8MB PDF - Association for Mexican Cave Studies

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