Blind Descent

2

As she rappelled down, A

Having touched down, she freed herself and called "Off-rope" to let Holden know he was clear to descend. Moments later, sixty feet above, she saw his silhouette in the small triangle of gray that was all that remained of the world.

Switching on her headlamp, she studied the bottom of the shaft, absorbing each detail in hopes of crowding out u

This entry to Lechuguilla, originally called Old Misery Pit, had been known for years. Like many other caves in the area it was merely a deep hole melted into the limestone, valuable only as a source of fertilizer for the California citrus crops. But there had been tantalizing drifts of air coming from the rubble. The cave was "blowing." Following these ephemeral leads, cavers dug repeatedly in attempts to search out the bigger cavern promised by the passage of air. In 1986 they finally broke through to what was arguably one of the most important discoveries ever made by the caving community. They'd pushed into a system that not only promised to break records for length and depth but housed an unusual number of stu

Her knowledge of Lechuguilla's history exhausted, A

"Over there," he said, indicating a darker slit in the floor. "You can hear the cave breathe."

A

In a tangle of beams from three headlamps, Holden disengaged from the rope. The entire descent had taken so little time, neither A

"Onward and downward," Oscar said, and walking to an unpromising looking hole dug into the bottom of the shaft, picked up a nylon rope A

The hole was hand-dug and dirt-walled. To A

A

A blinding eye winked over the lip above. "You off-rope?" Holden asked.

"I guess." A

Holden landed beside her as lightly as a feather and flipped open the rack to free the rope. "Were you talking to me?"

"No." A

Holden dropped to his knees and skittered out of sight through the crevice. "We having fun yet?" she heard him say.

Mechanically, she got on hands and knees and followed. From the look of the tiny room she entered, things were going to get worse before they got better. Hacked from native soil, the space was too low to stand upright in. The far side was higher but partially blocked by a slide of dirt and rock. Nowhere could she see anything that even obliquely promised the wonders she'd heard spoken of in co

Light swung in a dizzying arc and struck her in the face. "Ta da," she heard Holden say.

"Down the rabbit hole," said Iverson.

Vision cleared, and A

"Cover your eyes," Iverson said, but A

"It blows. Hoo-ee, does it blow," Holden said. "By the air coming out of here it's been estimated Lechuguilla might go three hundred miles or more."

"From where?" A

"Air pressure," Iverson said. "When it gets low outside, the cave exhales; high outside, it inhales. Pressure equalization is all it is. You last, me first?" he said to Holden. The other man nodded, and A

"How long is that?" She pointed to the culvert.

"Twenty feet maybe. It was installed to stabilize the entrance. You can see the soil up here shifts when we get rain."

"Clear," reverberated through the metal conduit. Holden laughed. "Oscar goes down in record time. The pipe's so small he can't use the steps. He's too long from hip to knee. Coming out is what really gets to him." He pulled open the trapdoor, releasing an angry blast of warm, wet air, warmer than the air above ground. Lechuguilla maintained a temperature of about sixty-eight degrees with close to a hundred percent humidity year round. In this case it was a blessing. In a colder cave Frieda would have been at risk from hypothermia in addition to her other ills.

"M'dam." Tillman gestured toward the culvert with the pride of a maitre d' indicating a coveted window seat.

Down the drain.

In that instant A

Holden dropped the trapdoor. A

The culvert emptied out into a crawl space much the same as the one she'd just left. A