12MB PDF - Association for Mexican Cave Studies

an extensive switch to compressedfreeze dried food this time in aneffort to cut down on the ungainlyweight of the canned provisions we'dbeen using in previous years. Theadvantage gained was immediately apparentwhen it was all bagged up -­one and one half duffels held all thefood for five people for a two weekstay at Camp III. A shorter pushfrom Camp II in La Grieta in 1977 haddemanded four 70 pound duffels bedragged down 23 pitches and threekilometers of very tight passage.That had not gone over too well withthe sherpas.The afternoon of March 6 foundHal and I back at the entrance againwith the food, forty pounds of carbideand anticipating a slow tripdown. In all we figured we were carryingaround 140 pounds of equipmenton each of us -- bolt kit, Nicad batteries,standard kit, all on an ammobelt, plus vertical gear, wetsuit,helmet, lights, and then a 70-80pound duffel. Coming down the farend of the entrance corridor at -140meters I hit a slick rock and did afull forward sommersault, landing onthe pack a few meters down the slope.Needless to say our agility was somewhathgmpered by the load. Once wereached the fissure things picked upfor we could suspend the duffel offthe rappel rack.By the time we had completed thebolt traverse at our p~evious stoppingpoint Steve, Tommy and Dino camecheerily slidingaown the big shaftand plunked six hundred meters of ropeat our feet. Four hundred meters werecut and labelled for known drops tothe -859 meter sump. The remainderwas for the push should the dive besuccessful. Two pitches and 80 metersbelow we finally intersected themarbleized canyon leading down toCamp II. The walls were most strikingfor everything was polished bythe spray. The colors in the rockitself were quite varied rangingStone setting bolts below Camp(Steve Zeman)from jet black to orange and creamwhite. We dumped everything in agreat heap at Camp II and relaxeda bit, pleased that we were nowpoised for a long stay underground."Objectives met," Steve~s voice echoedacross the chamber.'During the next three days weprepared as for no other trip. Wehad still received no word from thesecond team, which was nearly twoweeks overdue, and decided to go a­head with the dive at -859 meters.In planning for this we had amassedsome unu~ual gear. The scuba tanks,special lightweight 15 cubic footcapacity, were equipped with quick releaseharnesses that mounted on theI37