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Reading
Down the
Rope to Adventure
Mark
L. Taylor
I'm a newspaper
reporter and I love to explore caves. So when I got a chance
to explore Lechuguilla Cave and write a story about it, I
couldn't believe my luck. That is, until I saw the entrance—90
feet (27m) straight down! My heart pounded with excitement as I slid down a long rope
into the deep pit. What a wild start to a trip! At the bottom I joined the other cavers who were going with
me into the cave. The trip leader was a scientist named Barbara
am Ende. She led us to a skinny metal tunnel. This is the weirdest
way into a cave that I've ever seen, I thought. One by one
we wiggled our way feet—first down the tiny tunnel. Beyond
were the wonders of Lechuguilla.
BONES, BELLS, AND STRAWS For the next 13 hours we moved about in total darkness. We
had only our small headlamps to light the way. But I wasn't
worried about getting lost. We were following a map that had
been made by earlier explorers. Compared to caves in the eastern United States, Lechuguilla
is dry and warm. No slogging through mud and muck! But small
amounts of water do seep into Lechuguilla from above ground.
This water mixes with a soft rock called limestone. Together
they create some of the cave formations. Stalactites (stuh-LACK-tites)
hang from the ceiling, and stalagmites (stuh-LAG-mites) grow
from the floor. In the weak light of my headlamp, I could see small stalactites
here and there. But so far I hadn't seen anything special.
Then we came to the "Liberty Bell." I'd hate to have that
stalactite fall on my head, I thought as I looked at the huge
shape looming overhead.
Next, we turned down a short, skinny
passage. It was crowded with tiny stalactites called soda
straws. Even a gentle touch can break a soda straw. So we
turned sideways and moved carefully past them. Barbara found
another surprise beyond the soda straws—the skeleton of
an ancient bobcat. She said it must have gotten lost inside
the cave and died there thousands of years ago.
ROOMS OF WONDER Back in the main passage, we came to what looked like a dead
end. But then we looked down: in the light of our headlamps,
the passage dropped away into blackness. Our map called this
pit "Boulder Falls." To go any farther, we would have to drop
by rope through 15 stories of air. Barbara looped an extra-long
climbing rope around several big boulders and tied it. Next,
she clipped the rope into special climbing equipment that
would help her drop slowly into the pit. Then she gripped
the rope and stepped off the ledge. One by one, the other cavers dropped into the dark. Finally,
it was my turn. As I let myself down the rope, I gently bounced
against a rock wall, not too bad yet, I thought calmly. Then
the wall disappeared and I was dangling in midair. Far below,
the other cavers' headlamps glowed like distant fireflies.
Inch by inch, I slid down as the rope spin me slowly round
and round. Finally my toes touched the floor of the pit. That scary drop left us in the middle of a room so big I couldn't
see the walls. From there, we scrambled down a slope of jumbled
boulders. At the bottom we saw one of the cave's spookiest
sights. We were in another enormous room. In the feeble glow of our
headlamps, huge white blocks seemed to float in the inky darkness
ahead of us. Some blocks were the size of a small car; others
were as big as a house. Cavers call this eerie room "Glacier Bay," and Barbara
explained why. We were standing on a 30-foot (9-m) thick layer
of a mineral called gypsum (JIP-sum). The whit blocks had
broken off the edge of the gypsum layer, sort of the way icebergs
break off glaciers.
UP FROM UNDERGROUND Beyond Glacier Bay are miles of passages and more gigantic
rooms. But we wouldn't explore them on this trip. It was time
for us to head back. Now that the excitement was over, I felt tired. But we still
had to scramble and climb for many hours before we'd reach
the surface. When we were close to the entrance, I heard moaning.
What's
that? I wondered. I shivered as a wind from deep in the cave
blew against my back. Then I realized, That's the wind moaning! Sure enough, the closer we got to the entrance, the harder
the wind blew and the louder it moaned. The wind almost pushed
us through the tiny tunnel, as if the cave wanted us to leave. Finally we came to the entrance pit and that last long rope.
As I climbed, I could see stars twinkling in the sky. I was
exhausted, hungry...and happy. I had explored part of this wild
underground wonderland!
Lechuguilla Cave
They call it Lechuguilla (lech-uh-GHEE-yeh)
Cave. This super cave is tucked away in a little canyon in
Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico. It's full of deep
pits, hidden rooms, miles and miles of dark passages and formations
that are found in few other caves. Many formations are made of minerals that look like snow.
And they are as fragile as a snowflake too. For instance,
a caver can't pet this "bunny" or put an ornament on
this "Christmas tree". And on one could chew these globs of "bubble
gum". One touch would shatter such fragile formation. Far from the cave's entrance cavers enter the huge
"Chandelier Ballroom". A few other caves have chandeliers, but none are
as big as those in Lechuguilla. Only a few people have seen the treasures deep inside Lechuguilla.
These sights are their reward for crawling and climbing for
hours in the unexplored passages and rooms of this super cave.
(From Ranger Rick magazine, August,1989) TOP
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