[Scaife]

15/8/24 Socks 1017
Chris Scaife, Raoul Hidalgo Charman
Surface team: Oscar Scaife, Carolina Smith, Peter Smith

Raoul made a basket of sticks and placed it about 10m down, to catch the falling debris. He and I then took it in turns to cap just below the first ledge on the entrance pitch. This part is now Zimmer frame friendly, ready for a big push.

The draught is always strong here and a concerted effort could well lead to something major.

[Scaife]

14/8/24 Agua 0059
Chris Scaife, Chloe Almond, Tiff Cooksley, Raoul Hidalgo Charman, Gracie Sharp
With Carolina Smith and Oscar Scaife

A late afternoon trip to the end of Agua, to see the formations and the ancient wall. We followed the river all the way.

Carol and Oscar explored every nook and cranny in the entrance.

[Scaife]

13/8/24 Riaño 0105
Chris Scaife, Chloe Almond, James Carlisle, Tiff Cooksley, Raoul Hidalgo Charman, Gracie Sharp

We went to the Redeeming Feature at the end of the long, squalid section that has been explored recently. A phreatic tube up a short climb had been noted in here on the previous visit.

I free-climbed up to it and attached a ladder. At the top we found a chamber with another climb up, for which Raoul rigged a handline. I now returned to the foot of the ladder to survey with James and Gracie, while the others were told to scamper off into the sunset and find whatever glory awaited.

Up the handline, a short crawl led into a chamber with an easy climb up into an ascending rift into another chamber.

A short climb up in this chamber led to a too-tight continuation. Following some creative use of the bolting hammer, Tiff squeezed through into a final chamber, which she said had a possible continuation up a climb that would need bolting.

In total, we surveyed 70m. As well as the possible bolt climb in the final chamber, there is a waterfall flowing into the far end of Redeeming Feature. There seems to be caveable passage above this – about 6m up and would probably need bolting.

[Scaife]

11/8/24 4397
Nepa Hole
Chris Scaife, Chloe Almond, James Carlisle

With outside temperatures of 37C, we chose a roadside option and this time were not harassed by a murder of cows at the entrance.

The leeches were just as abundant as last time, but we were soon into the chamber that had first been reached almost 50 years ago. We surveyed from the entrance and found that the old cave was 72m long. Our small finds from a couple of days ago brought the total to a round 100m. And then we had to dig.

The blocks ahead took a fair amount of hammering, but eventually we were through. Chloe passed the squeeze by accident — having just planned to improve her hammering posture, she thought she was stuck, then pushed on until she was into the comfortable space beyond. She then immediately rolled a boulder to one side and made the exit much narrower. We hammered away until there was a bit more space, then things seemed to be collapsing from above so she shot back through to join us. After a bit more hammering, we had made things safe enough for us all to pop back through.

We crawled on to a small chamber and the draught was fairly strong. There were a few small holes up loose climbs that looked uninviting, but the draught was coming from a sandy tube. We followed that to a boulder choke, at the end of a flat-out crawl. There is a draught here but I doubt anyone will ever bother to dig it.

In total we surveyed 121m, of which 50m was completely new. We also brought out a leech, in a specimen jar, for Terry to identify.

[Scaife]

10/8/24
Comediante

Chris, Carol and Oscar; James, Nora and Juan; Ben, Julia, Carla and Monty

We had a leisurely start at Pablo’s, then cycled to the entrance. The youngsters led the way to the end of the cave and then back out into the sunshine. Oversuits are not needed, but wellies are definitely recommended.
Afterwards, we all went to the Bakers Bar for ice cream.

[Scaife]

4937
9/8/2024

A Murder of Cows

Cavers: Chris Scaife, Chloe Almond, James Carlisle, Raoul Hidalgo Charman

We all took it in turns to try the entrance — a narrow descending tube. After Raoul nudged a boulder, we realised this could be moved and once we had taken this boulder out the entrance was much easier.

Some cows approached us at the entrance and Raoul had to wave his enormous stick at them.

Down the entrance, we were into a small chamber. In the stream flowing through, we saw water scorpions and leeches. We followed the passage upstream, through a small tube and past a column, then by moving a few rocks aside we entered the chamber and boulder choke that had been the previous limit, described as having “many leads, most very dubious”. We probed all of these and only one went any distance.

From a climb up in the boulder choke, I found a flat-out crawl through formations. This led to a small turning space and a narrow slide down into a chamber of sorts. This seems to be through the boulder choke and the way on was a draughting passage, which will need digging initially but looks caveable beyond for at least another 6m. No idea what’s beyond that, but it’s definitely worth pushing. I think we probably found about 20m of new stuff.

[Scaife]

You dealt with it so adeptly I had completely forgotten about that.

[Scaife]

Sunday 17th April
Mistletoe Pot/Torca del Muérdago
Cavers: Chris Scaife, Diane Arthurs, Simon Cornhill

I had planned to leave Matienzo today but, what with all the tremendous ongoing passage, I was granted an extra day of exploration. Regrettably, James was not so lucky.

First of all, we went down the 42m Terrahawk Pitch and explored upstream. This started out wide open with several big avens – the bit we could see part way up the pitch almost certainly connects with one of these. The stream passage narrowed, with sharp edges, and we had to climb up slightly to a wider traverse above the floor. A calcite blockage stopped progress. It would probably have been possible to continue flat-out in the stream, but with limited time and open leads elsewhere in the cave it was time to move on.

Back up the pitch, Si derigged and then bolted a traverse across, past the initial Y-hang, over a rock bridge with a grand stalagmite, then down to a lower rock bridge and a scramble up to the far wall. If this cave was in Yorkshire it would be everyone’s favourite SRT trip. The 65m rope only just made it across the traverse.

Fittingly, the final destination of the expedition – for me anyway – was nirvana. We walked along pristine sandy-floored, meandering passage with sumptuous helictites and gypsum crystals jutting out of the walls. The ceiling lowered and a final short, blind pit brought the discovery to an end.

The total surveyed length of this cave currently stands at 1,937m. Best Matienzo ever!

[Scaife]

Friday 15th April
Mistletoe Pot/Torca del Muérdago
Cavers: Chris Scaife, Diane Arthurs, James Carlisle, Simon Cornhill

We headed straight for the pitch we had left undescended on our last visit. Fortunately, we took SRT kits and rigged it properly; it would have been a bold, loose and overhanging handline climb.

The streamway continued on a sandstone floor, endless fun with waterslides and log flumes. In places the ceiling was low enough that we were more or less flat out, but elsewhere we were in comfortable walking passage. At the end, there was a tight squeeze into a pool of water, with another stream entering. This looked promising, but the stream then disappeared into a long, wide section where the ceiling was too low. If you found something like this close to the road on Leck Fell you’d spend the next few weeks capping it, but it’s quite possible that no one will ever see this part of the cave again.

Our total length of explored passage for the day was 440m – a triumph – and we still made it back to Pablo’s in time for the best-attended expedition meal I’ve ever seen.

[Scaife]

Wednesday 13th April
Mistletoe Pot/Torca del Muérdago
Cavers: Chris Scaife, Diane Arthurs, James Carlisle, Simon Cornhill

We dropped the short pitch at the end of Wildcat Passage and at the bottom it was a more complex place than expected, with several short leads into chambers. Only one way on kept going though, and this was quite small but with a strong draught. Hands and knees crawling led to flat-out crawling, led to squeezing, but then we were walking and we had rejoined the stream. Or at least, we were again in a stream passage.

There were more fantastic formations and the passage followed a pattern: the ceiling lowered gradually, whilst the sandstone floor mostly stayed horizontal – meaning that the walking passage would lower to crawling – before a drop in the floor led to more walking passage. After a bit of this, we entered an underground waterpark where the floor turned into a waterslide interspersed with deep pools. This cave has an incredible amount of variety. Eventually, at about 7pm again, we reached our limit for the day: a vertical drop of about 5m that will need a handline at the very least. It looks big beyond.

The total surveyed length of this cave is now about 1350m and I think we can all agree that exploring it has been one of the highlights of our caving careers. There are so many leads in there now that I can’t imagine we’ll have this one wrapped up in the next few days.

[Scaife]

Tuesday 12th April
Mistletoe Pot/Torca del Muérdago
Cavers: Chris Scaife, Diane Arthurs, James Carlisle, Simon Cornhill

The big hole in the floor had a fair amount of loose rock around the top. Si bolted a traverse around to the right to reach a second, deeper, hole in the floor. We now descended this 42m pitch, via two rebelays. As Si hadn’t said anything at the bottom, other than the customary “Rope Free”, James wasn’t sure if he would bother to descend, thinking it probably led nowhere. I think he’s glad now that he did.

We were now in a streamway for the first time. We have still not been upstream (open lead), or swung into the wide passage about 20m up the pitch. As is customary, we followed the draughting downstream passage. There were crawls, some squeezes, narrow walking passage and a few bits where we had to climb above the stream on dubious holds. It often felt as though there might not be much more to it, then suddenly the stream disappeared down a crawling-sized tube and we were in an enormous sandy-floored passage, with stalactites hanging down from the ceiling like mistletoe and stalagmites jutting up from the floor like trees. Whenever I’ve been on a dig or pushing a cave, this sort of passage is exactly what I’ve been hoping to find.

We reached a pitch at the end of this cavers’ paradise, and could see a continuing passage down there. It was about 7pm by this point, so it seemed like a good time to turn around. On the way back out we had a quick look at the stream. It was in a crawling passage, which soon led to a pitch of about 5m. There seems to be a soggy continuation at the bottom and a dry continuation on the other side at the top, but we have not yet investigated either.

As if probably the best day’s caving of my life wasn’t enough, we then saw a wildcat on our way back to the village. The big stuff we had found needed a name befitting a grand place, so Wildcat Passage it is. In other wildlife news, I also saw a booted eagle and spring gentian on the walk to the cave, shrimps and centipedes underground, and a badger and midwife toad on the way to Pablo’s afterwards.

[Scaife]

Sunday 10th April
Mistletoe Pot aka Torca del Muérdago
Cavers: Chris Scaife, Diane Arthurs, James Carlisle, Simon Cornhill

There were a few odds and ends still left in this cave, none of which seemed like good leads, but it all needs looking at. First we descended a hole in the floor, after the two squeezes at the end of the long traverse. This was just a short distance from another pitch – Audrey 2, which led nowhere -and the hole had no real draught, so expectations were low. I dropped down onto what looked from above like the floor of the pitch, but turned out to be a ledge with a big drop below it. It still seemed prudent not to be overly excited by this, as the most likely outcome was another pitch with no way on at the bottom.

Au contraire. This 34m pitch, with enjoyable hanging rebelay, opened out lower down into a capacious chamber. At floor level there was nothing continuing, but once all four of us were down, Si climbed up a slope and into more ongoing passage. Surveying this, at first I went around a corner and it seemed hopeless, with just a small hole leading into a loose slope that had a buried alive feel to it. Pushing on, there was then a low phreatic tube, and now we could feel a draught so our enthusiometers were back on. There was a short pitch at the end and this dropped into big walking passage, the walls and ceiling adorned with helictites and several metres away from us, but even in a passage of this size we could feel a strong draught.

Fighting the urge to run into the unknown, we surveyed as we went along and soon reached a big hole in the floor. Time to turn around and return with bolts and rope. This cave just keeps going, even when it seems all is lost. In much the same way that when most of the other plants in the forest lose their leaves in the autumn, the mistletoe persists.

Monday 11th April
Unnamed shaft
Carolina Smith, Pete Smith, with Chris Scaife and Oscar Scaife as surface support

Pete had found, but not descended, this hole when he had been looking for a different cave. We went there with a ladder and Carol explored. It was 7.5m deep with no way on at the bottom. Nearby, we also found a short unrecorded cave – just 4m long – with an entrance that was about 2m across. It just goes to show how much could still be found out here, when even big obvious entrances like this, not far from a track, have been overlooked.

[Scaife]

Excellent – always good to go caving in the esoteric areas. Sounds wet.

[Scaife]

Mistletoe Pot, 29/12/21

Cavers: Chris Scaife, Diane Arthurs, Simon Cornhill

Si and Di had spent the previous day looking at other nearby holes and had then put some scaffolding inside the entrance to stabilise things, so the first pitch felt safe this time. We shot down and went straight to the good lead that needed bolting upwards. Nada.

Next we returned to the big open pitch we had left undescended. This one was wide all the way down, but not as deep as it had looked – only about 12m. We found another pitch immediately below it though, which was fairly narrow at the top, then had a good ledge for a rebelay and dropped into spacious walking passage. This really felt like something special, but soon choked.

On the way out, we looked at a squeeze directly under the tight pitch. Di had already looked in and said it went for a few metres, so needed surveying. I went in front through the squeeze, soon entering a standing height rift. The rock was totally different in here, more like Weardale limestone than typical Matienzo stuff. There were some rocks at the end that were easy enough to move, and this opened up a letterbox squeeze into big walking passage, which led to a well-decorated chamber and another pitch. It was quite loose at the top, so we descended one at a time. There was no way on at the bottom – we had explored the whole cave. A total length of 275m – much more new stuff than I was expecting from my two days of caving.

As if to emphasise that mobile network providers are evil and don’t care if we live or die, on exiting I sent Carol a text to say we were still alive. That message didn’t go through for ages, but while I was waiting for it to send, I received one from Don saying that a few years ago I had spoken to him about the episode of Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee in which Jerry Seinfeld speaks to Michael Richards, and Don wanted to know what I had particularly enjoyed about it. Priorities innit.

[Scaife]

Jivero, 28/12/21

Cavers: Chris Scaife, Carolina Smith de la Fuente, Oscar Scaife

We walked over the old bridge, past the Bakers Bar and up the TV mast road to this easy, child-friendly cave. It’s a few hundred metres of walking passage with the typical big stals you find in Matienzo caves. A lovely day out, and Oscar’s first proper caving trip.

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