Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.5250972
EAN num: 9780446527095
ISBN number: 0446527092
Label: Grand Central Publishing
Manufacturer: Grand Central Publishing
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 352
Printing Date: 2002-07
Publishing house: Grand Central Publishing
Sale Popularity Level: 555287
Studio: Grand Central Publishing
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The Huautla Caves system in Mexico has long been the 'Holy Grail' of cavers. Fighting floods, cave-ins and Mazatec Indians who believe the caves are holy, caving teams have competed every year to be the very first to prove the cave's depth. No-one has gone further than Bill Stone, the world's foremost caver, whose 20-year obsession nearly ended in disaster. He very first explored Huautla in 1976 during the frontier days of caving. Over the subsequent 15 years he stayed at the top, inventing clothing and equipment to help in his obsession. Finally, in 1994, after years of preparation, Stone and his 44-member team entered the Sotano de San Augustin sinkhole at Huautla. It was the beginning of a journey that would untimately claim the life of one diver and force every member of the team back - except Bill Stone and team member Barbara am Ende, who forged on alone, with no hope of rescue, to set the record for the deepest cave dive in the Western Hemisphere.
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Rated by buyers 
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I still recommend this book highly. The story of these explorers is simply amazing. As someone who is very very claustrophobic (my worst fear is being stuck in some confined space), I have to be an "armchair" explorer, and this book makes you confront these fears. In the end it's very rewarding.
The book's only flaw is the "reconstructed" dialogue. I don't know who recommended the author(s) adopt this format, because it is really awkward in places. The narrative of, say, a Jon Krakauer book or a Simon Winchester book is much, much more effective than a lot of the bogus, even boring dialogue that comes across here. There are a lot of characters the author(s) and the readers have to deal with, so perhaps giving most of them "voices" was thought of as the best way to do it, but after a while it gets a little tiring and actually disrupts the build-up of the action.
Still, it's an awesome story of exploration and what drives us to keep pushing the limits.
Rated by buyers 
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I'm a scuba diver. I have also done a lot of spelunking in my late teens and early 20's. I never really considered combining the 2. It just didn't cross my mind.
Now I never will.
There were so many times in this book that I simply got the willies. (Did I spell that right?) It became more frightening that some of the horror I've read.
It also (in my humble opinion) addresses one of the greatest downfalls of some explorers; Not taking into consideration one's mortality.
While I doubt I'll ever willingly mix traditional scuba diving with spelunking I may consider it if I had acess to the re-breathers this team used.
This book is NOT for the claustrophobic.
Rated by buyers 
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I really wanted to like this book but I found myself struggling to finish it. No doubt, the experience itself was immeasurably exciting / interesting, but the book was, well, kind of boring.
It could have easily been half the length and not lost much, and as another reviewer indicated, I never really got a feel for what is so great about crawling though caves. I'm sure it IS great, at least to those who are as into it as these people are, but I didn't get why or how from the book. I also found the third-person writing style a bit contrived, somehow.
If you DID like this book, I would highly recommend 'The Last Dive' which is in a similar vein but I found very exciting and extremely well written.
Rated by buyers -
Fascinating book about the ultimate 'adventure' junkies-- who explore the world's most treacherous cave in Mexico. An amazing crew of people. What's so unusual is that these are divers-- deep see divers, not just guys and gals who go down into the cave on ropes or climb rocks. They call themselves CAVERS -- details make the true-life adventure come alive. What's disturbing though is that lives were lost on this expedition and the authors tend to gloss over those lost in their quest for the ultimate experiences. Cinematic and even outrageous tale of diving into disaster.
Rated by buyers -
What is it that drives cave explorers to descend to unbelievable depths, as if they were involved in an international game of subterranean chess?
Perhaps the clues are to be found within the pages of a book entitled Beyond The Deep that chronicles the breathtaking 1994 San Agustin Expedition as told from the perspective of Bill Stone and Barbara am Ende.
Much of the information was gleaned from their logbooks, diaries, and recollections, as well as from dozens of interviews conducted by their co-author Monte Paulsen.
In 1977, 1979 and 1981 cave divers were unsuccessful in exploring the San Agustin sump or the underground tunnel that was flooded entirely with water. This sump is the deepest point in a cave known as Sistema Huautla, Oaxaca, Mexico.
Many of the difficulties were the result of using traditional equipment as well as the inability to effectively transport the supplies and gear necessary to accomplish this incredible feat.
In 1994 international exploring expert Bill Stone completed the constructing of an closed cycle life support system or as he termed it a "rebreather." This piece of apparatus was called the Mk-ll.
This would permit the cavers and divers to explore the San Agustin Sump far longer than anyone was able to accomplish in the past.
It was Stone's contention that the problem was primarily a technological challenge. Once this was overcome, the rest would fall into place.
The subsequent step entailed the meticulous organization of the various components of the team.
There was expedition leader Stone, six dive team members, 35 support team participants and 5 members of the photo team.
These individuals wanted to "place their own boot where no one hand before." According to Stone, "every member had made enormous personal sacrifices in the pursuit of this elusive grail. They'd left family behind for a third of a year; had trained relentlessly for two years just to get there; had gone deeply into debt; and were subjecting themselves daily to physical hardships."
Why do it? Perhaps Stone sums it up when he asserts, "after so many years of struggle, he'd found the route, the secret doorway to the gaping, unexplored beyond."
One of the shortcomings of the book is the extensive use of technical jargon. The authors did indicate in the introduction that they have substituted common words for technical jargon wherever possible.
However, unfortunately, far too often I had to refer to the glossary at the back of the book to understand a paragraph or sentence. No doubt this deflated some of the suspense of the saga.
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