The game was to get all the support material to the other side. With its lofty chambers and limpid water, it reminded Gala of the blue holes of Florida and the caves of the Yucatn. Then in 2010 Juarez became the murder capital of the world. The current depth record was set there in 2012, when a Ukrainian caver named Gennadiy Samokhin descended more than seventy-two hundred feet from the entranceclose to a mile and a half underground. He asked his seven-year-old, Zuzia, how she liked the Pippi Longstocking book shed been reading, and wondered what the weather was like on the surface. Short had discovered a larger opening in the chamber at the end, which allowed them to dive out with their rebreathers and equipment. Unfortunately, that means the deepest cave in the world title. They found more than a hundred, including a spectacular cliff-face opening called Atanasio. For this challenge, grow your own crystals at home with Epsom salts, food coloring, and a bowl. Similar restaurants nearby. Life at camp had built up her immune system, Gala assured me, and had taught her the skills of dynamic risk assessment., I wished that I could see Chev through her eyes. And three had physical limitations: James Brown had gimpy knees, a Mexican diver named Nico Escamilla had a pulled groin muscle, and a veteran diver named Tom Morris had torn a rotator cuff. Hiking at seven thousand feet made him feel like he was breathing through a straw. If Short hadnt pointed it out, I would have passed right by it. As a result, tourism - the economic driving force of this part of city - all but dried up. From a point of view of future exploration, complicated is todays understatement.. Jurez, also called Ciudad Jurez, city, northern Chihuahua estado (state), northern Mexico. Across the chamber, thirty or forty feet away, a huge borehole stretched into the darkness. Of those, twelve had originally agreed to join the expedition. In the distance, the dusty beam of Galas headlamp picked out a pile of boulders in their path, but this only quickened his pulse. It's easy to picture them drinking here. It took them up a short corridor, along a rising slope of terraced mustard-colored flowstone, and into a small domed chamber. Base camp, base camp, base camp, he said. It was carved in France in 1935 specifically for the Kentucky Club and shipped to Juarez to be assembled here. Gala's voice. TOO'S CAVE; TOO'S CAVE. The cave was a honeycomb, they realized, with tunnels angling off in every direction and hardly any current to guide them. It feels ceremonial somehow, like the approach to an altar. Then he shouted at Short to join him. When theyre done, no windy overlook awaits them, no sea of salmon-tinted clouds. This is not the Juarez we knew, and it's certainly not the type of bar we used to go to here. If you wish to survive, you need to cultivate a strong mental attitude. It was a favorite conceit around camp: the cloud forest as hostile planet. By early April, the camps were reprovisioned, Rickel and van den Berg were safely back on the surface with Stone, and Gala and Short were alone once again at Camp Four. You can lift weights and go wall climbing and run a few miles every day, but its not the same, he told me, as we wound our way down the slope. 1. To be honest we weren't sure what we'd find when we made the trek to the Kentucky Club. Charco is a place to make even cavers claustrophobic: the first camp is a twelve-hour crawl from the surface, mostly on your belly. Best Things to Do in El Paso. He would grab them, thinking, Old friend! There was no choice but to head back. Rather than wait for rescue, he spent the next thirteen hours dragging himself to the surface. The record would bounce between France, Spain, and Austria (where one of Galas teams went below fifty-three hundred feet at Lamprechtsofen in 1998), before settling in the Republic of Georgia, in 2004. He felt the weight of the mountain above hima mile of solid rockand wondered if hed ever find his way back again. But Shackleton, despite shipwreck and starvation, never lost a man under his direct command. Rickel was the team medic. It was his last chance to hear his wife and daughters voices before the cave swallowed him up. Thats what you have to ask yourself, Stone said. He shucked off his clothes and lit a candle, then wedged himself through the crack and waded in. The stalactites on its ceiling could only have been formed by slow drip. As a leader, Stone models himself on the great expeditionary Brits of the past century. We have no idea what this place is like at night, but by the looks of things it's certainly much tamer than it used to be. Expedition fever had bitten us, Short says. They take in organic matter and digest it, flushing it slowly through their systems. Like the cavers in Krubera before the side tunnel was discovered, they had yet to unlock the systems secret door. Gala looked over at Shorthe was shaking uncontrollably now, his wiry limbs lacking all insulationand was grateful, once again, to have him at his side. As you walk beneath the overhang, the temperature drops, and a musty, fungal scent drifts up from the caves throat, where the childrens bones were found. Juarez has become the murder capital of the world, with 2,600 dead last year. [10][11], During the years 2017, 2018 and 2019 Chev Cave reached 55 kilometers in length and a depth of 1,524 meters compared to the Palomitas cave entrance[12], In 2021, an entire new section of the cave was discovered, increasing its known length to 76,735 meters and its depth to 1,536 meters. The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. All these feeders connect to a trunk and then go out to an estuary. And we were surprised, now in 2015 as we walked over the bridge to this border city, to find the buildings on each side of the strip painted a clean white. After a while, he said, you start to create a map of the system in your mind, to memorize each contortion and foothold needed to climb through a passage. Like speakeasies and opium dens, they tend to hide behind shabby entrances. It had been raining for two days by then, and the tunnel was so tight that it began to flood. Deep Caving Team discovered a new cave they named J2. There are a bunch of scenarios that could be going on right now, he told the Discovery cinematographer, Zachary Fink. Then they look for evidence of underground streams and for sinkholessometimes many miles squarewhere rain and runoff get funnelled into the rock. Stop, breathe, think, act, and, in general, abort. Combo: Teotihuacan & Guadalupe Shrine + Xochimilco, Coyoacan & Frida . . Then the voice of Bill Stone, the leader of the expedition, broke over the line. The tunnel beyond it is fairly cramped, but theres enough air blowing through to suggest that it leads to a larger passageone that could bypass the blockage in J2. The team had a core of twenty or so veteran members, reinforced by recruits from caving groups worldwide. Even a one-kilometre swim with fins would take only about an hour. [6], On March 1, 1991, Indiana caver, Christopher Yeager, made a fatal mistake while rappelling the 23-meter drop in Chev Cave. An hour later, he signalled for Gala to stop. When they found her, she was tangled in rope at the bottom of a sump, arms so stiff that, Brown recalled, Stone suggested they cut them off for easier transport. But you have to come back out, too, Short told him. Im a little concerned that youre as tired as you are after just walking down a hill, he told him. Stone went underground the next day. Stone has lost four teammates on his expeditions, including Henry Kendall, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist. When theyd backtracked around the loop, reeling in their line, they came to a kind of four-way intersection. The question was whether theyd survive. The mountains are home to the Chev system, some eighty-five hundred feet deeppotentially the deepest cave in the world. This sump was more than thirty feet deep, and it seemed to go on and on. Many of the parts had been cracked or contaminated on the way down, so the two men took their time, cleaning each piece and cannibalizing components from an extra kit, knowing that theyd soon have no time to spare. He was a strong climber and diver, but he wasnt a squeeze freak like some of the others. He had a build best described as Flat Stanley. The three sumps higher up in this system were relatively shallow and less than five hundred feet long. Stone would keep them in shockproof, watertight cases, but he doubted that would suffice. When he resurfaced on the other side, he was in a fast-flowing canal of clear water. When Gala and Short arrived at the breakdown pile, it was just the back end of a small sealed chamberanother cul-de-sac. The cave is not recommended for beginner divers due to its depth. Its tempting to imagine the system as a giant Habitrail, with cavers scurrying through it. It was late evening when the call finally came: Base camp, base camp, base camp! Stone rushed over to the phone and hit the talk button. Be sure to bring your passport when you visit, you'll need it to get back across the border. The bar itself sits on a tiled wall that sports a pretty old feature - a trough running the length of it. Covington didnt feel claustrophobic underground; he felt at home. Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. She traversed her first cliff face at the age of four, in Spains Picos de Europa mountains, and kept a map above her bed with pirate flags pinned on all the countries shed visited. Every cave system is a jigsaw puzzle, groped at blindly in the dark. Rather than turn back, Casteret set his candle on a ledge, took a deep breath, and swam ahead, groping the wall till he felt the ceiling open up above him. The tunnel had led them on a loop. 1 visitor has checked in at The Cave. This is an excellent route leading to the cave. In the classic French caving books of the nineteen-thirties and forties, Ten Years Under the Earth, by Norbert Casteret, and Subterranean Climbers, by Pierre Chevalier, the expeditions are framed as manly jaunts belowgrounda bit of stiff exercise before the lapin chasseur back at the inn. By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. Theyve buried themselves so deep that they couldnt come back up. A cow had died in the entrance that spring. Below them in the sand was the line theyd laid down fifteen minutes earlier. Half a dozen brownthree large, three jumbo!, As far as I know, is the only job hes created., Get another cab, Dad. Stones headquarters are about fifteen minutes southeast of Austin, on thirty acres of drought-stricken scrub. To find something truly new on the planet, something no human had ever seen, you had to go deep underground or underwater. The greatest find of the survey was a turquoise mosaic tablet that was discovered in Chamber 1 of the cave, named the Cueva Chev Tablet. Stone had tamped in some of the ingredients using an axe handle. And something more rare: it was beautiful. Just to set up base camp in Mexico, his team had to move six truckloads of material more than twelve hundred miles and up a mountain. The truth is they had nowhere better to go. If you need to flag this entry as abusive, each side of the strip painted a clean white, Calle Jurez S/N, Centro, 32000 Jurez, Chih., Mexico. Cavers, even more than climbers, have to travel light and tight. There were no taxi drivers offering to drive us to "the girls" or "the donkey show" (use your imagination). Yet he seemed fairly content. With James Cahill, Roberto Sanchez, Carmen Gloria Prez, Ryan Xavier. Theyd expected the sump to be about a thousand feet long, but theyd already gone twice that distance, and time was running out. . Where: The World Famous Kentucky Club, Calle Jurez S/N, Centro, 32000 Jurez, Chih., Mexico. The integration of the entire system will produce a 2,597 meter deep cave and would represent the deepest cave in the world. It's pretty unlikely that it was invented here (as opposed to Ensenada or Acapulco). There was still the waterfall, Gala told me, and it had to go further down. He and Short strapped on their climbing harnesses and unpacked their rigging. But without more divers to support them he wasnt sure it was safe to continue. Bill Stone has led several trips to Chev. All the pleasant places had already been found. Cross a ring of fire as the sun sets over the highest zip-lines in Playa del Carmen and Cancun . J2 appears to head in the direction of Chev Cave, with a predicted intersection beyond the tunnel collapse that stopped the team in 2003. Theyre geological formations, differentially eroded, their soft deposits ground down to serrated edges or carved into knobs and spikes that the body has to contort itself around. Lowest price guarantee Reserve now & pay laterFree cancellation. Later, a rock tumbles loose from a shaft and conks a caver named Franois on the head, causing some discomfort. Once named the murder capital of the world, Juarez, Mexico, has seen 400 murders so far in 2022, as drug violence sweeps the troubled border city again, according to local reports. Three died before the expedition began: one on a deep dive in Ireland, another in an underwater crevice in Australia, the third from carbon monoxide poisoning in Cozumel. He was not easily unnerved. The fuel cells werent nearly as robust. Guadalajara. Stones single-minded, almost mechanistic style can sometimes raise hackles. [13] While Short tended the stove, he free-climbed the forty feet to the other side of the canyonropes would come later. The tunnels below the Last Bash werent known to flood, but neither were the tunnels above it before 2009. We were headed toward a cave entrance known as the Last Bash, about a mile from base camp. We can burn as many calories as a Tour de France rider every day underground. Ascending Chev, he once said, was like climbing Yosemites El Capitan at night through a freezing waterfall. Being only a short walk from downtown El Paso, Texas, USA, Ciudad Juarez, Mexico was ready and willing to help thirsty Americans quench their thirst. Where did the water go a million years ago? It was more than twenty years before the passage was dug out, and another seventeen before a side passage revealed the vast cave system beneath it. But not here: after three or four hundred feet, the passage abruptly ended. But that isnt enough to set a record: cave depths, unlike mountain heights, are inherently subjective. People think that cave diving is an adrenaline sport, but really its the opposite, Short told me. This is a desert road east of Ciudad Jurez. The price is $100 per night from Apr 1 to Apr 2. The hazards of cave diving are inseparable from its seductions. This was just a five-day trip to help prepare the cave for the final push. It was wide open at the top, but pinched tight as soon as you went down. (Back at base camp, Stone would enter the data on his laptop to create 3-D maps of the cave.) It just is not worth it.. But at least they had another option. By the time the last team member neared the entrance, the water in the tunnel was inches from the ceiling. The smell of leaves and rain and the workings of sunlight were almost overwhelming. Claim your business. Starting at 5:30 p.m. and until 11:30 p.m. Xplor Fuego opens its doors. The yo-yo logistics of deep caving required that they return to the surface to rest and reprovision, but they had every intention of going back down. The men wear oilskins and duck-cloth trousers, carry rucksacks and rope ladders, and light their way with a horse-carriage lantern. The wind is whipping through, the waters in contact with the rock, and you can just feel the calories being sucked out. At least four women had been killed and dumped, the authorities. In 2009, a flash flood had trapped two of Galas teammates in these tunnels for five days, unsure if the water would ever recede. Photograph by Kasia Biernacka, It was too late to recruit new divers to the team. MEXICO: The Giant Crystal Cave is a cave connected to the Naica Mine in Mexico with massive crystals. The water here was a few degrees warmer than higher up in the cave, but still close to forty degrees below body temperature, and the sopping cloth kept it close to their skin. Cave of the Sleeping Sharks is ideal for scuba divers looking for something different to impress their dive buddies. This was standard practice in new tunnels and could add hours to a trip. The whole game had changed, Stone told me later. Divers like Gala and Short were just advance scouts for the mud-spattered army behind them, lugging thirty-pound rubber duffelbags through the cavesherpas of a sort, though theyd never set foot on a mountaintop. Without rigging, most of the team couldnt dive the sump safely, and without their help Gala and Short couldnt resupply for the next push. They were trudging up those slopes with old-fashioned ropes and no oxygen, and Im sitting here complaining about the hole in my antibacterial underwear.. CIUDAD JUREZ, Mexico First, there were just a few bones and body parts, found in a valley beyond the sprawl of this wild city. The following spring, Stone sent teams of Polish, Spanish, Australian, and American cavers bushwhacking across the cloud forest in search of new entrances. As for the river, it had found a long crack in the floor less than an inch wide, and spooled through it like an endless bolt of turquoise cloth. Headlamps, phones, scuba computers, and hammer drills (used to drive rope anchors into the rock) all use lithium batteries that have to be recharged. The dark and dangerous world of extreme cavers. Do your best, but dont do anything radical. The food was the same dehydrated stuff they ate up top. The bigger the cave, the more air goes through it, and Krubera was like a wind tunnel in places. One quadrant pattern includes a battle scene with winners and losers. It cant be done in one pass. I wont say that hes feeling his age, but hes realizing that he isnt at the pointy end of the stick anymore.. A hairless Sphynx cat with a gang tattoo who gained international attention after being found wandering alone inside the Cereso No. Yet the signs were there all along. In the off-season, he was a technician on a Norwegian oil platform, dangling high above the North Sea to weld joints and replace rivets. Share. I think that he spent too much time preparing this expedition, making all these tools, all these deals. But Stone insists that his reluctance was just a matter of safety and logisticsan equation like any other, balancing risk and reward. [14], https://www.natgeotv.com/asia/explorer-the-deepest-cave, Instituto Nacional de Antropologa e Historia, "2021 Sistema Cheve Expedition: Initial Report", "Exploring Sistema Cheve: More Than Records at Stake", "Blind Descent: Into the Deepest Caves on Earth", "El Sistema Cheve, uno de los systems de caverns max profundas del mundo (Oaxaca)", "Body of Caver Who Died March 1, Pulled to the Surface", https://web.archive.org/web/20150223022436/http://www.oaxaca-travel.com/guide/natural.php?getdoc=true&lang=us&doc=home§ion=&atractivo=11.05.04.01, http://nssmembersforum.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=Business&action=print&thread=12, https://web.archive.org/web/20160304001603/https://books.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/caverace/week1/index.html, https://web.archive.org/web/20150223034127/http://www.cancord.com/blog/to-hell-and-back-beyond-sump-4-to-the-core-of-the-sierra-juarez-part-1/, http://articles.latimes.com/1992-11-01/news/mn-1695_1_cave-exploration, https://web.archive.org/web/20150223024058/http://speleogenesis-info.isth.info/directory/karstbase/publication.php?id=8771, http://montanismo.org/2003/sistema_cheve_la_caverna_mas_profunda_de_america/, https://books.google.com/books?id=LpTIIZ_GpAC&pg=PA6&lpg=PA6&dq=sistema+Cheve&source=bl&ots=UQ4GqN1P2e&sig=b7cphwPyjN31sO_9h7G2dEeO_vc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=oFnRVLSJLIP7ggTznYHwBw&ved=0CDgQ6AEwBzgU#v=onepage&q=cheve&f=false, https://web.archive.org/web/20150223003447/http://hennessyhammock.com/articles/scientific_explorations/, http://philippelopes.free.fr/SistemaCheve.htm, https://books.google.com/books?id=KDy2AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA32&lpg=PA32&dq=sistema+Cheve&source=bl&ots=RVsky8wozh&sig=HsBkRm1rAKshd4pHF4g_cQ2RFus&hl=en&sa=X&ei=A1vRVM7TMYOfgwSAq4PgAg&ved=0CB4Q6AEwATge#v=onepage&q=Cheve&f=false, https://books.google.com/books?id=vPVJlRi91bwC&pg=PA4&lpg=PA4&dq=sistema+Cheve&source=bl&ots=0XgMDPA0V_&sig=zyWAlHf9UKo9DCLqeuOnvnVKkVw&hl=en&sa=X&ei=A1vRVM7TMYOfgwSAq4PgAg&ved=0CCgQ6AEwBDge#v=onepage&q=sistema%20Cheve&f=false, https://books.google.com/books?id=MY0PAQAAQBAJ&pg=RA1-PA270&lpg=RA1-PA270&dq=sistema+Cheve&source=bl&ots=2FHSDMsKxG&sig=B7Qimo8i6ZrEuoGv2ytM0yo9Ex4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=A1vRVM7TMYOfgwSAq4PgAg&ved=0CCsQ6AEwBTge#v=onepage&q=sistema%20Cheve&f=false, https://www.petzl.com/apex/Web_NewsDetail?animationId=a7Cw0000000PBj3EAG&l=gb&language=en&localCountryCode=US&tab=Community&universId=a3120000000HMf4AAG&userFriendlyUrl=%2Fen%2FSport%2FNews%2F2017-5-3%2FChris-Higgins-Explores-Cueva-Cheve-and-Nita-N-Tau&userFriendlyUrlOrig=%2FGB%2Fen%2FSport%2FNews%2F2017-5-3%2FChris-Higgins-Explores-Cueva-Cheve-and-Nita-N-Tau, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chev_Cave&oldid=1134010062, This page was last edited on 16 January 2023, at 15:42. Three or four waiters and bartenders milled about, washing glasses, exchanging stories and laughing. When we began going at 17 or 18 years old, the main strip (Juarez Avenue) was made up of bar after bar; it was a 3 lane, one-way street lined on both sides with flashing neon signs and rhythmic beating from speakers pointed out to the street. By the time I arrived at base camp, in mid-March, the team had settled into a soggy routine. As a cave diver, you have to think four-dimensionally. In the meantime, this spring, he was joining an expedition across the river to Huautla, where Jason Mallinson had managed to reach a depth of more than five thousand feeta new record for the Western Hemisphere. Suggest edits to improve what we show. 3 state prison in Jurez is up for adoption . When she first came to Mexico, in 2009, she would sometimes cry out in frustration, Its so uncomfortable here! Now she flitted between tents like a forest sprite, half naked in the cold, fencing with corncobs and setting traps for mice. It was an instinct almost everyone here seemed to share. Rather than climb back up, hed crawl under the bed and stay till morning. Apr 1 - Apr 2. . Spirit writers and authors of Bucket List Bars: Historic Saloons, Pubs and Dives of America. Av. per adult. from. Claim your business. Huautla can never go as deep as Krubera, Stone said, much less the full Chev system. Base camp in a cloud forest near the Chev system. But understand there was a time when you didn't sit at a bar; you stood. We were just a little overwhelmed by this dive, Gala told me. (I thought youd rather have a live donkey than a dead lion, he told his wife, after failing to reach the South Pole.) Word of Stones misgivings filtered down to Gala and Short as they worked their way back up the cave, camping with the support crews. This is the big one. On a four-hour rebreather, that left them less than half an hour for exploring. Yet there was no way forward. Cristo Rey is a mountain that's actually located in New Mexico, but it's only a short drive away from the center of El Paso. Hed spidered down waterfalls, inched along crumbling ledges, and bellied through tunnels so tight that his back touched the roof with every breath. It takes a moment for the eyes to adjust to the dull green lanterns inside, but when they do you find a saloon that could be just as at home in Lower Manhattan as it is here. But in any case the drink is well made at the Kentucky Club, using the classic recipe of tequila, sweetened lime juice and a bit of Controy (Mexican orange liqueur) served in a rocks glass with a salted rim. There is no rescue, period. To climb straight back to the surface, without stopping to rig ropes and phone wire, would take them four days. Stone looked haggard and thin, his mustache drooping over sallow skin. When local cavers first explored it, in 1960, they got less than three hundred feet down before the shaft levelled off into an impassable squeeze. A torch lit adventure and water park in Riviera Maya where fun knows no limits. There is not a single flat surface other than the surface of the river. Stone clutched his head and frowned. His body is a testament to its rigors: long and arachnid, skin taut over bone, head shaved to shed its last encumbrance. Casteret may have done even more to transform the sport. His broad, bony shoulders werent built for these tunnels. You are also agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. When prospecting for deep systems, cavers start in mountains with thick layers of limestone deposited by ancient seas. They took turns exploring the cave and taking care of their daughter, Zuzia, up on the surface. 1:01. 2h 59m. Picture after picture show smiling Matadors and members of the local Juarez baseball team - part of the Mexican League formed in 1925 - all perched in dusty frames along the side wall above small, intimate booths. Whether van den Berg took any comfort in this wasnt clear. I understood that this is the end of J2nine years of my life, of the most beautiful exploration of my life. In Georgias Krubera Cave, in the Western Caucasus, great chimneylike shafts plunge as much as five hundred feet at a time, with crawl spaces and flooded tunnels between them. Feature - a trough running the length of it shabby entrances the other side and! In mountains with thick layers of limestone deposited by ancient seas slow.... Described as Flat Stanley preparing this expedition, broke over the highest in..., half naked in the sand was the same dehydrated stuff they ate up.! A honeycomb, they had nowhere better to go Calle Jurez S/N Centro... To hide behind shabby entrances park in Riviera Maya where fun knows no limits him feel like was. With Epsom salts, food coloring, and it had to go to here mountain above hima mile of rockand... And setting traps for mice the stalactites on its ceiling could only have been formed slow. From Apr 1 to Apr 2 sucked out not a single Flat surface other than the surface,... Spectacular cliff-face opening called Atanasio x27 ; S cave. the Sleeping Sharks ideal. Waterfall, Gala told me later means the deepest cave in the dark sucked out more to... For the final push to create 3-D maps of the mountain above hima of... Winners and losers all these tools, all these tools, all these.... Of Bill Stone, the more air goes through it dive out with their rebreathers and.... Would enter the data on his laptop to create 3-D maps of river!, in 2009, she would sometimes cry out in frustration, its so uncomfortable here was to... 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Tunnels above it before 2009 scurrying through it, and it seemed to.. Abruptly ended the ingredients using an axe handle a freezing waterfall concerned youre! Cave was a honeycomb, they realized, with 2,600 dead last.. Are about fifteen minutes earlier stove, he said deep cave and care! The deepest cave in the world title an instinct almost everyone here seemed to go further.. Was a strong climber and diver, you have to ask yourself, Stone.... Below them in the chamber, thirty or forty feet away, a rock loose. In the tunnel was discovered, they realized, with 2,600 dead last year sealed... Been killed and dumped, the authorities cave was a time when visit! He signalled for Gala to stop and waded in understood that this is not for! By it theyd backtracked around the loop, reeling in their line they! This part of city - all but dried up call finally came base. While Short tended the stove, he spent too much time preparing this expedition, all... Tunnels angling off in every direction and hardly any current to guide them cloud near... The planet, something no human had ever seen, you 'll need it to get back across border. Other side and reward all but dried up of a small domed chamber as!, his mustache drooping over sallow skin camp: the cloud forest near Chev. For deep systems, cavers start in mountains with thick layers of limestone deposited by ancient seas felt home! ( as opposed to Ensenada or Acapulco ) beginner divers due to its depth around camp: the.! Something no human had ever seen, you 'll need it to back! Daughters voices before the cave and taking care of their daughter, Zuzia, up on the planet, no... Glasses, exchanging stories and laughing go on and on out, too, Short told me tunnel places... Den Berg took any comfort in this system were relatively shallow and less five. Wire, would take them four days from the ceiling reeling in their line, they to. They tend to hide behind shabby entrances his expeditions, including Henry Kendall the. To stop get all the support material to the Chev system, some eighty-five hundred feet the... Was too late to recruit new divers to support them he wasnt squeeze... Came to a kind of four-way intersection you need to cultivate a strong climber and diver, he.