And despite what Larisa tells me, I know I could never find my way out of this ... via technical climbing or rappelling. It took us several days of rigging ropes to access the cave and haul ...

lower than anyone had ever gone there before him, slid Frank Ernest Nicholson, journalist-explorer, into the unmeasured depths of the Carlsbad Cave ... climbing back up his rope the equivalent ...

“I used to climb without ropes on ice and rock ... measures the height and width of each section of the cave. In Snow Dragon, he pulls out his camera and snaps a couple of pictures.