[Scaife]

Saturday 5th of August 2017
Solviejo
Chris Scaife, James Carlisle, Terry Whittaker, Simon Cornhill, Diane Arthurs, Sahil Maharaj, Alex Sheppard

Not the early start we were hoping for.

It was about 2pm by the time we got underground, following some severe omnishambles clusterfuck attempt to find the best place to park. I’m not sure how entertaining anyone would find a detailed account of the three hours between us leaving Matienzo and us getting to the cave, so I’ll leave it to your imagination.

It’s a very impressive cave and, once down the first pitch, we separated, with Alex and Sahil off to a boulder choke while the rest of us went to push a stream passage. Some spectacular formations were passed, and a few quite tricky climbs, before we got into unexplored passage.

Most upsettingly, James and I both had meal reservations for the evening so had to leave. Sahil and Alex also had to be back early and Terry decided to come back with us, so we left Si and Di to grab the glory. They surveyed 200m of passage, which apparently is still going.

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Thursday 3rd of August 2017
Systema del Risco
Chris Scaife, Carol Smith, Peter Smith, Lloyd Cawthorne, Lizzie Wilkins

It’s the expedition meal tonight and I had a tough 10-hour trip yesterday, so I was grateful that this short entertaining through trip was an option.

Only about two and a half hours from the top entrance to the middle entrance, but a fantastic cave, with some enormous chambers and a large river passage.

[Scaife]

Wednesday 2nd of August 2017
Fresnedo 2
Chris Scaife and James Carlisle

Just a two man team for the big push. Currently the only other people to have been through the Howling more than once are Alex Anthony Reginald Ritchie and Chriss Shaman, and it’s not looking likely that that number will be increasing in the near future.

We made good progress, reaching Coyote Inlet in under two hours, at the unthinkably early Matienzo time of just 1pm. We started surveying from the bottom of this pitch, an aven that had been entered hand in hand with Xaaaaandah at Easter. Following on the Looney Tunes naming theme we have called this pitch Pepe le Puits, and an awkward squeeze not far from the pitch Suffering Succotash.

Above the pitch the passage is a large rift, with collapse in many places, for about 100m. It then becomes quite narrow at stream level, but we were able to climb up into a roomy passage above. Upstream led to a boulder choke with water entering, downstream led back to a higher part of the rift.

We climbed up into a very large and impressive chamber, which at first glance seemed to be a huge continuation. Unfortunately we couldn’t find a straightforward way on, but there’s a real draught coming from somewhere. In total we surveyed 316m of passage above Pepe le Puits and about 45m in the opposite direction. Added to the 250m we surveyed at Easter, that’s over 600m of new passage in this cave.

[Scaife]

Tuesday 1st of August 2017
415
Chris Scaife and Carol Smith

We had a short trip in this cave, which Carol has been surveying diligently, to inspect a few loose ends. We descended a pitch that we had found at Easter; it drops onto a pile of boulders with no way on. Back up the pitch we also had a look along a short section that led to an 8m high chamber.

We seem to have completed this cave now and have been unable to find a connection with Mostajo, which would have been wonderful.

[Scaife]

The actual Trick squeeze is probably no tighter than anything in Pippikin now. I think it was the committing nature of the squeeze that put people off. It’s not a squeeze to take slowly; you’re best just launching yourself into it.

[Scaife]

The walls beneath the squeeze have been enlarged so, on the way in, after going through the dog-leg it’s now a downward sloping squeeze. That takes you almost down to stream level. To get back out you don’t really have to climb up much at all.

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Tom said he was going to do that from his own computer. I’m pretty sure he’s got all the survey notes.

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So that’s why Don’s an anchor man.

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After doing Crescent last year, my knees were bleeding so much it stained my trousers, but now I wear heavy duty knee pads from Wickes under my oversuit, and Inglesport kneepads over my oversuit, and my knees felt completely fine on Saturday.

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I’ve been in Broken Spring Pot. I thought I was with Sharman, but maybe not.

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Excellent. Do you think one more day will be enough?

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Thumbs up for Dan.

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I took some photos, but had to promise not to put them online, so we’ll just have to have a private slide show.

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Xandar wrote:

Just to clarify we bottomed Alum pot.

and each other.

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Oh dear, I rounded up to the nearest thousand.

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