Hidden Earth 2024
Cuetzalan, 20 Years On From The First Sump Rescue, and the Future
45 minute Lecture|Steve Whitlock
Abstract
Cuetzalan was forever changed by the events in Mar 2004, when six cavers were rescued via a sump and were on the front page of every western newspaper for 10 days. It was the first rescue of its kind. Following a recent visit on the 20th Anniversary, Steve Whitlock reflects on the 2004 trip, the effects the rescue had on the area, on the lessons that could be learned and on potential future exploration. With over 127km of known cave, the karst around Cuetzalan remains largely unexplored and has the potential to have its cave systems ranked amongst some of the longest in the world.
More from 2024
Lecture|Martyn Farr
Brazil: bloody big, bloody FANTASTIC
Lecture|Henry Bennett
SpeleoPhillippines
Lecture|Peter Talling
Junction Junkies - Connecting Draughting Hole and Missed Pot to make a 7.7 km system
Lecture|Alex Stacey
South Wales Round Up
Lecture|Keith Edwards And Paul Taylor
An Electronic Cave Rescue Incident Management System
Lecture|Peter Talling
The Remote Pico del Oro Plateau in North Peru: Searching for Caves in 2,800m Deep Limestone
Lecture|Rostam Namaghi
In defence of caving politics, a history and possible future of the BCA
Lecture|Chris Scaife
Descent at 300
Lecture|Andy Farrant
The Mulu caves just keep on getting bigger… Biogenic subaerial dissolution by nitrification in the Caves of Gunung Mulu National Park, Borneo.
Lecture|John Gunn
Sulphate caves and karst in the South Harz Mountains, Central Germany