Photographer Page

Joshua Hydeman

Chris Lloyd, a geologist, drills a hole in the limestone rock wall to set up a series of bolts and ropes, which cavers use to travel through the system. Lloyd works for a mining company but is spending his vacation helping PESH explore Sistema Huautla.

David Tirado Hernadez examines a trickle of water coming down the wall as he rappels into the entrance of Sotano de Agua de Carrizo. PESH (Proyecto Espeleologicos Sistema Huautla) cavers pay close attention to the weather; if too much rainwater enters the caves, it may fill its passages and trap them inside.

Near the entrance of La Grieta, one of many deep routes in Sistema Huautla, the Camp 4 team marches through thick fog and brush.

Cavers grab their packs and leave for a seven-day camping session inside La Grieta. Their packs are filled with drills, sleeping bags, and a mix of highly nutritional dehydrated food.

At about 479 feet (146 meters) high, the "TAG Shaft" is one of largest chambers in Sistema Huautla. TAG stands for "Tennessee/Alabama/Georgia," where several different surface entrances meet. During the 2018 expedition, cavers pushed through a tight crack at the bottom of the shaft in a successful attempt to connect it to Sistema Huautla. To capture this image of the illuminated cave, the photographer overlayed multiple photographs taken with different exposures.

In a dark passage in Oaxaca, Sonia Meyer sketches in a waterproof notepad and Jesse Houser uses a Disto X to shoot down a pit. The cavers use these techniques to keep track of their findings and collect data to build out the map of the system.

A member of the expedition travels through a portion of Sistema Huautla that sits behind one of Skeleton Canyon's water-filled passages. Traveling through the canyon requires stepping on thin scalpel-like blades, which can easily break under force. To capture this image of the illuminated cave, the photographer overlayed multiple photographs taken with different exposures.

British caver Martin Hoff, one of several international members of the expedition team, rappels into an entrance of Sistema Huautla.

Sonia Meyer works her way through a canyon passage in Sistema Huautla, the deepest cave in the Western Hemisphere. This year, the system is being explored by two separate expedition teams, PESH (Proyecto Espeleologico Sistema Huautla) and Pena Colorada 2018.

Amy Morton, PESH expedition team member, describes the experience of sleeping underground as "a lot of vivid dreaming, a lot of water, a lot of imagining you hear voices in the water...”