the east wall of theCalifornia Chamber. One small lead, calledthe Maybe Yes, Maybe No Passage broke outinto several nice rooms, the largest being8 meters by 18 meters with a drain in theflowstone-covered floor.After a day of rest, three teams wentback into Llorona. Carol, Dave, and Cyndiemapped the drain off the Maybe Yes, MaybeNo Passage. It eventually closed down to7.5 centimeters with lots of air going intoit. Dale, Terry, and Susie were nearby, inanother lead off the far end of the CaliforniaChamber. A crawl was pushed in thatarea which led to a small room with airflow.Beyond was a short climb to asqueeze over a large breakdown block. Aftera little bashing with a rock, Susie slidpast the constriction to find goingpassage. She explored further to see thatthe lead continued, and then returned.Peter, Peter, and Bill F. returned tothe Blast Room area below the CaliforniaChamber. They mapped a side lead throughvarious squeezes to a constricted drop theynamed Sick Well. It opened up immediatelyand dropped 7 meters into a stream passage,Hooter Canyon. Downstream soon pinched,while upstream led to a confusing beddingplanemaze. Beyond that was a squeeze thathad to be hammered open, giving access to a92

oom with a flowing stream. Pushing thisstream would require a return trip withwetsuits. Above the stream was a smallwindy hole into a large room that wouldneed blasting.On 16 OCtober a team composed of Caroland Bill F. headed back to the Jumble Jungleto continue the survey. They pushedvarious muddy crawls and were turned backat numerous pinches, but leads remain.Peter S. and Susie went on to the BlueFlowstone Room, where they descended a leadknown as Paul's Pit. This landed them in avertical breakdown maze that proved toconnect to the lower route below the CaliforniaChamber. Then they climbed back outof the BFR and derigged that drop, advancingup Ragtime Boulevard to a drain in thefloor. This immediately split, with thefloodwater route going through a squeezeParallel below the boulevard. The dry way(Fluffy Down) sloped down to a drop intowhat probably is is the Blue FlowstoneRoom.Derigging of the cave was finished thenext morning. The week-long trip hadbrought the length of Llorona to 3,137meters, and had increased the depth to 412meters. Llorona was by no means finished,only more complicated. Situated between twolarge cave systems, it could ultimatelytie in to one or both of them. But judgingby the way things have gone, the routecould be very obscure.CUEVA DE LA LLORONAtl.oDG11f: JIJ6Nf:l'E1lS DI:PnI:412!'1E'l'£l1SPltOflU.: 180.0 O£GIM[ VI£W, & I'CUEVA DE LA LLORONACUeva de la Llorona esta situada en el area de Purificacion, al oeste deTamaulipas. Fue explorada por primera vez en noviembre de 1984 hasta unaprofundidad de 273 metros. El resultado de una nueva expedicion en octubre de1985 fue el des cubrimiento de dos grandes salones alcanzando un nivel de -300metros. Siguiendo un pasaje bajo estos salones, los esp eleologos sedetuvieron hasta llegar a un tiro a los -398 metros. La tercera expedicion enoctubre de 1986 alcanzo llegar hasta el fondo a los -412 metros. Tambien seexploraron otros pasajes adyacentes, haciendo de la Cueva de la Llorona, de untotal de 3,137 metros de largo.93

CUEVA DELTECOLOTEby Terri Sprousewith Peter Sprouse and Carol VeselyThe Extreme Borehole in Cueva del Tecolote.(Peter Sprouse)94

During the last ten days of November1986, a Proyecto EspeleolOgico Purificacionexpedition returned to Cueva del Tecolotein western Tamaulipas to resume explorationof the virgin boreholes discovered theprevious year. This cave, with its picturesquearroyo entrance, is located in thevillage of Los San Pedro near the easternedge of the Sierra Madre Oriental.Cavers from Houston were the first toexplore the cave in the early 1970's. Theywere stopped 300 meters in by what appearedto be a sump lake. In the spring of 1980,PEP cavers took time out from exploringSistema Purification to begin a survey ofCueva del Tecolote. After subsequent tripsin 1982 and 1984, the cave had been surveyedto a length of 3301 meters and adepth of 211 meters. An expedition inNovember 1985 more than doubled the lengthof the cave to make it 7015 meters long.The large and enthusiastic crew forthe November 1986 expedition consisted ofBill Farr, Sarah Gayle, Tyler Gill, JimGoodbar, Margaret Hart, Erika Heinen, PeterKeys, Bill Mixon, Dale Pate, Susie Raines,Terry Raines, Scott Schiebner, MarionSmith, Peter Sprouse, Terri Sprouse, CarolVesely, Cyndie Walck, Jack White, AspenAdams, and Rosa lDckett. After rigging thenine drops and handlines in the initialportion of Tecolote, three survey teamscharged off to the lower area of the cavecalled the Confusion Boreholes.CONFUSION BOREHOLESAt Doll's Leg Junction, where theSerious Borehole begins, the group splitup. Carol Bill Farr, Sarah, and Marionclimbed down into the Major Abyss to awalking-sized passage. There was a goodchance that this passage might connect intothe end of the Spine Line, a passage surveyedthe year before. It had been namedfor the Ubiquitous sharp, spiney projec-ENTRANCECUEVA DEL TECOLOTETAMAULIPAS, MEXICOLENGTH: 11,084 1/ DEPTH: 231 1/ .-/'PLAN: ROTATED 295.0 DEGREES ~Y 2' ~?II:TEItS -1000o

tions that covered the brittle rock, snaggingyour clothes and threatening to cutyou to ribbons if you dared to slip. Thenew passage was much more friendly and grewlarger as they progressed. They encountereda major side lead that went into awalking-height maze. The main passage waslarger, so the maze was left for anotherday.A little farther on, the main passagebegan to turn spiney, and then it forked.The left fork led to borehole of ever increasingdimensions. Too bad it had somany spines. It was named Son of a Spine,although some people wanted to call itMother Pricker. Either way, the spinesweren't as bad as those in the originalSpine Line. To the team's surprise, thepassage never connected back to the SpineLine, but it did connect back into theserious Borehole.Back at the fork, the team went theother direction in a tall and narrow passage.They were forced to climb along thespiney walls. Finally they reached a longdownclimb that led to a beautiful lake.Flowstone cascaded 15 meters down one wall.The passage continued on the other sideabout 3 meters above the floor. But theclimb was severely overhung. Bill thoughtthat the best way to do the climb would beto use a rope to lasso the fat stalagmiteat the lip, and then a cable ladder couldbe installed. But since neither a rope nora cable ladder was available at the moment,the lead would have to wait until anothertrip. With almost 600 meters surveyed thegroup headed out. At Doll's Leg Junctionthey ran into Peter S., Cindy, and Scott.The latter group had been mapping themaze around the Major Abyss. One of theirpassages, the Erection Connection, tiedinto the Spine Line. It wasn't until theyhad surveyed several shots that they saw adrilled station and realized they had connected.Then they proceeded to the end ofthe Spine Line survey and continued fromthe end of the previous year's exploration.I t led to a large room where the passagesplit. Left tied into the Serious Borehole,and right led to a cobble slope and adrop of 5 to 10 meters.Meanwhile, Terri, Jack, and Jim wereon down the serious Borehole, where theybegan their survey at the Goddess of Liber-ty. They mapped down a steep mud slope,and then the passage began climbing upflowstone slopes with water-filled tinajasand lots of formations. Eventually theycame to a junction with a side passageentering on the right. They decided totake a few shots into it to establish itstrend, but it turned out to be such nicepassage that they kept going for nearly 200meters. The Dam Side Passage climbed up aseries of silt-covered flowstone cascades,broken intermittantly with flowstone damsand deep water-filled tinajas. At the topof one very steep cascade, Jack reportedthat he had come to the Illinois Drop, anda handline would be needed to continue.Terri, Jack, and Jim returned to theSerious Borehole and mapped another couplehundred meters to a pinch and breakdowndrain in the floor that had some airflow.With almost 700 meters of survey for theday, they headed out. At Doll's LegJunction they could tell that the otherteams had already headed out by the positionof the doll's leg indicator.The first day underground was a greatsuccess, with almost 1800 meters surveye~The trips were about 20 hours long, soeveryone took the next day off. It was coldand misty, perfect weather for snoozing inthe tent. Everyone managed to stay awakelong enough that evening to enjoy a cozycampfire and making music.READY FOR MORESunshine warmed the air and dried outgear the next morning. By noon everyonewas ready for caving. Armed with a cableladder and rope, carol, Bill, Cyndie, andScott returned to the lake with the overhungclimb. It wasn't long before theywere up the climb and surveying virginborehole again. They knocked off a few 30­meter shots for Scott's benefit, since hehad never surveyed borehole before. Thenthe passage became less and less straightand eventually came to a T-juction. Firstthey surveyed to the right up a mud-flooredpassage that got progressively smaller. Itended in a squeeze that popped into a highmuddy room with a steeply-sloping floor.There was air movement, but no way out ofthe room except perhaps some hidden leadhigh on the walls.96

Delicate helictites like these are notcommon in Cueva del Tecolote.(Peter Sprouse)They returned to the T-juction andheaded downstream. This passage had acompletely different character from theusual dry borehole. It was narrow andtwisty with pools on the floor. Though itwas heading downstream with some airflow,the survey shots had decreased to about 2meters, and just traversing the passage wasa pain. They turned around after about adozen stations.Needing more to survey, they retreatedto the walking-sized maze, only to run intoDale, Marion, Sarah, and Jack, who had justcompleted the entire maze with the exceptionof a pit. Not having the appropriategear for the pit, the two groups headedout.Terri, Terry, Susie, and Jack returnedto the Illinois Drop at the end of the DamSide Passage. The drop turned out to be asimple climbdown, but it was fortunate thatthey had brought a handline. Only 40 metersahead lay a steep slope and an overhungdrop. After tying etrier loops in therope, Terry descended into Jelly BeanJunction, a large, round room with marblesizedpolished cobbles covering the floor.While Terry was negotiating the climbdown,Dale, Marion, Sarah, and Jim arrived. Theyhad gone to poke in the breakdown at theend of the Serious Borehole, but didn'tfind much.Terry reported that the passage continuedtwo ways, so Susie and Terri climbedon down. Jack decided he didn't like theclimb, so Jim joined our group and Jackjoined the others. At the bottom of JellyBean Junction was a high lead that Terrychecked out. It went, but a handline fornegotiating the climb would be useful.They decided to follow the other passage,which trended down. It soon degeneratedinto serious-swiss cheese confusion. Thesketching was difficult, so Terri was notat all disappointed when Terry and Jimchecked ahead and said it got too small.Both Peters, Margaret, Erika, andTyler first mapped a passage off HelectiteHall to where wetsuits are needed. Theytook photos in the Extreme Borehole andFantasia Borehole to the beginning of theirsurvey. They prepared to map down into theabyss at the end of Fantasia Borehole, butto their surprise they noticed that theborehole continued on the other side of thepit. Peter Keys explored a major lead onthe left for 100 meters. They mapped about500 meters of borehole before they decidedto turn around. The passage was 15 meterswide and 6 meters high where they stopped,and heading west.On the way out, all four teams endedup bottle-necking at the first drop. Peter,Terri, Carol, and Bill decided to surveyside leads along the Ides March in lieu offreezing to death while waiting to climb.They mapped about 100 meters in severalloops and a lead they named the Plate Passage.Upon returning to the Undressing Room(bottom of the second to last drop on theway in, where wetsuits were removed and dryclothes put on) someone was still on rope.Rather than don cold wetsuits and freezewhile waiting at the bottom of each drop,the four decided to take a two-hour nap.The last of them emerged into sunlightaround noon, making it about a 24-hourtrip. The rest of the day was spent napping,eating, and visiting with the localchildren. By late afternoon the sunshinehad turned to mist and fog. It rained mostof the night, causing a bit of concern forthe trip into the cave the next day.FINAL PUSHAfter much deliberation, it was decidedthat there was little threat of thelow airspaces being sumped off. So offwent two survey teams for the last day ofmapping in Tecolote. Peter S., Terri,97

A surprise continuation of the FantasiaBorehole led to considerable new passage.(Peter Sprouse)The extension of the Fantasia Boreholeeventually diminished in size to a comfortablewalking passage. (Peter Sprouse)Sarah, and Marion went back to FantasiaBorehole to pick up where the survey hadended on the previous trip. After a fewlong shots, a good looking side lead withairflow was mapped 80 meters to where itsplit into a multi-level maze. Beyond thelead, the Fantasia Borehole continuedstraight to a large mud and flowstone room.High on the left side was a lead that wouldrequire a difficult climb, but a stoopwayto the right led to more passage. A confusingarea of crawls, pools, and mudballswent to aT-intersection.On the left was an unpromising crawl,but to the right there was a large passagecontaining beautiful helictites and twoshields. Running water could be heard inthe distance, but as the team progressedforward the sound receeded. The sound waseventually traced to an impossible crawl.The survey ended when the passage reverseddirection into a spiny canyon. With nearly700 meters mapped, the team headed for thesurface.Meanwhile Carol, Bill, and Jack hadgone back to the pit lead in the WalkingMaze. The echoes from rocks splashing inthe pool at the bottom of the pit made thepassage below sound big. Excited, Billrappelled 10 meters and shouted "It's virginand it goes!" While the others gotready to descend, Bill explored ahead for afew minutes. He returned shortly with thenews that it wasn't virgin afterall - itwas the same passage that they had mappedon the last trip. The pit came in at thelake next to the cable ladder climb. So thepassage simply made a big loop.They photographed in the Son of aSpine passage before heading off to checkthe high lead off Jelly Bean Junction.Bill freeclimbed the S-meter overhung climband rigged a rope for Jack and Carol toascend. At the top of the climb was acanyon passage, developed on three levelswith pools in the lowest level. The passagewas wetter and smaller, and betterdecorated, than most of the cave. Finallythey came to a place where the only ways onwere either across a very hairy traverse orup an interesting, slightly overhung climb.Bill did the climb and scouted ahead forabout 50 meters. The passage made a sharpISO-degree bend and kept going. They decidedto end the survey at the bottom ofthe climb.On the way out, everyone noticed thatthe breeze whipping through the cave wascolder than usual. When they got to thesurface just after dawn they realized why ­a cold front had passed through. Frostcovered everything, and the crystal clearsky was a deep blue. Soon the sun warmedthe day and everyone was ready for moreadventure.98

MORE CAVESMeanwhile another crew consistingof Wayne Bockelman, Mark Minton, RichRohwer, Tom Shope, Nancy Weaver, andJulia Palmer had arrived. They had beenexploring roads and looking for caveshigher on the mountain. Their finds includedSotano del Caracol, a 10-meter-longcave, Sotano Verde, a 73-meter-deep blindpit, and S6tano de Colibrf, a 57-meterblind pit. Also explored were La Fisura, a42-meter pit, and another pit 37 metersdeep. They wrapped up their trip with ajaunt into Tecolote to see the cave anddegrig.Although Peter S. and Terri had beenon a 20-hour-long trip into the cave andhadn I t slept, they didn I t want to waste thelast day on the mountain. A resident ofthe village took them, Bill M., Erika, andDale to a cave near Cueva de La Llorona.Cueva de los Chirriones was a 7Q-meter-longwalking passage to a squeeze. Beyond thesqueeze were two small, but well-decoratedrooms. Meanwhile, Susie, Aspen, and Rosamapped a small cave south of camp calledCueva de la Grieta. Dale and Margaret continuedthe survey of Cueva del EncinoMagico for 22 meters, and it continued as atight crawl.The week had come to an end, and itwas time to pack up camp and head back tothe States. The expedition added an additional4069 meters, making the cave over11,084 meters long. Although none of theteams turned around in giant borehole thistime, numerous good leads remain for the1987 expedition.CUEVA DEL TECOLOTEDurante Noviembre de 1986, 19 espeleologos del Proyecto EspeleolOgicoPurificacion continuaron la exploracion en la Cueva del Tecolote. El granagujero (Serious Borehole) se extendio unos 500 metros hasta su final. Setrazo un pasaje secundario de 300 metros hasta llegar a una escalada. Unaserie de pasajes adyacentes al abismo principal (Major Abyss) anadieron variosmetros de topograffa. El Fantasia Borehole fue explorado en 1200 metros hastasu parte mas estrecha. En la exploracion se topografiaron un total de 4069metros, haciendo la cueva de mas de 11 kilometros de largo.Cave myotis (Myotis velifer)Borrowed from Bat News, the newsletter of thenewly formed Austin Chapter ofBat Conservation International.99

ReviewsLas Cavernas de la Sierra GordaCarlos Lazcano SahagUn. UniversidadAutonoma de Queretaro; 1986.Vols. I & II, 385 pages. Available fromAMCS. Write for price.Carlos Lazcano, who edited the twobulletins of the Sociedad Mexicana de ExploracionesSUbterraneas (SMES) has producedanother high-quality, professionalpublication. Las Cavernas de la SierraGorda covers virtually all the known cavesin the northern portion of the state ofQueretero. The boundaries of his studyarea extend north across the state lineinto San Luis Potosf up to the Rfo SantaMaria and west to include the eastern tipof Guanajuato. The southern boundary isthe Rfo Moctezuma and the eastern boundaryis the San Luis Potosi state line. Numerousdetailed area maps are well done andeasy to read.The first three sections of the bookgive the reader a general overview of thearea, and its geology, archeology, andcave fauna. It also includes a history ofexploration.The fourth, and largest, section ofthe book is cave descriptions. Lazcanohas divided the Sierra Gorda into elevenareas. Within these areas he has listedover 550 known caves. Maps are includedfor approximately 230 of them. Each descriptionincludes the following information:Location, including the coordinates,elevation, and municipio and state; thelength and depth of the cave and a oneparagraph description; the history of exploration;the geology and hydrology; alist of the cave fauna; and a bibliography.Volume I includes the first threesections and four of the eleven areas. Theremaining seven areas comprise Volume II.The back of each book contains a bibliography,an alphabetical list of all thecaves, and an index to the maps with thecorresponding page numbers.The covers of both volumes have thesame color photograph, an aerial view of EIS6tano del Barro. Inside the reader istreated to an additional 29 color photos,as well as many black and whites. ThetyPeset format and the well organized layoutmake this book aesthetically pleasingand easy to read. I was a bit perplexed atfirst because there was no table of contents,but then I found it at the back ofeach volume. Although it is not printed onthe best of paper and the photos and mapsare not always sharp, this book comparesin quality to an AMCS Bulletin.Las Cavernas de la Sierra Gorda is anexcellent reference for the Mexico caver.Don't let the Spanish scare you off.Terri SprouseLas Formas Karsticas del Area de LaFlorida en la Sierra Gorda de Queretaro.Carlos Lazcano. Instituto de Geografla,liNAM, 1984. 123 pages. Available fromAMCS . Write for price.This volume contains much of the informationpresented in the book reviewedabove, although it is more limited in geographicalscope. Following summaries of thearea geography and geology, the bulk of thetext consists of cave descriptions andmaps. A large fold-out geology map is includedin a pocket in the back.Peter SprouseMexico 85/86. Expedition Report;122 pagesA large British expedition visited theXilitla plateau area of san Luis potosi inthe winter of 1985-86. We have receivedone copy of their report here in Austin,but have no idea how more may be obtained.It lists no date or place of publication,or even an editor. Anyway, the group reportsa reasonably successful stay, locatingand mapping a number of medium-sizedcaves. The report includes maps of Cuevadel Cinco Abril (2632 meters long, 286meters deep), Cueva de los Hornos (2960,341), Arriba Suyo Sotano (1126, 563), CuevaTang-go-jo (530, 405), Cueva del ReeferMadness (1006, 411)--are you getting theimpression they didn't inquire carefullyabout local names?--Sotano de las VlborasMuertas (670, 250), Cueva de Ixtacapa(1234, 293), S6tano de Puerto de Belen(380, 204), and S6tano de Rock a Jumar100

(1420 meters long, 238 meters deep). Mostof these are single, steeply sloping passageswith numerous short drops. Somestill have leads remaining, and in factmost might repay further visits, becausethey seem to have been explored and mappedhastily. Numerous smaller caves and pitsare listed and pin-pointed on locationmaps.The text is not especially useful, andin fact parts of it were obviously notmeant to be taken seriously. It is oftenhard to relate the narrative to the cavemap, since pit depths, for instance, seldomseem to match. They remark several placesthat they think. they were welcomed by thelocal people because they were Brits andnot Americans. Curiously, Americans whowere in the area at the same time got theimpression that the local people were relievedthat they weren't more Brits.In addition to the expedition's originalexplorations, they visited some of thewell-known caves in the vicinity, such asSotano de Tlamaya, Sotano de Huitzmolotitla(which they call Huichihuayan), Golondrinas,and Guaguas (which they call Wowas--nowonder the editor wants to remain anonymous).They seem to have had a good time.Bill MixonTepeyollotli SMES Gaceta No.1.Ramon Espinasa P., Editor (?)June 1986, Mexico D.F., 13 pagesAvailable from AMeS, $2.00 postpaid.With this issue the Sociedad Mexicanade Exp10raciones Subterraneas inauguratesits second publication series. In contrastto the more monographical boled.n series,of which two have so far appeared, theGaceta is intended as a more timely, lessformal publication. It is smaller, photocopiedas opposed to offset printed, anddoes not contain photographs (so far). Thedot matrix type is quite legible, andnumerous cave maps are presented. Englishsummaries are included for the major articles.The issue begins with a summary ofexplorations in the San Juan Tenerlas areain Guerrero, also covered in AMCS ActivitiesNewsletter No. 15. There is a reviewof recent biospeleological work by SMEScavers in Guerrero which includes the discoveryof a population of the cave fishAstyanax, previously known only from theSierra de EI Abra in northern Mexico. The1985 explorations at Plaza de Gallos, Guerrero,are covered. These resulted in theexploration of Hoyo de la Perrita Capulina(-230 meters, now connected to Resumiderode Plaza de Gallos,) Sistema la Lorna (-96meters), Hoyo de la Mano del Leon (-92meters), and various other caves and pits.Elsewhere in Guerrero, Resumidero del Izotewas mapped to 1567 meters in length and 177meters in depth (see Mexico News). Cueva delas Pozas Azules, a possible resurgence forIzote, was explored about I kilometer upstreamto a waterfall climb.In Yucatan, more than fifty caves wereinvestigated by SMES members, mostly cenotes.In March 1986, SMES and Italian caverslocated 6 caves in the Papagayos, SLP area.The longest was 100 meters, and the deepestwas 25 meters. Afterwartls they went southto the Huacalapan area in Guerrero, wherethey explored Sotano de las Guacamayas(-283 meters), which had a 94 meter drop,and Resumidero de Ixtemalco (-265 meters).Two highly decorated caves, Gruta de Huacalapanand Gruta de las Golondrinas, werealso found.Tepeyollotli is a welcome addition tothe literature of Mexican Speleology, andshould be very effective in increasinginternational communication regarding activitiesby Mexican cavers. While cavingpublications in Mexico often seem to beshort-lived, let's hope this one has a longrun.Peter SprouseYochib: The River Cave. C. WilliamSteele. Cave Books, 756 Harvard Ave.,St. Louis, MO, .63130; 1985. 164 pp.Available from several sources; AMeShas it for $11.50 softbound - $16.50hardbound, postpaid.It is nine years late, yet right ontime. It is the full story of the explorationof the Sumidero Yochib, a spectacularriver cave in the southern Mexican state ofChiapas. In the passing of those nineyears since the last expedition to Yochib,101

Bill Steele labored on the story of whatwas done there, knowing that it was bothunique and historic. The first version ofthe manuscript was ready in 1979, whichsays something about the monumental procrastinationthat had to be overcome tobring this book to print. But during thattime Steele's writing style matured, andthe story was polished. A great deal ofthe critical information that was lackingin 1979 was carefully added: the immensepersonality differences involved among veryindependent, strong-willed leaders, and theway that these influenced the exploration.The result is a book worth waiting for. Itis the first such volume to be written by acontemporary American cave explorer andbreaks the long silence between the days ofHalliday, Watson, and Brucker, and themodern era of high-tech, internationalexpedition cave exploration.But it is more than that. It is aprecious slice out of speleological history.The exploration takes place from thespring of 1974 through the spring of 1977,a short period of three years spanning thetime when big pit discoveries had begun todiminish in northern Mexico and the firstreturn expeditions to the Huautla Plateauwere being fielded. It was at a time whenGoldline was still being used to rig avertical pitch, when high quality miner'selectric lamps, which are considered essentialhardware for dealing with waterfallsunderground today, were not readilyavailable to the caving community, and whenthe idea of camping underground was still anovelty for Americans.The prime element that sets the SumideroYochib apart, even today, is movingwater. During normal conditions the flowin the river is about 140 cubic feet persecond For those who have difficulty graspingthat figure, the following analogieswill help. It would fill an Olympic sizeswimming pool in slightly over a minute; itwould power a 20 kilowatt hydroelectricplant; and a person suspended from a ropeunder a waterfall of that flow would haveto exert a force of between 150 and 300pounds plus the weight of himself and hisequipment. Furthermore, in a narrow passagethe current caused by such a flowwould be more than sufficient to sweep anunwary individual over a waiting waterfall.The last two examples explain the immenselycomplex rigging requirements confronting anexploration team in Yochib. It also underscoresthe rationale for fielding expeditionsonly in the heart of Mexico's dryseason, from March through April, to minimizethe amount of flow that must be dealtwith.Prior to this project very little wasknown concerning "heavy water" techniques,other than that it was obviously very riskybusiness. Fatalities had already beenreported in a river cave in Spain, theHundidero Gato, and in other scatteredincidents where flash floods had inducedsimilar conditions in deep French systems.The decision to tackle Yochib in the mid­1970s was thus a very bold undertaking.When its notoriety spread it attractedsome of the best explorers the U.S. had tooffer, including Jim Smith, Mark Stock,Norm Pace, Blake Harrison, Mike Van Note,and Bill Steele. Add to this list thelikes of Canadians Peter Thompson and IanDrummond and British explorers Peter Lordand John Donovan - all of substantial reputein their respective countries - andyou get the idea of the tremendous intermixingof personality, technique, and experiencethat took place during this project.The fuse to this volatile mixwas no less than the legendary Mike Boon,an expatriate British caver who had movedto Canada in the late 1960s under the lureof and offer to pursue caving professionally.His exploits spanned nearly a score ofyears across nearly as many countries. Hewas Britain's finest cave diver throughoutthe 1960s and was the singular catalystthat brought about the obsolescence ofoxygen-rebreather technology and the broadacceptance of open-circuit Scuba for underwatercave exploration. He also was a topnotchtechnical caver. Boon's indomitable,eccentric personality, however, branded himas an unpredictable individual, and hisleadership on expeditions tended to betotalitarian, rather than democratic. Hewas the type of individual who liked toassign blame with the point of a bony fingerrather than accept responsibility for aplan gone wrong.Nonetheless, without Boon there wouldlikely have been no story of Yochib. Hewas the focal point, the magnet, headed for102

the bottom of Yochib. His obsession withthis goal grew, and spread to the othersmembers of the team until the momentumbecame unstoppable.Steele has managed to capture theessence of these interactions in a deftlyhandled style that is both realistic andusually fair to all sides. They are withoutquestion among the high points of the book.There are other high points that shineequally well and come across with the powerof the river itself: the near drowning ofteam members on four occasions, the horrorof being trapped in a flooding cave when noobvious escape existed, the numbing apprehensionconfronting the lead explorer onthe first descent of a waterfall thatshakes the very walls of the cave. And theelation that comes with having successfullycompleted an exceedingly difficult project.Throughout the book, Steele is carefulto describe the various techniques bothsuccessful and unsuccessful, that wereused. Furthermore, well drafted sectionalmaps in each chapter show where the actionis taking place. The only fault in thesemaps is the lack of information on therequired tackle for rigging each pitch.This is certainly a minor point if oneaccepts, and as the book concludes, thatthe cave ends at Yochib I s terminal sump,and that no one will be going back.During the past ten years greatstrides have been made both in lightweightvertical rigging techniques, and in cavedivingapparatus and training procedures.The terminal sumps of the 60s and 70s areoften today's frontiers. The final sump inYochib, with its 50-foot by 40-foot crosssection,now stands beckoning to the currentgeneration of explorers to completethe traverse to the Cruz Pilal resurgencesome three miles distant and fully resolvethe hydrologic riddle. In light of this,Steele's book, besides being a very goodread, takes on another role. It is theYochib manual, the guide that will lay thefoundation for a return expedition.Cave Books has done a good job both inthe production of this fine volume and inseeing to it that a large number of photographsand maps were included. It is to behoped that the publishing of Yochib willspure other potential authors to rise abovethe barrier of procrastination and helpfill in the colassal information void leftin the wake of the many important speleologicalprojects conducted both in Mexicoand in the u.S. during the past fifteenyears.Bill StoneManual de Bioespeleolog1aA. Hoffman, J.G. Palacios, J.B. MalacaraUniversidad Autonoma de Mexico, 1986. 274pages. Available from AMeS.This is a well done volume that shouldhave a significant impact on written speleologyin Mexico. It provides reasonableintroductions to speleology and biospeleology,and a general (nonspecific) review ofthe cave fauna and flora of Mexico. Thebibliography and history of speleologicalwork by Mexicans is a valuable compilation.And the glossary of Spanish speleologicalterms is something that we American cavershave needed for some time.Beyond its function as a "manual",this book also describes the results ofeleven UNAM research expeditions to variouscaves in central Mexico. In addition todetails on the fauna and flora of thesecaves, descriptions and maps are also included,making this portion the most interestingto the average caver. Caves visitedin the state of Morelos were Cueva delDiablo, Cueva de San Juan, Cueva del Salitre,Cueva Ocho de Julio, and Cueva delIdolo. In Guerrero the three caves investigatedwere Gruta de Acuitlapan, Gruta deAguacachil, and Gruta de Juxtlahuaca.The printing quality is the best Ihave seen among Mexican caving pUblications.The typesetting is good and done onhigh quality, white glossy paper, not theoff-color rag paper seen in some others.The photographs, especially the colorplates, are generally excellent.Peter SprouseI.e Spedizioni Speleologiche -Malpaso •81" e-Malpaso •84" in Chiapas. Notiziario delCircolo Speleologico Romano, Nuova Serie,No.1, 1986. 159 pages.This volume presents the results oftwo expeditions by the Circol0 SpeleologicoRomano of Italy to the Malpaso region of103

Chiapas in 1981 and 1984. This we1lprinted,attractive volume is divided intoeleven chapters, each dealing with differentaspects of the expeditions. Thefirst chapter, by Maurizio Monteleone, is anarrative account of the two expeditions.Chapter 2, by Franco Terragni, brieflysummarizes the climate, geology, and hydrologyof the Malpaso area. In Chapter 3,Stefano Gambari and Marco TOPani describethe caves explored during the course of theexpeditions. A brief overview of the cavebiology of the area is given by ValerioSbordoni, Roberto Argano, and Vicenzo Vomeroin Chapter 4. Stefano Gambaro brieflydiscusses the people inhabiting the areaand the expedition's interactions with thepopulace in Chapter 5. In Chapter 6, RobertoCusmano discusses medical problems encounteredduring the 1984 expedition. Chapter7, by Tullio Bernabei, recountsphysiological problems experienced by membersof the expedition as a result ofcaving in the tropics. A brief discussionof dietary problems is given by TullioBernabei in Chapter a Chapter 9, by FilippoIacoacci, is concerned with logistic andtechnical problems encountered by the 1984expedition. Chapter 10, by Filippo Iacoacci,describes the descent of Sima del Copal,an enormous pit containing Maya pictographsand artifacts. In Chapter 11 TullioBernabei describes the exploration of anartifact-rich passage in Sumidero de PechoBlanco No.2. The book ends with two appendices,one summarizing earlier biospeleologicalexpeditions to Mexico, and theother recounting in a humorous way the 1981expdition.Malpaso is located along the borderwith Oaxaca in eastern Chiapas. An enormousman-made reservoir, Presa Nezahualcoyotl(Malpaso), inundates Part of the area. TheItalian expeditions resulted in the explorationof several major caves. The mostspectacular of these is the Sistema dePecho Blanco, which includes five caves notdirectly connected by underground passages.The largest of these segments is Sumiderode Pecho Blanco No.2, with a length of3790 meters and a depth of 253 meters. Thetotal combined length of the seParate cavesin the system is 6281 meters, with a totaldepth of 341 meters. Other major cavesexplored include Sistema de los Camarones(1200 meters long, 18 meters deep) andSistema de la Lucha. Lucha has a huge upperpit entrance 250 meters across and 200meters deep, and a lower horizontalentrance. Maps are provided for all of thecaves described.The chapter on biology briefly describesthe ecology of the caves and summarizesthe fauna for each cave. Most ofthe results of the collections, however,remain unpublished. The most interestingspecies encountered during the expeditionswas a blind catfish of the genus Rhamdia,similar to those known from the Acatlanregion of Oaxaca and the Zongolica area ofVeracruz.The presence of the quality cave mapsand numerous photographs make this a valuablebook for anyone seriously interested inMexican caves, even if they cannot readItalian.James Reddell104