5368: Vaca Bypass
Riaño 30T 451279 4800925 (Datum: ETRS89. Accuracy code: G) Altitude 159m
Depth 61m
Area position : Site entrance in context : Logbook search

Updated 27th September 2024

  A top entrance to Fridge Door Cave (1800). The length of 408m is now included in the 4 Valleys System and the cave is the 18th entrance into that system. The draughting hole was found in the top boundary of the field containing Boob Tube (5000), when the latter could not be seen due to a cow lying over the entrance.

[Description in hand]

   In August 2024, the cave was extended by 47m in a high level loop (batch 5368-24-01) accessed by a climb up a rift before Plaque (Crack?) Pot. Above the rift is a 2-way junction. The right passage leads to stalactite, then stalagmite formations followed by a crawl. Coming out of the crawl is a small downward sloping platform, where roots can be seen coming out of the left hand wall in one layer of sediment. The platform leads to a rift that can be climbed down to reach a lower level, or traversed across to reach a potential new entrance through a squeeze. This potential entrance consists of an enclosed space and a muddy slope with a 1cm diameter root and water dripping down, potentially from the surface. It could be dug from the surface to create a new entrance, cutting out the first pitch (full of large spiders). Some effort was made on the surface and underground to locate a suitable digging spot, but without success.
  (There is no description for the route back down to close the loop.)
  At the same time, the pitch at the end of the Mayonnaise Escalator was investigated (East of note A on the 2024 survey). To get to that point, a rift and false floor had to be negotiated. The following account is edited from logbook entries.
    The pitch drops 20m in the rift. In contrast to the rest of the rift, this section is open and without a false floor. The descent consists of an initial 10m drop onto a slopey ledge, from which there is a window offering a view beneath the false floor, just after the Mayonnaise Escalator. Over this ledge and a further 10m into the pitch, the floor is eventually reached. This is a 5 x 2.5m area. At your feet there is a horizontal passage to your right. This passage looks like an ex stream way, with drips of water flowing down it. The passage slopes slightly down. It narrows and bends left: at this point you would need to be small or take off your SRT kit to enter and look left. Investigation was left at that point with no survey.
   (Where there no pictures taken August 2024?)

Reference: anon., 2023c (summer logbook); anon., 2024d (summer logbook)
Entrance picture : August 2023
Underground pictures : August 2023
Video :
Detailed survey : On Fridge Door Cave, #1800, August 2023 : On Fridge Door Cave, #1800, August 2024
Line Survey :
On area survey :
Survex file : August 2024 : stand-alone : on Four Valleys System