Rolf Adams was a fantastic caver and all around really nice guy. I had the pleasure of caving with him several times, including at Cueva Cheve in 1989. There is a photo of Rolf, Noel Sloan and me on the cover of the NSS history book "Caving in America". We were supposed to represent "modern" cavers, as compared to the other photo on the cover showing cavers from 1940. Ironically, at that time none of the three of us were NSS members. Rolf was Australian and not a member; I had not yet joined, and Noel's membership had lapsed. (The book is no longer available from the NSS, but it is on eBay: <https://www.ebay.com/itm/Caving-in-America-The-Story-of-the-National-Spelelogical-Society-1991-/151917519053>.)
Mark Minton mmin...@caver.net On Sun, 24 Dec, 2017 at 5:11 PM, David via Texascavers <texascavers@texascavers.com> wrote: To: CaveTex Cc: dlocklea...@gmail.com A personal story from David Locklear from December of 1989. ( a very fuzzy memory from 18 years ago) I have ever told this whole story - at least not in detail - just in parts. Background: Australian caver Rolf Adams ( who would later drown in Florida scuba training for a caving expedition ) was hanging out in Austin semi-permanently caving full-time.. He had finished his math studies at a university in Australia and had climbed El Capitan and sone lots of caving. He was the most technical caver that I had ever met, and I assumed he could lead or climb as good as Alejandro Villagomez. He and I had caved previously once over Thanksgiving in The El Cielo, mostly ridgewalking camping, swimming and taking in the Huastecan culture. [ Sidenote: I actually sincerely believed his name was Wallaby Adams until reading his obituary in the NSS News two years later. ] In November of 89, I was laid-off from a civil engineering company where I worked drafting on mylar with ink pens. and Leroy set roads ( new suburban boulevards ). I had never been laid off. In those days, unlike today, I was a total moron, and I had no earthly idea what it meant to be laid off. In my case, I had an extreme stroke of luck ( for once ) in that when I arrived at The Texas Unemployment Office, my bosse's boss was in line right next to me. So I left Houston and went to the UT Grotto meeting. ( In those days, still being an A.S.S. caver, I referred to it as the "t.u. Grotto." ) Rolf was there with his girlfriend from Australia. He introduced her as Dr. Anne Gray. She was a cute blonde with long frizzy hair about 25 years old. [I think this might be her on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/anne.gray.144 ] Rolf announced he was heading on a ridgewalking adventure near Tehuacan, Puebla in search of the highest cave entrance in the western hemisphere. I think our remote spot is now a tourist site: San Bernardino Lagunas Vicente Guerrero, Puebla, Mexico https://goo.gl/maps/Zer3ueTFVt32 Some Austin cavers found a tiny yellow beat-up Datsun pickup with camper-shell on the back. Rolf was content to have me tag along, but unknown to me, his girlfriend had possibly been wanting a simple quite trip with just the two of them. She did not know me at all, like Rolf did. And she and I never hit it off. In hindsight, I should have bailed on them, at some point before reaching Puebla. But they had no business travelling alone like that where they were going. Maybe to be continued.... Feel free to correct me, or add to Part One, if you knew Rolf or Anne.
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