12MB PDF - Association for Mexican Cave Studies

a 10 meter wide room covered in siltydirt and mud. Continuing in the passagea short distance onward, it endedin a pile of large cobbles andboulders. Indications are that itends under the Cobble Drain in theWest Loop of the main passage. Everyoneregrouped in the West Loop andcontinued to the Balcony Room, wherethey divided into two survey teams.Peter and Jerry leap-frogged aheadto the Lost Pit area and startedtheir survey in a tube taking a lotof air.' Terri, Mark, and Dale stayedbehind and surveyed through LostPit to the other team's beginningpoint and then surveyed down a 3meter in diameter tube named theApril Fool's Tube, also taking lotsof air. It was evident that the passagewas totally filled with waterduring heaving floods - tiny scallopsin the rock covered the floor, walls,and ceiling as well as any bouldersthat were too large for the water topush through the passage. Aftersetting many permanent stations, theystopped the survey and checked ahead.A few meters further along, they brokeout in a very large passage headingdownward and trending northwest. Wasthis the elusive passage that wouldtie into the system believed to beto the west? The excitement ran highas the three ran several hundred metersdown this major trunk until theycame upon a familiar landmark, thePuente de Oztotl. It was indeedApril Fool's Day - they were back inthe main passage!The passages Peter and Jerry hadmapped connected into the Thru Tube,with several going leads along theway. On the way back they enteredthe West Passage, off of the WestLoop, to look at the blowing crawlat the end of it. Peter removed afew rocks and they entered virginpassage. They followed a stoopway50 meters to where a crawl continued.MoriaOn April 2 two mapping teamswent out. Terri, Dale, and Markheaded back to the Balcony Boreholeand surveyed the Shoetube, a tubethat had been explored over Thanksgivingto a small stream named theRlo Shumate. At the Rlo, the teamended the survey and re-explored anoverflow route that had been partiallyexplored by Rodemaker, Raines,Barnes, and Schultz a few weeks before.It was found that this connected.into the passages circling theComplex Dome. They returned to theRlo and followed it downstream. Thepassage split into several sub-humansize holes, all taking air.Peter and Jerry took off to pushthe crawl at the end of the West Passage.But, halfway there, down aslope along the right wall, Jerry noticeda tremendous blast of air blowingout of sOme breakdown. After acouple hours of moving rocks, a tightvertical squeeze was opened up andthey dropped into a large passageheading downward. This new area wasnamed Moria, as it seemed to be headingdown to deeper levels. It hadlots of mud and sediments throughoutmost of the passage. They mapped toan intersection where a 3 meter climbdownled off to the right, and thenleft 50 meters to a 15 meter drop intoa sizeable room. Lacking verticalgear, they returned to the climbdownwhere Peter explored into severalrooms connected by crawlways.As the two teams headed back to Camp,they heard the distinctive sounds ofa harmonica and found that Thomasand Becky had arrived.The dreams of the group thatnight were probably all of breaking90