Expedition Name (& Club): Culiembro 2009

Destination country: Spain
Region:

Lat: 43.2127 Long: -4.9044 Elevation: m
MEF funding: none

Leader: Chris Jewel

Brief Expedition objectives:

List a short summary of the main Expedition objectives.

Complete a full survey and map of the cave (this was started by previous explorers but not finished. Dive both previously undived sumps at the respective ends of the cave. Scale the 10m high waterfall which represents one of the limits of exploration. Make a film about our experiences and what we discover.

How can the GPF support your Expedition?:

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

While some team members own their own compressors, these are small 2.5 cfpm units that will not support the whole group for the amount of diving envisaged. The expedition want to hire a 9 cfpm, at £250/week with transport time will be 3 weeks. With insurance against damage, (estimated at £100) and fuel to run the compressor, we feel this is a special need of the expedition and hope the GPF will provide suitable support to do so.

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.

In the CDG newsletters in the next section, Cueva Culiembro is divided into two branches after the first sump. The active branch referred to as the square window series was pushed by Rick Stanton to an undived sump 4 in 2000. The Square window was explored after 3 more sumps by Stanton, Seddon and Holroyd to an undived sump and a 10m high waterfall in 2001. The objective of the expedition is to push these leads

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.

Cueva Culiembro is the resurgence for Pozu Del Xitu (-1139m), Asopladeru La Texa (- 1,060m), Cabeza Muxa (907m) and the other large potholes on the ario plateau above the Cares Gorge. That is to say that the water which sinks in the caves runs down through the mountain and re-emerges in Cueva Culiembro though no physical connection has ever been made. The downstream limit of Sistema Julagua, in particular, is approximately 1km horizontally and 75m vertically from the known upstream limit of Cueva Culiembro. The Julagua 2008 expedition attempted to make this connection by diving sumps at the bottom of Asopladeru La Texa and although this was an extremely successful trip, no connection was made. An aven was also climb in to continuing large phreatic passage passing over the sumps dived and is currently believed to be the main way on to the resurgence. Cueva Culiembro itself was previously explored by the Northern Pennine club in 1986, 1990, 2000 and 2001. The original explorers dived through 6 sumps and the current limits of exploration are several undived sumps and one large waterfall which the team of explorers will need to climb up in order to make progress.