Back in mid August we (Bartek & Paulina) set of on 21hrs journey to northern Spain. After uneventful drive, quick shopping we were ready for a hike to the Ario Refugio to join the second part of Ario Caves Project Expedition 2022. First part of the expedition, which Mark Burkey can spell some detail about, was focused on the rebolting and rigging of Cabeza Muxa cave with the purpose of dive in the terminal sump. Once we arrived the derigging of Muxa already started however we had a chance to experience the 600m deep ''entrance'' series of it. The cave drops down immediately from it's entrance via a series of abseils to about -300m level, where the pitch called Gran Abisu starts - a mere 250m of abseiling, followed by another 100m pitch. This almost all vertical section of the cave lands a happy cavers at the -600m level where we stayed overnight in a cosy camp set up just by the main streamway level. 

Lisa Wootton almost on the bottom of Gran Abisu

Lisa Wootton & Paulina half way down Gran Abisu

Lisa Wootton & Paulina on the approach to Gran Abisu

Phil Baker, Tony Seddon & Paulina in the camp

During the rest of the expedition we visited few more local caves with the purpose of preparation for the next season and further explorations.

27/9 cave

We also spend many nights stargazing, many evenings admiring the sunsets and majestic summits poking through the clouds. All this was spiced with a bit of a wild life and some mad-tent-eating cows. 

 

ogof craig a ffynnon - the cave's hidden secret

This cave hides a secret, something that the original explorers went to extraordinary efforts to keep hidden. These efforts extended as far as to completely erase from the cave survey the passage where it is hidden.

A team from Dudley Caving Club set off to discover the passage and find out what it contains.

 A weekend of rope-work practice for Dudley Caving Club took place at Heightworks in Wolverhampton on the weekend of the 4th and 5th of December.

Great fun was had by all.

The Beauty of Speleology

 A short film to celebrate my return to caving after an absence of many months.

50 Million Video Views on YouTube

On 23rd February my YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/keithedwardscaver clocked an amazing ...

I'm immensely proud of this achievement and I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has helped and supported me over the last 12 years.

5 Caving Trips That Are Not For The Faint-Hearted

Part of the attraction of caving for me is pitting myself against nature and these 5 caving trips are amongst the most technically difficult trips I've done in my thirty plus years of cave exploration.

Completing each trip in the knowledge that I'm one of a privileged few to have ever done so has led, in each case, to an enormous sense satisfaction.

Keith

Clips that make up this film were taken from the following videos:

Caving Video: Daren Cilau to Price's Dig (2010) - https://youtu.be/eoERRfvIuH0

Caving Video: Return to Daren Cilau (2012) - https://youtu.be/Q_Xbyy3q9Y4

Caving Video: Pwll Y Gwynt (2013) - https://youtu.be/M2ZjuoJ_b40

Caving Video: Ogof Ffynnon Ddu, Prokofiev Series (2013) - https://youtu.be/0OlaxG6qgvQ

Lesser Garth Cave / Ogof Ffynnon Taf (2012) - https://youtu.be/UmdSla4rmj4

Ogof Rhyd Sych - A Caving Trip (2011) - https://youtu.be/EmKAbEdvIa0

Caving is Cool - P8, Derbyshire

Filmed in P8 (Jackpot) on Wednesday 28th October 2020 in rather aqueous conditions.

Why pay to go to a waterpark? This is far more adventurous and far more exhilarating!

P8 was one of the first caves I did when I started caving in the late 80s. It was with the now defunct West Midlands Cave Exploration Group. Conditions were very dry and we explored beyond sump 1. Obviously this wasn't possible on this day!