asscciation for mexican cave studies box 7672 ut station austin ...

deeper than Lieberz, Zeman or Lo~~ had ever been. ~fuen we arrived atthe end of the last survey. we faced virgin cave. I rigged the next drop.Jancewicz joined me in the torrent from above and was sent on do~~ toexplore ahead. We then began the survey. ~fuen the shots had been recordedand all others were do~~ the next 10m shaft, I heard a shout from above.It sounded like Jancewicz so I assumed she had explored around so~ehowand was coming down the ropes. Instead, it turned out to be Jim Smith. Hehad come in solo from the entrance, had found our note at C~p II sayingwhere we were going, and had sought us out.We all descended into new cave. Smith and Jancewicz led explorationwhile our survey follo~ed. There was more water in this passage than hadbeen seen elsewhere in the cave. Several climbdowns were done in the waterwhere it poured into pools below. There was much swinming between drops.Finally, after setting stations in this downtrending passage, we caughtup with Jim and Jean at a sump. Jim had dived into a sump with a linebeing dealt by Jean. He had, after two meters, come up into air space.This stretched 5m and then sumped again. It didn't look good. A belayerfor another dive would have to do so while already beyond one sump andtreading water. ~ot an appealing project. The ceilings character didn'tgive an impression of going cave beyond.Our team of six members began de-rigging from this sump at -859m.~le had been out of camp for 24 hours when we returned laden with allthe ropes from below. It was April 7; we were expected on the surfacelate on the next day.De-riggingWe had a very surmountable chore" in front of us in deriggingSotano de San Agustin. There were six of us in Camp II and three personson the surface. Of these three, only Broussard could be expected to lendmuch support. lolhen Camp II was cleaned up we had two full duffle bags plusa large pile of ropes. In addition, we also each had a rucksack containingour individual camping gear. Our plan was to exit from the cave with thesecamp packs and return to Camp II to de~rig in stages from there. Hehauled all gear from Camp II to the base of the next pit and headed outfrom there. Smith and Lieberz, being last in the procession of our leaving,followed up hauling the total burdens upward. They got all ropes andthe two duffles to the base of the 318, two drops (80' and 180') aboveCamp II.The 180 had eaten one rope already. A knot needed to be passed sone5m up the drop where two ropes were tied together where the fray had been.Being first up on our exit, I encountered the worst fray of my verticalcaving life some 30m above the point where the other had been. The sheathof the Bluewater II was totally gone with six inches of inner core showing,looking like taunt rubber bands. This was tied off with a figure 8,bypassing the da~aged area. The pit this happened in is a Goldline dropif ever there was one.~¥o days after leaving the cave and follOWing an Easter in ~u3utla.six of us reentered San Agustin to ~ork further on de-rigging it. :hetwenty SOI!le odd cans left by Schreiber at the tor of the' 318 '"ere emr::ied,crushed, and the food dU!'llped in the stream to be flushed ~l71th the torrentsof the coning rainy season. The 313 took c';r team seven ho,1r., to noveeverything up. Lieberz ~lOrked the tcttom, eying on eear. Jan·;:ewicz ',7asst~tioned on a ledge 2:) Il!eters dm.ll that every lead hung up on. ZeT.an.Jim Smith. and I did the muscle at ~oo while no~an f~d t~e junar safetybrake. T'le had a separate ~aul line, making sure it '-,1d the nain climb:bg25