8MB PDF - Association for Mexican Cave Studies

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