About 2 years ago, I posted somewhere that an Aggie Caver that I once
knew from the 1987 era, had passed away.
I could not find anybody that wanted to talk about it, as his death at
such a young age was very unexpected and tragic.
Below is all the info I have collected:
Name:F. Mason Estes, ( went by Mason )
He was primarily a good rock-climber and could handle most of the
popular routes at Enchanted Rock ( in 1987 )
His name was listed on the cave map below:
http://www.mexicancaves.org/maps/3277.pdf
He died accidentally around 2004 ( I only have one rumor about how
that occurred )
( I can only guess he was born around 1965 or 1966, but no idea where )
He was a geology grad. student working on his Master's Thesis at Idaho
State University in Pocatello at the
time of his death.One of his lab partner friends dedicated their
Geology Master's Thesis to him in 2005
( see reference below: Christopher Meehan ) ( I could not find that
guy on the internet )
My memory is that Mason had a froggy voice and was shy, and had blonde
curly hair and was
fair-skinned, medium build. ( I only say that, because I do not have
a photo of him. )Another fuzzy
memory was his something about his nose - maybe that it was bent.
He and I and two other Aggie Cavers ( who haven't been caving in 20+
years ) made a road-trip
to Grutas de Palmito in 1986 or 87 and visited all the passages we
could find.( I think we were unsuccessful
at locating the upper passage even though we were climbing in the
right spot. We ran out of time,
as my memory says the lead climber rigged the route, and rappelled back down. )
We also did a trip to Enchanted Rock Cave and to do some climbing
there, until one of the other guys had a
horrible near death accident while goofing-off at "Army Crack", after
we had finished climbing for the day.
( That guy is now a Deputy Director in a U.S. Naval Division )
Mason attended to him, while I ran back to the
ranger station, and Mason helped carry him on a stretcher to the back
of the park where there was a jeep trail for ranger use. And
Mason stayed with him at the hospital for an hour, before the rest of
us had to return to A
We also did a road-trip to New Braunfels to go tubing and camping and
cliff-diving near Gruene, where
we were all nearly arrested because of some other non-caver from A
that the trip-leader had invited
to tag along.
Mason's name might appear in articles in A.S.S. Grotto newsletters
from 1987 and 1988.( The newsletter was sort of a once or twice a
semester thing back then, called The ASS Explorer ), and I should have
a copy of one issue in my storage building, but it
would take lots of digging to find it. ( Historical Note:The ASS
grotto newsletter was called "The Holey Land" in 1986, although none
of the newsletters from the mid-1980's contain anything relevant other
than names of members. 90% of the members were mostly social students
interested in caves and not cavers, and most probably never went on
more than one beginner trip at the beginning of the fall semester. )
Irrelevant sidenote:I left College Station in May of 1987, and had
only been a part-time student prior to that.I was
ridgewalking/traveling
on weekends in northern Mexico in 1987 and so he and I did not cross
paths but a few times and so we never developed any kind of
friendly bond.However, I tried to remain connected to A.S.S. up to
1989, and briefly returned once as a full active member in 1993.
I only add all that to explain how I knew Mason.
He apparently left College Station around 1989. The last time I
ever saw or heard from him was when Bill Steele came
to AggieLand to give a special presentation on Huautla to the A.S.S.
which was around late 1988 or 1989.
I am under the impression that Mason spent a good part of the 1990's
mountain-climbing and rock-climbing out west.
I probably met 200 people in my life that were once members of the
A.S.S. His memory is something like in the top 20 of cavers
I knew who once called themselves Aggie Cavers.I can only remember
about 30 names now.I guess of all the cavers I ever met,
he partied harder than most. He sort of lived the Def Leopard
anthem song, "It is better to burn out than fade away."
David Locklear
NSS # 27639
Aggie Caver from 1984 to 1989 & 1993
dlocklea...@gmail.com
Ref:
Slang defenition: "Burning out" is a metaphor for living an exciting,
ambitious life; one where you expend all of your
energy early on, possibly even dying young like many rock stars.
Fading away would be to simply
live safely, not take any risks, etc. Basically living a long but
boring life that doesn't impact anyone else.
http://geology.isu.edu/thesis/Meehan_Christopher_2005_ISU.pdf
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