Hiking in Shenandoah National Park to the summit of Hightop Mountain.
2007
12.29.2007
12.23.2007
12.18.2007
12.01.2007
11.23.2007
The best for last — Sótano de la Golondrinas, 1,150 feet.
Here Kurt climbs out solo. Since only three of us were on the trip, he let Chris and I tandem climb out of the pit.
The view of the bottom about a third of the way climbing out.
Chris at the lip of the massive pit.
Our guide hauling our rope for us.
And the parrots circling the pit as we leave our last Mexican pit during our trip.
11.22.2007
Hoya de las GuaGuas, 668 feet deep, was our next Mexican pit. We hired a couple of locals for the day, to take us there and to haul our ropes. We bought them lunch for the day as well.
Chris was the first to go over the lip on rappel.
The view of climbers at the bottom is amazing.
Here’s the view at the bottom. The black void on the right is another 600-foot rappel down an unstable breakdown slope. It’s rather dangerous, from the stories I’ve been told.
11.21.2007
After a really long previous day (we didn’t get to our beds until almost sunrise), we opted to have a day off. So we visited the Mexican rainforest again, near a remote mountain village called Xilitla, to visit the home of the extraordinary surrealist architecture of Edward James called Las Pozas.
It was like M. C. Escher meets an elvish city.
Beautiful sculptures and gardens at every turn.
Strange paths the go no where or end abruptly.
Luckily, it was a slow day on the property, and only a handful of tourists were around roaming.
Some of the projects were not completed before Edward James’ death in 1984.
This staircase induces vertigo and has no handholds.
Building with no walls and hidden routes was the normal. It was a fabulous day!
Afterwards, we stopped for a swim at a cave-fed river south of Aquismón. This little boy wouldn’t go away until I took his picture with his minnow.
11.20.2007
Our departure from the village of Aquismón was delayed due to a parade celebrating the Aniversario de la Revolución (the Mexican Revolution).
Our mountain taxi driver got on the road and up to the mountain top, where we picked up a local caver, Cesario Cedillo. He also ran the local tourism office, and we were lucky to have him as our guide for the day. Below is his house . . .
En route to El Socavon, a 700 foot pit near the city of Valle Verde. Supposedly, not very many people have been down he pit, due to its remoteness.
Riding on the back of the truck was an all-day affair.
We had to stop a couple of times to give the truck some attention, as it wasn’t in the best condition.
Finally, we got to the village!
We’re very close to the cave entrance!
The view from the bottom of the pit. Unfortunately, we didn’t get into the pit during daylight hours, so not much was seen.
11.19.2007
For a week in November, Chris and I teamed up with Kurt Waldron for a Mexican caving trip. Our goal was to bounce as many Mexican pits as possible, spending our time in the state of San Luis Potosi. Our plan was to do the grandest of them all: Sótano de la Golondrinas at 1,150 feet, last. The first pit we went to was called Sótano de la Huasteca and is a 420 foot rappel. The following images are from our first Mexican pit, it was an amazing day!