7MB PDF - Association for Mexican Cave Studies

The Rlo Babylon cascades down
a flows tone falls to disappear
in breakdown. (Peter Sprouse)
but since the other team had already
leapfrogged up the other lead, we
mapped up to them. At a junction, we
followed a high fissure until it got
too steep, then joined the others as
they tied a loop into the Unicorn
Borehole.
Back at camp we tallied our survey
at 762 meters, more than enough
to push the cave over the SO kilometer
mark--SO,116 meters to be exact. It
had been nine years since the survey
in Brinco had been initiated, seven
years since the birth of the Proyecto
Espeleologico Purificacion.
Day two--This was a photography
day, with the West Loop of the Main
Passage being especially well covered.
Day three--Armed with the latest
in pyrotechnics, Jerry, Mark, Sheila,
Jim, and Rich set off for Moria, where
a blowing base-level breakdown choke
held promise of a westward continuation
of the system. But they found
the level below the IS-meter drop
flooded due to the high level of the
Black Lagoon sump. So they crossed
a traverse line left in 1979 to a
section of passage previously explored
by Peter Keys. They surveyed ISO
meters of passage in this area, which
20
connects back into the beginning of
Moria via the Sand Slide, a normally
impassable sand sump. Reaching the
far side of the sump by recrossing
the traverse, they surveyed SO meters
into a lead called Acupuncture Crawl.
Mark explored SO meters farther, and
it continued as a grim, blowing crawl.
Two teams consisting of Roy,
Patty, and me and Dale, Terri, and
Peter traveled through the Tubes to
Babylon to map in leads off the
Fissureland area. After photographing
our way up there, Roy, Patty,
and I pursued the unexplored upperlevel
lead in the Northwest Passage.
We surveyed 250 meters in a gradually
shrinking passage, stopping at a
tube drop. The others mapped a loop
to the Hellenic Borehole, and down
in a fissure called the Whale's Belly.
Day four--For our last day in
the cave we split into four separate
teams. Terri, Peter, and Jerry
mapped a lead off the Bucket, connecting
it into the Rl0 Shumate in the
south Confusion Tubes. Not far away
were Dale, Patty, and Roy, who mapped
a hole in the floor of the Balcony
Borehole that tied into the
labyrinthine Octopus Tube. In a
third minor connection east of the
tubes called Mushroomland. Bill.
Mike, Rich, and I tied in a pit lead
off the D Survey into a side passage
off of the Airport, an area explored
in 1978. Meanwhile Mark, Sheila.
and Jim traveled back to the Camp II
area to push the Windsump Passage.
The Upper Northwest Passage.
Babylon area. (Peter Sprouse)