By: John (Rocco) Stembel
After ten hours of caving with 20 to 30 kilogram tackle bags, we ask Peter, "is this the swim?". After more short swims, wading, and passage we finally do arrive at Nonad Lake. Nonad Lake is a 150 metre long lake which had stopped exploration temporarily in 1989. In 1990, Nonad Lake was pushed and much passage found. In 1991, Camp II was established just past Nonad Lake, and over 7.1 km of passage was found during a long camp. Numerous "gaping" leads were left. In 1993 the plan was to establish Camp III and push the leads left from 1991.
Cueva del Tecolote, at 28.1 km in length, was the third longest cave in Mexico, located in the Purificación area of northem Mexico near the village of Los San Pedros. The cave was originally pushed in the early 1970's. In the early 1980's, members of Proyecto Espeleologico Purificación pushed the cave and exploration has continued periodically since then.
Our group of thirteen consisted of Expedition Leader Peter Sprouse, Suzi Lasko, John Fogarty, Charley "Ready to go?" Savvas and Bill Stevens, all from Texas; Mike and Andrea Futrell from Ohio State University; Jack Kehoe from Maryland; Indiana cavers Joe "I am not an animal" Oliphant, Tont "Muscles" Akers, and Greg McNamam; Canadian Chris Lloyd, and myself from Georgia. Most of us had trained extensively to be in shape to haul tackle bags the six to seven kilometres of cave for a ten day stay.
In three trucks, ten of us left Austin on Friday, March 19th, planning to meet the Indianians in Monterey. Less than ten minutes from Peter's house, Peter's Trooper blew a water pump. Ah .... the pleasures of road tripping. Surely this omen ensured a successful expedition. As we continued into Mexico, the omens kept on coming. Jack blew a tyre, which we changed while in the right lane of a narrow two lane Mexican "highway". After some delay, we did meet the Indianians in Monterey.
The convoy was now four four-wheel drive trucks overloaded with cave gear. The drive up to Purificación is definitely intense. The road is four wheel drive only for about 30 km, gaining around 600 metres of elevation. We stopped and swam at the last available swimming hole. Just after the top of the climb, Charley sheared the oil filter off his International Scott. This could he very bad. For some unknown reason, Jack's spare Toyota filter -threaded perfectly. No doubt this would he a great expedition.
The small village of Los San Pedros has been extremely caver friendly over the years. The local pseudo-jefe (his is not an elected nor appointed position, just assumed), Gabino, and his wife have become great friends with the Purificación cavers. During long camp trips, trucks are parked in his yard for safety. Fresh corn tortillas (or flour, if requested) are delivered each day by village children. Cokes are allowed to be purchased without the deposit. To help keep this relationship, Peter acts as a reseller for the village's saw mill operation and provides parts which cannot be obtained in Mexico. This year, Peter even brought a transmission for one of their log trucks. Each visit, Gabino has a another lengthy list of requests for Peter. Truly this is a special relationship, one that should be emulated.
After a great sleep, the next day was for tackle bag loading. This is critical. The rub is to carry everything one will need for ten days underground, but to keep the pack as light as possible. Since there is plenty of swimming in Tecolote, everything must be waterproofed also. Packs were packed and repacked. Then repacked again. Peter gathered all the group gear (push ropes, climbing ropes, two nasty looking grappling hooks, survey gear, etc.) and divided it into thirteen quasi-equal piles. With everyone trying to go as light as possible, this additional weight was not welcome. Most folks used three to five layers of trash bags lo keep pack contents dry. Some used whitewater "dry" bags. Nothing works perfectly.
By midday, the Indianians and I set out to hike to the "Edge of the World". This spectacular ridge line separates the cave bearing limestone from the ancient shale layers of the valley below. Way below! The hike to the edge was easy. However, to truly appreciate this sight we continued to bushwack 150 metres up a steep hillside to get a better view. Long before the top, as we were tiring, someone would say, "THIS is the edge!". Another would say, "No, its farther up!". We continued. Joe's and my bare legs were having no fun with the thick vegetation. The top was truly magnificent, with a 180-plus-metre cliff disappearing into the fog. Fortunately, the fog did lift for a short time.
On Monday, March 22nd, we did our final packing, suited up and headed lo the cave, a 100 metres away. One month before, Peter and Charley had rigged the entrance series of drops to speed up the camp trip. With much wading and a couple of short swims, this section consists of about ten short drops and many climb downs, dropping to an approximate depth of 250 metres. Most folks wore wetsuits through this series, and then changed at the bottom of the last major drop. This entrance series is quite nice.
Chris Lloyd and I, first timers lo Tecolote, were in the lead. The chances of getting lost were slim so far. We continued to the bottom of the last major roped drop and decided to wait and take pictures. There were a couple of ways to go, so we thought it would be nice to have a guide. Shortly, John Fogarty and the Indianians joined us, so we continued. Camp I was a short way, then the huge Fantasia Borehole took us a long way. At the end of the borehole, the Mickey Mouse Maze awaited. Peter was the only one capable of leading this section, so more relaxation. When Peter and the rest caught up, we had been underground for about eight hours.
As expected, the Mickey Mouse Maze was quite a pain with the large tackle bags. The group of thirteen moved slowly, as we approached the Chihue Frihue (pronounced Chee-way Free-way). The Rio Chihue is the expected resurgence of Tecolote. We re-donned our wetsuits and prepared for the water. This is another fun and exciting section of cave. At each swim, we would ask Peter, "is this the swim?". After lots of passage, we finally arrived at the shore of Nonad lake for the 150 metre swim. The swim and lake were fantastic.
On the other side, we dropped our wetsuits for the long trip out the Standard Borehole Unit. Fortunately, all but one of our leads were dry. We would not need our wetsuits again. Camp II was a couple of hundred metres from here. It would have been nice to use Camp II and relax. We had been caving for eleven hours with heavy bags and everyone was tired, except maybe Joe and Tony.
Looking at the leads left from 1991, Peter had decided to establish a Camp III at the You-Us Junction. This would make the trips from camp to the leads much shorter. We continued out the Standard Borehole Unit and then the Mother of All Boreholes. Six hours later, we finally arrived at the You-Us Junction. Camp III! We all had a renewed energy burst to drop our packs and set up camp. After a while, Chris and I finally chomped into our freeze-dried dinner. We had chosen freeze dried from a Canadian outfit, that Chris assured me, would feed two hungry cavers. This first meal was devoured quickly, and we both contemplated cooking a second. I hoped the rest would be more filling.
For the first day of lead pushing, Peter divided the group into four tearns to push four leads relatively close to camp. The next day would be for the 'big' leads. Peter, Chris, Greg and I were assigned to a climb lead in the Mother of All Boreholes. Chris started up, while I belayed, and Peter and Greg took photographs. After three bolts Chris was tiring, so we traded places. I set one bolt and was almost at the top. I just needed one more hand hold. I asked for the grappling hook. On the third throw, it held. Testing the hold carefully, I then finished the climb. I had a quick reconnaissance of the passage, to find it was a dud, but with a flowstone drop at the end. Greg and Peter ascended to survey. Peter thought the bottom of the flowstone drop was known cave, so he descended. Greg and I arranged to do the drop barefoot, on the beautiful flowstone. Indeed, we were back in known cave.
None of the leads that first day were productive. On the second day of lead pushing we all headed for the big leads at Mudland and the start of the Wellie Way. In 1991, a team of four pushed a grim 60 m long breakdown pile, the Monster Caver Eater Crawl, which opened up into a four-way borehole junction they named Mudland. They pushed only one way, and mapped over 2.5 km of passage. Mostly in the large, extremely muddy, Wellie Way. They left many side leads, and stopped at a T-junction with passage going both ways. An incredible day of push and survey.
Joe, Chris, Bill, and Mike were assigned the best lead, the end of Weilie Way, the deepest part of the cave. Peter, Tony and I got a side lead of the Wellie Way and two teams were given the boreholes at the junction. Nothing went very far. The lead at the end of Wellie Way went another 50 m to a definite sump. The other way was a climb into a small alcove. Our lead went 200 m into a mud choke. Two of the "boreholes" circled around the room and connected to each other. It was depressing.
Near the end of the day, Charley's tearn did find a drop out of the big room. We arrived with push rope, 30 m of 9mm PMI, and Charley and I rigged the drop. The rest started out the traditional breakdown horror way. At the bottom of the drop, Charley thought he had big cave. He did, but it was known big cave. We had bypassed the breakdown horror. On the way back to camp, we checked out another lead which crossed two lakes, and halted us at a promising climb lead. Tired and climbing without gear, we cleaned our filthy equipment and retumed to camp.
Camping in Tecolote was relatively hospitable. The temperature was at least 64(F. The ground was soft sand and gravel. One direction lead to a nice pool for bathing, the other to the latrine. For sleeping, most of us used UltraLight thermarest pads (ten of which were donated by the Dogwood City Grotto) and MontBell overbags. This combination was quite warm. Food was mostly freeze dried, with candy and snacks on the side.
After two days of petering leads, the mood was not great. After a very long sleep, Susie, Mike, John, and I elected to push the wet lead, Paul's Plunge, sans wetsuits. This was beautiful cave! The push started immediately as a swim. After two short 10 m swims, I rounded the bend to a beautiful deep lake and a 4.5 m high flowstone rimstone dam. We named them Lake Invemess and Mount Vesuvius. At the top, the passage continued with wades, swims, and many free climbs. We cranked along at a brisk pace. The water was warm enough that I did most of this section without a shirt and only thin poly bottoms. We named the passage Lava Lakes.
We checked and surveyed many side leads. Every time it looked like the passage would end, it opened up again. After 126 stations, the survey was called. We stopped with cave going and did not bother to "pre-survey" any. We left at least three other good leads. We headed back to camp at a brisk pace, jumping and splashing and yelling with glee through the swims.
Back at Camp III, the news was great. Peter, Charley, Chris, and Bill did a climb lead at the end of the Death Coral Borehole. After some breakdown, they found an enormous borehole, 50 m wide, heading up at a 30 degree angle. There were some giant stalagmites, one almost 30 m tall. At the top was a drop into a fissure. They skirted the end of the fissure and popped into a sleazy boneyard. After a couple of squeezes, the boneyard got bigger. On the ceiling, they started seeing tremendous amounts of helictites. Many clusters of white, orange, and red helictites were intertwined to look like demented spaghetti. Amazing stuff. The best in the cave; spectacular.
The Indianians and Jack Kehoe pushed a nasty crawl for 200 m before it too opened up. They found 300 m of borehole and ended with a climb. It looked very good. Spirits were quite high in camp that night. Everyone clarnoured around Peter and Susie's campsite to regale and exaggerate. We gawked at Mike's incredible sketching of the Lava Lake's passage. As we planned retum trips for the next day, Peter plotted the survey information on a line plot he had of the cave. The Cardassian Borehole was heading for El Hundido, a 108 m pit still a kilometre away. The spectacular boneyard, Deep Cave Nine, was 192 m above Camp III. Quite a hump. The Lava Lakes lead was heading towards the Chihue Frihue.
After another long sleep, we regrouped to push the leads of the previous day. Mike, Charley, and I headed up the Cardassian Borehole to drop the promising pit into the fissure. It took almost three hours of continuous caving to get to the lead. The pit dropped 20 m into passage. After 200 m it stopped. We used the gappling hook for two climbs, but neither were successful. We checked out Deep Cave Nine, finding one pit lead. It put us right back into the Cardassian Borehole. Dang!
Other teams were similarly ill-fated. Two of the Lava Lakes leads died almost immediately. The team decided to photograph the beautiful passage instead. The Indianians' climb lead was a dead end also. Peter took a team back past Camp II to a climb lead at the end of Research Boulevard. After two short climbs, they started a third. 8 m up, Peter fell. He ripped out two pieces of protection, but, fortunately, his third piece held. He was too shaken to continue that day.
The next survey day was a pretty lazy day for most. Muscles were sore, gear was dirty, leads were petering. The most ambitious group was Peter, Joe, Charley (of course), and Tony. They headed back down the Wellie Way to a side lead, the Hoosier Dome, that had stopped at a climb. The climb went a short way before being stopped at a flowstone plug. They could hear big cave on the other side. Joe cursed his lazy self for not carrying his 18 kg sledge hammer into camp. The rest of us eventually did leave camp, but not for long. Each lead died quickly. Enthusiasm was waning.
With relatively few leads remaining near Camp III, we elected to retum to Camp Il and push the climb lead at the end of Research Boulevard. If it went we would need to be close to that lead. Packing carnp was a slow process, then most of the group headed towards Camp II. Chris and Joe elected to retum to Deep Cave Nine for photography. They would join us the next day. Back at Camp II, Charley was psyched to push the climb lead immediately. Peter led Charley, Greg, Tony, and myself to the lead. It looked grim. Charley eagerly attacked the climb. The rock was too hollow to put in bolts. He did the crux move relatively unprotected, finding that the climb did not go. Somehow he downclimbed the crux and I lowered him to the floor.
Eventually, Joe and Chris showed up the next day, and we all packed again to head out of the cave. Back at Nonad Lake, we split into two teams to move more quickly towards the entrance. Jack led one team, Peter the other. The Chihue Frihue was nice, the Mickey Mouse Maze sucked, and the Fantasia Borehole was great. We were moving with good speed. Our team caught up with Jack's at the first rope pitch.
After three drops, Chris and I passed Mike, Andrea, and Jack. Andrea was having some problems hauling her tackle bag, so Mike was doing each drop twice, once with his bag, once with hers. I started getting entrance fever. With only a few route finding problems, we were out at 1:10 am, the morning of March 30th. Almost ten full days underground! I headed for the village to find Charley's vehicle. The many dogs sounded the alarm, but nobody came out to guide me. After trying quite a few driveways, Chris, his hands full of rocks for any unruly dogs, and I tried another. We walked right to the trucks. We were both grateful for the warm dry clothes.
Back at our camp, Charley was also out, with a roaring fire. All morning long folks staggered out of the cave. We enjoyed all types of junk food, beer, cokes, brandy, and assorted foodstuffs. It was quite a feast. As the sun rose over the Edge of the World, Frisbees and footballs started flying. It was quite surreal. None of us had any energy, but there was a renewed sense of life.
Despite the major leads dying, the trip was quite successful. We mapped a total of 4.1 km of passage. Tecolote is now 32.03 km long and 424 m deep, still third longest in Mexico. The next day, a few headed back in to de-rig and retrieve stashed tackle bag contents. Charley, Chris, and I went over and bounced the beautiful El Hundido. Our last day in the village, we feasted with Gabino and his wife. He then gave Peter another list of parts. We headed down the mountain and back to civilisation and the drudgery of work.
Published in The International Caver (10) 1994
Tecolote Photo Tour, or Return to the Rest of Mexico
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