September Caving Expedition

Jason Mallinson saw me in Bernies one day in February and mentioned that he was going to dive some sumps at the bottom of Bu56 – a 1300m deep cave. As I was already signed up for Hils trip I thought another slog down a cave with a load of diving gear sounded right up my street!

It soon became apparent that Jason wasn’t organising a small team of dedicated cavers – but was involving the whole YSS in this massive undertaking. This wasn’t really my scene but I gave in and begrudgingly joined the YSS along with quite a few cavers from other clubs. As time rolled on the plan changed and it became clear that a second diver would be useful – at least for surveying, bolting and taking pics. I thought it might be my chance – but I could only manage 1 week off and Jason was going to be in Spain for 3 weeks! I therefore suggested to Phil that he ought to talk to Jason and was quietly very pleased that a BEC man would also be diving in the cave! Meanwhile as I could only do one week I volunteered for the final week and the de-rig.

A couple of weeks before I was due to leave I also managed to persuade Simon Cornhill to come out with me. So he arrived at my work one Friday PM and we headed down the motor way to Bristol for our flight to Pau. Simon was a bit late and the traffic was crap so we had a close run thing but caught our flight ok in the end. The rest of the journey over was uneventful except trying to negotiate the Pierre St. Martin pass in the middle of the night. A sign declared that the road was closed during the day – but over night it ought to be open. The top entrance was open and so we headed down the bumpy road, winding our way past stationary diggers and earth movers. At 1.30am we reached the other end of the pass – to find the gate shut!! It was a really long way round and we were tired and looking forward to bed so we were determined to get past. Whilst Simon started trying French dates in the combination lock (we were on the Spanish side at this time though), I inspected the gate. I found the cable was only secured by two cable dogs.. but would we have a spanner which fitted? The only spanners we had were 13mm caving ones and I anxiously hunted though my bag for mine and …. It fitted!!

Past the gate with everything back in place we arrived at the camp site about 2.30am and after hunting round to find the British tents got to sleep.

We were supposed to head up to the cave entrance on Saturday afternoon so we did some shopping in the morning and packed our bags. However as the clouds rolled in and rain began to fall we sacked this off and had another night in the campsite and a few beers. The following morning was a glorious day and we enjoyed the three hour trek up to the cave. I also got to practice my Spanish with David Magdellana a Spanish caver as we walked.

Once in the cave we were soon zipping down the ropes, only halting to pass bags through some of the more awkward sections. David M was a big chap and these bits gave him some difficulties until at the final obstruction, just above the final pitch before Meader Oprimedo, he had to turn back. Simon offered to escort him to the surface before coming back down so George, Helen and myself carried on. The cave is fairly pleasant and large, the water was much lower than usual and so with only light bags of camping kit and food, we made steady progress down to Salla Roncal and camp. Here we met the Dutch team plus Ian and despite my best attempts to persuade one of them to stay down – now that we’d lost David – they were worn out and wanted to get out the next day. Simon arrived just after dinner so we all settled down to a good nights sleep – at least as good as you can get in a cave..!

The four of us got up at 6.30-7am and out of camp by 8.30 on our way down to find Phil, Jason and a big pile of diving gear. We passed them on the way down and they were disappointed to see just four of us as they’d been expecting more and there were five bags at the sump! Half an hour later we stood at the sump pool, more than 1300m underground surrounded by 5 big bags, plus the empty ones we’d brought down. A quick bit of repacking gave us three big bags (Simon, George and me) plus another three smaller bags which we passed around. After a long sweaty day we made it back to Salla Roncal and Phil and Jason who were mightily impressed to see all the gear back at camp. Jason was keen and so he persuaded a reluctant Phil to do a short carry further up the cave that night. Simon seemed to have limitless energy so he joined them whilst the rest of us ate dinner.

Up the next day, the plan was for a team to come down towards camp whilst we headed out. Simon and Jason set off early to shuttle the bags from the previous night a bit further up the cave whilst Phil, myself, George and Helen packed up and headed off with two bags each – leaving just a couple of very light bags at camp Roncal. The four of us headed off and caved well until we met Simon and one of the other ULSA lads plus Tom Clayton. We directed the ULSA lads back to camp and shared our loads with Tom which made the weight a bit more sensible. Soon we reached the stash point where we encountered loads more cavers who were all dispatched into meander Oprimedo with bags. Although we started by carrying a bag or two each we soon piled up and tried some other tactics – namely forming a massive chain through the meander, making a huge pile of bags at the front then everyone climbing over them and going further down so that we could pass bags from hand to hand. Although slow, this was good fun and not tiring at all. We soon got all the bags through the meander and heading up the pitches. Of course after a long trip when all you want is pleasant conditions on the surface, we got a thunderstorm right over us and we spent a couple of hours huddled under a tarp by the entrance before escaping into bivi bags or the tent in my case.

The sun rose the next day and we nipped back down the cave for more bags before heading off the hill for the expedition meal. After the lazy day brought on by the heavy night we visited the cave one final time to remove the last bags and de-rig. I did a carry down the mountain and then the cavers slowly left Zurzia alone once more.

Jason’s diving wasn’t entirely successful, after laying 250m of line in the large sump 7 at 25m depth he retreated with the intention of going back the next day. Unfortunately his re-breather flooded on his first attempt and then his drysuit zip jammed so no more push diving was done on the rebreather. Phil and he did find some sump bypasses which made the trip easier and Jason also dived in sump 4 on open circuit and with a wetsuit! Finally the pair also surveyed the cave beyond sump 1. However the result of this was that they actually lessened the depth of the cave by 60m! - but at least the depth of the cave is accurate now!

All in all, a good effort from those involved and good work by Jason  and Phil.