Expedition Name (& Club): Sanba County, China

Destination country: China
Region: Sanba County

Lat: 27.4856 Long: 100.0585 Elevation: 4700 m
MEF funding: Applying for MEF funding

Leader: Gavin Lowe

Brief Expedition objectives:

List a short summary of the main Expedition objectives.

Recce for caves in a mountain range in Sanba County, Zhongdian Prefecture, Yunnan, China; exploration and survey of caves found.

How can the GPF support your Expedition?:

Please explain the aspects of the trip which make it eligible for Ghar Parau funding.

This expedition has excellent prospects: there is a realistic possibility of finding a cave that could, in future years, be explored to a depth of about 3000m (which would make it easily the deepest cave in the world). The aim of this expedition is to find a good going cave for future years. It is a small but very strong team.

Detailed description of objectives:

Give a more detailed account of the purpose of the trip, including any particular known caves you intend to visit, specific areas where you will explore for new cave, and scientific experiments you will attempt.

The expedition will be based in a mountain range of about 100 square kilometres, in Sanba County, about 50km SE of Zhongdian in Yunnan, China. We believe that no previous caving expeditions have visited this range, but it appears to have extremely good prospects. We have seen the range while on bus recces on previous expeditions, and it looks like solid limestone; it also looks very good on satellite images. Topo maps confirm that there is no surface drainage, and several small closed depressions. The geological maps show that it is thickly-bedded limestone, dipping at about 30 degrees towards the valley; near the highest point, there is a small bed of impermeable rock, the edge of which will be a likely location for caves. The centre of the range is about 12km from the Jinsha Jiang (Yangtze), the likely location of resurgences; this gives a depth potential of slightly more than 3km. We will aim to establish a camp on the plateau, at a height of about 4300m, hopefully using snow melt for water (if no snow is found, we will need to camp lower, adding a couple of hours commuting to each day). From there, we will prospect the area for caves, concentrating on the ridges and the edge of the impermeable bed, mentioned above. We might establish a subsidiary camp further east, to prospect that part of the range. We will explore caves found, as time and equipment allows: we will have about 600m of rope with us, the aim being to find a good going cave for future years. All major caves will be surveyed. If time and resources permit, a team will visit the valley to look for resurgences.

Previous work in this area:

Give details of any previous work in this area by your own and other teams. Include references to reports and articles published on the area, and the names of any local cavers or academics with whom you have discussed the Expedition.

Six previous expeditions to the Zhongdian area, 2001-2006; see ; GL was a member of four, PS was a member of one. The focus of this expedition is about 50km SE of the previous expeditions, in an area previously seen from a distance; this area is further from the Zhongdian Fault, and so likely to have better prospects.