8MB PDF - Association for Mexican Cave Studies

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