EXPEDICIÓN 2008 - AKEMABIS, MÉXICO

ESTADO DE PUEBLA, SIERRA NEGRA

Proyecto Akemabis 2008

Olga, Franco and Pablo finally got back to the surface after spending three days underground at the bottom of Akemabis – a thousand metres down in the cave that we had tried to explore the year before, but for various reasons were not able to. Those of us in base camp were happy to see them, worn out, but happy, as they brought the very latest news from the bottom of the cave. “What happened?” “Does it continue?” “Did you find anything interesting?” “Does it go, or does it end?” We didn’t give them a moment to eat or drink, just continued to bombard them with news from their ‘voyage of discovery’.

Once more 15 of the 18 cavers involved in our project were in the Sierra Negra, Puebla State, in the centre of Mexico. This time, for all of April 2008 under the leadership of Franco Attolini, Al Warild and Gustavo Vela, we would be continuing with the objectives left from the year before-like having a good time and bottoming Akemabis. This time we’d arrived with more people, better equipment, and more determination.

And so it began, at the end of March, some stayed behind in the nearest city of Tehuacan to buy the food while others went on ahead to arrange the permissions, rent burros and begin to set up base camp in front of don Doreteo’s house on the ridge at 1850 m asl.

The history of Olbastl Akemabis began in 1990 when a group of cavers from the GSAB (Groupe Spéléo Alpin Belge), found and explored the cave to -1015 m deep. With time, their explorations led them to other parts of the sierra and the end of Akemabis was left unfinished. The cave’s name comes from Olbastl-pit in the local dialect of nahuatl and the GSAB cavers asking the name of a cave nearby. They were told “Akemati” (“I don’t know”). Their new cave was so close that it had to connect, so they added a ‘bis’ and called it Akemabis. It never did connect.

The GSAB cavers were happy for us to take a look and see how Akemabis ended, so in 2007 we went to see what we could find. After 20 years (that’s before GPS!), the correct cave was hard to find, but we did manage to find a different and new cave. At least for our return in 2008 we knew exactly where Akemabis was and what the first part was like.

One of the great things about expedition caving is that it is a mix of team work and individual effort. While one team is resting in base camp, another is rigging in the cave and another is prospecting the hills for more caves to explore. But it doesn’t stop there. Every member of the team needs to be physically and mentally prepared to contribute to the team effort. We tended to rig in pairs and in five days we were at -910 m. In those same five days we had run a survey down to -875 m to the same survey point that the GSAB team had left their topo in 1990. The point was obvious: a few spare spits, a scrap of blue rope and a “pepperami” wrapper (empty!). A little way below we hit the last point that we believe the GSAB group reached. Below this 28 m pitch at -949 m there were no footprints or marks of any kind.

Rigging and mapping was taking longer and longer. It was on one of these trips that Al, David and Vladimir passed the last known point and after an 8 m drop entered a much larger gallery that ran north-south. They ran from one end to the other always expecting to find another pitch, but only encountered three domes and a small continuation. Having already been in the cave for quite some time they had to leave the exploration and start the long climb out. Vladimir said that he was so tired that he didn’t know what hurt more: his entire body, or the prospect of having to climb 1000 m of rope.

This up to 10 m by 20 m, 400 m long collector we called “calle Sierra Negra” (Sierra Negra Street) due to its unusually large dimensions in this otherwise narrow cave.

At the same time as Akemabis was being explored, teams were prospecting the higher areas above base camp on the slopes of Tzontzecuiculi. They found only a few small caves that went nowhere. Others began exploration of a new cave only 38 metres from Santo Cavernario, our unexpected new 593 m deep cave of the year before. At first we were so convinced that this new cave was little more than another entrance to Santo Cavernario that we even called it El Santito. The more rope we took in, the further Santito diverged from Santo. With no more time, we stopped at the top of a 50 m pitch and no Santo Cavernario in sight.

As the previous group down Akemabis didn’t have time to explore all the leads in calle Sierra Negra, Al and Gustavo went to take a look at the northern part. They dropped a short pitch to a muddy, narrow area with a rumbling water sound in the distance. Another uncomfortable drop led to a narrow slot with gushing white water in, but no space for humans. Heading the other way back under a perched lake was even more mud-coated. Slithering on down they reached a shores of a lake that had dozens of white, presumably blind isopods swimming in it. We too took a swim, but found nothing and in honour of the isopds called it “el sifón de los espeleo-políticos ciegos” (Blind speleo-politician sump). We had been down there for hours, we had no bivvie gear. It was time to start climbing.

Trips to the bottom were taking too long and too much energy for the amount of exploration we were getting done. Trouble was we hadn’t come prepared to bivouac, so we scrounged around camp-a spare sleeping bag here, an old foam mat there.

Three days later Pablo, Olga and Franco set up “Campamento Miseria” right at the calle Sierra Negra T-junction at -1004 m. They then set to work pushing the south end of the calle and after a lot of effort, Olga got past a tight spot to more pitches and another gallery. It made no difference following the re-found water or passing over blocks high above, both routes ended at the foot of a dome where the water disappeared between the rocks-“salón del final feliz” (happy ending room). There were still passages to map and leads to push so Fonso, Gustavo and Guillaume tried their luck, but found no way on. They pulled the gear back to the last lead and started on out. On the way up they thought it was a little wetter than they remembered. A bit concerned about being hit by rocks moving down the cave in the higher water, they continued on up. Nearing the top of the 310 m pitch the flush came, and a name for the pitch “el gran pozo de los ratoncitos casi ahogados” (Big pitch of the [almost] drowned little mice). A few anxious hours as we waited for Fonso to arrive without a snorkel, but he was just taking his time…

A few days to let the water levels drop and we’d have a last push, Marta, Kasia, Zape and Al moved on down to look at that last lead. It was tight, it was dirty, it was wet-“Las tripas de Pinto” (Pinto’s guts – Pinto was Doreteo’s dog. He’d visit our camp each nigh stealing food and spreading rubbish everywhere. Thanks only to his owner’s influence he’s still free and wagging his tail). Las tripas de Pinto ended in a dome only a fraction shallower than the previous deep point. They also got the cave derigged to -800 m.

The last week of the expedition and Tzontzecuiculi began to bear fruit. A small ‘walk-in’ entrance at 2400 m led to a pitch, then another with airflow. Pablo, Olga and Fonso took another long walk to give it a try, but ran out of rope, still unable to see the bottom.

In another direction, trips down Santito got the topo to -527 m and exploration to -580 m, and Akemabis took another couple of hard days to get all the gear out.

Thanks to Auriga, our lightweight trip could still get the results before we went home: sifón de los espeleo-políticos ciegos: -1051 m, las tripas de Pinto: -1092 and salón del final feliz: -1101, and 3219 m long.


And so, after 18 years since it was first explored, a conclusion to Akemabis has finally been reached. The most probable resurgence is Coyolatl, some five kilometers away to the east. All the other new caves we’ve found lie between these two points, so we’ll keep exploring these unknowns. This expedition will also go into the books as the first -1000 m exploration done mainly by a Mexican team.

Expedition Leaders: Franco Attolini, Gustavo Vela, Al Warild.
Expedition members: Kasia Biernacka, Alfonso (Fonso) Calvo, Marta Candel, Luis (Wicho) Díaz, Mike (Papa Mike) Frazier, Olga García, Marc Kotte, Roberto (Legas) Legaspi, Pablo Martínez, Enrique (Zape) Ogando, Guillaume Pelletier, Vladimir (Vladimitzin) Ramírez, Homero Resendiz, David Tirado, Bev (Beverlitzin) Shade.

 

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