Expedition Name (& Club): Matienzo 2018 (Matienzo Cave Project) (Many and Various)

Destination country: Spain
Region: Cantabria

Lat: 43.3265 Long: -3.5868 Elevation: 156 m
MEF funding: none

Leader: Mr Philip Papard

Brief Expedition objectives:

List a short summary of the main Expedition objectives.

Continued work to explore, survey and document the caves in this area with now well over 300km found by this expedition over the last 44 yrs. In 2018 the main objectives are: linking passaged found in 2017 in Cueva-Cubío del Llanío into the Four Valley's System bringing it to over 65km, and continue pushing with “Therion” resurvey of the system; explore and survey passages found in 2017 beyond upstream sumps in Cueva Vallina and pushing/diving towards Cueva Renada (100+ potential); pushing the western end of Cueva Renada via 2017 promising finds; pushing and survey extensive new passage going west in Fuente Aguanz; continue with hydrological mapping of area.
Note the 20+ personal listed in part 3 is not the full list, we are not yet sure of the exact numbers who will come in the Summer and I did not see the need to add another 20 plus people - if more information is needed I will supply.

How can the GPF support your Expedition?:

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

Matienzo Caves Project is very important for the UK with its high quality on-line "open information" on this important caving area, an easy opportunity for UK cavers to experience oversea exploration with rigorous recording who can later use skills learnt in Matienzo to expeditions elsewhere and the good reputation it has developed in EU circles. Unlike many other expeditions travel and living costs are fully paid by the members, the grant allows us to provide caving equipment, materials to cap/stabilise cave entrances and purchase IT and surveying tools for this work to take place and critically it allows us to have a lower expedition fee for members under 25yrs old. In 2017 we spent an un-planned £450 on 850mm tubing to stabilise two entrances and make them environmentally acceptable. One was completed the second (Giant Panda) will be done in 2018 with more materials needed – the grant will help with these costs in addition to above.

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.

Three years ago, we started a hydrological mapping exercise and some very important links have been demonstrated (Vallina to Renada; Hoyon to Renada, Catchment of Fuente Aguanaz, etc.) - this work will continue depending on water conditions, a key area is the Fuente Aguanaz (1 m3/sec ave) catchment to the northwest of the area so as to delimitate its extent, in 2017 a major extension was found but only partly explored – work at Easter will continue to push this site to hopefully realise some of its potential. Another key test and pushing site is the North Vega system with a possible link to Fuente Aguanaz, last year we did not do this test due to major finds elsewhere take up resource, depending on water levels this will be a hydrological priority in 2018.

In 2017 among the 6+km found were three very promising finds that are key objectives in 2018:
• the major inlet in Fuente Aguanaz that was pushed and surveyed to just past a sump but not explored further, it needing some gear to remove a boulder blocking the way to a upper large area, and there was no time for a second trip

• over 2km of large passage found in Cueva-Cubío del Llanío reaching over the Four Valley System with very likely links and more extensive passage.

• a significant area of dry passages in Cueva Vallina past two upstream sumps was found. This is in a previously barren area, that has the potential to extend the system to the east and known caves such as TV Mast cave.

In 2018 additionally to above, work to achieve the link between Vallina and Renada will continue by way of both diving and pushing the passages found in 2016 that run above the flooded sections (work was stopped in 2017 in the upper dry passages as access through the streamway clouded the water for diving). This key area is fairly remote and requires trips in excess of 12hrs, at this stage in 2018 camping is not envisaged. As part of the work on this system the survey of the South Vega systems is being updated with considerable re-survey being needed to update and improve the surveys done in the early 1970s, this work will continue so we have an accurate survey of the whole system up to modern detailed standards and available to all on-line.
Work will continue on the resurvey of the Four Valley System using modern techniques and drawing up using Theiron for this complex system. The work will involve pushing key areas and in particular the far reaches in the Triton area.

Last year we carried out a major excavation and installation of an entrance to Cueva-Cubío del Llanío found by radio location. This work (80+ man days) meant the two very important objectives to make the entrances to "Giant Panda" entrance to the Four Valleys System (a key entry point that by-passes slow and awkward flood prone passages), and "BigMat Calf Hole" that again by-passes a long duck and flood prone section and is the best and key entry to Cueva Vaca secure was not done, other than blocking the former due to its dangerous instability and know sporting trips seen on Youtube. In 2018 this will be a very high priority to make these sites open and safe, it is likely to take a significant amount of manhours.

In addition to above, new and identified but not pushed sites in the permit area will be explored and smaller caves checked out for prospects (well over 4000 sites are now listed and recorded) - it is too extensive to go into all the possible objectives here, partly as some sites are weather dependent such as Washing Machine Hole. The key sites includes some just the west of the present end of Cueva Renada which should contain extensive passags (10's kmss) one draughts very strongly and was left with an unexplored 6m pitch needing a little work to access.

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.

I will no list al the previous work over the last 44yrs - the 385km found are extensively detailed on our website, of which the biggest sytems are the Four Valley System currently at nearly 60km, Cueva Renada and Cueva Vallina both at nearly 35km, North Vega System at 22km and Cueva Vaca at nearly 24km. I have not listed all the previous publications, some of the most important are listed below. The main way our work is made available is via our very extensive web-site where all our work is recorded with open access to our surveys, testing records and finds. This site is a model for ready and easy availability of information on all our work and finds and is available to all. In addition, the Expedition has given support to scientific work including on-going paleoclimate studies being undertaken by Lancaster university with a second PHD student currently well into her studies. Associated with this work a "cave monitoring" workshop is taking place in Matienzo just after Easter this year and although not directly linked to the expedition it will generate some cross-over effects. A number of the delegates have asked to join the expedition for a few days prior to this workshop.

We're the major explorers. Some references: Cuadernos II, VIII, IX-X; Matienzo 74; Matienzo 75; MUSS Journals 8, 9, 10; Articles in Caves & Caving 8 11 14 18 22 26 32 35 41 44 49 55 58 63 66 70 75 79 83 87 89; Speleology 2, 3 & 5. Trans 8.1 and article in 10.3; articles about the explorations and archaeology in Spanish journals by Peter Smith. Most recent major overview in Spanish is in Actas del V Congresso Español de Espeleología (1990), pp345 - 355 (Federación Española de Espeleología). Annual summaries published with Federación Cántabra de Espeleología. A major work is Ruiz Cobo Jesús and Smith Peter et al, 2001. The Archaeology of the Matienzo Depression, North Spain. In BAR International Series 975, 224 pages. La Cueva de Cofresnedo en el Valle de Matienzo, a 198 page colour book summarising a 6 year archaeological project by the same authors, was published 3 years ago by the Cantabrian Government. Expedition reports for 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 have appeared in recent Speleology issues. The extensive presentaion given at the RGS conference "A Golden Age of Cave Exploration" is linked in our 2017 report on our web page. The full colour, dual language book "Matienzo: 50 Years of Speleology" (ISBN: 978-0-9566045-0-7) was published in August 2010. This book details 50 years of Spanish and foreign explorations in over 3400 caves." • 320 pages • 310 photographs • Cave surveys • DVD with extra photos and movie files - Power Point presentations - Google Maps presentation • Geological map of the area around Matienzo.
The 2017 report in Spanish to the Federación Cántabra de Espeleología is available via our web-site as the English version that was sent to GPF.