Bill Russell was walking along just ahead of the camera for a while during one of the 'jungle chop' sequences. I kept thinking I got glimpses of Joe Sumbera bearded out but never got a good enough frontal shot to say positively. I was nearly 3000 miles away in Virginia at the time but it was news of these jungle chops and cave/pit discoveries that encouraged me to resign from the Army in March '75 and return to Texas and Mexico caving. --Ediger
On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 11:39 PM, Logan McNatt <lmcn...@austin.rr.com>wrote: > Wow Mark, that video sure does bring back some memories! The rope climbing > at the beginning has got to be at 1307 1/2 Kirkwood, the old Kirkwood Kaver > Kommune in Austin. I'm pretty sure that's my 1961 Ford Fairlane parked out > front. In the jungle chops, that's me in the brown Stetson hat and the > sleeveless Army shirt, wielding a machete. All those El Abra jungle chops > were excellent training for the years I lived in Belize, and introduced all > of us to fer-de-lances, boa constrictors, army ants, parrots, soyates > (ponytail palms), mala mujer, and many awesome pits. I'll never forget > watching Frank Binney make the first rappel into Sotano de la Cuesta, and > about 30 feet down exclaiming "Oh ****!!!!" We all thought something was > wrong, but he just said "No, you'll see". And we did. > > I hardly recognize anyone else in the video except you, Mark. Just looked > through the old AMCS Newsletters, and there was a huge trip in Dec 1973/Jan > 1974. Could it have been that one rather than Dec 1974? Not sure if the > Otate Mine road was open that early, though. > > Thanks very much for sending that link, and thanks to Joe and Harold for > making it possible. > > Logan McNatt > > On 7/13/2011 9:59 PM, Mark Minton wrote: > >> Harold Goldstein, aka King of the Hlocuts, has digitized and posted >> on YouTube an old Super-8 video shot by Joe Maskasky back in December 1974. >> It depicts a trip up the newly opened Otates Mine road in the Sierra de El >> Abra, during which a new, shorter trail was chopped to Sótano de la Cuesta >> (-217 m, a large, open-air pit with a 174-m entrance drop). "Only one more >> chopping day until Christmas!" Along the way several noteworthy caves were >> discovered, including the difficult Cueva de Diamante (eventually pushed to >> -621 m) and Sótano de Sendero (-223 m with a 217-m entrance drop). (See >> early AMCS Activities Newsletters.) Several venerable Texas cavers in their >> earlier days make appearances. How many can you recognize? The movie is >> grainy, discolored and without sound, but will be entertaining for >> old-timers familiar with the area and the times. < >> http://www.youtube.com/watch?**v=S90zQBj17kI<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S90zQBj17kI> >> > >> >> Mark Minton >> >> Please reply to mmin...@caver.net >> Permanent email address is mmin...@illinoisalumni.org >> >> ------------------------------**------------------------------**--------- >> Visit our website: http://texascavers.com >> To unsubscribe, e-mail: >> texascavers-unsubscribe@**texascavers.com<texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com> >> For additional commands, e-mail: >> texascavers-help@texascavers.**com<texascavers-h...@texascavers.com> >> >> >> > ------------------------------**------------------------------**--------- > Visit our website: http://texascavers.com > To unsubscribe, e-mail: > texascavers-unsubscribe@**texascavers.com<texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com> > For additional commands, e-mail: > texascavers-help@texascavers.**com<texascavers-h...@texascavers.com> > >
