Expedition Name (& Club): Tresviso 2012 (SWCC)

Destination country: Spain
Region: Picos de Europa

Lat: 43.2566 Long: -4.6669 Elevation: m
MEF funding: none

Leader: Phil Walker

Brief Expedition objectives:

List a short summary of the main Expedition objectives.

Continued search for a possible 1500m through trip from Sima 56 to Cueva del Agua. Focus will be on diving the Upstream Sump in Cueva del Agua, left unfinished in 1986 Continued ascent of Death Race 2000, aven at back end of Agua

How can the GPF support your Expedition?:

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

Expedition invite has once more being been extended to members of Nottingham University Caving Club (NUCC). Currently there are 6 student members who have expressed an interest in coming on the expedition, for 4 of them this will be there first expedition. Cost will be deciding factor for the majority so I would like to use any funds to support their costs as per the 2011 trip.

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.

There are 2 main objectives of this year’s expedition;
Upstream sump There are two sumps in Nacimiento which will be the focus of our attention both having huge potential and are certainly the portals into the main drainage network beneath the mountain. The main upstream sump was last dived by the late Rob Parker, in 1986, and remains a significant challenge due to its remoteness, over 4km from the entrance. Tackling this sump will involve multi-days camping within the cave. The known end of the sump is at a depth of -28m and to increase our diving range we plan to use newly developed micro-rebreathers. These devices allow dive times of up to 3 hours in duration and vastly reduce gas consumption and will allow the same cylinders to be used for multiple dives. This approach greatly reduces the amount of equipment that will have to be transported into the cave. The use and development of micro-rebreathers is very much a recent innovation in which members of the team are leaders, this is certainly a scenario in which they have great potential. Should the range of the micro-rebreathers be reached then the team have larger rebreathers at their disposal. recent equipment advances make a serious assault possible.
Death Race 2000 The 2011 expedition successfully re-rigged the whole cave to the furthest and known highest point in the cave, the ‘Death Race 2000’ chamber at the top of a series of climbs known as the ‘Teeth of Satan’. Over the deepest part of the chamber are there are 2 unexplored avens. An attempt will be made to bolt climb the avens.
Secondary Objectives: Time and resources permitting there are a number of secondary objectives that will be attempted: 1. Pozo Del Castillo. Reinvestigate the possibility of resuming exploration of the Castillo system, currently at -293m . 2. Torca Septrin, pushed to -140m in 2010. Depth potential of at least -800m, heading for Cueva del Nacimiento. 3. Continued re-logging of 1970’s, 1980’s co-ordinate data at numerous sites for publication on re-launched website. (http://www.picosandaracaving.info)

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.

Phil Walker and Derek Cousins were previous members of LUSS and have been invovled in 5 earlier expeditions to the area. This will be second trip to the back end of Agua for Alan Braybrooke and Phil Rowsell, who were responsible for reclimbing the Teeth of Satan ramps in 2011 Potentially 2 of the original explorers of Sima 56 and Agua (Mark Sefton and Howard Jones) will join us on the expedition for some time. In addition, good relations have been established with the Spanish caving club AD Kami (Madrid) whole will be in the area at the same time and resources for some objectives will be pooled. KAMI are keen to share knowledge and visit Agua in colloboration with the exploration of CS-9 (jou Sin Tierre) (not yet confirmed) but they may have beaten the depth record of Sima 56 on last years exploration which may change which cave we should be aiming to push towards!