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February/March 2005

Cerro Rabon Caving Expedition

Oaxaca, Mexico

This was a three week caving expedition to the Cerro Rabon mountains in Oaxaca Mexico. I traveled to Oaxaca City, Oaxaca with my good friends Stan and Gosia Allison where we met up with two Swiss cavers Jean-Marc Jutzet and Laurent Dechanez. The five of us spent the next 5 days organizing the group gear, purchasing supplies, and traveling to the remote cloud forest region of Cerro Rabon, near a small Indian village San Martin Cabellero. After establishing our basecamp at the usual site, known as the Rat House, the team worked to mark a trail system in the dense forest. This trail system lead to one of our primary exploration objectives, Hard Rock Cave. The exploration of this cave was begun on one of the previous expeditions and cave was surveyed down around -250m with two very promising leads left to be explored. The team hoped to push this cave even deeper and find some new caves to explore. About 10 days into the expedition we were joined by Ernie Garza from Texas. He was one of the earliest cave explorers of this region in Mexico and had participated in numerous Cerro Rabon expeditions. Several days later Catherine, very prominent Swiss caver, joined the expedition. The team succeeded in pushing Hard Rock Cave down to near the -500m mark, discovered Flying Begonias, Rainman, Millipede Heaven, and several smaller un-named caves.

Team Members: Stan Allison, Gosia Allison-Kosior, Patrick Cicero, Laurent Dechanez, Ernie Garza, Jean-Marc Jutzet, and Catherine.

All Photos Taken by Patrick Cicero shown otherwise

	The end of the road. From this point you must either hike or use mules to reach the village of San Martin Cabellero (Photo by Gosia Allison-Kosior)
	A view of the typical limestone trail system in Cerrro Rabon. These trails become amazingly slippery when the limestone is wet. Yet many natives travel the trails at night, without lights, and sometimes after drinking cane (an alcohol derived from sugar cane) . (Photo by Gosia Allison-Kosior)
	Hiking through the lush green foothills of the Cerro Rabon (Photo by Gosia Allison-Kosior)
	Limestone is very prominent throughout this mountain region. As a result, there is really no surface water since all water is quickly absorbed into the karst.
	Checking out the amazing terrain that is completely opposite from the Sonoran Desert near Tucson, Az (Photo by Gosia Allison-Kosior)
	A community service bulletin warning about STDs Something you must remember when caving unless you're caving solo! (Photo by Gosia Allison-Kosior)
	The mules bringing the team's equipment to basecamp. We had approximately 17 duffelbags that needed transportation to basecamp. (Photo by Gosia Allison-Kosior)
	One of the locals, unloading our equipment at basecamp
	Stan hiking from basecamp up into the upper region where many significant cave systems are located (Photo by Gosia Allison-Kosior)
	Blazing the trail up the main caving area requires machettes and flagging tape (Photo by Gosia Allison-Kosior)
	A somewhat rare clear sky view from inside the cloud forest. That annual rainfall for this area is around 110 inches. (Photo by Gosia Allison-Kosior)
	This is a more typical view of the cloud forest, complete with clouds (Photo by Gosia Allison-Kosior)
	Hiking back along the main limestone trail system to get back to basecamp
	Gosia, Jean-Marc, Laurent, and Stan taking a breather at the milpa up inside the cloud forest. This grass shack is used by the natives when they are tending to their sugar cane fields.
	Stan preparing to drop into Hard Rock Cave
	The entrance pit to Hard Rock used many rebelays to avoid cutting the 10mm rope on sharp limestone edges. The main anchor was a pair of very strong trees perched on the edge of the pit.
	Stan continuing to fix the rope into numerous rebelays as he descends into Hard Rock
	Patrick getting ready for his first descent into Hard Rock Cave
	Stan rigging up a rebelay deep inside Hard Rock Cave
	Gosia descending deep inside Hard Rock Cave (Photo by Stan Allison)
	Stan working on yet another rebelay in Hard Rock Cave. Multiple rebelays are needed to protect the smaller diameter static caving ropes from abrasion. The team uses smaller diameter ropes so that we can carry more rope and maximize the amount of cave that can be explored on each trip.
	Catherine pushing through one of the smaller passages inside Hard Rock Cave
	Patrick taking a self portrait ~750 ft down inside Hard Rock Cave
	Jean-Marc preparing to enter Hard Rock Cave (Photo by Gosia Allison-Kosior)
	Jean-Marc descending into Hard Rock Cave (Photo by Gosia Allison-Kosior)
	Jean-Marc continuing down into Hard Rock Cave (Photo by Gosia Allison-Kosior)
	Stan drilling a bolt for a rebelay down in Hard Rock Cave
	Stan drilling a bolt for a rebelay while Patrick looks on. The virgin pit below Stan turned out to be a 100m pit! (Photo by Jean-Marc)
	Jean-Marc rigging a webbing rebelay down a the bottom of the 100m pit
	A view of the basecamp Rat House during a dry weather day (Photo by Gosia Allison-Kosior)
	The inside of the Rat House. This shelter is leased by the expedition and is used for cooking, dining, planning the cave trips. (Photo by Gosia Allison-Kosior)
	A view of the Rat House looking toward the main entrance. All of the benches and shelves were created by the team when we arrived. (Photo by Gosia Allison-Kosior)
	Jean-Marc, Catherine, and Stan forming a strategy for the next cave trip (Photo by Gosia Allison-Kosior)
	Laurent and Patrick relaxing while the others plan the next trip (Photo by Gosia Allison-Kosior)
	Nothing like trying to untangle a 600ft spool of cave rope (Photo by Gosia Allison-Kosior)
	Stan models the handy waterski handle for balancing at the latrine (Photo by Gosia Allison-Kosior)
	Stan working his way down into Millipede Heaven Cave (Photo by Gosia Allison-Kosior)
	Stan descending into Millipede Heaven Cave (Photo by Gosia Allison-Kosior)
	A view of the entrance to Millipede Heaven from down at the bottom (Photo by Gosia Allison-Kosior)
	The origin of the name for Millipede Heaven Cave (Photo by Gosia Allison-Kosior)
	Watch out for the Mala Mujer (a.k.a. Bad Woman) plant. This plant is pretty wicked! When you first make contact with it, it stings and burns instantly. After about 5 minutes the pain subsides and you think every will be fine. Then a few hours later the swelling and redness begins....
	Here's an example of the swelling that results from a brief encounter with Mala Mujer. The itching can be very intense.
	Another example of a Mala Mujer encounter (Photo by Gosia Allison-Kosior)
	At least there are some very friendly and useful plants in the clould forest. Here's a close up of an American favorite...the coffee bean. (Photo by Gosia Allison-Kosior)
	Here's another favorite...bananas
	And yet another favorite plant...the pineapple
	Stan rigging an anchor for a rebelay in Flying Begonias Cave. Stan and Gosia explored/surveyed this pit while Jean-Marc, Laurent, and Patrick explored/surveyed another section of the cave. (Photo by Gosia Allison-Kosior)
	Stan beginning his descent down the pit (Photo by Gosia Allison-Kosior)
	Laurent creating a bedrock rebelay in Flying Begonias Cave
	Jean-Marc and Laurent taking a break from surveying in Flying Begonias Cave
	Laurent descending down one of several pits in Flying Begonias Cave
	Laurent using another bedrock rebelay in Flying Begonias Cave
	Laurent working on another rebelay. Just minutes later he was hit on the helmet by a chunk of loose rock. He was dazed for a few minutes, but suffered no lasting effects.
	Jean-Marc and Laurent taking a break before entering a section of meanders in Flying Begonias Cave
	Laurent moving through the first section of meanders in Flying Begonias Cave
	Patrick moving through a meander in Flying Begonias Cave (Photo by Laurent)
	Patrick exiting the meander in Flying Begonias Cave (Photo by Laurent)
	Jean-Marc dwarfed by a plant that looks like it's from Jurassic Park. Some the plants in the cloud forest were huge.
	Jean-Marc in the entrance of a small un-named cave
	A very friendly spider was waiting for us inside the small cave
	We were not the first humans to explore this cave. These pottery shards were found in the back part of the cave.
	The flowers found in the cloud forest tended to have very brilliant colors
	Some of the creatures in the cloud forest were also brilliantly colored, such as this centipede
	The moisture in the air made spider webs stand out quite boldly. This spider web was about 2 feet wide.
	A view of San Martin Cabellero from the Rat House
	Stan starting survey notes for Rainman Cave (Photo by Gosia Allison-Kosior)
	Stan surveying down into Rainman Cave (Photo by Gosia Allison-Kosior)
	Ernie standing down at the bottom of the Rainman entrance pit (Photo by Gosia Allison-Kosior)
	Stan checking out a lead in Rainman Cave (Photo by Gosia Allison-Kosior)
	Stan enjoying a source of rain in Rainman Cave (Photo by Gosia Allison-Kosior)