The South Wales Caving Club
Cantabria Expeditions.
Ongoing caving trips to the Cantabria region.
Next trip:- 13th April to 21st April 2024.
Lead contact: Gary Vaughan
Phone: 07836 727131 E-Mail: gary@dorsetland.co.uk
INFO
Links
CAVES OF THE AREA 2
NEW - Updated 16.05.22
GOOGLE EARTH DISPLAY OF THE CAVE ENTRANCES
Carlista Cavern is a large limestone cavern the entrance, up the slopes of the Cantabrian Mountains, is only a single metre (3 feet) wide. The entry passage descends some 45 metres vertically in a narrow chimney before opening up into the cavern's main gallery. Some 520 metres long and 245 metres wide. The main chamber is the fifth-largest underground chamber in the world, with a ceiling that reaches 120 metres at its highest point.
A complicated cave of great variety. The entrance "amphitheatre" has a number of small caves at the back, at least one of which provides a straight 30m drop to the main tunnel. The main entrance is a large, sloppy, leafy slope down into a sloping chamber that provides the focus to the cave. The first (and much small second) slope exits on the right provides access to a long series of phreatic domes, Tree Gallery. The apparent end is bypassed by a squeeze at roof level possibly reached up a 7m long tree trunk. Further squeezes lead to a continuation of the domes, a division of the ways and two chokes.
Torca del Crucero - la Calaca - Mazo chico
A through trip from Crucero to Calaca, involving two 15m pitches and one 27M pitch.
Up the track from Astrana, past the parking for Mortero to a wide parking place, or further if you have a four by four.
The imposing-looking massive entrance portal
is easily visible from the path out of the car park leading up to the
Covalanos prehistoric painted cave. From the bend in the track, a climb
over rocks and around the cliff arrives at the base of the portal, where
climbing up to the top right corner reaches the small, previously gated
entrance.
SRT kit is needed as a traverse line starts just inside the cave, with
crawls and small pitches. A very well decorated cave.
A large horizontal cave passage, a couple of hundred metres along the path from Coventosa.
With large amounts of stall, a short climb and then a lake.
Torca del Hoyo Grande and Cueva dela Haza
Commune: soba. 5 K from the Ason Col. car park.
The great torca del Hoyo is a chasm 47 meters deep, easy to locate at the western end of the tabular lapiaz crescent-shaped at the very edge of the large sinkhole.
Haza a horizontal cave 6k long. This cave is the first to have been explored in the sector (from 1964). Very close to the Hoyo large system, it has never yet been connected to it. The large rectangular porch Cueva Haza opens at the foot of the first major rock limestone cornice, in the beech woods overlooking the southwest large Torca del Hoyo and the large tabular lapiaz.
A smallish cave very close to the road, on two levels, lower leads to a sump. has interesting grafiti.
A couple of 100 metres from Bustablado.
A large portal cave with a streamway, part of a through trip from Torca del Hombre.
Up the same path to Sopladoras, Agua through trip, and continue on for 1K.
The cueva del Hoyo Salcedillo is truly the upstream end of a gigantic network that would most likely lead to the Ason valley, via the cueva Fresca. The entrance opens at the bottom of a perched depression formerly occupied by a glacier whose moraine, above the village of Valdicio, is still very visible. As for the cavities of Picon del Fraile or Lunada, it is located at the base of a small limestone bar in a calcareo-sandstone alternation conducive to the digging of caves. The dip and fracturing do the rest and we get as a rule beautiful pipes that sink peacefully under the mountain ...
A small remanant cave above Cueva del Hoyo Salcedillo with three entrances, one of them is a walk in. This cave is well decorated with old stall and a round trip can be done.
A horizontal cave, no kit needed. Small passages, large passages, streamways, climbs, traverses and reasonably decorated.
A large horizontal tunnel cave, very big, very wide and very slippery floor and well decorated, then changing to normal size passages and a small streamway. About 15K NE from Ramales.
A cave near Castro Urdiales.
A very well decorated cave, with various pitches and a round trip between
Cueva Narizon - Torca Palomascan be done.
Updated 11.07.23