Hidden Earth 2019

China Round-up

45 minute Lecture|Phil Rowsell

Abstract

There have been a number of Expeditions to China to the Wulong area, a BEC xmas expedition as well as a number of small low key ones. The expeditions have been reasonably successful with the continued exploration of Yanzi Dong, found in Dec 2017, expected to connect to SanwanDong (SWD), but missed a 30m wide passage in SWD but 10m!. YanziDong is now 543m deep, at the final pitch head, flagging tape is blown horizontal, but in the final massive chamber there is minimal draft, Several bolt climbing leads ;-). In SWD," Topdog" was revisited to bolt climb at the very end chamber but it was found the draft was disappearing up two avens further back. Both avens looked to be heading to the same passage, but the one climb proved to be a blind choked Oxbow. One to return to. Further Fruitless attempts have been made to connect SWD with ErwangDong less than 100m away. This presentations highlights these expeditions and their discoveries.