Re: [Texascavers] Geoff Robertson lost in the El Abra

PRESTON FORSYTHE via Texascavers Sat, 05 Nov 2016 20:57:47 -0700

Sad, interesting story on Geoff in the El Abra, Cuesta area, once very popular 
caving area in the mid 70's. Very easy to see how one could get lost, 
especially with the machete and compass interference. The Macaws, the shaft of 
sunlight down Cuesta, the thick jungle and the easy to find 100 m. deep virgin 
pits. Those were the days.
Preston Forsythe up in western KY

On Saturday, November 5, 2016 9:38 PM, via Texascavers
<texascavers@texascavers.com> wrote:

The story of Geoff Robertson getting lost in the El Abra is an interesting
lesson in how notto navigate in the wilderness. Over Thanksgiving 1980 I took a
group of people to look for along-rumored black hole somewhere near Sótano de
la Cuesta in the Sierra de El Abra of northern Mexico.Cuesta was a well-known
and spectacular 170-meter drop. In those days the El Abra was a
populardestination to look for pits, of which there were many, but with little
ease of access. This was in thedays before GPS or even decent topographic maps.
Cavers actually made their own maps based on flyingover the area, taking
photos, and conducting ground reconnaissance. On this particular
trip we were camped out near Cuesta, several hours' hike from the Otates
Mineroad. One evening Geoff decided to hike over to another pit (Sótano de la
Estrella) to photograph macawsas they came in to roost. Everyone on the trip
had a copy of the caver map of the area, and instructions thatif they got lost,
they should hike north because the mine road ran completely across the mountain
rangefrom west to east. Since we were south of the road, hiking north would
eventually get you there. As fate would have it, Geoff stayed
out a bit too late and got disoriented trying to followthe trail from Estrella
back to our camp in near darkness. These trails were made by cavers, and
werenot particularly big or obvious. The thorn forest jungle there is
incredibly thick and impenetrable,and the terrain has little relief and few
landmarks visible from any distance. Nevertheless, locallythe ground can be
very irregular, with lots of exposed karst. Ten feet off the trail, and you
could betotally lost. According to Geoff, once he realized he
was lost and that it was getting dark, he made thedecision to bivouac in the
karst by clearing out a spot between outcrops and covering himself withleaves.
That was smart. What he did the next day was not. When Geoff got
up the next morning he headed north, as directed, but soon decided the goingwas
too rough and decided to try a different direction for a while to see if it got
easier. When thatdid not fare any better, he tried again to go north, but he
was carrying his compass and his machetein the same hand. We later determined
that a machete can deflect a compass by at least 90 degrees, sono telling what
direction he was actually going. He was now totally lost far from where he had
startedor wanted to be. In the meantime, the rest of our group
was beating the bushes looking for Geoff. Our worstfear was that he had gotten
too close to one of the pits and fallen in. We looked all around the pitsand
also rigged and dropped them. He was nowhere to be found. After a couple of
days of fruitlesssearching, our supplies were depleted and people needed to get
home for work and school. Our finalhope was that he had made his way back to
the road and that we would either find him waiting at thevehicle or down by the
highway. Neither turned out to be the case. Back in Austin a
major rescue was organized and a group of 16 cavers headed back down to lookfor
Geoff. We started fanning out across the karst near Estrella looking behind
every karst pinnaclein case he had broken a leg or fallen into a hole. Not long
after we started searching, a runner fromthe Mexican Red Cross, which had been
notified and was on the scene, came down the trail saying thatGeoff had
self-rescued. He had stumbled out of the jungle at a small village 10
kilometers to thesouth after hearing the sound of trucks on the highway in the
distance. He had been lost for over fivedays, surviving on stump water and
orchid bulbs. Fortunately this affair ended on a good note.
Geoff survived basically unharmed, and we founda nice pit while looking for him
(Sótano de Alegría). Gill Ediger had a great idea for a tee shirt,but as far as
I know it was never produced. He proposed a compass rose with every point
marked asNorth, and a machete for the needle. There is a brief account of this
episode in AMCS ActivitiesNewsletter No. 12, p. 8 (1982), available for free
download at <http://www.mexicancaves.org/nl/cat.html>. Mark
mintonmmin...@caver.net On Nov 3, 2016 David Locklear wrote:
---------------------------------I did go in a deep pit further north in Puebla
once, near the coordinates below 18°38'08.8"N 97°14'43.2"W
18.635783,-97.245332 with 2 Australian cavers, Rolf Adams and his girlfriend
Dr. Anne Gray in December of1989, and I did poke around in some caves near
Zongolica, Veracruz in December of 1985,with a guy named Steve Robertson and
his wife Lori Robertson, and 2 Mexico citycavers, Jose Luis Soberanes and Jorge
Ramirez. And there is a road-trip report aboutthat in a 1986 Texas Caver. [
Sidenote: I do not know if any of you knew those people, but accordingto Lori's
Facebook page, she got stuck on some job in Hawaii, so they were forced to
movethere. I have not spoken to them in 31 years except for a brief hello at
Alejandro Villagomez'swake. ] I seem to recall a rumor that Steve's older
brother got lost in the jungle for a week in Mexico, and I think there may be
an old AMCS related story about that.--------------------------------- David
Locklear
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Re: [Texascavers] Geoff Robertson lost in the El Abra

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