TOXIN ' ... J c

TENERIAS

HUAUTLA

PLACES INTHIS ISSUE

~ II PURIFICACION

SAN MARCOS

CARDONAL

AMCS ACTIVITIES NEWSLETTER

Number 15 December 1985 EDITORIAL

PublisherAssociation for Mexican Cave Studies

with assistance fromWilliam Russell

EditorsPeter Sprouse, Terri Treacy Sprouse

StaffSteve Boehm, Gill Ediger, Bill Elliott, Paul Fambro,Mark Minton, Bill Mixon, Dale Pate, Jim Pisarowicz,Mary Standifer, Lynne Thompson, Nancy Weaver,

Duwain WhitisTranslations

Peter Sprouse, Pablo Tapie

Terri SprouseCarlos LazcanoPeter SprouseAndrea Raz-Guzman

Mexico NewsLong and Deep Caves of MexicoXilitla Project ReportResumidero de ToxinProyecto EspeleoliJgico PurificacionExploration in HidalgoDirectory of Mexican Caving GroupsHuautla ConnectionCamping Beyond SumpsDeep CenotesSotano de San MarcosTenerias, GuerreroReviewsLettersIndex to Activities Newsletters Nos. 1-15

41618303448535464707682898991

Contents

Mark MintonBill StoneCarlos LazcanoPeter &Terri SprousePablo & Mauricio Tapie

We're ten years old! AMCS Activities Letter No.1appeared in January 1975, an eight page photocopiedcollection of trip reports from the preceding months.Highlighting that first issue were the deep pits dis-covered along the new Otates Mine road in the Sierrade EI Abra. Born of the need for up-to-date news onMexican caving, it has evolved into the newsletter younow hold in your hands. It is less timely perhaps,but we feel that it's become one of the world's finestcaving journals. Many thanks to the contributors whosend in the material that keeps it going. Especiallywelcome are the increased number of articles we arereceiving from cavers in Mexico.

Parallel to the development of the ActivitiesNewsletter has been the evolution of project cavingin Mexico. After years of ranging far and wide, caversin the mid-1970s began to concentrate on specificareas, resulting in the exploration of major cavesystems such as those in Huautla, Purificacion, andelsewhere. The intense activity in these areas is thesource of a tremendous amount of information inthe form of cave maps, descriptions, and explorationaccounts. Due to space limitations in this publication,only an outline of each expedition can really be given.The complete results of these large caving projectscan only be properly presented in an in-depth (excusethe pun) bulletin on each area. Although draftingcave maps and writing descriptions years after thetrip can be less than exciting, it would be a greatloss to speleology if the results of all that fine cavingwere never recorded. The AMCS Bulletin series,although inactive lately, is well suited to fill that void.

the Editors

The AMCS Activities Newsletter is published by the Associationfor Mexican Cave Studies, a non-profit group dedicated to the conser-vation and study of the caves of Mexico. Articles, maps, and photo-graphs on caving and speleology in Mexico are solicited. A list ofpublications and prices is available on request.

Association for Mexican Cave StudiesP.O. Box 7672

Austin, Texas 78713

Copyright 1985 by AMCS Membership Committee.

Printing by the Speleo Press.

Cover Photo: Anthodite Hall in San Agustin, lit by25 flashes. (Keith Goggin)

Frontispiece: Entrance to Cueva del Tecolote.(Terry Raines)

Back Cover: Karen Rosga in Sotano de San Marcos.(Jim Pisarowicz)

Mexico Nevvs

CHIAPAS

The first Dutch expedition toMexico visited Chiapas from December1984 to February 1985. A total of 7kilometers of new passage was exploredin 80 caves, most of them new. Elevencavers participated, although three ofthem were only able to stay for threeweeks.

In Veshtucoc, previously exploredby British cavers, they extended thecave to 4900 meters in length andreached a height of 380 meters, at apoint 100 meters below the surface.The new section was discovered bypushing 40 meters down through anunstable breakdown choke. Then theypicked up a continuation of the cavestream, which they followed to a deepsump. In all, 1300 meters was added tothe length of the cave. In Cueva deOJ 0 de Agua, a resurgence cave withthree cubic meters per second of dryseason flow, they found 60 meters morepassage.

Near Motozintla, Cueva Puresa wassurveyed to a length of 1 kilometer.Along the jungley edge of Canon elSumidero, several large old caves werefound to be plugged. In the canyonitself, several caves 300 to 400 met-ers long were discovered, and othercaves were believed to be submerged bythe new reservoir.

At Oxchuc, 100 kilometers east ofSan Cristobal, many caves were found,but access problems with the localIndians inhibited exploration.

The expedition also visited Cuevade El Chorreadero, a popular through-trip stream cave. While jumping intoone of the many plunge pools, HansHoff injured his foot.

source: Laurens Smets

GUANAJUATO

A group of cavers from Italy,Poland, and Mexico explored various

4

caves in the Mirasoles area of easternGuanajuato in late 1984. The deepestcave discovered was Roya del Poleo, acave well decorated with helictitesthat reaches a depth of 375 meters.Also explored was Cueva Negra, 233meters deep, and Cueva de Dona Cosi-mira, 140 meters deep and 50 meterslong. In all, 57 new caves were ex-plored on the expedition.

source: Carlos Lazcano

HIDALGO

A group of cavers returned to theCardonal area in December 1984 tocontinue exploration projects begun in1981 and 1982. Alan Cobb, Jon Cradit,Carmen Goyette, Joe Ivy, Linda Palit,Darrell Reese, Eric Short, and GeorgeVeni explored further in Grutas deXofafi, into a complex breakdown mazebeyond their previous survey, butstill in passage that had been explor-ed by tourists, judging from thestring and spray paint. They postponedcompleting the survey due to variousproblems, but feel that they reached amaximum depth of about 55 meters.

At Grutas de Tolantongo, theyfound that a large travertine massmeasuring 20 by 12 by 4 meters hadfallen from the cliff face and blockedthree quarters of the cave entrance.As a result, water and silt levelswere higher in the cave, eliminatingthe meter-high waterfall that hadhampered access to the cave's secondchamber.

On the surface, a climb was madeover a travertine wall that gave ac-cess to the presumed insurgence, pre-viously accessible only by a longroundabout route. Jon Cradit and EricShort climbed the travertine wall for10 meters, then traversed a steep 8meter slope, followed by a 40 meterrappell to La Gloria, where they couldget a good look at the sumidero forthe first time. A large volume of

Compiled by Peter S. Sprouse

water tumbles down a shaft 8 meters indiameter, and many of the team membersfelt that descent would be suicidal.

source: George Veni

MEXICO

Cueva del Diablo, near Valle deBravo in the western part of the stateof Mexico, was explored by ValerioPargoni, Mauricio Tapie, and JorgeTorres on 11 May 1985. The cave isfanned in a fracture that crosses alimestone rock outcrop called La Pena.It has two entrances, one vertical andthe other horizontal. The verticalportion comprises three drops total-ling 47 meters. The horizontal sectionis 80 meters long, and the total cavelength is 127 meters.

source: Mauricio Tapie

Mauricio Tapie climbing one of thedrops in Cueva del Diablo. (JorgeTorres)

A return trip to the promisingDos Aguas area was made in February1985 by Lawrence Camp, John Crotts,Mike Fischesser, Gerald Laws, AndyMcKinnon, Jack Osborne, Paul Pinson,Ray Rimmer, Tracey Stiller, and HollyWieners. Near their camp 2 kilometerssouth of Puerto Hondo, they discovereda cave 12U meters deep that containssix drops. The first two drops canactually be downclimbed, and these arefollowed by drops of 7, 18, and 3Umeters. The cave becomes much smallera t the sixth pitch, and descendsthrough a spiraling canyon to a hori-zontal passage. At the bot tom was ahole surrounded by loose mud and sandbanks which they deemed unsafe toenter. No air movement could be de-tected. The cave contained only one20-meter-Iong side passage, off of the

MICHOACAN

Di.OllJdOU por Haudcio Tapie V.

'fcab

Cavers prepare to enter Cueva de DosAguas. The large entrance is in thebackground. (Ray Rimmer)

bottom of the third drop.In the major stream in Cueva de

Dos Aguas, the cavers turned aroundonly a short way past the downstreamlimit of the previous year's explora-tion (see AN No. 14). Where there hadbeen a sump, they were able to passwi th 15 centimeters of airspace. Butthen the passage lowered to a body-sized crawl over stream gravel. Thisdid not look safe or promising, sothey did not push it. The depth atthis point was estimated to be -130meters, although no surveying has beendone. A 3U-meter-long infeeder in thedownstream section of the cave wasalso explored. Another side passage onthe left led to a 5-meter flowstoneclimb which could bypass the series ofmuddy drops from the entrance. Justbefore the first sump, a passage highon the right side was found to loopback into the room at the bot tom ofthe second drop. This whole downstreamsection trends south, and may feed thewater source for the town of Aguilil-lao

In the upstream section of Cuevade Dos Aguas, the Main Trunk was push-

6

ed past the upstream sump viaRobbie's Bypass, but then got smaller.A right-hand infeeder into the MainPassage was explored for about 270meters, and was reported to have noleads. A left-hand passage trendedwest over large rims tone for about 450meters, where it terminated in 40-meter-high Manana Dome. Al though ba-sically dry, it could be a maj orsource of water in the wet season.Overall, Cueva de Dos Aguas may be 5kilometers long. The group feels thatthe cave is fully explored, and thatmapping would be a worthy project,though one that would require a fastand efficient crew to lessen coldwater problems. After five hours inwetsuits, they found they were begin-ning to have trouble keeping warm.

Near Cueva de Dos Aguas theychecked five sinks and small caves,but nothing promising was found. Thenthey checked what they called theValley of the Caves, situated 3 kilo-meters northwest of Paso Malo. Twolarge entrances were found that take alot of water in the rainy season. Oneof these ended in a logj am after 70meters. The other, Cueva del Rfo, wasexplored for about 1600 meters to asump, wi th the only possible leadbeing high up on one wall. The localssay the water comes out in the smallvillage of Nacimiento, slightly lowerand 6 kilometers to the south. Flooddebris can be seen 20 meters up thesides of the valley adjacent to theentrance, indicating that the waterbacks up trying to drain in to thecave. The group intends to continuechecking this area in 1986.

source: Mike Fischesser

In April 1985, Carlos Lazcano,Mauricio Tapie, Louis Torelli, andJorge Torres explored two caves and apit in the municipio de Zitacuaro.They had heard rumors of a pit 90meters deep, which actually turned outto be 35 meters deep and 43 meterslong. lloyo el Pequeno is formed inbasal t along a fracture oriented at310 degrees. The entrance is a 3-meterpit, followed by various small drops.

Near Turundeo, the two Grutas delTurundeo were explored. No. 1 is aresumidero 240 meters long and 10meters deep, leading down to a smallsump. No. 2 is a relict resumiderowi th two entrances, a crawl and a 3-meter pit. It is 60 meters long and 6meters deep.

source: Mauricio Tapie

MORELOS

On 25 November 1984, Luisa Ami-one, Pablo Perez-Redondo, Hector Rive-ro, Mauricio Tapie, and Pablo Tapieinvestigated a volcanic area nearNaranjo Rojo. At kilometer 6.5 on theCuernavaca-Tepoztlan highway theylocated Cueva del Naranjo Rojo. Twoentrances side by side soon connectedthrough an untraversed lava crawl. Themain passage in the right-hand en-trance goes 90 meters to a 14-meterdrop. A good natural tie-off got thecavers down this and into a largeroom. On the far side a climb up 8meters led to a 50-meter-Iong tunnelto a small third entrance, 200 metersfrom the other two.

source: Pablo Tapie

Grutas de Turundeo

TURUNDEO, MICHOACAN

'frabajo realizado con Suuntosy cinta abrll 1985 por:Haur leia Tapie V.Pablo Tapie V.Jorge Torres R.

Llioujado por f'1auricio Tapie

o 10 20 30 40 50f""""""""I ...--------.01

metros

.1<

Hoya el Pequeno

ZITACUARO, MICHOACAN

\ ..metros

Trabajo realizado con Suuntosy cinta abcll 1985 por:Mauricio Tapie VizuetPablo Tapie VizuetJorge Torres Rodriguez

Dibujado por Mauricio Tapie

\Nm

PLANT"

PERFIL

met.ros

NUEVO LEON

Two German cavers and geologystudents of the Speleologische Ar-beitsgruppe Aachen (SAGA) and membersof the Club Alpino Espeleologico Tresde Monterrey (CAET) have been explor-ing caves in the vicinity of Laguna deSanchez, 40 kilometers south of Mon-terrey. Near EI Manzano, 5 kilometerswest of Cola de Caballo, several most-ly vertical caves were explored at thetop of the San Lucas Anticline. Thedeepest was Cueva Almazan, which thelocals said was named for GeneralAlmazan, who reportedly hid with hismen in the cave entrance during therevolution. The cave seemed to beunexplored, as no footprints were seenin the mud at the bottom, but it isprobably the same as Sotano del Anti-clino explored by AMCS members in 1971and described in AMCS Newsletter vol.III no. 5.

The 112-meter-deep pit is deve-loped in the upper part of the Auroralimestone. The contact with the over-lying Cuesta del Cura formation liesabove the entrance, where a small

8

Cueva del Naranjo RajaCUERNAVACA~ MORELOS

IRABAJO KEALrZADO CONSUUNTOS Y CINTA PUR:

PABLO TAPI~ V.MAURICIO TAPlE V.LUISA MUONE S.PABLO PeREZ REDONDO K.HliCTOR RIVEKO C.

DIBUJADO POR PABLO TAPIE

'0

anticline can be seen. The morphologyof the cave is closely related to thedip of the limestone beds and an al-most north-south trending fault plane.The pit is well decorated, and manybats flew out during the exploration.

Ten kilometers southeast of Lagu-na de Sanchez is a mesa called La Camo-tera. It is made up of well-cementedCupido and Aurora limestone breakdowndeposits that fill up an older, 200-meter-deep valley in the center of theEI Chorro Anticline. This featureextends from La Camotera in the north-west to Potrero Redondo and La Trini-dad in the southeast. This rock seemsto be as sui table for karstificationas is more sound, massive limestone;karst features encountered includecanyons, dolinas, and some caves. Thelatter include Cueva de la Tierra Rosa(AMCS Activities Newletter No. 14) andSumidero de Cebolla (AN No. 11).

In August 19S5, SAGA membersMichael Denneborg and Andreas Emonts-pohl, and CAET members Claude Bachr,Jose Luis Marti:nez, and Ruben Loaizafound a cave called Infierno de Camo-tera. It is a 55-meter shaft into a

-100

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Exolaration and survey: c.A. E. TIS. A G. A.

10

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source: Blane Colton

The Yucuyacua mountain range infar western Oaxaca was first investi-gated in 1982 by Steve Knutson, BillLiebman, and Randy Spahl. After a long

In April 1985, a group of sixAustralian cavers investigated a newkarst area around Maria Luisa, on theplateau north of Huautla. They beganto find caves immediately. Sotano OsoMuento was pushed to a length of 1.13kilometers and a depth of 242 meters.A very spectacular l50-meter entranceshaft was followed by passages of dry,loose breakdown. Sotano de los Ladro-nes was explored down a 170-meterentrance pitch to a narrow blowingrift. The cave name came from an inci-dent where some caving gear wasstolen.

Some of the group walked over aridge to the giant closed valley ofZongolica. The locals proudly showedthem their caves, and in the night themissing equipment mysteriously reap-peared on a rock outcrop. One of thebetter looking entrances in that areawas a small stream-sink named NitaXonga. After several days of explora-tion an apparent bottom was reached atabout -34U meters. However, during thederigging a side lead was discoveredat about the 300-meter level which ledto a new streamway. Instead of recon-necting into the boulder pile at thebottom of the cave as expected, it ledto a 50 meter pit. Several streamsentered at the bottom, and then alarger one further along. After des-cending a short drop, the cavers foundthemselves looking down another longerdrop at about -450 meters, and withnot enough rope to do it. Rocks drop-ped for several seconds, and bouncedfor a few more. Out of time, the Aus-tralians made plans to return in Nov-ember 1985.

sources: David Martin, Alan WarildDescent No. 60, October 1985

large room with a rocky, slopingfloor. Guano is present, as are batson the ceiling. Infierno is formedalong some sort of f aul t, and thebreakdown deposits do not seem to bevery old.

source: Michael Denneborg,Andreas Emonts-pohl

OAXACA

In late January 1985, Blane Col-ton, Ernie Garza, Laszlo Kubinyi, andKarlin Meyers conducted a reconnais-sance of the Suchitunaco plateau, asection of the Sierra Mazateca east ofHuautla. They were able to scout theroutes up into the area and found anumber of caves. They found their wayto the edge of an enormous sinkholethat had captured the interest ofcavers since 1969. But Cerro Rabonand Cerro Coatzopan, forested karstareas above 2000 meters, remain un-checked.

In spite of warnings about un-friendly locals, they found the Maza-tec Indians of the area to be quitehospitable. Access was gained via anewly built trail out of Jala~a deDiaz, which ascends 1400 meters in 5kilometers. Dozens of pits and caveswere noted, and several were brieflyinvestigated. One of these, Cueva deSan Martin, was downclimbed 40 metersto the edge of a 2.5 second pit. Tra-vel off of existing trails proved tobe difficult at best, but trails wereoften found in just the right places.

The depth potential for caves onthis high plateau is substantial. Itwas learned that some very largesprings emerge below the surface ofthe Presa Miguel Aleman. The mostpromising access to the area is via atrail from San Jose Tenango. Unfortu-nately, the group was denied permis-sion to go in that way due to a recentsensitive archeological find in a cavenearby. While negotiations for offi-cial permission are underway, it iscurrently off limits to outsiders. Thecavers involved would like to askothers be patient and not jeopardizefuture access by making trips to the

area until formalarranged with theAnthropology andTenango.

permission can bestate Institute ofthe Presidente of

11

drive on dirt roads, they reached theMixtec town of Itundujia, situatednext to a large dolina with sinks andpits on the bottom. In the areanearby, they found karst towers andmore large sinks, mostly filled byerosion. After several days of inves-tiga tion they located a promisingentrance near Buena Vista, which theypushed down two short rope drops andsome climbs to a swim, with anotherdrop on the far side. They could notdetect any airflow, however.

In 1983 a return trip was made tothe area. This time the group consis-ted of Warren Anderson, Bill Bock-stiegel, Steve Knutson, Dick LaForge,and Dave Walker. Afte~ establishingcamp near Buena Vista, Bill and Warrenwere shown a second cave near thefirst one. It descended rapidly down afault, and had airflow. The crew ex-plored down through several constric-tions and short drops to a depth ofabout 100 meters, where they stoppedat the top of a 15 meter drop. Illnessamong the crew and some problems withthe locals prompted them to leave thearea at that time. When Knutson, JimPisarowicz, and Mary Standifer return-ed in 1984, they were told they couldnot go into the area.

source: Steve KnutsonNSS News, November 1985

PUEBLA

Since 1980, Belgian cavers of theGroupe Speleo Alpine BeIge (GSAB) havemade four trips to Mexico. These 2-month trips of six to eight cavershave in the past been moderately suc-cessful. Several kilometers of pas-sages and depths up to 300 meters havebeen pioneered, but no real spectacu-lar finds were made.

The fifth expedition in March andApril of 1985 had much more success,resulting in the discovery of 35 kilo-meters of passages in various caves.Now accustomed to Mexico and itskars t, the group chose a new areaclose to Zoquitlan and Alcomunga, nearthe boundary of the states of Pueblaand Oaxaca. This area had been check-

12

ed toward the end of the 1983 GSABexpedition and seemed very promising.

The sixteen members of the expe-di tion divided into two groups. Tencavers concentrated on the area aroundAlcomunga, Ocotempa, and Huitzmoloc,between 1600 and 2200 meters eleva-tion. In the lapiaz and dolinas ofthis area they hoped to find the highentrances to a presumed system with adepth potential of up to 2000 meters.The other group prospected the resur-gence zone at Coyolapa and Atzempa, ataltitudes of 200 to 350 meters.

On the high plateau, more than 9kilometers were mapped in variouscaves. At Huitzmoloc ( elevation 1650meters), a cave called Aztotempa wasexplored for 4 kilometers, to a depthof 700 meters. It contained a room 350meters long, 100 to 150 meters wide,and 40 to 60 meters high. Also explor-ed in this area was Monti tl a, onekilometer long.

Near Ocotempa, at 1760 meterselevation, a lot of shafts were foundthat were 100 to 150 meters deep. Thedeepest was Pozo Verde, a 380-meterrope drop with a large but short gal-lery at the bottom. A meander througha very compact limestone then led tothe deepest point at -400 meters. Theshallower pits included OC 8, a 160-meter pit that reaches a total depthof 260 meters, OC 4, a lbO-meter pit,HU 2, a 100-meter pit, and S6tano deAztotempa, a 100 meter pit.

Higher up at San Miguel (eleva-tion 1850 meters), El Mirador wasexplored to a length of 1070 metersand a depth of 150 meters. At Alcomun-ga (2100 meters elevation), a cavenamed AL 7 was explored to a length of850 meters and a depth of 90 meters.

Down at the resurgence level, themajor discovery was Coyolatl, at anelevation of 350 meters. This is ahuge river cave 19 kilometers long,with a river that flows 15 cubic met-ers per second in the dry seasonthrough wide trunk passages 50 metershigh. The cave has a vertical extentof 200 meters.

At Oztopulco (elevation 330 met-ers), first investigated in 1982, 5

kilometers of galleries are now knownin three large resurgences. These areXantilco (1 kilometer long), Tamazcal-co (3 kilometers), and Resumidero delRi:o Topitza.

So now with such good potentialto return to, there will certainly bea sixth Belgian expedition to Mexico.

source: Richard GrebeudeGeorges Feller, Speleo Flash No. 147

Just to the south of the areaexplored by the Belgians, an Australi-an expedition in February 1985 disco-vered numerous pits around the moun-tain Xincinteptl, above the village ofCoyomeapan. During a pre-expeditionrecon, Steve Bunton and Alan Warildhad found three pits about 100 metersdeep near the village of Ixtlahuac,and had begun exploration of one ofthem. With the arrival of the maingroup, two pits were quickly bottomed,Sotanito de Ixtlahuac and Sotano delMalvavisco. Both contained a series ofvertical pitches ending at about -150meters. Sotano del Serrucho began witha spectacular 77-meter free pitch. Asteep talus slope led to a seconddrop, below which they were stopped bya flowstone blockage.

Two weeks of further lead-check-ing around Ixtlahuac produced numerouspits and entrances, but nothing exten-sive. Cueva de la Telarana was theonly true "cave" found, and it wasonly 30 meters long and 17 metersdeep. The pits were more impressive.Sotano de la Vampiresa was bottomed at106 meters, and Hoyo del Conej on at158 meters. The latter began with al24-meter entrance shaft. Attempts tofollow airflow by climbing up in someof these pits produced no results.Near the summit of Xincinteptl, atover 3000 meters elevation, a smallblind shaft was found.

source: David Martin, Alan WarildDescent No. 66, October 1985

Cueva Escalera, near Cuetzalan,was explored and mapped by Don DeLu-cia, Lisa DeLucia, John Ganter, DavidMcClurg, and Gary Mele on 30 December1984. This cave was explored in 1972

or 1973 by Nevin Davis, who describedit in AMCS Newsletter vol. IV no. 5-6.The entrance is in a clump of brush 10meters southeast of the Jonotla-Cuet-zalan road.

A slippery fissure 1 meter widedrops for 12 meters to a wide, mean-dering trunk passage. The remains of aladder (escalera) are on the floor.The cave extends under the road to thesouthwest, then terminates in shalybreakdown. The trunk continues to thenortheast, where weathering has formedcalcite sand on the floor, reminiscentof sugar coating.

Fifty meters from the entrance,they dug in a hole along the eastwall. The 6-meter pit would be diffi-cult to descend due to the loose sand.Past the pit, the main passage conti-nues, with the cave stream largelyhidden beneath breakdown and calcite.The passage terminates in breakdown,and the stream issues from a smallpassage on the left side. Cueva Esca-lera is 362 meters long and 37 metersdeep.

source: John GanterNittany Grotto News, vol. XXXII no. 4

(map)QUERETARO

A group of cavers from Mexico,D.F., led by Eusebio Hernandez, explo-red eight pits at Tonatico, near Pinalde Amoles, in December 1983. The deep-est of these was Sotano del Puerto deSan Pedro, with a total depth of 177meters. The first drop is 36 metersdeep, and the second is 102 meters.

source: Carlos Lazcano

SAN LUIS POTOSI

Another obscure pit has beendiscovered close to Sotano del Arroyo(see AN No. 14). On 3 February 1985,Marcus Buck and Mary Standifer noticeda small entrance below a bedrock ledgealong the trail down to Arroyo. SotanoObscuro del Arroyo turned out to havetwo drops of 11 and 25 meters, af terwhich the cave ended.

source: Marcus Buck

13

20

J. H. Gon/er /985

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10

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mud floor

-59m

source: Steve Robertson

VERACRUZ

In March 1985, Marcus Buckand Brian Smith explored two pits500 meters northeast of AguaBlanca, about 2 kilometerssoutheast of Valle de losFantasmos. Sotano de Agua BlancaNo. 1 has an initial free drop of59 meters, and ends in a flat mudfloor at 85 meters depth. Sotanode Agua Blanca No. 2 is a blindpit 11 meters deep. Also exploredwas Sotanito de Agua Blanca No.1, 30 meters deep.

source: Marcus Buck

Lori Robertson and SteveRobertson spent several dayscaving in the area aroundZongolica in December 1984. Theyinvestigated rumors of largecaves near Coetzala in the Zon-golica range; they turned out tobe little more than large sheltercaves. These were Cueva DondeBrota el Agua and Cueva de lasPinturas de Coetzala. The latterhas six pictographs of finequality, which, amazingly, weresituated 30 to 40 meters up aslick, slightly overhung verticalwall.

They had intended to checkout the resurgence of the RIoTonto, but decided against itwhen they learned that land feudswere in progress and that peoplein a nearby village slept in thehills to avoid roving bands ofarmed campesinos. At the sumideroEl Popoca, their efforts tocollect cave fish were thwartedby high water from heavy rain thenight before. The normal flow ofone cubic meter per second wasnearly doubled, making the 60-meter entrance pitch trulyawesome .

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Sketch by Marcus Buck

March 1985

10m

SOTANO DE AGUABLANCA No.1San Luis Potosi. Mexico

San Luis Potosi. MexicoSketch by Marcus Buck....roll. 1886

SOTANO DEAGUA BLANCA No. Z

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arroyo

Sketch by Marcus BuckFebruary 1985

SOTANO OBSCURO DEL ARROYOSAN LUIS POTOSI. MEXICO

A B

-11

15

Long Caves of Mexico

compiled by Peter S. Sprouse

1. Sistema Purificacion2. Sistema Huautla3. Sistema Cuetzalan4. Coyalatl5. Nita Nanta6. Sumidero Santa Elena7. Cueva de la Pena Colorada8. Atepolihuit de San Miguel9. Sotano del Arroyo

10. Cueva del Tecolote11. Actun de Kaua12. Sumidero de Jonotla13. Sotano de Las Calenturas14. Gruta del R!o Chontalcoatlin15. Gruta del R!o San Jeronimo16. Grutas de Juxtlahuaca17. Veshtucoc18. Cueva del Nacimiento del R!o San Antonio19. Sotano de la Tinaja20. Sotano de Japones21. Sistema San Andres22. Sotano del R!o Iglesia23. Sistema Zoquiapan24. Sima del Borrego25. Aztotempa26. Sumidero San Bernardo27. Sotano de Agua de Carrizo28. Nita Nashi29. Cueva del R!o Jalpan30. Actun Xpukil31. Cueva de la Laguna Verde32. Sumidero Yochib33. Cueva de El Chorreadero34. Resumidero la Joya35. Atepolihuit de Nauzontla36. Sotano de Tlamaya37. Sistema de Montecillos38. Resumidero de Toxin39. Sotano de Huitzmolotitla40. Sumidero de Atliliakan41. Sotano del R!o Coyomeapan42. Tamazcalco43. Sotano del Tigre44. Boca del R!o Apetlanca45. Cueva Ayockal46. Actun Loltun47. Sistema Santa Lucia48. Cueva de Juan Sanchez49. Sima de la Cruz Verde50. Cueva de la Llorona

TamaulipasOaxacaPueblaPueblaOaxacaPueblaOaxacaPueblaSan Luis Potos!TamaulipasYucatinPueblaTamaulipasGuerreroGuerreroGuerreroChiapasOaxacaSan Luis PotosiSan Luis Potas!PueblaOaxacaPueblaGuerreroPueblaPueblaOaxacaOaxacaQueretaroYucatinOaxacaChiapasChiapasGuerreroPueblaSan Luis PotosiSan Luis PotosiJaliscoSan Luis PotosiGuerreroPueblaPueblaSan Luis Potos!GuerreroPueblaYucatinPueblaOaxaca-VeracruzPueblaTamaulipas

55,07833,78922,43219,00011 ,655

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2500249323012256

Deep Caves of Mexico

compiled by Peter S. Sprouse

1. Sistema Huautla2. Nita Nanta3. Sistema Purificacion4. Sotano de Agua de Carrizo5. Sotano de Trinidad6. Aztotempa7. Sotano de Tilaco8. Nita Nashi9. Cueva de Diamante

10. Nita He11. Sistema Cuetzalan12. Sotano de las Coyotas13. Sotano del R!o Iglesia14. Sotano de Nogal15. Sotano de Ahuihuitzcapa16. Sotano de las Golondrinas17. Hoya de las Conchasl~. Sotano del Buque19. Hoya de las Guaguas20. Cueva de San Agust!n21. Sotano del Barro22. Hoyo de San Miguel23. Sotano Itamo24. Nita Xonga25. Cueva de La Pena26. Sotano de Tlamaya27. Pozo Verde28. Sumidero Santa Elena29. Atepo1ihuit de San Miguel3U. Cueva de la Llorona31. Sotano de la Joya de Salas32. Hoya del Poleo33. Sotano Tomasa Kiahua34. Sotano de la Virgen35. Sotano del Perro Vivo36. Cueva de El Chorreadero37. Cueva de Xocotlat38. Sotano del R!o Coyomeapan39. Grutas de San Cristobal40. Sotano de Los Hernandez41. Cueva de Santa Cruz42. Sumidero del R!o Xocotlat43. Sotano de Seis Segundos44. Sotanito de Ahuacatlan45. Hoya de Zimapan46. Sumidero de Atikpak47. Nita Ntau - Nita Nido48. Sotano de Jabal!49. Sistema Zoquiapan50. Sotano del Burro

OaxacaOaxacaTamaulipasOaxacaSan Luis PotosiPueb1aQueretaroOaxacaTamaulipasOaxacaPueblaGuanajuatoOaxacaQueretaroVeracruzSan Luis Potos!QueretaroQueretaroSan Luis Potos!OaxacaQueretaroGuerreroVeracruzOaxacaSan Luis Potos!San Luis PotosiPueblaPueblaPueb1aTamaulipasTamaulipasGuanajuatoVeracruzQueretaroHidalgoChiapasPueblaPueblaChiapasQueretaroOaxacaPueblaOaxacaQueretaroSan Luis PotosiVeracruzOaxacaQueretaroPueblaQueretaro

12521080

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ILITLAPROJECT REPORT

Compiled by Terri Sprouse

The Xilitla area in the state ofSan Luis Potosi has always been one ofthe prime caving areas in Mexico. Fora number of years AMCS cavers havebeen gathering information for an AMCSBulletin on the area.

A trip to the Xilitla area sound-ed like an excellent way to spend theChristmas holidays of 1984. The unfin-ished map of S6tano de Tlamaya was agood enough reason to organize anexpedi tion to the area. Recrui tingcavers for the project was no problem.

18

Over 20 cavers from various parts ofthe continent -- Canada to Texas,California to Pennsylvania -- partici-pated over the course of the week-longproject.

The main objective was to com-plete the survey of S6tano de Tlamayadown the final drop to the sump, andto map the upstream infeeder thatleads into the Big Room. After sortingand labeling ropes, two groups enteredthe cave to rig the drops down to theBig Room. Rigging via the Upper En-

trance was chosen, because that routeconsists of several relatively shortdrops, whereas the first pitch intothe Lower Entrance is almost 84 me-ters. It is much faster for largegroups to move through a series ofshort drops, rather than pile up atthe bottom of a long drop.

RIGGING TO THE BIG ROOM

The first rig team of MarcusBuck, John Ganter, Louise Hose, andBrad Wilson entered Tlamaya and accom-plished their goal of rigging to the45-meter drop. A couple of hoursafter the first crew entered, thesecond team of Dave Bunnell, BillFarr, Gary Mele, and Carol Vesely leftfor the cave. When they reached theninth drop the fun began. They hadinadvertantly free-climbed the previ-ous handline drop. So now the ropeswere out of sequence, but they did notdiscover the error until after a com-plicated feat of rigging and re-rigging.

They found themselves at the topof what appeared to be a 20-meterdrop, and the rope that they thoughtwas numbered and marked for this par-ticular drop was only 20 meters long.The tie-off alone looked like it woulduse up almost 10 meters. They wentahead and tied the rope off anyway, sothat they could better gauge the situ-ation. Dave peered over the lip andthought he could see the rope justabove the floor. Scavenging a pieceof webbing, they retied the rope.This time Dave tied a flashlight tothe end and declared he thought itreached the bottom. He must have feltconfident that it did, because herigged in and descended without anyascending gear on. Before long,though, he was calling back up to theothers that he was at the end of therope and still a good 5 meters off thebottom.

His companions above felt theycould safely tie another rope to therope Dave was dangling from and lowerhim down. He agreed to let them havea go at it. With considerable effort,

Bill, Carol, and Gary managed to liftDave up a few inches. While Bill andGary held Dave in place, Carol added alonger rope and tied it off, and theylowered Dave down. By now they real-ized why the rope had been too shortto begin with, and they corrected theproblem and proceeded on down to theBig Room.

They romped around in the BigRoom for a while, had lunch, and tooka short excursion into the upstreamfeeder. They found it to be nicewalking passage, not too muddy, withlots of pretty sculpting in the walls.

SURVEY TO THE BOTTOM

The next day two teams formed togo to the bottom of the cave. PaulFambro, Laurent Ouellet, Susie Raines,and Terry Raines completed the riggingfrom the Big Room on down to the bot-tom. John Ganter, Louise Hose, PeterSprouse, and Luc Trepanier followedthe rig team in, taking photos alongthe way. At the bottom of FossilPit, Peter climbed up to an intermedi-ate level where he saw four leads.They continued on to the bottom of thePinnacle Drop, where the survey began.

Following the Pinnacle Drop are acouple of short climbdown pitches, andthen the cave continues for severalhundred meters as a nearly levelstream passage with many pools. Thepassage gradually widens, with majorledges above the stream on eitherside. Often it is not possible to seethe upper walls, and there may well beincoming passages in this area. Afinal 5-meter climbdown can be des-cended on the right side; then thepassage turns left and becomes verymuddy. An incised stream channelwinds between high mudbanks , and thehigh ceiling is nearly beyond sight.Suddenly the passage becomes low andnarrow, and the cave ends in a lowroom 3 meters wide. The flowingstream disappears in mud under the

Opposite: Bill Farr at Junction Pitin Sotano de Tlamaya. (Dave Bunnell)

19

The Lower Streamway in Sotano deTlamaya. (Peter Sprouse)

wall ahead. In wet periods this sec-tion is inundated.

NEW LEAD

Two days later three teams enter-ed the cave to wrap things up. DavidDodge, Terri Sprouse, and Mary Standi-fer did some clean-up survey near theentrance. John t Paul t and Peter map-ped the leads that Peter had noted atthe top of Fossil Pit. This section tAmblypygid Canyon t led to anotherdownstream section where they stoppedat the top of a waterfall drop. Bill tCarol, Dave, and Gary headed down tothe Big Room to survey the upstreamlead. The mapping started out withnice ten and twenty meter shotsthrough pleasant streau~aYt until theycarne to the "duck-under." There theydonned their wetsui ts and forged onwith their grim survey through a bel-lycrawl in mud and water. They even-tually carne to a fair-sized room t theTortilleria, 10 to 15 meters in dia-meter, with a couple of crawlways

20

Upstream Passage beyond Big Room in Sotano de Tlamaya. (Dave Bunnell)

leading off. A small lead is presentup on one wall, and to the right offthis room is a walking-sized passage,which soon lowers to a crawl. After20 meters this passage forks.

To the right is a series ofcrawlways, one of which intersects asmall flowing stream. Upstream thisstream sumps, while downstream thepassage continues small. Left at thepassage fork, the crawlway continuesthen opens into a small room, theGhoststone Room, marked by erodedflowstone and draperies.

At this point, there is a climbup to the right to a high canyon and a6-meter-high flowstone climb. Thecanyon passage can be seen to continueabove. The survey party all agreedthat the climb was feasible, but theyalso felt that some protection wasneeded. They took a few photos andheaded out.

Un the way out, Carol experiencedgreat pain in her feet, and ended upcrawling most of the way, includingthe trail back to the truck. As itturned out, she was probably sufferingfrom trench foot caused by wet feetinside boots that were too tight;

The next day Louise Hose, LaurentOuellet, Marc Tremblay, and Luc Tre-panier derigged the remainder of thecave from the Fossil Pit.

The map of Satano de Tlamaya isstill not complete. But at least allof the previously known and exploredpassages have been surveyed, with bothplan and profile views drawn. Billand Carol are seriously considering areturn trip to survey the lead theyleft. Perhaps then the final map canbe drafted. The current survey showsTlamaya to be 447 meters deep and 3057meters long.

SANTUARIO ADENTRO

Between trips into Satano deTlamaya, several other caves in thearea were discovered and explored.During the midd 1e of the week Bill,Carol, and Dave headed off for Satanode las Golondrinas, where they were tomeet some friends who were bringing

the rope. Their friends never showedup, but fortunately they had a contin-gency plan. Peter had given them atopo map and told them of a newlycompleted road to an area with goodpotential for caves.

They bounced and slid their wayto the small village of Tancuim, wherethey immediately drew a crowd oflocals. After chatting with the peo-ple and telling them that they wereinterested in seeing the local cavesand satanos, they were shown a pitabout 50 meters from the truck. Theentrance to Satano de Tancuim No. 2was about 6 to l:S meters across. Thispit may be the same as Satano de Tan-cuim No.1, discovered in 1975 by MikeSchulte. Half the men and boys of thetown watched as Bill descended about25 meters and confirmed that it wasdead bottom.

Next, two men said that they knewof a bigger pit about a half-hour walkaway and offered to guide them. Afteragreeing on a price for their guideservice, they all took off up thesteep hill. They went through a fewsinks and passed some intriguing karstoutcrops with holes that looked likecave entrances. The guides said toignore them; they were too small.Eventually they came to a gaping en-trance in the side of a cliff.

Inside, the entrance floor slopeddown steeply, but it certainly wasn'ta pit as the guide had said. Instead,it was a large impressive room withbreakdown and moss on the floor andold flowstone along the walls. Themost interesting things in the roomwere some areas that the locals hadbeen using as altars. One contained afew dozen long sticks and a brokenpot. Another had more sticks, somefresh yellow flowers wrapped inleaves, a stack of rot ting gradeschool books, and a devil's mask.

The guide pointed to a small holein the flowstone high on the far wall.The pit was on the other side, throughthe hole. Bill climbed the wall andrigged a handline for Carol and Dave.At the top they found themselves in alarge chamber with a great echo. The

21

PROFILE

CUEVA DEL SANTUAR/O ADENTRO

SAN LUIS POTOSJ. MEXICOIUUNTO AND TA'. lURVEY, DICE"'IEA tt ... IV:

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Gary Mele

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SOTANO DE TANCUlM NO.2Tamapatz, San Luis Potosi

Sketch by Bill Farr24 December 1984

PROFILE

PLAN

30 m\\RE

a possibility of a high lead on thefar wall, but it would probably re-quire a bol t climb. They named thecave Cueva del Santuario Adentro.

CUEVA DE EL CANON

One day, while roost of the caverswere in Satano de Tlamaya, Terry andSusie Raines were being led around tovarious caves by their faithful guide,Eudosia Hernandez. When Eudosio was 9years old, he took Terry and others toSatano de Tlamaya for the first time;that was in 1964. On this particular

day he took them to Cueva de El Canon.It is a very large cave located in thepeak of a karst hill.

The following day John Ganter,Gary Mele, Terri Sprouse, and TomStrong decided to survey it. Terrygave them a ride the 3 kilometersnortheast of Tlamaya to the village ofEl Canon. The entrance is 25 meterswide, and much of the cave's largechamber is visible from the entrance.A well-used trail switchbacks down theheavi ly vege ta ted entrance slope.This slope is quite steep at first,then turns to gently sloping flow-stone. The ceiling is thick withstalacti tes. The bottom portion ofthe cave contains large stalagmitesand rimstone dams. Near the back ofthe cave are several water-collectionpots, most of which have flowstonedeposi ts on them. Potsherds litterthe floor. Near the entrance, alongthe north wall, are the remains of alO-meter-high wooden scaffold built bylocal resident Eugenio Garcia in 1969to reach some honeybee nests.

The large entrance chamber to Cueva de E1 Canon. (Peter Sprouse)

23

CUEVA DE SAN PEDRO

On one of the off days betweentrips in S6tano de Tlamaya, Bill Farr,Mary Standifer, and Carol Vesely fol-lowed the new road out of Tlamaya upthe mountain to the town of San PedroHuitzquilico to look for caves. Theywere shown two pits in town and a cavethat was northwest of the town. Thefirst pit was near the school, hencethe name S6tano de la Escuela de SanPedro. Bill Farr explored and sketch-ed the lO-meter blind pit. The pitoffsets to the west partway down, andis strewn with trash.

A large group returned to SanPedro the next day to have a look atthe other pit, S6tano Escondido, andCueva de San Pedro. The pit is situ-

ated on the southwest edge of thevillage. The entrance is 3 by 5 met-ers across and is almost completelyobscured by vegetation. Bill exploredthe 26-meter drop to a dirt-f looredchamber, with a short decorated pas-sage extending off one side.

Cueva de San Pedro is locatedabout 500 meters northwest of thevillage, over a pass. It is on thewest side of a valley, at the base ofa cone hill. The entrance is d meterswide and 3 meters high, and slopesdown and splits into two well-decora-ted chambers. The cave is litteredwith broken pots and offerings left bylocals.

Carol Vesely sketching formation chamber in Cueva de San Pedro. (Dave Bunnell)

24

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Tlamaya, San Luis Potosi

Sketch by Bill Farrn December 1984

PROFILE

N approx.

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SOTANO ESCONDIDOTlamllyll, San Luis Potosi

Sketch by Bill Farr28 December 1984

PROFILE

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FURTHER DISCOVERIES

About 2 kilometers east-northeastof Tlamaya, Gary Mele located a cavesituated in a cliff face. Cueva delas Tinaj as Viej as has a large, 30-meter-diameter entrance that quickly

26

narrows toward the rear. Potsherds andold, dry formations were seen inside.Gary also found Sotanito de la Puerta,located approximately 1 kilometernortheast of Tlamaya. He estimatedthe depth to be about lU meters, butdid not descend. John Ganter partial-

ly explored Cueva del DesagUe, namedfor its proximity to a drainage ditch.It is located on the south side of theTlamaya road about 500 meters east ofthe arroyo containing Sotano de Huitz-molotitla. A I-meter drop leads to adebris-covered ledge and then a 3-meter overhung drop, which has notbeen descended. Although no continua-tions were seen, the cave does takerunoff during heavy rains. Bats wereseen in the cave. Across the roadfrom Cueva de EI Carion, Terry andSusie Raines mapped 80-meter longCueva Tepametl.

Down near the Nacimiento del RioHuichihuayan, the main resurgence forthe Xilitla area, a couple of caveswere explored. Cueva del Cerro de laVent ana del Nacimiento consisted ofone large room. John Ganter, GaryMele, and Terry and Susie Raines vis-ited Boca del Canon. It is located atthe end of a canyon and is entered byrappelling through a logj am. Terrypushed a crawlway for 20 meters or so.They made a sketch map of the cave.

RETURN TOTLAMAYA AREA

meters

10,

PROFII.E

tN Ilppro:

these descriptions have maps to accom-pany them, and although many of themare already drafted, many are still inthe "to be inked" category. JamesReddell, who systematically recordsall biological collections in Mexico,will be providing the biology chapter.Jerry Atkinson is working on the geol-

ogy section. Reports of new cavediscoveries and other information arestill needed.

(This article was compiled fromreports written by Dave Doolin, BillFarr, John Ganter, Peter Sprouse,Terri Sprouse, and Carol Vesely.)

PROYECTO XILITLA

Una expedicion fue hecha en diciembre de 1984 para completar latopografla del Sotano de Tlamaya. Aunque la topografia esta cornpletahasta el sifon mas bajo, hay un ramal en la parte superior del BigRoom que continua ipexplorado. La profundidad actual de la caverna esde 447 metros, y su longitud es de 3057 metros. Muchas otras cuevasfueron exploradas, incluyendo Cueva del Santuario Adentro, Cueva deEl Canon, y Cueva de San Pedro. Estas cuevas son basicamente largascamaras 0 galerlas que contienen bellas formaciones. Se hicieronalgunos otros viajes al area en 1984 y 1985 en el cual muchas cuevaspequenas fueron localizadas y exploradas.

Resurvey crew, S6tano de Tlamaya, Christmas 1984. (Terry Raines)

28

the stolen child

Where dips the rocky highlandOf limestone to the lake tThere lies a leafy entranceWhere snapping carbides wakeThe drowsy winter bats;There we've hid our rimstone vats tFilled to measureWith gleaming crystal treasure.

Come awaYt 0 human child!To the caves forever wildWith a hodag t hand in hand tFor the world's more full of hassles

than you can understand.

Where Vibram caresses on stygianbeaches

Awake the fishes without sight tFar off in furthest reachesWe'll foot it all the night tRigging golden ropes tMingling 'biners and virgin hopesTill the moon has taken flight;To and fro we seekAnd chase cascading waters tWhile the world above slumbers in

it's quartersand dreads the coming of the week.

Come awaYt 0 human child!To the caves forever wildWith a hodag t hand in hand tFor the world's more full of hassles

than you can understand.

Where the waters sink from sightFrom the mountains high above tIn pools amongst the 'mitesThat scarce could bathe a glove tWe seek for slumbering creaturesAnd murmuring upon their formsGive them unquiet dreams;Soft recessive featuresGather lazily in spawning swarmsSlowly rippling cavern streams.

Come awaYt 0 human child!To the caves forever wildWith a hodag t hand in handFor the world's more full of hassles

than you can understand.

Away with us he's coming tThe carbide-eyed:He'll feel no more the sunningOf lizards on the warm hillside tOr hear the trilling canyon wrenSing peace into his breast tNor taste the autumn cedar scentThat swells within the chest.

For he comes t the human child tTo the caves forever wildWith a hodag t hand in hand tFrom a world more full of hassles

than he can understand.

(With apologies to W.B. Yeats)

29

30

RESUMIDERO DE

T 0 X IN

by Carlos Lazcano Sahagun

Members of the Sociedad Mexicanade Exploraciones Subterraneas firstheard of Resumidero de Toxin whilechecking caves in the high country ofCerro Grande along the Colima - Jalis-co border. The locals spoke of a large"gruta" that no one had reached thebottom of. The cave is located nearthe small village of Toxin, to thenorth of Cerro Grande in the state ofJalisco.

One fine day we decided to quitCerro Grande and investigate Resumide-ro de Toxin - so named by the localsbecause an arroyo is lost into theentrance. After descending through thefine forests of Cerro Grande, wereached the hot valley of Toxin. Thefriendly residents immediately showedus the cave entrance, 500 metersnortheast of the village.

The entrance to the resumidero issmall and requires a 6-meter down-climb. A wide gallery leads off, tak-ing the flow of the RIo Toxin duringtimes of flood. This passage is char-acterized by well-consolidated mud,then passes through an area of largebreakdown blocks. After progressingsome 300 meters, we were stopped by a9-meter drop. We turned around heredue to lack of time, planning to re-turn the following year.

In April 1984 we were back, sevenstrong, with a large amount of gear.Our team included Dalila Calvario,Ramon Espinasa, Sergio Lozada, ElenaRoussillo-Perret, Carlos Lazcano, andtwo French cavers we had invited, YvesBramoulle and Daniele Bruzac. We spenttwo weeks camped at Toxin. During thistime we explored deeper into the cave,shedding light on beautiful galleriesthat tad been so long hidden. Ourresul ts showed the resumidero to be3005 meters long and 95 meters deep,at this time the longest cave in Jal-isco.

PASSAGE VARIETIES

The first of four large rooms inthe cave is encountered after thesecond drop. It is 50 meters long and15 meters wide and high. The walls are

covered with flowstone and the floorwith breakdown. The second large roomis the Salon del Rat-Penat, 700 metersfrom the entrance. It is 40 meterslong, 35 meters wide, and over 25meters high. Mud cascades cover thewalls and hundreds of bats take resi-dence there.

The largest room in the cave iscalled the Bisalon, 1.4 kilometersfrom the entrance. The name comes fromthe large ridge of mud which nearlydivides the room in two. Its length is150 meters, it has a maximum width of50 meters, and the ceiling heightvaries between 5 and 10 meters. Thefloor is characterized by sandy flats,breakdown, and a well-defined streamtrench. At the north end of the roomthe water flow has formed a perfectarch in the ceiling.

The fourth large room, the Salondel Infinito, is located 2.6 kilome-ters inside the cave, nearly at theend. It measures 50 meters long, 30meters wide, and 10 meters high. Ithas a deep stream-channel between mudmounds.

In addition to big rooms, thecave has a lot of large passage thatis often sandy-f loored with somebreakdown. Some of the large galleriesare up to 100 meters in extent, andare for the most part easy walkingpassage. Some of the passages aremeanders where the river flow twistsand turns. Here the walls and ceilingare well sculptured, as if worked byexpert artisans, and at other timesresembling the tunnels of the Metro.One of these galleries contains a lake23 meters long, which we crossed byswimming.

Beyond the Bisalon is the Galeriadel Gran Colapso, where over time thefalling of boulders from the ceilinghas created a maze of rocks. Entranceto the Gran Colapso is a squeeze by ahuge block 16 meters long, 7 meterswide, and 8 meters high. Farther alongis the Carion de Elena, a straight

Opposite: Potholes in Resumidero deToxin. (Carlos Lazcano)

LA TAZA

SAN PEORO TOXIN.

MUNICIPIO DE TOUMAN. JAL

CROQUIS ELA80RAOO EN ABRIL DE 1984.

POR : C LAZCANO

IN$TI TUTC DE GEOGRAFIA UNAM

SUPERF'CI! DEL AGUA

PROFVNDIDAD MAX.

canyon 100 meters long t 7 meters high tand with walls that ascend into dark-ness that our lights could not pene-trate.

Al though most of the cave isquite large t there are varioussqueezes and crawls. The cave ends ina sumpt which we have no plans to pushdue to the bad air t probably methane tat the bottom. Some side leads alsoended in sumps. The longest side pas-sage explored was 115 meters in ex-tent. There are two leads that remainto be explored.

LA TAZA

The resurgence to Resumidero deToxin is situated 9 kilometers to thenorth and 400 meters lower. Called LaTaza t this spring has a flow of 300liters per second. At this "ojo deagua" an enclosure has been construc-ted to create a poolt so now the ac-tual spring is 8 meters below thewater surface. Using diving gear tCarlos was able to penetrate 50 metersinto the narrow conduit t withoutreaching any airspace. The water wasvery clear upon entering t but during

32

1ft."'"

Ramon Espinasa setting a bolt in a pitnear Toxin. (Carlos Lazcano)

CANON Oe ELENA

RESUMIDERO DE TOXINTOXIN, MUNICIPIO DE TOllMAN, JALISCO

~~

N

"~'V.,,.o

his return the silt reduced the V1S1-bility to less than a meter. Close tothe entrance is a squeeze where it isnecessary to remove tanks to fitthrough. Another push is planned atthis resurgence.

Additionally, fifteen other caveswere explored in the area, mostly

shallow pits. Resumidero del Puerte-cito is a very vertical cave that wasexplored down four drops of 10, 28,58, and 17 meters to a depth of 123meters. Cueva de los Monos is a cave100 meters long that is very welldecorated.

RESUMIUERO DE TOXIN

El Resumidero de Toxin se localiza cerca de la pequeria villa deToxin, al norte del Cerro Grande en el estado de Jalisco. Un arroyose hunde en una pequeria entrada vertical. En el fondo, el pasaje eslargo y continua por mas de 3 kilometros hasta un sifon, en el eualno hay planes de bueearlo en el futuro debido a la presencia de aireenrarecido en el fondo, probablemente metano. Dos ramales en estacueva eontinuan inexplorados. La resurgeneia de Toxin, llamada LaTaza, se loealiza a 9 kilometros al norte, y 400 metros mas abajo. LaTaza tiene flujo de agua de 30 litros por segundo. Utilizando equipode bueeo, el manantial ha sido penetrado hasta 50 metros sin llegar aalcanzar un punto con aire. Otras 15 cuevas, la mayor!a sotanos ba-j os, fueron ehecadas en el area. Resumidero del Puerteci to fue ex-plorado hacia abajo 4 tiros hasta una profundidad de 123 metros. LaCueva de los Monos, una cueva muy bien decorada, se encontro de 100metros de largo.

Canon de Toxin with Cerro Grande on the right and Cerro deEnmedio on the left. (Carlos Lazcano)

33

Proyecto Espeleol6gico Purificaci6n1984-1985

by Peter Sprouse

During a fifteen month period be-ginning in the fall of 1984, explora-tion continued in many different partsof the Purificacion karst area in thestates of Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon.Two trips were made to Sistema Purifi-cacion, one of which involved a 5-daycamp nearly 3 kilometers inside. Newsurveys in Sistema Purificacionbrought the length of the system up to55,078 meters, an increase of 3908meters. It is Mexico's longest cave, aposition it has held since the connec-tion of Cueva del Hrinco and Cueva de

34

Infiernillo in 1978.Southeast of Sistema Purifica-

cion, two expeditions concentrated onCueva del Tecolote, increasing itslength to 7015 meters and its depth to231 meters. A new discovery nearbycalled Cueva de la Llorona was pushedto 2256 meters in length and 398 met-ers in depth. Farther south, Sotano deSan Marcos was mapped; it is 1019meters long. Additionally, numerousother caves were discovered or extend-ed in the area.

THE PURIFICACION KARST

The Purificacion karst area co-vers approximately 2500 square kilo-meters of the front ranges of theSierra Madre west of Ciudad Victoria.Limestone begins at an elevation of500 meters in the east and reaches aheight of 3500 meters in the westernreaches. The major systems exploredthus far are found in the easternridges, where the coastal weathertends to drop more rain. The drierwes tern mountains exhi bi t mos t lyblind-pit development.

Cave exploration in the Purifica-cion area by AMCS members began around1971, but it was not until 1977 thatthe Proyecto Espeleologico Purifica-cion was conceived. The project goalis to coordinate cave exploration andresearch in the area and to produce adetailed area report. Around 150 caveentrances have thus far been taggedand documented, some of which havebeen joined into cave systems. SistemaPurificacion, for example, currentlyhas 11 known entrances. A major pro-ject goal is the extension and unifi-cation of the area caves, particularlyalong the eastern ridges, where condi-tions are very favorable to long cavedevelopment.

SISTEMA ~URIFICACION

A 13-member PEP expedition campedinside Sistema Purificacion during theperiod 17-22 March 19~5. They dividedinto two teams, and four cavers pro-ceeded into Camp I, 500 meters insidethe Cueva de Infiernillo entrance,while nine cavers continued to CampII, nearly 3 kilometers inside.

At Camp I, Jerry Atkinson, JeffHorowitz, Patty Kambesis, and CyndieWalck settled in on the sand pilesnear the sump lakes that are the low-est point in the system. From therethey were able to work in variousparts of the Confusion Tubes, Infier-

Opposite: Crystal waters of the Val-kyrie River, Brinco. (Peter Sprouse)

nillo's multi-level maze section. Atthe southwestern edge of the Tubes,they first investigated the SandTubes, which leave the Misty Boreholenear the Hose Tubes. They mapped twomain routes in these tubes, with sev-eral leads remaining - as is often thecase in the Confusion Tubes.

In the southeast portion of theTubes, exploration was continued inthe upstream Rio Shumate, a smallstream reached from the Balcony Bore-hole. They soon intersected one ofInfiernillo's main south-trendingpassages at the Bucket, paralleling asimilar connection made in November1982. Some further loops were made inthe heart of the Tubes near the Com-plex Dome.

CAMP II

The remaining crew of nine caversarrived at Camp II after a long jour-ney through the Confusion Tubes andthe South Trunk, which involvedsqueezing duffles through the narrowBreakdown Maze. Leveling the sand atCozumel Beach, each caver claimed aslot for the first occupation of thiscamp since April 1979. Here were allthe amenities, including two lakes,one for drinking water and one forbathing. The Camp II crew consisted ofMarcus Buck, Dave Bunnell, Jim Feely,Louise Hose, Peter Keys, Dale Pate,Jim Pisarowicz, Peter Sprouse, andTerri Sprouse.

The prime lead in the Camp IIarea was the Windsump, a windy cobblechoke blasted open by a crew from CampI on the previous Infiernillo trip inNovember 1982. This lead seemed tooffer the best hope of connecting tothe Columbia, the cave's major south-trending lead, reasonably accessibleonly by a long trip from the Cueva delBrinco entrance high above. On l~March, Dale, Louise, and Jim Feelybegan the survey through theWindsump's small confines. They mappeda fairly tortuous 102 meters, gettingthe worst survey out of the way. Mean-while, Terri, Marcus, and Jim Pisaro-wicz surveyed in a sandy crawl that

35

Duffle hauling on Camp II trip,Infiernillo. (Jim Feely)

took off to the left just before theWindsump. They were able to map 244meters and they had some wind, thoughtheir passages were mazy and lacked amajor route.

BREAKDOWN RIVER

The following day Terri, Marcus,and Jim Feely continued the surveypast the Windsump. The passage gradu-ally got bigger as it headed south.They passed one lead on the left sidethat ascended to breakdown, which theydid not push. Farther on, another sidelead on the left seemed to take theair. But they continued on in the mainpassage, which trended down slightlyand made an abrupt right-hand reversalaround to the north. After a longcrawl over death coral they suddenlyintersected a large borehole with aflowing river trending north. Decidingto leave this for another day, theybacktracked to the side lead that took

36

Louise Hose traversing the Windsumppassage. (Dave Bunnell)

air and did a few shots down it to ashallow pool. Their survey was 504meters, the best of the trip.

On 20 March, Terri, Dale, Dave,Louise, and Jim Feely returned to mapthe new Breakdown River. Ups tream(south) and downstream both led toclear, cold sumps, with the riverbetween them flowing below largebreakdown blocks. This survey addedanother 394 meters. The source anddestination of this new western riverare not apparent; the only other knownflowing stream that might be relatedis the Tokamak River, 1700 meters tothe south.

SHEER NON-CONNECTION

Back at the blowing side lead.Marcus, Peter Keys. and Peter Sprousecontinued the survey to the south.They tied ul:' an amazingly tight tubeloop, then ascended a ramp to theeast. At the top, the passage went

both north and south. North led short-ly to a blowing breakdown choke, andsouth went to a low passage blocked bythin breakdown slabs. The airflow andecho drove them to bashing rocks, andafter a half hour's hammer work theywere through. They again climbed up asteep ramp to the left, then were intoa low, wide southward continuation.

After what seemed like endlesscrawling, the ceiling got higher, butonly brief ly. They wrapped up thesurvey after 430 meters, and Marcuschecked ahead 50 meters to a pool. Itwas dubbed Doesn't Quit Yet, since itdidn't. Later the computer plots indi-cated this passage was lying right ontop of the Columbia, shadowing it afew meters above, yet not connecting.

CAMP AREA

Close to camp, the Gypsum Passagewas investigated by Dave and the twoPeters. This is a dry upper level thatlooped in, down numerous pits, to themaze complex east of camp. Just to thesouth, they looked at the source ofthe Isopod River, which flows by camp.No progress could be made there tn thebreakdown. Likewise breakdown stoppedthem when they tried to push the northend of the Netherhall, essentially thebottom of a huge breakdown talus moun-tain. These surveys added 284 metersto the length of the cave.

SOUTH OF TdE NETHERHALL

Several teams made the ISO-meterascent over the Netherhall to workleads off the Communion Hall, wherethe Brinco-Infiernillo connection hadbeen tied in back in 1978. In the ArneSaknussem Borehole, Dale, Louise, andDave mapped several additional loopsfor 270 meters of survey. One lower-level lead near the Nile, the GiantEnigma, was mapped by Jim Pisarowicz,Peter Keys, and Peter Sprouse.Al though this eventually made a loopback into known passage at the Scorci-ni Connection, several intriguingleads were passed, especially a pitlead that took water and wind. After

392 meters of survey, they shotpictures on the way up to the Nile.While getting into position for aphoto, Jim sli~ped and got a sliver ofrock in his hand. The others tried toremove the s Iiver with Swiss armyknives but could not. Thus Jim wassomewhat disabled for the remainder ofthe expedition. Peter Keys had alsobruised his hand in a fall, but it wasfortunate at least that they couldboth still move through the cave allright.

In the last day's survey, twoteams again crossed over the Nether-hall. Dale, Dave, and Louise pushedGoes 2, a south-trending lead off Goes1 that had not been looked at since1918. This had good airflow, whichthey followed for 146 meters beforequitting for the day. Over towards theNile, Marcus, Terri, and Peter Sprousecleaned up minor leads and loops togain an additional 144 meters of sur-vey.

The team packed up after 5 days,hauling out all trash and spent car-bide as always. The expedition hadlengthened Sistema Purificacion by3352 meters, making it 54,522 meterslong.

CUEVA DEL BRINCO

Two months later, in May 1~85, aPEP crew returned to the high pineforests near Cueva del Brinco in theupper reaches of the system. First anambitious push was launched off to theSouthbound Borehole, the southwardextension of the Columbia 600 metersbelow the .Brinco entrance. On 27 Mayeight cavers donned their wetsuits inthe Dressing Room: Paul Fambro, JohnGanter, Jim Goodbar, Susan Raines,Terry Raines, Peter Sprouse, TerriSprouse, and Lynne Thompson. It waslate in the season, so they weren'ttoo surprised to find water levels upin the cave. At Flowstone Falls, free-climbing was tricky due to the cascadeof spray that doused the lights ofthe carbide cavers. At the halfwaypoint, Fool's Falls, Paul felt ill,and it was decided that Terri and

37

Lynne would accompany him out. Thatleft five cavers to continue on, downthrough the dry Medusa's Maze andYawndwanaland to the Southbound Bore-hole.

At that point, 4 kilometers intothe cave and behind their projectedschedule, they opted for a nearbylead rather than continuing on to theend of the Borehole. The lead joggedwest, then turned south along thefamiliar regional trend. Parallelingthe Southbound Borehole, they followedthe crest of an anticline visible inthe ceiling. After 330 meters in Anti-cline Alley, they halted the survey ata lake, which Terry waded into for aways to determine that it continued.

The trip out was dreary, sincemost of the crew felt somewhat ill.But everyone got a second wind withthe completion of a daily time cyclein the refreshing Rio Verde series,and the entrance was reached after 27hours of caving.

VALKYRIE iUVER

About 150 meters below the Entra-da de los Franceses, highest to thesystem, is the Valkyrie River. Thisstream originates from the south andtrends toward the World Beyond trunk.On 30 May Duwain Whitis, Terry Raines,and Peter Sprouse continued a surveyoff the downstream portion, where DonCoons had explored ahead in 1981. Thisled to a sizable room, but the passagelater pinched after 226 meters ofsurvey. This gave 556 meters of newsurvey in Sistema Purificacion for thetrip, making the system 55,078 meterslong.

Other caves were investigated inthe immediate vicini ty. Cueva delBorrego, just to the south of theFranceses entrance, was the object ofanother confusing survey. Below Totel'lCity, Duwain lost his pants in thetight Whitass Pit, which fortunatelywas bypassed when they looped upthrough the breakdown back at thetotems. Their 94-meter survey madeBorrego 657 meters long.

Up on the side of Cerro Zapatero,

38

Duwain discovered a 20-meter-longblowing cave named Cueva del Sotol.The breeze apparently was coming fromthe nearby second entrance.

Up the Sierpes valley south ofBrinco, numerous filled sinks andentrances were investigated, but nonewent.

CUEVA DEL TECOLOTE

The impressive entrance to Cuevadel Tecolote takes one of the largestdrainages of any cave entrance in thePurificacion area. It is situated at1450 meters elevation in a wide val-ley near the eastern edge of the sier-ras.

A normally dry arroyo drains thevillage of Los San Pedro and tumblesover a short drop just beyond thedripline of the cave. The locals haveinstalled two lengths of heavy-machin-ery tread as a ladder to reach thebottom, so that water may be takenfrom the cave in dry periods. Much ofthe cave water, however, is pollutedby runoff from the town.

Sheila Balsdon, Cnarles Fromen,and others from Houston were the firstcavers to visit Tecolote. They explor-ed about 300 meters to a lake thatappeared to sump. PEP meQbers began asurvey in the spring of 1980, and wereable to push the cave to a length of1341 meters and a depth of lOb meters.Further pushes in 1~d2 and 1984 in-creased the length to 1977 meters,with the survey halting at the top ofa drop into a large room.

In November 1984 a large group ofcavers arrived at Tecolote to continueexploration. The eight drops and hand-lines were rigged down to the virgindrop at the end of the Ides March, andPaul Fambro and Paul Smith descendedit for 25 meters and reconned thebottom. On a subsequent trip MargaretHart, Peter Keys, and Dale Pate mappeddown this 20-meter drop into the Salondel Puente, a long chamber crossed bya natural bridge. At the far side twoleads trended downward, and a steepflowstone slope ascended to the cave'sprevious level. They chose the left

drain in the floor, which they mappedfor 100 meters to a pinch.

RUSSIAN DANCER

Meanwhile a second survey teamconsisting of Mark Minton, Paul Smith,Peter Sprouse, and Terri Sprouse hadleapfrogged past them up the flowstoneslope, where they found an apparentupstream feeder into the Salon delPuente. This passage, of comfortableborehole dimensions, contained anincised floor channel between darkmudbanks. Paul investigated a highlead on the right wall, which he de-scribed as "sharp." The main passageintersected the base of a large roomthat they dubbed Anotherhall. Twoleads extended off this breakdownroom. The left lead was followed forseveral survey shots over muddy flow-stone, and it continued. The rightlead was a continuation of the origin-al passage over the breakdown in Ano-therhall, after which it descended toa low, wide, sandy crawl. Due to thesquatting posture the cavers assumedwhile mapping it, this was named theRussian Dancer Borehole. After a fewshots the ceiling got higher at aroom lined with high sand bars. Soonthe passage was floored in flowstone,and helictite bushes hung off theceiling. The passage width increasedto 30 meters at a junction where a wetside passage took off on the right.

The Dark Ages, beginning of the bore-holes in Tecolote. (Peter Sprouse)

The main passage became even wider toform the huge Rimstone Gallery, whichappeared to end until a small openinginto a 2-meter drop was located. Thiswas left for a later trip, since theteam had already mapped 900 metersthat day. This extension radicallychanged the nature of the cave map.

Back in the upper reaches of thecave, an area was investigated off thetop of the Flowstone Falls Drop, thefifth drop in the cave. Jerry Atkin-son, Roy Glaser, Erika Heinen, MarkMinton, Bill Mixon, Nancy Weaver, andAlan Williams worked in this area,known as the Bat Room. Two differentcrawls were checked, and Mark and Alanput up a lead climb into a dome, whichdidn't go. This expedition increasedthe length of Tecolote to 3301 meters,and the depth to 211 meters. Of bio-logical interest, a new species ofschizomid was discovered in the cave.

Cueva de la Tinaja, a cave on thehill north of Tecolote that was previ-ously explored by cavers from Houston,was surveyed on this trip. It consistsof several decorated rooms. Otherminor caves mapped in the vicinitywere Cueva de la Sala Bonita, Cueva delos Helechos, Cueva del Terminal, andCueva del Encino Magico.

THE BIG STUFF

In November 19S5, twenty caversparticipated in the return expeditionto Cueva del Tecolote. Present forvarying lengths of time were SheilaBalsdon, David Dodge, Paul Fambro,Bill Farr, Jim Goodbar, Erika Heinen,Peter Keys, Mark Minton, Dale Pate,Susan ~aines, Terry Raines, Mary Sak-ry, Peter Sprouse, Terri Sprouse,Mauricio Tapie, Pablo Tapie, CyndieWalck, Nancy Weaver, and Jack White.On the first caving day nine caverswent in to rig the cave and to formtwo survey crews. Terri, Cyndie, Jim,and Peter Keys mapped down the right-hand drain in the Salon del Puente.This flowstone route gradually becamesmaller, and they ended the surveyafter 236 meters. It was explored 100meters farther, and it does continue,

39

The 1984 expedition to Tecolote ended in the wide Rimstone Gallery.(Peter Sprouse)

although it is small. Their surveyestablished a new depth for the cave,231 meters below the surface.

Meanwhile, Hill, Carol, Jack,Sheila, and Peter Sprouse went on tothe end of the Rimstone Gallery topush beyond the drop left from theprevious year. Below the narrow 2-meter ladder-drop, the passage soonopened up again to enormous propor-tions. The mud and f lowstone-flooredFantasia Borehole descended graduallyto the south, often 40 meters wide and20 meters high. After several hundredmeters they encountered a major junc-tion where a drain curved down to theleft, while a level borehole continuedon to the right. First checking downto the left, they saw a wide, clean-scoured passage taking off. Then theyreturned to the right-hand borehole,where the long survey shots continuedover undulating mounds of mud andgravel. Eventually this led to aclimbdown, where Bill checked aheadand reported four small leads, two

40

upstream and two downstream. But tothe left at the top of the climbdownwas a long slope leading up to moremud-floored borehole, so the surveywas continued up there. This Mud DuneBorehole led to another "T" junction,later named Pepsi Junction for therefresco Peter Keys brought in. To theleft at this point the passage quicklybecame a crawl which seemed to haveairflow. To the right, more largepassage continued, which was left forthe next trip. These various boreholesproduced 782 meters of survey thatday.

THE BOREHOLES CONTINUE

Two days later, on 26 November,three survey teams were organized tofollow up on the new discoveries.Dale, Bill, Carol, Nancy, and Markfollowed the left-hand drain, whichthey named the Spine Line. This pas-sage curved around to the northeast,and was often partially blocked by

ENTIlAHCI:

o-1000~- ...ROTATED 290.0 DEGREES

25Y 50?lo£TEU

CUEVA DEL TECOLOTETAMAULIPAS. MEXICOLENGTH: 1015 W DEPTH: 231 W

PLAN:

o

massive wall pendants that formedobstacles across the large passage.Numerous side leads were passed alongthe way. A lower level lead near thestart of the survey continued as a wetstoopway. In the same area, a lead onthe left side was mapped a short wayto breakdown, and was explored 30meters farther. A second lead on theleft side also went into heavy break-down, and could connect to the firstbreakdown lead. Shortly before stop-ping, they passed a downtrending leadon the lef t side. When their surveytape broke, they turned around ingoing passage, having mapped 804 met-ers.

The second team, Terri, Jack,Sheila, and Peter Keys, went on backto Pepsi Junction at the end of theMud Dune liorehole. They began to sur-vey southwest in the continuation ofthe borehole, where breakdown blocksbegan to dominate the floor. Soon theycame to a large junction room, Petzl

Junction. Here they chose the leftroute, traversing a breakdown ridgethat sloped down on either side towardthe walls. This borehole, which theynamed the Millenium Falcon, eventuallyterminated in a flowstone fill. Alongthe right side of the passage near itsend was a steep flowstone slope lead-ing into an alcove, which Peter Keyschecked out in a daring alpine slide.Their survey for the day was 541 met-ers.

The third team of the day consis-ted of Cyndie, Jim, Mauricio, Pablo,and Peter Sprouse. They spent threehours and 270 flashbulbs photographingthe boreholes before joining thesecond team. They elected to map theborehole that led to the right fromPetzl Junction. This was a large pas-sage with an occasional stoopway orcrawl. Breakdown became more common,finally filling the passage all theway to the ceiling, forming a longslope. At the top, no way on could be

41

Passages in the Millenium Falcon aredeveloped in brecciated limestone.(Peter Sprouse)

found through the breakdown. So theyturned around after 375 meters ofsurvey.

CONFUSION BOREHOLES

Two teams descended the stairstepdrops into Tecolote after a day ofrest and gear repair. Paul~ Mark~ andNancy surveyed in the wet side-passagenear the Rimstone Gallery, a lead leftfrom the previous year. They immediat-ely abandoned the water and climbedinto an ascending passage on the left~which led into a large passage, theExtreme Borehole. With the help ofSheila, Jack, and Peter Sprouse as aleapfrog team, over 400 meters of wideborehole was mapped to a small verti-cal squeeze with airflow.

Nancy and Mark then left, whilethe four others picked up the surveyof a side passage off Anotherhall,left from 1984. This walking-sizepassage descended gradually to whereit split into two levels. The lowerlevel was a steeply descending bore-hole, but was not explored. The upperroute continued straight and level toa "y" intersection that was soon namedDoll's Leg Junction. To the left theway went past a crawl on the leftside, to larger passage with a largepit on the right side. A borehole alsocontinued straight ahead. Pauldescended the pit, the Maj or Abyss ~

42

and reported a clean-washed borehole.The right turn at Doll's Leg

Junction led to a room overlooking theMaj or Abyss, where there were threeseparate passages leading off. Plots'of the survey data indicate that theSpine Line may be headed for a connec-tion into this area. Faced with adifficult choice between many goodleads, the cavers chose the left routefrom Doll's Leg Junction, mapping intothe large borehole that went off thetop of the Major Abyss. This was aflowstone and mud floored passage thatascended gradually and trended east.After passing a side lead on theright, the Serious Borehole stayedrelatively uniform~ gradually pickingup breakdown. The breakdown becamesteeper, topping out in a wide trunkand descending steeply down a longslope on the far side. At the bottomwas another side lead on the rightthat led back parallel to the way theyhad come in. Ahead was the sound offalling water, splashing down a fineflowstone mound capped by a tall to-wer~ the Goddess of Liberty. This wasthe most water flow yet seen in Teco-lote, but it mysteriously disappearedin rims tone pools, leaving the areajust downslope quite dry. A few shotsbeyond the goddess, they decided tocall it quits, leaving the continuingborehole for the next trip. Theirsurvey of 67 J meters made Cueva delTecolote 7015 meters long, currentlythe tenth longest in Mexico. Deriggingand more photography then wrapped upthe work in the cave.

Some of the small caves taggedand mapped in the area on this tripincluded Cueva de la Mandarina, Cuevadel Cactus Pendiente~ Cueva Paralela,Cueva de £1 Venado, and Cueva delCienpie. Near the vi 11 age sawmi 11,Cueva del Aserr!n was explored forabout 100 meters to a pinch.

A NEW FIND

While talking with a local resi-dent during the 1984 Tecolote expedi-tion, Peter Sprouse found out about acave at a place called La Llorona. La

Erika Heinan, Patty Kambesis, MarkMinton, Bill Mixon, Dale Pate, SusieRaines, Terry Raines, Rich Rowher,Paul Smith, Peter Sprouse, TerriSprouse, Nancy Weaver, and Alan Wil-liams continued the exploration dur-ing the week of 12-19 October 1985. Arigging party entered, followed by twosurvey teams. The last drop landed ina large and complex chamber, the BlueFlowstone Room. Adjacent to it was aneven larger room, the California Cham-ber, which was about 100 meters ac-ross. These two rooms, connected in atleast four places, took four surveysto map completely. Another complex ofrooms, the Shirt Pocket Room and Hel-ictite City, extended off of the BlueFlowstone Room. This area was heavilydecorated, notably with some clearsoda straws almost a meter long.

Out of this whole complex, at the-300 meter level, were various pitsleading down through breakdown. Sever-

Scorpion Falls, one of the many free-climbs in Cueva de la Llorona. (PeterSprouse)

1-------- ---------,

ENTRANCE

CUEVA DE LA LLORONATA~AULIPAS. UEXICOLENaTH: 215' W D(PTH: ua .,

PROfILE: '80.0 OEGREE VIEW

f Sf ,of ~lII:TUI.. .. _.__ ._... .--'Wfll:........L.U1. ....L- ---'--'

-100

.....

Llorona is the popular Mexican legendof the ghost of Malinche, the ally ofHernan Cortes. On 20 November 1984 thecavers were guided to the entrance,which is situated between Cueva delTecolote and 56tano de Las Calenturas.The entrance is in an obscure sink ona hillside, and begins a steadydescent immediately. Profusely coveredin flowstone, Cueva de la Lloronadescends at a 35-degree angle, period-ically interrupted by rope drops. Thefirst day's survey ended at a climb-upat a depth of 90 meters.

On 23 November the push was con-tinued down more drops and one climbto a large room that was named KnotsLanding. Below, a steeply descendinglead called Ragtime Boulevard ended ata drop overlooking a large passagethat appeared to extend in two direc-tions. The survey of Llorona thenshowed a length of 919 meters and adepth of 273 meters.

Jerry Atkinson, Paul Fambro,

43

al of these united and got back intosolid rock as they headed downward.Then the cave began a strong northwesttrend in Cirolanid Canyon, and explor-ation ended at a drop 10-15 metersdeep. Currently, Cueva de la Lloronais 2256 meters long and 398 metersdeep.

LLORONA AREA CAVES

Numerous smaller caves were dis-covered near Cueva de la Llorona. Tothe east near the anticlinal breachfour small caves and pits were found:Cueva la Bruja, Cueva la Brujita, So-tano Mas Alegre, and Sotano del Findel Mundo. About 400 meters northeastof Llorona, two promising caves werelocated. Cueva de la Sangre was ex-plored down several climbs and dropsto a constriction at -50 meters. Only100 meters to the east is anothercave, Cueva Oscura, which was exploreddown a 20 meter drop to a second pit.

SOUTHERN CAVES

At the southern end of the Puri-ficacion karst area, exploration hasbeen going on in Sotano de San Marcos,a complex cave 1019 meters long and120 meters deep. (See separate articlein this issue on San Marcos). Anothercave explored in the southern part ofthe area was Cueva del Canon del Burroat the mouth of the Arroyo Trej 0, amajor canyon that has its source near

Cueva del Canon del BurroREFORMA. TAMAULIPAS

SUUNTOS & TAPE SURVEY2 SEPTEMBER 1984 by

DALE PATE PETER SPROUSE

DRAFT BY· 0.1. L. Pate

PEP Tag No. 123

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10 15 20,

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Cueva del Tecolote. The cave waschecked on 2 September 1984 by CharlesFromen, Dale Pate, and Peter Sprouse.It is a bat cave about 50 meters inextent on the side of the arroyo.

Near the village of Asuncion, onthe ridge south of Tecolote, a returntrip was made to Cueva de Las Hoyas byAndrew Davison, Peter Sprouse, andTerri Sprouse. They explored to apinch about 40 meters down. BetweenAsuncion and El Molino along the eas-tern escarpment a short vertical fis-sure named Sotano del Redivisaderowas checked.

Access to the Asuncion area isfrom the east via Canon Peregrina,through which the Rio San Felipeflows. Not far into the canyon on thesouth side is Cueva de los Murciela-gos, a bat cave checked by AndrewDavison and Peter Sprouse on the sametrip. Although the cave goes, theyonly mapped in for 5U meters beforedust problems caused them to quit.Fartner into the canyon they locatedanother bat cave, this one on thenorth side, near where the limestonecontacts the shales of an anticlinalcore. This has a large entrance abovethe river, but soon narrows to a pas-sage with a strong guano odor. It wasnot explored. There appears to beanother shelter-like entrance acrossthe river.

EL VIEJO

At the western edge of the Puri-ficacion area near Zaragoza, NuevoLeon, cavers continued prospecting forpits on the eastern flank of Cerro elViejo in early September 1984. Sotanodel Primero de Septiembre, the thirdof three pits overlooking La Escondidathat were found two months before, wasexplored by Paul Fambro and found tobe a ll6-meter drop. It had a flatfloor with a small hole going down, aswell as a large opening in the wall 10meters off the floor.

At the north edge of La Escondi-da, they saw an entrance that took twoarroyos, which they saved for a latertrip. Farther north, a multi-drop cave

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POZO DE EL NINOZARAGOZA, NUEVO LEON

Surveyed 1 Septemb