AMCS ACTIVITIES NEWSLETTER NUMBER 23

ROB PARKER REFLECTIONS Bill Stone

I learned of Rob Parker's death trance side ofthe restriction, Parker the entrance of the cave we in­ from Wes Skiles who phoned after failed to materialize. Mallone's gas tended to connect to the Huautla receiving a call from the Bahamas. supplies were depleted (due to the system, and through which we Parker and five others, including emergency descent) and he was hoped to establish the world depth his diving partner Duffer Mallone forced to ascend to decompress. record. and Rob Palmer's widow Stephie, The best analysis of the accident It took the average team mem­ were there to shoot a documentary indicates that Parker blacked out ber ninety minutes up and sixty film about Blue Holes in honor of from severe narcosis after switch­ minutes back. Parker, being the Rob Palmer, who himself had mys­ ing from a helium-based breathing nimble athlete, soon observed that teriously perished during a dive mix to compressed air at 67m. De­ it was possible to run from boul­ into the Red Sea some four months spite Mallone's recollections, it ap­ der tip to boulder tip with far less earlier. Parker and the others had pears that Parker never fully re­ energy expenditure, albeit with been working hard for two weeks, gained consciousness after that more adventure. I noticed this too diving daily on compressed air to moment. He was later found and, without saying a word, a si­ 60m depths. wedged in the fissure. lent competition began wherein we On August 17,1997, Mallone and mightindependentlymake that run Parker decided to make an explo­ first met Rob Parker in Jackson and then walk into basecamp and ration dive in Four Sharks Blue I ville, Florida in the autumn of mutter a number to the other, the Hole, a well known ocean hole 1983. He had come to join the team number being the latest time in which continued, unexplored, at returning to the Cueva de la Pena minutes. By the end of the project substantial depths. Because of a Colorada on the southern flanks of Parker proudly announced the narrow restriction at -50m they the Huautla plateau. That project number "Fifteen/' which was little dived open circuit side mount rigs required a rare mix of skills in­ short of Olympic speed over boul­ with one tank each of trimix and cluding cave exploring, rockclimb­ ders. This would not be our last air. ing, SCUBA diving, and long range competition. They staged bottles of oxygen at camping beyond sumps. The latter -10m and nitrox at the constriction had never before been attempted. e and I became fast partners for decompression, and then con­ Young Parker, then just twenty-one, H on that trip, each matched to tinued on through the fissure and had shown up with minimum trav­ the other's skills and stamina. We into a large rift. There they de­ eling kit and a personal recommen­ explored, side by side, territory scended to a depth over 100m and dation from Martyn Farr. never before seen by humans. Of­ into virgin territory where they ex­ Being some ten years the elder I ten climbing was involved, and he plored some 120m before calling initially looked on Rob as an en­ was very, verygood at that. I would the dive. thusiastic rookie-to be good-spir­ always be the belayer, he the leader. During the ascent, the trimix gas itedly exploited for hauling tons of One day he led an exceedingly dif­ supplies ran low and a switch was tackle underground. Itd id not take ficult route up a blank 70m-high made to compressed air at a depth long before everyone realized that section ofcanyon walt whereupon of 67m. Shortly after this switch a prodigy was among us. we entered a new cavernwe named MaHone observed Parker to be fall­ On our way to Huautla at the Vine Cave. ing, uncontrolled, back down the beginning of the four-month project When I arrived Rob was looking shaft, unconscious. the 8-ton truckcarrying our equip­ stunned and thoughtful. "What's MaHone made a desperate de­ ment broke down. Parts were sent wrong?" I asked. He pointed si­ scent to 80m, breathing air, to re­ for, but in Mexico, nothing hap­ lently to the floor and there, im­ trieve him and succeeded in get­ pens swiftly. Parker came up with printed into the hardened dirt, ting the both of them back to the a morale building diversion and were bare footprints ... no doubt head of the restriction. He believed rigged a 100-meter rope tyrolean hundreds if not thousands of years Parker to be awake, though drowsy, across a nearby canyon. People old. When I asked him how some­ at that time. were still riding this as the truck one without the benefit of modern The restriction, unfortunately, prepared to roll on. technology had managed to precluded side-by-side passage. It was a three kilometer gear­ "scoop" his route, he nodded a few Mallone motioned to Parker that laden trek in February 1984 from times in respect and said, "Reli­ he was going through first and that our basecamp up a dry river bed gion, man ... religion." Parker should follow. On the en- filled with table size boulders to On that same expedition Rob

92 AMCS ACTIVITIES NEWSLETTER NUMBER 23 pioneered the climbs leading to Domingo basecamp, push-ups with Narrows Cave, Cueva del Altar, SCUBA tanks on our backs in even years later, at thirty-two and Gourd Cave as well as the first Florida, or pull-ups from the div­ Sand a member of the 1994 San exploration of Sumps 3 and 6 in ing tower at Wakulla Springs in Agustin expedition, he was far the Pena Colorada. full dress, with the loser (that is to more mature, yet just as capable. Rob was not without his limita­ say, me) falling unceremoniously Having business matters to attend tions. We soon discovered his one, eight meters into the drink after to with both his successful climb­ his only, phobia: peas. Yes, I'm talk­ matching Parker's count, but not ing center-"probably the best ply­ ing about the little round green his ability to get back on top of the wood crag in the world"-as well vegetable. There ensued great de­ platform! as becoming a talented adventure bate among several team members Usually Rob won, but I man­ cinematographer, he arrived a few as to just how sincere, clinical, and aged to catch him off guard on just weeks late. We were short of per­ sensitive this malady was. Seeing enough occasions to keep him on sonnel at the exploration front and as how many of us were scientists, his toes. And so, when the British were behind schedule in the trans­ we set out on a devious, multi­ press asked him, on the eve of his port of heavy equipment. year series of experiments during record breaking descent into Within a day of his arrival, and which we tested the hypothesis Wookey Hole in 1985, "How long with no acclimatization, he person­ under controlled conditions. have you been entering into these ally brought down a 30-kilogram We injected sauteed peas, pow­ competitions?" we both wondered hydroelectric turbine and depos­ dered freeze dried peas, canned how the paparazzi had come to ited it at the Camp 3 depot along peas and just about every other learn of our pUSh-up contests. with a humorous note, and then, possible permutation that could After his pioneering work at with offhanded ease, proceeded to still be called peas-into various Wookey, Rob's name and deeds rocket to the surface in three hours foodstuffs-all to be detected by spread far and wide. He was a flat. Parker's unerring sense thatsome­ leading explorer of the Blue Holes Lesser mortals took between ten thing was not right with the world. of the Bahamas along with Rob to twelve hours. When we returned The ultimate "Parker and the Pea" Palmer (also now deceased), and from Camp 5 later that day to dis­ story was his discovery, without pioneered the exploration of such covery his delivery and note I re­ so much as a quaff, of a single pea places as Conch Sound, Stargate, member writing in my log that at the bottom ofa pint of Guinness. Mars Bay Blue Hole, and scores of night, "The cavalryhas arrived and Had we been able to isolate this others. He was a key member of they are British!" detection mechanism we could the 1987 projectatWakulla Springs, Over the following years Rob di­ have all retired rich. led the first cave diving expedition versified his interests. He climbed to China, and was flown in by mili­ Everest, became an extreme tech­ ob was always adept at unor tary transports in various coun­ nical rock climber who toured the Rthodox means of getting by be­ tries to assist with rescues and re­ world in that pursuit, and shot tween expeditions. He often built coveries. films of sharks. His climbing busi­ furniture for his foreign hosts in His taped accounts of the first ness in Bristol had become so suc­ order to earn money to purchase a missions up B-Tunnel in Wakulla cessful that he was freed of the return plane ticketto England. And in 1987 still make for riveting lis­ requirements of working a regular he knew how to turn county tening. In his joking, self-deprecat­ job. To fill the gap he had become bridges into spider webs (for the ing manner, he would describe un­ Leo Dickinson's protege with an sake of a few pounds from the lo­ derwater vehicle collisions, unin­ eye on a second career in adven­ cal television station that was run­ tended barrel rolls, camera snags, ture film making. ning a science story about spiders), catastrophic loss of buoyancy con­ In April of 1997 we renewed our and churches into climbing centers trol and other adventurous hap­ friendship at a technical diving con­ (which he later turned into a hand­ penings at more than 100 meters ference in Coventry, England. Over somely profitable business). But al­ underwater-while still complet­ many pints of stout and a few nap­ ways, his life centered on being ing the exploration and filming mis­ kins for sketch pads we planned out there on the frontier, on expe­ sion-with such runaway enthusi­ bold future expeditions to both ditions with the few people in the asm that you believed in your heart Wakulla Springs in Florida and a world who really understood what of hearts that this man was not return to the Pena Colorada in made him tick. only indestructible, he was also to­ Huautla. Over the course of time our per­ tally unflappable. I was greatly looking forward to sonal "competitions" became the Others tookstockof Rob's grow­ working with him once again in substance of folklore in the explo­ ing talent. Sheck Exley once told the field. I could sense that we both ration community. No project went Leo Dickinson that had Rob lived knew that such projects were what by without some sort of chal­ in Florida, instead of England, that we lived for: to chart new territory lenge-whether several hundred he would likely have risen to the in extremely remote places with a push-ups over pools of sweat in status of the world's preeminent few close friends. That is, in fact, the 40°C swelter of RIO Santo underwater explorer. what he was doing on Andros.

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