Hi

I got back today and have a few minutes so here is a summary of events to date.

12/5 has been rigged almost as far as the known meeting with Xitu and leads around the Heath (Graham and Eric) and the Mendip Bit (Rich and Erin) have been investigated. So far the promised big passages have not been intercepted but folks are fairly optimistic and some new passage has been pushed. The Newt is as tight as expected, though Andy Weaver's rescue was as a result of being too thin the pass through rather than too fat. Further down the cave is fairly damp, cold, abrasive and tricky to rig and has already given Rich a rubbed through to the core experience.

Elsewhere in Xitu (1/5) itself we have rigged down to the upsteam limit and the aven has been bolted to about 18m without yet topping out. Plans exist to continue the climb and to look for continuations of the Teresa Series beyond the Gap. There are also quite a few other minor leads upstream and around the Custom Hall that are worthwhile checking.

Shaftbashing has concentrated on Area 4 which lies above the preseumed continuation of 2/7 beyond Egbert and further down the gorge towards Culiembro, particularly around 1000m where many of the known caves appear to have extensive horizontal development. 39/4 just below the Cabeza Juluagua/Cabeza del Verde ridge looked promising for a while, with a good draft. This looked to have broken through the choked surface layer to old cave below, until at -60m it ended in a squitty rift.

JC