9-1-2012

After a long journey from home including a nine hour bus ride from Mexico City we finally arrived in Huautla a little dazed and confused. We met Ernie Garza early in the morning at the bus station; Ernie has been caving in the region for many years and was our fixer, its safe to say without Ernie we would have found things very difficult if not impossible to sort out. Once introductions were made Ernie suggested breakfast at Rosita’s, it’s been the meeting place of cavers in the area for many years. Over a welcome meal Ernie outlined a plan and explained how we were to get the final 15km up the road to San Agustin our final destination. But first we needed supplies and cooking utensils so a shopping expedition took place for several hours. If you know where to look, Huautla has everything an expedition needs to set up a base camp. Finally we loaded our huge kit bags and supplies bags into the back of Ernie’s truck and he introduced us to our mode of transport for the next ten days, “The people’s taxi”!! Basically it’s an open backed truck with a cage around it that the driver stuffs as many passengers as he can in before setting off to the destination you ask for. They are extremely cheap and fairly regular you just hope that the driver is good and does not lose the road! Finally we reached San Agustin and found the accommodation Ernie had sorted for us, We were to rent a room from Jaime Escudero Rodriguez for the duration. Jaime had given up part of his family house for us and is another important part of the Huautla story. Jaime was involved in the 1994 expedition with Bill Stone. After settling in and taking stock of the rather impressive view down into the Doline’s of San Agustin and Rio Iglesia Ernie suggested we take a walk down to the entrance proper for a look. Ernie then left us on our own in San Agustin and headed back to La Carlota the American caving base camp.

10-1-2012

The walk down into the doline is fairly steep and drops around 250 meters from the village down through corn fields and jungle a great way to start and finish any trip! Our plan today was to start rigging the cave, we hoped to get the entrance rigged and the climb up into fools day extension sorted and then as far down fools day as we could. All six of us set off with heavy bags including 600m of the rope we had with us plus all the rigging gear. The first pitch is the Jungle drop, this pitch is around 60m on a steep ramp covered in jungle and by jungle I mean proper jungle with mud, foliage, loose rocks and most of Mexico’s known species of creepy crawlies. Jon had the honour of rigging and descending the jungle drop and the rest of us followed on with heavy bags....  Click Read More!   The next pitch is the Slip and Slide pitch a series of short traverses and a couple of ramp like pitches down to the floor of the cave proper. Due to the cave taking water while we were there the original bolt placements from 94 were in a fairly large stream and not an option for us so we bolted a new route down the left hand side just clear of the water. At the bottom of slip and slide the stream turns left into the huge Sala Grande Hall which leads down to the original route to the 620 depot. Our route was up a 30m high mud slope on the right using a hand line left in situ from 94, it was American PMI rope, so much stiffer and a little thicker than what we are used to using in the UK. This was later re-rigged using a slightly better old rope from 94 and new bolt placed to back up the natural belay. The top of the mud slope gives an amazing view back up the cave to daylight some 100m above and the way on goes over a huge sand pile following the right hand wall to a breakdown pile and little drop between rocks to an old fossil passage. After 100m or so of easy walking passage another drop between rocks is met, this very windy hole takes you into a 30m sandy crawl and then the start of Fools Day proper. Fools Day Extension is a large easy going walking size passage with 23 short pitches. It brings you to the top of the Bowl Hole Series with its mighty impressive first pitch of 110 vertical meters. At the top of the 110 you are 300m below the cave entrance. On this first day we re-bolted and rigged around 16-17 of the pitches in fools day and then started the climb back out of the cave and up to the village feeling very pleased with our progress and very ready for food and bed.            

11-1-2012

On reaching the top of the Jungle drop yesterday, several of us spotted a small cave in the wall about 10m down from the top that went through to the Doline, this would save us a little prusiking but more importantly gave a better hang for the rope down the Jungle Drop. This morning Claire and I went back to the Jungle Drop to re-rig the entrance drop with out dropping the rope! Claire abseiled down from the top and swung through the jungle to land in the cave entrance were I was waiting. I then re-rigged the drop with a lovely four way hang and spent some time gardening the pitch of the biggest rocks. After, we headed back up the hill and hitched into town for supplies. Jon and Mirek entered the cave after we had re-rigged the entrance and carried on rigging the Fools Day Extension and down into the Bowl Hole rigging the mighty 110m pitch before running out of rope. Close behind them Chris and Laura carried in 180m of rope from the surface and continued down the Bowl Hole to around the half way mark some 450-500m below the surface. The trip was turned due to running out of power in the drill batteries.

12-1-2012

Claire and I set off down the cave with the final 180m of rope in one bag. We carried all the rope into the cave in long lengths and then cut it at the bottom of each pitch as we really had no idea of pitch lengths before we started. Our aim was to drop the bag into a pool at the top of the 110m pitch to soak the rope over night as it was brand new. The guys were then going to pull it through a stop the following day before using it.

13-1-2012          

Laura, Chris, Mirek and Jon set off into San Agustin to finish rigging down to the 620 depot. Mirek’s caving trip was cut short due to light failure just at the start of Fools Day Extension, the other guys carried on and Mirek returned to camp alone to operate on his light with the help of Jaime Escudero and the local village store that amazingly had a tube of two part glue he could use to re-pot the light after its operation. Laura, Chris and Jon completed the rigging and reached the 620 depot, a large flat boulder with a rope stash from 94 at the head of the Grand Cascade. The passage here is called Tommy’s Borehole and is very, very big, the final 77m pitch that drops you in to the borehole is the space drop and it well deserves its name. It’s a completely free hanging pitch with only one wall just in site, an impressive but slightly scary place. The team took some photos and had a good look around and then headed out reaching our camp at midnight just a little tired.

14-1-2012     

Today was our turn to visit the 620 depot Claire, Mirek with a newly repaired light and myself, set off prepared for a long day out. Jon unfortunately had to return home to the USA today so we said our goodbyes for this year and set off. We had a very pleasant trip with no gear apart from food and fluid to the top of the 110 pitch. From here it gets a little more serious, descending the 110 is an awe inspiring ride, it’s a big pitch with totally blank walls. There are around eight re-belays and none of them have handy little ledges to make the re-belays easy. It took a while to get used to the exposure especially as I descended last and could see the entire pitch with two cavers below me. On reaching the floor of the 110 a short 25m pitch followed, taking us to the next big pitch the 60m. This again is a large bit of cave, the rope is against the wall and the pitch has several re-belays. Unfortunately the walls of this pitch are covered in loose crumbly rock that rains down the entire pitch, so forcing it to be one caver at a time to avoid getting hit by debris. Following the loose 60m pitch another short 37m pitch takes the caver to the head of the mighty 77m free hanging space drop down into Tommy’s Borehole. On reaching the floor we walked a short distance in massive passage and descended a short 15m hand line of circa 94 rope to reach the 620 depot and sat down for lunch. Our plan on the way out was to de-rig the Bowl Hole series and stash the ropes at convenient points on the way out away from the water, so leaving them ready for next years expedition. After a few hours of up and de-rigging we finally sat down at the top of the 110, at this point we felt we were out with only 25 more pitch’s to go!

15-1-2012

We awoke this morning to the constant drum of rain on the tin roof of our hut so the decision was made to hitchhike into Huautla for a good meal and beer. We visited Waldos bar who is a caver friendly bar owner with interesting décor on the walls. Over several beers some of the American contingent of cavers turned up and we spent a good time swapping stories and making new friends. Eventually we hitched home and at some point during the night the rain finally stopped……..

16-1-2012

The early morning sun was burning the last of the cloud away and we had a chance to start drying some gear and pre-paring for the days de-rigging trip of the Fools Day Extension. Ernie had arrived this morning to take Chris on a political mission for the day to arrange permissions for 2013. Laura, Claire, Mirek and I descended the San Agustin doline again and set off to the top of the 110 to de-rig Fools Day. By now it was a routine trip to the 110 and we were there in less than two hours. The de-rig was actually pretty easy as all we were doing was pulling the ropes and leaving them in a safe place as close to the pitch head as possible. I also spent some time taking photographs in the Fools Day Extension with some willing models and some not so willing! Our last job of the day was to bring 40m of good old rope from the 94 expedition that was stashed at the top of the 110, back to re-rig the mud climb up from the bottom of the Slip and Slide pitch and the start of Fools Day as the old in situ rope was in poor shape.

17-1-2012

We had an easy morning of relaxing and hut chores! Our plan for the afternoon was to grant Jaime Escudero his wish. He wanted to go caving again in San Agustin, he had been once before with Bill Stone in 94 and wanted to visit the cave again. Claire had lent Jaime her SRT kit and Mirek said he would guard the entrance so the caving team was Ernie, Jaime, Chris, Laura and I. The idea to get Jaime down the Jungle Drop was to double rig the pitch and put Jaime on a short rope to the caver on the other rope which was Chris. Jaime said he could remember how to go up the rope and was happy to do so alone. After a short instruction by Chris on descending they set off and in short time called rope free. The rest of us followed on down and we all met up at the bottom of the Slip and Slide pitch. Jaime appeared to be a happy man. We took Jaime on a short trip into the huge chamber that is the start of the original route down the cave. That evening Jaime joined us for dinner and a few beers.

So ended our 2012 San Agustin recon expedition, we managed to achieve all of our aims and set up a good base of contacts and friends for next year. The re-bolting and rope stored in the cave will mean a good head start on rigging the cave down to the sump next year. We said our goodbyes to Jaime, his family and the village and started our long journeys home.