12MB PDF - Association for Mexican Cave Studies

tance. This continued for some 280meters to where the two routes curvedaround and joined. We backtracked,looking for an exit. No luck. Wewere returning via the high routewhen, quite unexpectedly, we wereconfronted with the most dazzlingdisplay of Anthodite crystals eitherof us had ever seen or read about.Absolutely pure white, and some werenearly a meter long and 60 em in diameter.A breathtaking chamber, butunfortunately it. was not the relict"down" route we had been hoping forto bypass the 859 meter sump. Infact the survey was later to show wehad climbed 134 meters verticallyabove Camp III at the top of theroom. We christened the find AnthoditeHall and returned to camp todeliver the news."What's for dinner?" I called outfrom the rope. "What did you find?"came the reply. Stalemate. We climbeddown the talus leaving the staticline rigged. Over the roar of thestove, much louder than the river downthe hill, we related the scoop. Surveyand recheck the edges seemed tobe the consensus. This was duly donethe following day, yielding the sameprognosis: No go. The high point ofthe venture occurred when Hal managedto detonate Steve's spent carbide bottlewhile attempting to burn a loosestring from his pack. Steve was nearlyknocked down by the blow, and witha bear like growl set off after Haldown the talus for retaliation. Theboot found its mark.DIVING THE 859 SUMPWith the upper lead finished weturned our attention to the main objective-- the 859 meter sump. Ittook US quite a while to break camp.There was a two course chow down thatlasted three hours. We were enter-44taining thoughts of running out ofrope beyond the dive, just as we haddone two years previous in La Grieta,and were packing down the caloriesfor a thirty hour push. The wetsuitswent on amid the usual expletives.Looking like some rag-tagmilitia we descended, bearing lefttoward a large waterfall. Directlybeneath the cascade, soaked fromthe impact spray, we filed throughthe boulders and into a narrow corridor.The walls were carved frDmjet black marble, webbed with whitestreaks where the fractures had filledwith recrystallized calcite.Tan colored flows tone deposits madea fleeting attempt at covering thefloor, but were so dissolved by thehigh pressure monsoon torrents sothat only occasional remnants remained.This was no place to be inthe summer. We continued to a ledgeoverlooking a striking shaft. Thewater split, roared out and ricochetedoff the far wall with fire hydrantforce. There was no avoiding it."The washing machine," Hal called outwith a grimace. Then he disappearedinto the maelstrom. The familiar fourblasts from his whistle soon penetratedthe din. Off rope. We regroupedbelow, clinging to the side of immensepotholes bored into the floor. Stevewas ahead, scouting the route alongthe grease slick wall. "This way,"he called out. We were screamingto communicate. The roar from theshaft above was minor compared tothe river that soon smashed in fromthe right. The entire passage shook.We were dealing with thrice the waterof the upper gorge in a passage athird as large. It eroded our confidence.The passage beyond was themost difficult" in the cave. Heavywater pounding. Plunge pools whereall you could see was foam. Andthe climbs avoiding them nearly asbad -- glass smooth rock belling outtoward the water. We were stringinglines all the way. In one place werigged a free hanging diagonal ropeout over three particularly bad falls.