The Firefall: Exploration of the World's Most Beautiful Cave

By Ronald Delano and Donald G. Davis

“The Firefall” is the second installment of three eBooks that chronicles the exploration and human history of Lechuguilla Cave, New Mexico from approximately 1985 to 2005. These two decades represent one of the most exciting and important chapters of original geographic exploration in our time as a vast realm of sublime beauty, which had lain hidden for countless centuries, was finally revealed. Universally acclaimed as the world’s most beautiful cave, the wonders and unique geological discoveries of Lechuguilla Cave provide a window into a part of our planet we know the least about.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: May 18, 2015
• ISBN: 9781483554242

Book preview

Firefall

Chapter 13

There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition.—Rod Serling

Submitted for your approval: three cavers traveling down a highway, a highway that leads to the shadowy tip of reality: they're on a through route to the land of the different, the bizarre, the unexplainable. Go as far as you like on this road into a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind, into a wondrous land whose boundaries are yet beyond comprehension… . Lyle Moss and Don Kluever chuckled at Ron DeLano's overwrought Rod Serling imitation. "Look, ladies and gentlemen, that's the signpost up ahead. You are now entering the Lechuguilla Zone."

Only Twenty Miles ahead

World Famous

Cline's Corners

Restaurant and Gift Store

Worth Waiting For

Can't wait. Almost there.

I know it says 'Worth Waiting For' but it's only a gift shop. Do you have a thing for Kachina dolls or something, Lyle? DeLano teased.

No, no, no. I can't wait.

Say, Lyle, if it's an emergency, I can pull over at the next bush.

No, no, no. We're almost to Carlsbad.

Now I know you're in the Twilight Zone. We've got at least five hours to go.

I know. We're almost there.

Four long months. It was almost too much to bear. The pair had been biding their time for four unendurably tedious months for the September 1989 Lechuguilla Cave Project expedition to finally arrive. Under the circumstances, it was just about intolerable. Moss and Kluever had recounted their Aragonitemare odyssey, time and again; Pat Kambesis's article in Rocky Mountain Caving¹ ²had described the astounding breakout beyond; and phone calls had been made to try to squeeze every detail out of the members of her breakout crew.

It was 4:30 a.m. as they drove through the night. The crazy mix of exhilaration and sleep deprivation served up a potent cocktail of blissful delirium. Mile after mile, they continued steadily toward their goal, sustaining the giddy exuberance that had completely entranced their minds. The vastness of the great desert, the mind-expanding emptiness, and the visions of yet unseen horizons danced in their thoughts as a constant obsession. The lure of an untouched world was all-consuming. It had been years since a discovery in Lechuguilla had struck out so boldly away from known cave, and this expedition would be their first chance to see the great breakout beyond the Aragonitemare for themselves—and to go beyond. The report from the Silver Bullet crew was of vast, branching boreholes and more leads then they knew how to make sense of. When that expedition's survey had finally been plotted, cavers were awed by the bold extension into the unknown. Was it possible, as some were speculating, that most of Lechuguilla Cave was actually to the east, dwarfing the rest of the cave? From the airflow, cavers knew it was quite possible. Though Moss, DeLano, and Kluever had been blessed with uncommon good fortune recently, the prevailing wisdom in the past year had been that the cave was beginning to shut down. Sure, there had been the occasional big discovery, and there was more boneyard to survey, but that was mostly fill-in work. But here, in the east, now this was something quite different. The Great Eastern Wall had finally fallen, and a great land rush was going full throttle. DeLano stepped on the gas on the straightaway, thankful that this lonely stretch of road rarely saw trooper patrols.

Look Don, check that sign out. DeLano pointed out a small homemade sign along the highway as they made their way through the farmland just beyond Roswell. Dawn was just breaking on the horizon. Kluever was driving now, as Lyle slept in the camper shell. Kluever looked and smiled in recognition.

Now there you go. YO Acres.

Beyond the Pearlsian Gulf in the Southwest Branch, a survey crew had named their discovery YO Acres after this obscure sign pointing toward some farmer's fields. Kind of feels like the old days, doesn't it, Don?

Oh man. Unbelievable.

The miles flew by.

Carlsbad High School

Home of the Cavemen

A large caricature of a club-wielding Neanderthal on the wall of the school gym greeted travelers entering the town of Carlsbad from the north. What could be a more perfect mascot for school spirit in Carlsbad than a caveman? Moss knocked loudly on the back window of the cab. See that, see that! We're almost there. Carlsbad, Home of the Cavemen. Can you believe it? Almost there. I'm telling you.

Thanks to the all-night drive and their skillful highway diligence they pulled up to the CRF huts at 10:00 a.m., just in time for the mandatory orientation meeting. Steve Sims was sitting outside on the porch, grinning smugly as they approached.

It's all full.

What do you mean?

The Far East. Every slot is taken. They're not letting anyone else in.

Very funny, Steve.

No, I'm serious.

The Grand Junction crew was beyond upset. They stormed into the huts ready to do battle.

Steve Sims and Rick Bridges entering data (photo Norm Thompson)

Rick. What's this I hear about the Far East being closed? Rick raised his hands in a full stop gesture as he shook his head.

And hello to you too. Good to see you. You have a nice drive down? He asked with exaggerated interest. He paused for a moment and grimaced. Anyway, I have nothing to do with that. Talk to Pat Kambesis. This is her baby.

Pat Kambesis only confirmed Sims's story.

We already have three crews going in there tomorrow, and there just isn't room for anyone else.

You've got to be kidding! Not enough room? DeLano cried indignantly. After more fruitless pleading he decided to try a different tack. "Pat, I have someone I want you to meet. This here is Lyle Moss. You know, the guy who climbed the Aragonitemare. You're telling me you're not letting him go to the East?"

I don't care, I've made my decision.

The contentious debate continued for some time before Kambesis made a grudging concession. All right. I'll let you go up the Aragonitemare for two nights. You can check leads around the Land of Enchantment, but I forbid you from exploring anything beyond the Silver Bullet passage. Is that understood?

Perfectly, DeLano shot back. DeLano's voice showed little enthusiasm for the compromise. Her arguments rang hollow, and besides, who more than Moss had the right to be out at the perimeter of the new cave? The other two stood in stunned resignation.

Kambesis had her own conundrum to deal with. The Silver Bullet breakout was, without a doubt, one of the most important discoveries she had ever made in Lechuguilla Cave. Hadn't she also earned the right to be pushing at the new edge of the cave? As with any true explorer, she just ached to be out there herself, surveying away. But, wearing the hat of board member of the Lechuguilla Cave Project, she found herself saddled with administration duties for at least the first few days of the expedition. For Kambesis, this must have been frustrating in the extreme. Leadership has its costs, but this was one hard pill to swallow. What will be left by the time I can get out there? She could only guess.

Aragonitemare (Photo Roland Vinyard)

Don Kluever topping out on the Aragonitemare (photo Dave Bunnell)

Moss, Kluever, and DeLano were pleased to have Dave Jones join them on their trip to the East. Jones, it turned out, had already been beyond the Aragonitemare, during the last expedition. For the new team ready to hit it hard again, having another person familiar with the new terrain might just give them the edge they needed for success.

They made good time into the cave, and one by one they topped out of the Aragonitemare. From here the view was magnificent. Beyond the crest of the climb one could see down the great borehole passage Lyle had called Land of Enchantment, heading to the east just as hopes had foretold. The walls along its meandering path featured a contrasting display of dark, damp corrosion hues alternating with swaths of luxuriant white and yellow flowstone. Stalactites and soda straws hung in abundance on the ceiling and walls. A great dome loomed above, with distant balconies spilling with draperies of pure white flowstone. The floor of the borehole hosted a veritable forest of porcelain aragonite bushes, some of which had grown taller than men. On their discovery trip, Moss and crew had christened this delicate area the China Shop and had woven a path through the towering delicacies as best they could.

Ann Bosted admiring delicate frostwork (photo Ann and Peter Bosted)

Despite their great care, the trail was so narrow that it was simply impossible to pass without hearing the dreaded tinkle of frostwork breaking. A little farther on, packs were passed over a nuisance move around a deep pit. More careful tiptoeing through fragile formations brought them to a small perched pool that would be their water source for camp. They were relieved to be past the nail-biting fragility of the China Shop. After tanking up, Jones led the crew up and left to their campsite in the Fire and Ice Room. This was a superb camping spot, a large, dry, flat gypsum bed for a floor, a small pool five minutes away for water, a ceiling soaring well over a hundred feet above them, and a commanding view overlooking the great Land of Enchantment borehole. This is really roughing it, Jones thought with a smile.

Fire and Ice Room (photo Dave Bunnell)

Thanks to Donald Davis, Jones had been to this exact spot before. On the last expedition, Davis, who had been monitoring Lyle's Aragonitemare climbing bids closely, had recruited Jones to join him on a little trip out east. Davis had been of the mind that it would be a good idea to pay the good doctor a little visit. If all went as planned, they might arrive, fortuitously, just as Moss was topping out the climb. It had been a calculated gamble to be sure, but to Davis, one well worth taking. And he hadn't been far off, either. When they arrived at the bottom of the climb, Moss and crew were nowhere to be seen—or heard. Try as they might, their cries up the great shaft went unanswered. Not knowing what lay above, they had started up the ropes. Just as Davis topped out on the final rope, Moss, half delirious from exhaustion, had greeted his old friend. Moss and crew were just returning from their big push beyond.

Donald, good to see you. What do ya know? He sported a silly grin.

I was going to ask you the same question, Davis replied politely.

I dunno. It goes and goes. That's what. You know what, Donald?

What's that, Lyle?

Moss had leaned forward toward Davis. Lechuguilla, what a fine cave. He broke into riotous laughter. That's what. What a fine cave, I'm telling you.

Seeing that he wasn't getting any useful information from his rambling friend, Davis had asked to see the survey notes. They were just as incoherent. The meanders of the borehole were sketched like railroad tracks, with little to no detail. Davis had quickly concluded that they would have to figure this one out on their own. As Davis had led the way through the China Shop thicket, he heard Moss yell on rappel! down the shaft. Soon they had been left to themselves. Davis's little gambit couldn't have been more fortuitous.

They had carefully investigated a large alcove, which they called the Fire and Ice Room, high on the left side of the borehole. Dave Jones, his brother Peter, and Davis set about to poking leads. Eventually they had chimneyed down a crevice that led to a sizable drop. Dropping down to a lower level seemed very promising for finding continuing cave development—perhaps even the hoped-for Great Eastern Borehole. At a corner above the drop, a four-foot-wide, earlike gypsum rim testified to corrosion/deposition interactions between air moving from above and below. They had set about rigging the pit with their push rope. At the bottom of the drop, their hopes were buoyed ever higher by the sight of large passage before them. But it was not to be. Try as they might, this large chamber had turned out to be hopelessly blind in every direction. Unaware of the passage with the same name in the Apricot Pit, they had appropriately named this chamber the Grand Illusion.

Despite their modest find, the fact of not having landed the Big One gnawed at their thoughts as they had made their long retreat out of the cave. New crews would be coming soon. Perhaps the fresh teams would have better luck then they had had. By the start of the next expedition, of course, everyone in Davis's crew knew that that luck had been had, and in most spectacular fashion.

Dave Jones (photo Peter Jones)

Jones wasn't thinking about lost opportunities that night as he set out his bedroll on the plush gypsum glacier. He was thinking about this new expedition, the strong crew he had with him, and what they might find tomorrow. With Moss, Kluever, and DeLano at his side, he knew they could at least give it a real shot. Still, knowing the real breakout was, for the time being, forbidden to them seemed to him a cruel joke indeed.

The next morning they set to checking leads all along the route between the top of the Aragonitemare and the Silver Bullet passage. The West Rift, a little spur off the borehole, was a nicely decorated crack that was pushed with care past the last station to a certain end. A handful of other low-grade leads were also pursued without success. By late afternoon, their frustration with this trivial pursuit was steadily mounting. Knowing that the great breakout was in full throes of glory only minutes away was simply unbearable.

Screw it! I say we blow off these bogus leads and check out the real action.

The first call to rebellion had been made, and the rest of the gang quickly followed suit. "Yeah, let's take a look at those boreholes so we know where to go when we finally can explore out there."

"That's it. What's the harm