A Series of Fortunate Events

My life began in the relatively medium sized town of Ogden, Utah. By the age of two we had moved to the smaller-than-medium sized town of Mattoon, Illinois. Without the lure of recreational opportunities so abundant in the high mountains of the Wasatch Front, I found new and diverse methods of self entertainment, such as; comic books, baseball cards, watching my friends moon cars on lonely stretches of highway, running from the police for our less-than-serious, and sometimes comical, violations of seldom prosecuted and even unknown laws specifically targeted toward teenagers, and finally photographing road kill to gross out and worry my parents and teachers.

As time went on we moved to the Buckeye State, also known as Iowa. Here I continued my recreational outlets under the tutelage of new friends and associates in male, adolescent, red-neck crime. It was during these years that I entered my first non-commercial cave in the rolling hills of the Maquoketa Caves State Park in Iowa. The thrill of the unknown had begun to quench my insatiable, hidden appetite for exploration.

As the years rolled by a change in my father's work moved our family to the great state of Utah. Leaving my past mischief behind I found new ways to occupy my time; hiking, biking, climbing, fishing, photography, and caving. Soon my sense responsibility began to kick in and decided to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, commonly referred to as the Mormons. At the age of 19 I received a call to the Mexico, Leon Mission. For the next two years I spent every day, teaching the restored gospel, serving the local communities, and meeting some of the most wonderful, kind people on the earth.

The missionaries in our district in Zitacuaro, Mexico. I'm on the left.

Returning home I decided to focus my life a bit more and began to pursue a career in photography and cave exploration. The camera suddenly became more than just a tool for freaking out loved ones, I began to understand the power of the still image to teach, beautify, and show others that which they may never be able to see for themselves. I began to understand the subtleties of lighting, color, and contrast, and turned the occasional lucky shot into the often-occurring, rewarding image.

Behind the camera I have had the opportunity to explore virgin caves in Colima, Oaxaca, and Michoacan, Mexico, I have photographed some of the most significant caves in the state of Utah, and I have done exploration that has broken depth records in the state and put Utah on the top ten list of deepest caves in the continental United States. Below are a few recent excerpts from my journals:

Getting ready to snap a few casual shots in Duck Creek Lava Tube

Rappeling into Blue Owl Cave in the Uintas

March 5

The idea of blasting through the impassable tight spot was as exciting as the cave itself. We descended toward the restriction through a series of well-decorated pits. The first, down which my camera had fallen to its demise was lined sporadically with large to medium dry dripstone formations, covered with a layer of dark jungle vegetation. While not as beautiful as the pits below it was well inhabited with some very peculiar creatures. There were bats that quickly exited to the quiet forest above as we invaded their once silent home. Large orange, red, and blue colored centipedes appeared every once in a while from dark crevasses in the rock. And at times, near the entrance furry tarantulas would make their appearance known as our lights crossed their paths.

At floor of the first pit my feet sunk deep in a mixture of unstable clay, mud, and rocks. It was hear that my broken camera met it's final shot the previous day. Twenty-five feet below it's final landing spot another 170 foot pit sunk deeper into the hill side. Our path down was well marked along the pristine flowstone from our mud-laden boots. We tried our best to stay within a small vertical path where our descent made contact with the walls, in order to avoid unnecessary damage of the 150 foot high flowstone formation. Fortunately during the rainy season there is enough water to clean off this natural work of art. And most likely after we have finished exploration, no human will enter this void for years to come.

Taking a breather after ascending the first 200 feet of a 550 foot pit in Mexico. The temperature was about 80 degrees, and the oxygen levels 16.3%

Sporting a beard after camping out for 3 weeks in the temperate rain forests of Mexico during the 2003 International cave expedetion

September 26

This weekend I found myself standing almost 1200 feet below the surface of the earth, in a pool of ice-cold water, waist deep, in a passage 20 feet wide by 20 feet tall. Our increasingly deep cave had suddenly become horizontal. The previous trip Jon, Peter, Dan, and Ryan dropped the massive pit that we had found the trip previous. It's depths increased our then current depth of 910 feet to around 1180. At the bottom of the pit, the crew followed a large side canyon a hundred feet or so to a tight water filled passage. It was hear that the real fun began. Up to this point the cave was dangerous but tolerable. Now anyone continuing farther into the cave would have to pass through a passage about two feet wide with two feet of air space and three to three and a half feet of water.

Stepping in for the first time I felt as though a million needles had suddenly been shoved into every exposed part of my body from my waist down. The ice-coldness was nearly overwhelming and all I could think about was turning around and getting out before I lost both legs from frostbite. Nevertheless, the draw of virgin passage pressed me on into the unexplored. Within a few minutes numbness replaced the pain and I was able to continue to dryer ground. I emerged into one of the most impressive horizontal passages I have seen in the state of Utah. The tight passage had turned into a house sized, black canyon that meandered off into the distant blackness. By now the water that filled my boots had warmed up with my body heat, and wasn't feeling too bad. I sat and had a snack while we waited for the others to catch up.

We continued on down the passage taking up to 90 foot shots with the tape. The survey would have been quite pleasant had we not had to pass through two more waist deep pools of water. At one point we were forced to walk nearly 100 feet through one of the icy pools. You couldn't go to fast either, because one step in the wrong direction could take you up to your chest or even deeper. Getting that wet at this depth could have been a quick ride to hypothermia island. Half way through the survey we began to notice that each of us was beginning to suffer the beginning stages of the illness. After a half an hour the heat the had been established in my water filled boots was gone and all feeling had left my legs. At one point I sat down to rest for a minute. When I stood up the strangest pain shot through my feet. Most likely it was the blood rushing into my cold limbs. Luckily it went away, and I continued on.

We surveyed for about 3 hours accumulating nearly 1450 feet of new cave passage. We decided to end in a large breakdown room 150 feet long by 100 feet wide and about 30 feet tall. When we had finished the sketches, Jon and I headed out first while Mike and Dan continued to the end of the trunk passage to take a look at the pit Peter had dropped before heading out over an hour ago.

My cold limbs moved me slowly up the four 200+ foot pits to the entrance. Despite my slow movement I was able to make it out in about 3 hours, 20 minutes behind Jon, exiting the cave at 6:30 pm.