Expedition Name (& Club): Pozu Azul - Cave Diving

Destination country: Spain
Region:

Lat: 42.7340 Long: -3.8018 Elevation: m
MEF funding: none

Leader: Jason Mallinson

Brief Expedition objectives:

List a short summary of the main Expedition objectives.

Continuation (5 years) of exploration and mapping of resurgence cave Pozo Azul. Current limit is 3.5km dive into Sump 2, a total of 4.5km from the entrance. Using mixed gas rebreathers, multiple diver propulsion vehicles (DPV's), decompression habitats.

How can the GPF support your Expedition?:

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

This project has been self financed for the last 5 years, with much of the equipment being homemade due to financial constraints and the specialist nature of the equipment. The dives being carried out here are at the forefront of modern world cave diving techniques. The potential distance for this site is over 7km in sump2.

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.

Exploration and survey of new and current passage so far found. Since 2001 the 2nd sump has been pushed from 780m to 3520m, requiring a 10 hour dive in this sump alone. 6 hours of this are decompression, which requires the use of 2 habitats due to cold water. Main difficulties lie in transporting all equipment to main dive base at sump 2 which is 1km from the entrance. 700m of sump, 250m swim followed by 50m difficult stream canyon. Last year a bivouac was created between sumps to allow for more relaxed start to exploration dives in sump2. In 2008 we hope to develop a digital compass for surveying, which will hopefully be mounted on the DPV's to speed up the mapping process, and thus keep decompression times to an acceptable and safe limit. Much of the work in the last 2 years has been done with the assistance of Spanish and Dutch cave divers, with whom a good working relationship has developed.

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.

Jason Mallinson has been exploring this site since 2001, and since 2002 the 2nd sump has been the longest sump in Spain, it also now in the top 10 longest sumps in the world. Previous exploration was by Spanish teams from Madrid who had explored to 780m in Sump 2 using opoen circuit techniques.