The information for this site has been shared by Guy Simonnot (Simonnot G, 2022) and roughly translated from the French using Google Translate as a starting point. The original grid reference used ED50 datum which has been converted to the ETRS89 datum above, with the altitude taken off the MCP QGIS map.
from the Exploration Diary
Sunday January 17, 2021 David Gonzalez Cobo, Magin Ulises, Guy Simonnot David takes us on a tour of the cavity that he discovered with Jesús at the beginning of January. After their terminus of the fossil meander downstream (-60) we can enlarge a little with a hammer and progress for a few meters to a passage which will require more striking means. The melting snow has swollen the streams and we can once again perceive the sound of a streamway and above all the blowing air current is well marked.
Sunday January 31, 2021 David Gonzalez Cobo, Magin Ulises, Guy Simonnot We have to do about ten shots to force the narrow meander over 3 or 4 m. Fortunately a good current of blowing air prevents us from being too gassed! A small jump makes it possible to find the stream that we had heard. But, surprise, it's not the one we followed, but another tributary rising more steeply and which we only pursue for about thirty meters. Indeed and fortunately it is downstream that comes the air. To avoid a limit rolling mill and in the water we go through high narrow fossils that we will have to adjust. But, reward, that brings us to the edge of a very vast watered pitch 30 to 40 m deep which seems to pierce the sandstone screen. We do not know if the first stream also comes to flow into this pitch. Coming back we do the 133 m topography of the streamway to the base of the entrance network.
Sunday February 14, 2021 David Gonzalez Cobo, Magin Ulises, Guy Simonnot, Peter Smith. Guy and Peter survey the Cueva de la Rasa from the entrance to the arrival on the rio and the sector before the Golosos pitch that Magin and David are in charge of equipping. The shaft (25 m) crosses sandstone levels and receives the two streams of the upper floor. At the bottom, an active gallery is quickly interrupted at the level of a low and impenetrable but well-ventilated basement window.
Sunday February 28, 2021 David Gonzalez Cobo, P. and S. Degouve, G. Simonnot, M. Ulises The clearing at the previous terminus (-95) is quite easy and in less than 2 hours we manage to pass a narrowness crossed by a small stream. Just behind, the stream cascades into a small pitch of 3 m followed by a short gallery leading to a second pitch (10 m). At the bottom, the gallery expands a little and receives a beautiful tributary on the right bank (to be explored). Our progress stopped about fifty meters further on the edge of a new vertical notch (-118) and facing a large void cluttered with scree. On the way back, David carries out the topo.
Sunday, March 7, 2021 P. and S. Degouve, David Gonzalez Cobo and Jesus, G. and Martin Simonnot, M. Ulises. The team has grown and we are making several teams to reach our terminus. David equips the pitch that accesses the bottom of the large room that we saw during our previous visit. This actually corresponds to the arrival of a large pitch of impressive size (25 x 15 m). We go around the room without however being able to access the upstream part of the pipe, so steep is the slope. The final part would be achieved by climbing but that is not really the objective of the day.
We descend to the bottom of the scree to look downstream. A jump between the blocks allows you to find a well-formed conduit which plunges a few meters further into a beautiful 21 m pitch, bordered by beautiful stalagmitic flows. The following is quite chaotic and we search for a while before finding a small 10m pitch leading to a new gallery. This one is quite comfortable (3 x 5) and we progress another fifty meters before stumbling on a collapse of blocks. This one seems passable, but it is already late and we have to do the topo. We leave a nice meander on the left bank which continues for about forty meters (approximately -190, to follow) and go up slowly to the rhythm of the topography that we are carrying out in two separate teams. We leave around 6 p.m.
Wednesday, August 25, 2021 David Gonzalez Cobo, Jean-Noel Outhier, Guy Simonnot. From the crossroads of -112 we go up the tributary of the Hollow Stone. After a narrow passage at the start, the duct widens to become a spacious gallery where we can admire fistulas of more than two meters. Then we have to climb a sandstone escarpment, fortunately almost dry in the middle of summer. The dimensions are reduced again and we have to open an infamous passage in the water and the mud, only motivated by the strong current of roaring air which goes up the gully. Behind, still a bit of gallery, and we decide to stop on a low duct arriving at the top of a small step (-79, or 33 m higher than the confluence).
With a lot of motivation and some work, progress would still be possible, but is that reasonable? On the way back we spot an escalation towards the bottom with a small suspended fossil conduit (not topo to review?) and lower down a section of parallel gallery. In the end, the tributary includes more than 200 m of galleries (198 m topo).
Sunday January 2, 2022 Elena Gil, David González Cobo Topography of the tributary of "Charca Ranas" (the Frog Pond) (74 m) which ends in a pretty siphoning basin.
Reference: anon., 2021d (autumn logbook); Simonnot G, 2022
Entrance picture :
Underground picture :
Video :
Detailed survey : August 2021 - plan section 3D
Line Survey :
On area survey :
Survex file :