Scaife20/4/19
Cueva 4474
Chris Scaife, Alex Ritchie, James Carlisle, Chriss Shaman, Richard Bendall, Phil Parker
Richard and Phil had done some digging in this cave and found a couple of unexplored leads, which they very kindly allowed us to investigate. First Xaaaaandah, James, Shaman and I went up a short climb at the end of a sandy crawl. We entered quite a big chamber with loose rock everywhere. Using the Total Wipeout naming system, this became known as the Big Red Ballroom. We then returned along the sandy crawl and descended a short rift on a ladder, into some new passage we called the Travelator. Reuniting with Richard and Phil, we then surveyed a bit of calcitey passage that we called Snotty Nose Rift, taking our survey total to 68m for the day. If anyone is unsure of the link between Total Wipeout and snotty noses please speak to Alex Ritchie.
The expedition meal was held on this night. I was one of those who left early, in bed by 5am.
21/4/19
On Easter Sunday, I celebrated the resurrection of Christ the Saviour by painting a pink elephant on to a hard boiled egg and rolling it downhill. My fellow egg rollers were Carol, Jen, James, Juan, Nora and Hillary. Alex and John, in a break from tradition, eschewed the group activity and went for a bike ride. In the afternoon I went for a walk up El Naso, a wonderful hill between la Via and the Vega valley.
22/4/19
Mostajo
Chris Scaife, Lloyd Cawthorne, Raoul Sharman, New David, Mike Topsom, Fran McDonald
James left on this day, and as Alex and Shaman had still not decided whether they would be caving by 1am, I joined the MUSCeteers in their favourite cave, the gift that keeps on giving – Mostajo. We investigated two leads that were unsurveyed, if not entirely unexplored. First down a pitch that climaxed in a chamber, then down a complex journey through boulders at the bottom of a gigantic chamber, winding our way down into an incredible dry streamway. We surveyed this subterranean river bed, with sharp formations all around us, as far as upstream and downstream sumps, racking up about 320m of passage surveyed for the day.
23/4/19
Cueva 822
Chris Scaife, Carolina Smith de la Fuente, Peter Smith
I went for a walk in the hills with Carol and her dad, and we took three ladders to investigate site 822, which had not previously been fully descended. We went down on ladders – it’s about a 5m drop on to a ledge, then another 10m to the floor. There was a dog skeleton at the bottom. On the walk back I had a look in a couple of tiny caves as well, just big enough to be worth recording.
That’s it from me. Xaaaaaandah, John and the Shaman are still there, but I’ve left Matienzo now, having surveyed about 700m of cave passage. It was like being in County Durham.
ScaifeThat’s the second time you’ve mentioned udders. Stop trying to milk this one.
ScaifeWe can do this Barbon Pot trip any time, but tomorrow is a pre-Matienzo trip that was planned a while ago and we have told people we are going, so I will be doing Lost Johns tomorrow.
ScaifeSounds like a fun cave. I’d also be up for a dig in there.
ScaifeThe only survey I’ve seen is the 1979 MUSS survey, which is pretty vague around the top of the pitch. I doubt we were anywhere completely new, but if we were we should certainly go back to survey it.
ScaifeOn the 10th of October 2015, Don and Shaman went to Out Sleets Beck. Alex, I’m sorry that this still don’t help you know what trip took place on the 10th of August.
ScaifeIt looked like the sort of duck that would be better feet first. I went through head first on the way out and I preferred it feet first. Feet first on your back makes it a lot easier to see where you’re going than head first on your back.
ScaifeI’ve been busy working on the journal.
ScaifeHey you! I’m up for a Langstroth trip one day.
I’d also like to say that I really like Hagg Gill Pot.
ScaifeI thought Daz had triplets.
ScaifeI think there are enough Scaifes in the world already, and changing the woman’s surname after marriage isn’t a Spanish thing.
I am of course now Chris de la Scaife.
ScaifeI just can’t believe you attempted it headfirst before going in feet first. Is this the new you?
ScaifeNow that would make sense.
ScaifeIt’s really not very muddy at all. I don’t know why people say it is.
We saw an unforgivable act of vandalism in there. Some bastard had written, “D. Miller 1986” on the wall. If I ever find D. Miller I’d like to give him a piece of my mind.
ScaifeWell done chaps – Dr Miller’s first NFTFH “tight” squeeze. I hope you drank an outrageous amount to celebrate.
When I was in there with Alex, Ales and other less successful squeezers, we got the tackle sack stuck on the same pitch, so I had to go back down it.
What sort of unimaginative explorer calls something Cave Hole? Do these people not know any amusingly named Roman emperors?
