One bright, sunny day in July, we decided the time had come to take a peek at what could be an upper passage at one end of Cold Dunk Cave (La Cueva del Chapuzón). Susy, John, Jesús, Nacho, Nani and Mano represented the full strength of ZOTZ.

Taking the place of Larry Monroe, who was traveling in Arizona, was Susy’s brother Pepe, a frequent non-caver “helping hand” for many an expedition. The “East Wing” had been the first section we ever explored of this increasingly more complex cave.

Entering through the lower “swim-in” entrance we had followed the sinuous, 150 meter-long passage past an unbelievably thick concentration of bats, at the top the fissure high above us, to what could have been, a dead end, if it were not for the sunlight pouring in from a narrow slot 15 meter above. We then noticed an opening in one wall, about 4 meters up.

Was this merely a swallow balcony or the entrance to another passage?

Today we were going to find out. “Dry weather and an upper passage means no cold, wet surprises.” we chortled as we approached the famous (outdoor) waterfall where we had first smelled guano five months ago.

However we noticed the considerable volume of water going over the edge with a mighty roar, it occurred to some of us that even the supposedly “high and dry’” upper passage might be a little damp.

The slot offers access to the East Wing of the cave (if ended we are dealing with one cave) by a 15 meter rappel. Finding this unobtrusive hole and rigging it in the rainy season, turned out to be a bit complicated due to the tangle of heavy growth, we later discovered included a fair amount of poison ivy.

We lowered a rope down to the cave floor and John began the first descent. Just two meters into the long narrow slot, he came to a small ledge. 0ff to his right he could see that the fissure continued farther than had been evident from, above.

Might it possibly connect with the Balcony, which was in the same general direction? He worked his way along it until there were no longer 13 meters of emptiness below him. A hole just big enough to wriggle through beckoned.

Squeezing beyond the hole and twisting his body into a pretzel, John ended up with his head looking down over the edge of what seemed to be a four-meter drop. That wasn’t the floor of the main passage below, so it must be the balcony¡

All he had to do is run the rope over this edge... One detail that hasn’t been mentioned is that this particular little hole was directly under a constantly drizzling cold shower and the only bearable position you could take while rigging inevitably resulted in icy water running down the back of your neck.

By the time we got a combination of cable ladder and rope connecting the outside world to the balcony, John’s spirit, as well as the rest of him, were considerably dampened.

But Nacho soon joined him and off they went to explore the new territory. In all they found about 100 meters of crawlways about one meter high.

They were certainly in an ideal spot to observe the bats, which came zooming right past their noses many meters above the height of a human being walking on the floor down below. It didn’t take long to prove that they had been going in a very wide circle, only to return to a second balcony just a few meters from the first, both within sight of the slot.

Once they had checked out the entire passage, there wasn’t much left to do and when John experienced a renewed attack of shivers and shakes, he decided to go back up into the sunshine, passing on to Jesús the delightful task of repositioning the rope at the drop-off, under the good old cold shower.

The result was that Jesús too, soon had the shakes and all of us began to wonder what we were going to all this trouble for. By now Mano had joined Nacho inside and it was suggested they survey the passage in the name of the rest of the crew. This turned out to be a wise decision, because by now the rope was wet and muddy and both, Nacho and Mano foun

d it a slow, frustrating job to push their prussic knots up only to have them slide right back to position one the moment they put weight on them.

Eventually, they got out but then and there we decided to test out everyone’s gear on a muddy rope... but at home. Naturally, derigging meant more cold showers, which made our final exit all the more pleasing. Seated on the warm black obsidian rocks alongside the bubbling river, we soaked up sun shine and beer and devoured our lunches. Cold Dunk Cave had again lived up to its name, even in its “dry” upper passage, but we had gained another 100 feet for our survey!

RESUMEN DEL ARTICULO ANTERIOR SI USTED LEYÓ EL ARTÍCULO PASADO SOBRE LA CUEVA DEL CHAPUZÓN SABRÁ QUE NO HEMOS LLEGADO AL FINAL. BUENO LA COSA NO HA CAMBIADO: SEGUIMOS SIN LLEGAR AL FINAL. PERO AL MENOS ENTÉRESE DE LO QUE HEMOS HECHO. OCTAVO INTENTO SE, CORRECTO, YA LLEVAMOS OCHO, EN ESTA OCACIÓN BAJAMOS POR EL TIRO Y A MEDIO CAMINO DECIDIMOS EXPLORAR UN PASAJE, SE EXPLORÓ Y SE LE AGREGARON OTROS 30 METROS A LA CUEVA. DESGRACIADAMENTE NO SE HIZO UN LEVANTAMIENTO ADECUADO. NOVENO INTENTO DE NUEVO VOLVIMOS A BAJAR POR EL PISO. LA IDEA ERA HACER EL LEVANTAMIENTO DE TODA AQUELLA SECCIÓN, PERO ... COMENZÓ A LLOVER Y HABÍA QUE SUBIR (PARECE QUE LA CUEVA SE LLENA DE AGUA) Y ESO ES TODO. PINCHE CUEVA!