12MB PDF - Association for Mexican Cave Studies

Bedrock solution and flowstone remnants, Puente de Oztotl.(Thomas Moore)Terri, Mark, Thomas, and Beckyreturned to above the Gates of Moriaand continued mapping in the WestPassage. They mapped it to the endof exploration and stopped at thelow crawl which continued on withslight air movement. The efforts togo westward, at least for the timebeing, halted once more.April 4, Jerry, Mark, and Petersurveyed the l7-Hour Tube in the ConfusionTubes. This was a tube thatCharles Fromen and several others hadproved connected to the Balcony Boreholeover the Thanksgiving holidays.It was also the tube Mike Connallyand Charles had become so familiarwith last year when they were lostfor 17 hours in the Confusion Tubes.Terri, Thomas, Becky, and Dale returnedto the April Fool's Tube totie it into the Wes t Loop. ' They tookseveral photos in that area.The following day was to be thelast day to map and explore, so Peter,Terri, and Dale went further into thesystem to Jersey Turnpike where theyadded more detail to the originalsketch and set a few more permanentstations. At Turkey Lake, Terri decidedto go for the swim and with onlyboots, carbide light, helmet and a cyalume,she swam an estimated 150 metersmore to where the passage continued asa swim in a narrow channel. There wasno air movement in this area. On theway back through Jersey Turnpike moretubes were explored that led to moretubes (they're everywhere!), and somehad airflow.The group packed and headed outof the cave early Friday, April 6.The team had added slightly over 2kilometers of passage to the map.92