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First Time at the Cave - A Wild BASE Adventure By Nancy Lichtle For over four years I've been coveting a particular base jump - jumping into the Sotano de las Golondrinas, or Cave of the Swallows in central Mexico. Year after year our home has been the dispatch point for the "Mexico Cave BASE" expedition as my husband, Mark Lichtle, and co-expedition leader, Randy Pacheco have gathered gear and participants for the trek to Mexico. Finally, this year, the timing was right and I was able to join Mark and 13 other people for one of the most incredible experiences of my life - jumping into the deepest freefall pit in the world. The trip to the Caves in Mexico has always been a unique, much sought after base experience. Nowhere else in the world is there a deeper cave with free vertical space allowing for unobstructed parachute flight. This incredible cave, home to thousands of swallows and hundreds of parrots, offers an opportunity to jump from the earth, plummet for several seconds in freefall and land in a beautiful rocky terrain amphitheater. The opening of the 1200 foot deep cave is only 160 feet wide at the top yet it opens to a large 1000 by 440 foot bottom. While the entire cave bottom is relatively large and varies in altitude by over 200 feet, the usable landing area is what adds significantly to the base jumper's challenge. At only 36 by 90 feet of rectangular area, a huge chunk of the center of which is dominated by a 6-foot high boulder, the landing area is quite small. Jumping into this sensory rich cave is unforgiving for less experienced jumpers. If one were to be injured from the jump, the time and ability to extract the injured jumper and transport him/her to a distant hospital might turn a minor injury into one that is life threatening. The saying 'If you're not good, you better be tough', definitely applies! I pondered these constraints as the organizers set up the rigging point in overcast skies on a recent morning in March. As I watched and tried to assist the set up, I felt quite lucky to be benefiting from four prior cave expeditions and equipment improvements. On the first expedition, only 3 people jumped and the extraction involved hauling out two jumpers at a time for 45 minutes using a chain saw motor and four people doing largely hand-over-hand pulling. Today, the operation runs a much quieter 8-hp 4-stroke gasoline engine complete with muffler and fireproof blanket to drown any noise for environmental reasons. The extraction process is a fast 10 minutes from bottom to top, pulling two jumpers and a haul bag full of gear and rigs. With a rope spool, capstan's head winch system, brake system, terrain protectors, multiple belay points and shade yielding tarps overhead, the rigging point is a technological achievement in this remote third world location. Mark and Randy have spent numerous hours in the Lichtle tool shop brainstorming, tuning and improving the gear and equipment that goes to the cave. On this expedition, like several others, Mark and Randy employ specialists in the areas of rigging and safety, which add to the confidence of the expedition participants. On this trip we had four people managing rigging, safety and photography for a group of 11 jumpers. Before jumping into the cave, all jumpers are required to rappel down and observe the terrain and walk the landing area. Although I've seen literally hundreds of hours of video from previous expeditions, nothing prepared me for the experience. Hooking up my rappel rack and starting down the 1200-foot rope, I was alternating between amazement, wonder and pure joy. How many people get the opportunity to observe such a unique geological formation that has been largely untouched by man? Only a handful of climbers and fewer than 40 jumpers have ever seen the view from inside the cave. From the rope I could see mossy formations the size of school buses hanging from the walls. Horizontal caves leading back from the walls to who knows where were the markers for "pull time" in freefall. As I descended, the air became cooler and the moist walls shown an eerie green. A smell like overcooked cauliflower filled my nose as I landed on the rocky bottom and cleared the rack from the rope. I had arrived to a magical world. But now it was time to focus on landing a canopy in this mind bender. After walking the landing area and being "extracted" from the cave, my confidence was high. I couldn't wait to jump - I was really excited. Then I watched the first two people jump in. My heart raced. My mood changed. Before I had felt relaxed and excited. Now I was scared. Even though their jumps were flawless and executed cleanly, I knew that I would be jumping soon and fear was crawling up my back. I donned my rig and had a gear check knowing it was only a matter of minutes until leaving terra firma. My fear grew. Now I was gripped. The third jumper and first "cave newbie" on this trip was Chuck Driver, from Davis, California. He counted down and jumped from right next to me. From the top, I heard him holler and yell with happiness upon landing. Go, Chuck! It was my turn. I had made an effort to talk to other people who were at the top of the cave. I admitted my fear hoping to channel it and contain it. As I walked to the edge, everything outside was quiet, but not the raging storm in my head. Am I really going through with this? Had I done all the preparation necessary to be ready for this experience? Was it worth the risk? I could turn and walk away and say, ' no, not right now… maybe not ever'. But I kept my feet and my body moving in the direction of the rock edge and started my pre jump countdown. "One minute!" I said and heard it echoed via multiple radios to various locations both at the top and bottom of the cave. A voice (mine?) said "ten seconds" and I shortly started counting down aloud from 5. "Five, four, three, two, one… c-ya" and I forced myself to jump forward and launch off the sacred edge of earth. Time stood still. My senses were overloaded as I watched the far side of the cave wall accelerate and felt my body plunge down into the darkness. Somehow, I felt a sense of calm while counting the desired 5 seconds to take me down into the cave for pull time - down to where the cave opening was wider. A strong 'reach and pull' and fractions of a second later I had a beautiful Mojo canopy over my head. I screamed out in delight. And then immediately saw how close the approaching walls were and the adrenaline meter was pegged. The walls were flying toward me at an alarming speed - time to do a sharp turn and fly away. While the fear at the top had been mostly exit-oriented, I knew the hardest part was yet to come. Flying around in a constrained area, with dramatically changing elevations in the bottom and huge boulders or ankle-snapping rock skree in all but the designated landing area meant many challenges were approaching much faster than I had anticipated. My docile 7 cell BASE canopy designed for slow, gentle landings was flying like a heavily loaded Icaras Extreme in this absolutely zero wind environment. The approach to the landing area I had planned in my head was thrown out as I rocketed over the threatening, ever-varied terrain. With some dramatic turning adjustments, I lined up for final and skidded in about ten feet from the yellow-taped edge of the landing area. I immediately jumped up and let out a huge holler and realized I was shaking from head to toe. I was alive. In spite of my slightly radical canopy input, my 7cell had forgiven me and landed me down sweetly - just missing the angry and jagged rocks. What a jump. What a phenomenal experience. After several hugs and high fives with previous jumpers, I gathered my canopy and watched the remaining group of cave first timers launch, fly and land. "There are no words for describing this first cave base jump. When you stand on the edge and you see the black hole it is very scary. But you know you are trained. I made the step over the edge and I was freefalling - cave falling. When I stepped over the edge I was doing something I've never done before. Following Klaus was Matt McClone, youngest of the group from Madison, Wisconsin. Matt was nervous at the edge but tremendously enjoyed his leap from the top. "This was a really big jump for me. I'll be back!" said Matt about his jump. Next in the line up was Shelly Nackers of Green Bay, Wisconsin, and fourth woman ever to jump into the cave. "I'm not going to wipe this smile off my face for a while. Making my first base jump into the cave was incredible. The whole feeling of anticipation and adrenaline leading up to this and watching everyone else go was amazing. I knew I was going to do it. Leaving that exit point was freedom indescribable. I was flying with the swallows and the parrots and it felt so good. My body is tingling all over and I can feel every cell of my body. Flying around inside the cave felt like a motorcycle ride - you're zooming. As my feet touched the ground I ran it out and I felt the draft from landing. Then I saw all my BASE buddies rooting for me - it was awesome." Over the course of this trip, 11 jumpers made a record 56 jumps over 4 days. I jumped 4 more times and graduated to a back layout and a final 2way piggyback exit with Mark from the highest exit point. Although I am an experienced base jumper and have performed many tight demos, the cave demanded a higher level. I took heed of the difficulty of the landing area and sought advice from an accuracy expert on our trip, Klaus Renz and other seasoned jumpers. Like many on this trip Klaus has done hundreds of demos and was rock solid on every landing on this trip. With his coaching, I learned several things to help me deal with the sensory overload of the under canopy ride. 1) Fly in half brakes. With no wind, you want to ensure you give yourself maximum reaction time for whatever you need to do. 2) Focus only on the landing area - don't look at the life-threatening rocks. The rocks are like Sirens calling out to you if you even stop your gaze upon them. 3) Observe the walls, turn to miss the walls, but turn with one toggle only, leave the other side in half-brakes flight. This will give you controlled flight plus maneuverability. 4) If you are really high upon opening, do one 360-degree spiral, but in general, don't do radical turns while determining your approach. They are especially disorienting in the varied terrain, varied altitude cave bottom. 5) Find the stall point of your canopy and become comfortable flying just a little faster than that speed in case you need to. A stall and then the commensurate surge afterward can be very unnerving in this unforgiving environment. In short, safety in the cave starts with safe exits, good deployments, careful packing and gear assembly. But the biggest safety focus is canopy flying and landing. There are no outs. Perhaps no second chances and definitely severe consequences for shortcomings in this area. Of the 56 jumps, two resulted in sprained ankles. I'm happy to say I'm not one of the ankle sprains, but I do have a bruise on my thigh that reminds me of the seriousness of the cave landings. For my final jump, I joined Mark for the first ever "piggyback" 2-way exit from the cave and shared the incredible rush of falling while holding onto Mark's shoulders. Landing after that jump and hugging Mark will remain a memory I'll recount when I'm very, very old. How wonderful to share such a special experience in such a special place. The Sotanos de las Golondrinas continues to deliver a fantastic event to all involved. Jeff LaViolette, repeat cave base jumper from Green Bay, Wisconsin, summed it up with "Cave BASE is an excellent expedition with some good friends and a good team of people to kick back and relax with. We joke around and have a good time, but we're all very focused on everyone else's safety. It's a great all around life experience." ______________________________________________________________________________________ Nancy Burgess Lichtle is previous contributor to Skydiving Magazine. She is a marketing manager at Agilent Technologies and a pro-rated skydiver with over 1100 skydives and demo jumps. Her international base jumping experience includes Angel Falls (article in Skydiving Magazine ###) Venezuela, Norway and Mexico. |
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