Here I am during May of 2005 at the entrance of J2, a new deep cave in the Cheve area.
Jon Lillestolen and I were about to enter the cave carrying supplies for Camp 2. It would be a
four day trip underground and we would be involved in the final exploration push for the year
which left the cave at -1100 meters deep.
About
the Cheve Project
Sistema Cheve, in southern Mexico in the state of Oaxaca, was discovered in the mid 1980's by Bill Farr and Carol Vesely. Since then it has been pushed to the depth of -1484 meters, making it the deepest cave in the Americas. The cave system has the greatest proven depth potential in the world as proven by a dye trace from it's main entrance to the resurgence 2547 meters lower. This is nearly 500 meters more than the current cave depth record of -2080 meters in Krubera in Abkhazia. The current terminus of the main Cheve system is a large breakdown pile reached after diving through two sumps. It is just over 9 kilometers from the entrance making it currently the most remote underground location on earth. Because of the logistical difficulties of continuing exploration from this point, the last two year's efforts have focused on finding mid-way entrances that might provide a quicker route into the middle Cheve system. I participated in both the 2004 and 2005 expeditions. In 2004 I helped in the early exploration and mapping of J2 (also called Cueva Barbie). That year we pushed the cave to a depth of about -400 meters and ran out of rope in big going passage. I also helped with some exploration and mapping in Sumidero Aguacate. In 2005 the primary objective was to continue the push of J2. We were prepared with camping gear and many kilometers of rope. After stalling out at a sump early on in the expedition at -750 meters, the team was able to send several divers through the sump who then spent a week digging at a gravel and boulder dam and were able to lower the water so that the passage could be done without dive gear. After this major breakthrough, exploration continued rapidly beyond the sump. A major breakdown borehole passage was discovered that averaged around 20 meters wide and 10 meters tall and continued for more than a kilometer. The final exploration trip ended at -1100 meters and 6 kilometers from the entrance. We turned around at a drop into a 5 meter wide by 20 meter tall stream canyon...a promising lead indeed! The cave is only a couple of kilometers short of where it will likely intersect the main Cheve drainage, several kilometers downstream of the current terminus of Cheve.
In 2006 we returned to survey a couple more kilometers of large trunk passage, but unfortunately the cave reached a sump at about -1200 meters. Jim Brown accomplished a recon dive into the sump. It went for roughly 150 meters before resurfacing in another chamber and then entering a second sump. This was enough to determine that further progress along the main route would require a major diving expedition. In the final week of the expedition Bill Stone, Jan Mathessius, Pauline Berendse, and I pushed climbing leads in the bottom portion of the cave, but found no significant continuations. In the next to last day I climbed up two aid climbs in an infeeder near Camp II and we surveyed about 200 meters of passage there but were stopped at another climb.
Photos 2004
Photos 2005
Photos 2006
In 2009, we returned to J2 during with a major diving effort to push the sump at the bottom. After a month of arduous gear hauling, we had enough gear at the sump for the first dives, and the sump was rigged for travel by Jim Brown and Jose Morales. Marcin Gala and I spent nearly a week camped beyond the sump mapping a maze of passages beyond and discovering another sump. At the end of the expedition, Jose Morales and Bill Stone returned to dive in the next sump, but ran out of time and supplies after exploring 500 meters of underwater tunnel that has not yet emerged into air-filled passage. Articles on this expedition were printed in the January and February 2010 issues. A portion of the January issue is available here.
In 2010, Jon Lillestolen, Marcin Gala, and I co-led a smaller expedition to the J2 area, with the main objective of connecting another cave, Last Bash, into J2, hopefully succeeding in bypassing a flood-prone section of passage that repeatedly trapped cavers in 2009. We succeeded in connecting the caves, and an expedition report was published in the AMCS News.
Plans are currently underway for a return expedition in 2012 to continue diving beyond the current end of exploration.
Links to other Cheve Sites:
National Geographic
Greg Tunnock (2005)
Kasia and Marcin (2005)
Sistema Cheve, in southern Mexico in the state of Oaxaca, was discovered in the mid 1980's by Bill Farr and Carol Vesely. Since then it has been pushed to the depth of -1484 meters, making it the deepest cave in the Americas. The cave system has the greatest proven depth potential in the world as proven by a dye trace from it's main entrance to the resurgence 2547 meters lower. This is nearly 500 meters more than the current cave depth record of -2080 meters in Krubera in Abkhazia. The current terminus of the main Cheve system is a large breakdown pile reached after diving through two sumps. It is just over 9 kilometers from the entrance making it currently the most remote underground location on earth. Because of the logistical difficulties of continuing exploration from this point, the last two year's efforts have focused on finding mid-way entrances that might provide a quicker route into the middle Cheve system. I participated in both the 2004 and 2005 expeditions. In 2004 I helped in the early exploration and mapping of J2 (also called Cueva Barbie). That year we pushed the cave to a depth of about -400 meters and ran out of rope in big going passage. I also helped with some exploration and mapping in Sumidero Aguacate. In 2005 the primary objective was to continue the push of J2. We were prepared with camping gear and many kilometers of rope. After stalling out at a sump early on in the expedition at -750 meters, the team was able to send several divers through the sump who then spent a week digging at a gravel and boulder dam and were able to lower the water so that the passage could be done without dive gear. After this major breakthrough, exploration continued rapidly beyond the sump. A major breakdown borehole passage was discovered that averaged around 20 meters wide and 10 meters tall and continued for more than a kilometer. The final exploration trip ended at -1100 meters and 6 kilometers from the entrance. We turned around at a drop into a 5 meter wide by 20 meter tall stream canyon...a promising lead indeed! The cave is only a couple of kilometers short of where it will likely intersect the main Cheve drainage, several kilometers downstream of the current terminus of Cheve.
In 2006 we returned to survey a couple more kilometers of large trunk passage, but unfortunately the cave reached a sump at about -1200 meters. Jim Brown accomplished a recon dive into the sump. It went for roughly 150 meters before resurfacing in another chamber and then entering a second sump. This was enough to determine that further progress along the main route would require a major diving expedition. In the final week of the expedition Bill Stone, Jan Mathessius, Pauline Berendse, and I pushed climbing leads in the bottom portion of the cave, but found no significant continuations. In the next to last day I climbed up two aid climbs in an infeeder near Camp II and we surveyed about 200 meters of passage there but were stopped at another climb.
Photos 2004
Photos 2005
Photos 2006
In 2009, we returned to J2 during with a major diving effort to push the sump at the bottom. After a month of arduous gear hauling, we had enough gear at the sump for the first dives, and the sump was rigged for travel by Jim Brown and Jose Morales. Marcin Gala and I spent nearly a week camped beyond the sump mapping a maze of passages beyond and discovering another sump. At the end of the expedition, Jose Morales and Bill Stone returned to dive in the next sump, but ran out of time and supplies after exploring 500 meters of underwater tunnel that has not yet emerged into air-filled passage. Articles on this expedition were printed in the January and February 2010 issues. A portion of the January issue is available here.
In 2010, Jon Lillestolen, Marcin Gala, and I co-led a smaller expedition to the J2 area, with the main objective of connecting another cave, Last Bash, into J2, hopefully succeeding in bypassing a flood-prone section of passage that repeatedly trapped cavers in 2009. We succeeded in connecting the caves, and an expedition report was published in the AMCS News.
Plans are currently underway for a return expedition in 2012 to continue diving beyond the current end of exploration.
Links to other Cheve Sites:
National Geographic
Greg Tunnock (2005)
Kasia and Marcin (2005)