Hidden Earth 2025

Ario, Spain - Plummeting down to long-abandoned leads in the Picos de Europa

30 minute Lecture|Becka Lawson

Abstract

This summer we returned once more to northern Spain, to the warm welcome of the Refugio Vega de Ario, for a four week expedition. We quickly connected two significant caves. The massive shaft of Tras la Jayada was linked in to an upstream inlet of Pozu Jultayu, 2/7 (Cave of the Witches Eye). This allowed us to bid a - perhaps not so fond - farewell to our previous approach to this inlet via 27/9 (the Cave of the Singing Pasteur), which wasn't the widest. Now with a relatively easy and spacious way in we could fully equip an underground camp and access leads left decades earlier when this area was far more remote - an undived sump, an enticing hole high in a chamber and Canals on Mars, a deep water streamway. Hear what happened next and the work we did elsewhere - prospecting, re-exploring and some serious capping action.