12MB PDF - Association for Mexican Cave Studies

On our initial investigation ofthe cave, we were impressed by theentrance passage. Also, the viewfrom the top of the first 15 meterpitch into the next enormous room,the Iceberg Room, was spectacular.The well lit entrance passage containsscattered stagnant pools thatsupply the locals with drinkingwater. This would be our water supplytoo, but we used coffee filtersto strain out the silt and bugs, thenadded iodine. The Iceberg Room connectswith the upper vertical entranceshaft. The sun beaming in at noon wastruly a sight.The next two days were spent riggingand mapping to the 200 meter level.The passage after the IcebergRoom was high fissure type, averaging5 meters wide with short dry pitchesclose together. This leads to thebiggest interior room, the Dry Room.At the end of this chamber, a welldecorated archway led to Delta Drop.Past this point the cave was wet; allpitches had water, and walls showedsigns of seasonal flooding. Thetrips were kept short and non-taxingin anticipation of necessary long,harder ones later.RiggingOn Tuesday, we awoke to a drasticdrop in temperature. There wasa coating of ice and snow blanketingeverything. This unusual climaticchange caught us unprepared clothingwise.Nature also seemed unprepared.It was sad to watch many of the tall,majestic prickly pear cactus breakingoff under the burden of the ice. Ouroptimistic goal for the day was tofinish rigging and bottom the cave.The sooner we saw the whole cave theeasier it would be to schedule thework for our remaining days. Slowly,one by one, the crew members draggedthemselves out of their warm- sleepingbags and entered the cave. We all72gathered in theour wet suits.rope lengths onthird time.Dry Room and donnedThen, we switchedDelta Drop for theMuch of the temporary confusionon Delta and subsequent drops was dueto my misreading of a profile viewof the original traverse run in 1972.Someone who apparently had never beento Buque had numbered the drops: dropone, drop two, etc. through drop ten.We soon discovered Buque has fourteendistinct drops.The next several hours were spentplacing a multitude of bolts. Two1/4 inch bolts were poorly set and ourhomemade 1/2 inch driver became stuckhalfway through a placement. It wasnot a sight of engineering beauty, butreinforced by Goldline slung over apassage size chockstone wedged 5 metersoff the canyon floor, it was secure.We found that in most cases ourcanvas and carpet pads were superfluous.The overabundance of smooth flowstonekept rope abrasion low. On theother hand, the 5/8 inch rubber gardenhose left unsplit and slipped onthe end of the ropes was invaluablefor protecting rope from wear atrough tie-off points. From this"Christmas Tree" arrangement of boltswe rigged the next three pitches in asingle shot with one rope. Becauseof its tendency to spiral to theright, this section was quickly dubbedThe Corkscrew.A short, tricky traverse skirtinga pool brought us to an enormousdome pit, The 337. Since I had misreadthe profile, the pit was thoughtto be The 200, so we lowered a300 foot (90 meter) Bluewater rope.John slung a 150 (45 meter) Bluewaterover his shoulder, racked in and enteredthe dome. After an unsuccessfulattempt to communicate over thethunder of a large volume of watersheeting down the pit, two whistleblasts rang out. I proceeded down