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The Who’s Who of Sidemount

Published

2 years ago

June 16, 2023

InDEPTH

Bil Phillips

Bil Phillips (1955-2017) was a pioneering cave explorer, cave and sidemount instructor and a mentor to cave divers and explorers for over a quarter of a century. Based in the Yucatan since 1996, he reportedly logged over 4,200 cave dives and personally explored and mapped more than 150,000 feet/45.7 kilometers of previously undiscovered water-filled passages. He was a key explorer in no less than 35 underwater cave systems. In recognition, he was elected to The Explorer’s Club of New York as a “Fellow International” in the year 2000. He has also contributed to the field of Archeology by partnering with the Instidudo Nacional Anthroplologia e Historia (INAH) to analyze prehistoric artifacts he and his colleagues discovered. An unexpected and short battle with cancer brought his long and distinguished career to an unfortunate end in November 2017.