A return to the caves of Cantabria and the Ason Gorge 2025
Caving team - Al, Tony, Mike
Running team - Emma, Edward
Multi activity team - Alfie (cave, run, bike, via ferrata)
10 days at Camping Ramales, a week of fine warm weather followed by cooler showery conditions.
Out each day for varied activities returning to base for substantial calorie replenishment, cakes provided by Sam; slabs of gingerbread, fruitcake and chocolate brownie.
Caving, 5 underground trips;
• Cuivo to Mortera Astrana
• Rubicera to Astrana
• La Sima to Gandara
• Torca Fria to Cueva del Lobo (cold to wolf)
• Torca Tibia to Cueva Fresca
The Walk-ins;
Cuivo is Cantabria’s answer to Kingsdale’s valley entrance, half an hour stroll up the fell to an easily located entrance and 10 mins mosey return to the car from the exit, happy days. The Rubicera is a different affair, an hour walk up onto the Astana plateau from the col Ason followed by a descent of two exposed steep slopes requiring care, both hands and the use of a fixed rope. A car juggle allows for an easy stroll out from the Mortera.
La Sima - Gandara was another steady walk in the morning sunshine to an easily located wooded shake hole entrance shaft and a brief walk down the hill back to the car at the end.
Tibia Fria and Torca Tibia were both harder work, high on the limestone plateau above the Ason col, walking and traversing through broken limestone territory, cliffs, beech woodland and high meadows for a couple of hours; the Tibia in particular only locatable when literally on top of it. Combination of watch map, gps, guidebook descriptions and a bit of good fortune all required.
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Pulling through;
All trips were pull throughs. This seems to be the nature of the caving here and perfectly fits our approach and style. The deep feeling of commitment to an unknown underground journey through the mountain heightens the experience and achievement.
The Cuivo and Rubicera involve mainly short and straightforward pitches that easily blend into the continuous underground movement, often with fixed ropes to aid speedy progression, though the Rubicera is a little opposite in style with big caverns and passages to start.
La Sima was quite different with a daylight shaft to 180m, involving rigging 5 pull throughs at hanging stances and then a further 65m pitch broken into 4 sections down a loose chaos of huge blocks that focus the mind and quieten the conversation.
Torca Fria had a short entrance series that we could manage with a 40m rope but required a bit of thought and adjustment to use the equipped stances to best advantage.
Torca Tibia has a classic series of pull throughs with two longer 85m pitches with a secondary stance on each requiring full use of the two 65m ropes we’d taken and certainly gave us a moment’s thought and consideration as we descended into the depths.
Union galleries;
Most caving systems we experienced had 3 constituent parts; entrance series of pitches, a lower exit system of chambers and usually a connecting ‘union gallery’ between the two.
The Cuivo and Rubicera entrances led to a deep underground river system, the Leolorna, the Rubicera joining it lower down than the Cuivo, involving a short lake crossing (joyous return of the Lidl middle aisle rubber rings for flotation used last year in the Coventosa) and some superb pools to wade or cross via traverse lines.
The Sima entrance led to a straightforward connection through easy passages and scrambling over blocks past the now nonchalantly passed fossil event series to the huge Gandara chambers.
Tibia Fria pitch series led to a roped traverse over a deep pot followed by the ‘vertical laminator’ a translation from the Spanish for an upward rope in a tight passage which certainly warmed us up and the onward route through a complex of passages and rifts.
Tibia Torca had a couple of entertaining connection passages, one fairly contorted squeezing rift for 50m with SRT gear off and then back on above a 30 m pitch, amusingly named in the translation as the‘bottomless catflap’ which in turn landed us in a great river passage for 30 minutes complete with cascades and pools before the route again left the main stream up a series of short ropes through stunning passages of pocketed limestone created by a layer of eroded conch shells and so the onward connection to the passages of Cueva Fresca.
Big exit passages;
The Cuivo and Rubicera exit into the vastness of the ‘Sala de Chaos’, a huge of chamber of scree and blocks leading to daylight and the pre rigged entrance rope (this year the scene of some serious rockfall).
The Gandara, Lobo and Fresca exits all involved connecting into vast chambers, huge potholes with rigged handline traverses, including one named the ‘cauliflower’ and a couple described as a ‘spiders web’; complex navigation and an increasing weariness after 6-8 hours underground before the uplifting sight of daylight at the entrance, often impressive ejections onto the steep, vegetated mountainside.
Sustenance;
The previous year’s trip involved my wife’s homemade gingerbread and flapjack, eaten in large chunks together and lovingly named ‘gingerjack’. This year it was combination of the fruitcake and chocolate brownie. I wasn’t convinced, expecting a dreadful mush halfway through a caving trip, but the reality was an incredibly rich and sumptuous experience that was repeated on each trip, the crumbs at the bottom of the bag being turned into irrefusable powerballs of ‘frownie’. Even Alfie approved of one halfway round a hilly bike ride.
Personal favourites;
I’m usually out front and rigging the pull through ropes. Topo in pocket, pitch anticipated, check the fixed equipment, run the rope through, tie off for pull down, add ‘scary krab’, descend, ‘’rope free’’. On the longer pitches requiring a second or third stance, rebelay and rope pull down there’s always a greater sense of commitment and intimidation, I tie a knot in the rope at the expected arrival depth, locate the new set of bolts, clip in cows tails, tie off descent rope and pull down rope, double check and then ‘’rope free’’ in my best melodious care free voice to instill outward relaxation. My favourite moment of the trip is when Tony arrives at the belay, lands on my shoulder, clips in all his krabs, looks over the ropework with his critical eye and it’s no longer an individual experience.
In the flow;
Picking a favourite moment is hugely simplistic. For me I always want to emphasise the holistic experience of these underground journeys; the commitment required of the pull through trip; the feeling of moving efficiently and effectively through an unknown impenetrable maze of passages and chambers interspersed with deep pitches, carrying nothing but a rope and guidebook, relying entirely on our combined experience, knowledge and instincts, constantly thinking, deciding, checking, focussed; all encompassed by the continuing and varied journey. And of course a meal and a beer and the end of the day to relax and help digest the experience.
Alternative activities were available;
Cantabria is beautiful limestone country with accessible mountains, for running and biking, verdantly green in the spring time. Emma and Edward enjoyed a variety of mountain runs, green, blue and red trails from Ramales, high mountain routes above Ason and Arredondo; Emma motivated by the mountain environment and a return to running fitness and Edward by the array of data and statistics Strava provides (his first 100km week?).
Alfie got the most variety fitting in a day’s caving, a couple of runs, a via ferrata and couple of hilly bike rides with some awesome downhill speed on perfect tarmac, whilst also submitting his GCSE DT coursework on time.
Thanks
• Al and Tony for pics
• Sam for amazing cake
• Liz for bespoke merino beanies
• Club Viana for quality descriptions and topos
We’ve still just scratched the surface of the trips available and the entertainment to be had……
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