PESH Caving | The Mission
How Fruitcake Fuels Scientific Discovery
Collin Street is a proud supporter of outdoor adventurers and wilderness explorers! Committed to fueling those who pursue their passions, our Bakery readily supplies power-packed fruitcakes to intrepid groups of hikers, bikers, climbers, and campers; groups like PESH, or the Proyecto Espeleologico Sistema Huautla Caving Organization—an organization dedicated to mapping the deepest underground caving system in the Western Hemisphere.
Meet Bill Steele, Co-Founder of the PESH Caving Organization
Collin Street's involvement has helped keep this group of enterprising cavers energized and focused during their month-long scientific exploration of the Sistema Huautla cave systems. Bill Steele, the PESH Co-Leader, wrote the below testimony about the Bakery’s involvement.
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Hello all! Bill Steele here, the Co-Leader of PESH, the Proyecto Espeleologico Sistema Huautla—an underground abyss that redefines the scale of the subterranean world beneath us. We are very pleased that Collin Street Bakery has once again sponsored PESH’s expedition to the Sistema Huautla, the deepest cave in the Western Hemisphere, and what some have called the greatest cave system on Earth. PESH was organized five years ago with the goal of conducting annual month-long expeditions in order to create a comprehensive speleological study of the Sistema Huautla area caves in Oaxaca, Mexico. PESH began back in 2013 and is slated to continue our annual expeditions till 2023. While the Sistema Huautla has been explored since 1966, there is still much to learn. The cave system is extensive with twenty-nine entrances, fifty-five miles of passages, twenty-five deep routes, and 600 vertical shafts in a complex system 5,118 feet from top to bottom.
In addition to mapping countless new rooms and passageways, new species of life forms were collected and sent to biological scientists. One of these finds included a paleontological cave, which contained the bones of unknown species of large Ice Age mammals. In order to properly document our expeditions, PESH has some of the best cave photographers on staff. While on this year’s expedition, we made certain to capture images of how we used Collin Street Bakery’s coffee and fruitcake to fuel our excursions. During this year’s trip, we established FIVE long-term underground camps. The camps lasted between three and nine days in duration with up to six cavers in a camp staying underground and exploring for that duration of time. We used our packed DeLuxe® Fruitcakes as celebratory dinners in the deep underground camps when significant breakthroughs or discoveries had occurred. We hope to continue to rely on Collin Street Bakery in the future for the remainder of our expeditions.
Best regards, Bill Steele | PESH Co-Leader |
Fruitcake Travels to New Extremes!
Collin Street is honored to be able to support PESH in its scientific ambitions and plans to continue providing annual support for its excursions. Here at the Bakery, we love sharing unique stories of our fruitcakes, especially those which place our products in a new and exciting light. Fruitcake is often confined as a once-a-year holiday tradition. However, the PESH exploration team saw unchartered potential in our quintessential seasonal treat. Bill Steele and his rugged group of cave explorers have taken fruitcake to brand new extremes, using fruitcake for survival, diplomacy, celebrations, and for fuel.
Interested in learning more about PESH?
Check out our second blog in this series: PESH Expedition | 2019 Recap
Want to Eat Like an Explorer?
Order from Collin Street Bakery and you could! Our DeLuxe® Fruitcake is the perfect fuel for explorers and adventures alike. Shop our selection of sizes and varieties and you'll be well on your way to discovering snacking greatness.
