8MB PDF - Association for Mexican Cave Studies

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