Return To Corchia 1969

by G. Edwards

Fired with enthusiasm by reports of new developments in the cave, four of us decided to organise a flying expedition over Easter. An expedition in 1968 had pushed the previous year’s finds^[1] as far as a river gallery but had not explored this, neither had the Italians. The objects of our Easter trip were to see if this river was in fact the same River Vidal, known lower in the cave, to examine the prospects upstream and to complete the survey. The problem was how best to use the ten days available, five down the cave and four travelling.

The party set out from Manchester in a Viva van loaded with 1,000 feet of ladder, 1,500 feet of rope, personal luggage and caving gear. Crossing the Channel by an early ferry on Saturday, we made good progress through France and spent the night some 50 miles north of Lausanne. Using the St. Bernard Tunnel through the Alps and the Italian autostradas, we reached Levigliani on Sunday evening and camped at the foot of the teleferique. On Monday, after obtaining permission to use it, we spent the morning waiting in the bar; however, by 5.30 p.m. we were assembled at the cave entrance, each with two kitbags and a box. We were in luck, the Italians had already laddered the cave, also we had already bottomed it in 1967 and knew the way, so Camp 1 was reached in good time.

After a meal and armed with 200 feet of ladder and ropes we set off for the new section, first explored in 1967 by D. Sinclair and R. Mumford. A large passage with many climbs led to the river gallery; downstream the passage contracted to an impassable narrow crack but upstream it grew to great proportions. After 100 yards there was an inlet on the left, with a stream falling from high up in the roof; straight on were three deep blue lakes. On the way back to Camp 1 we noted a side passage as a possible by-pass to the downstream narrows.

Early on Tuesday morning we were quickly into the new section and exploring the side passage which did in fact rejoin the river gallery after a 25 ft. and then a 50 ft. pitch (Pozzo Vanouchi). Following the river down a series of rapids in a high narrow passage, we soon found it necessary to traverse, until after 1,000 yards we came to a huge gulf about 100 feet deep. This could be laddered dry from a balcony on the right. Leaving the tackle we turned back and surveyed from Pozzo Vanouchi to Camp 1.

On Wednesday we surveyed downstream from Pozzo Vanouchi, along Torrent Passage as far as the huge gulf, which we named Q.E.2; here we resumed exploration by laddering it. Mumford, Sinclair and I descended, leaving Lomas at the top in charge of the life line. A large passage followed, with deep pools, and led to the top of another pitch, The Roaring Forties, 40 feet deep. This was laddered from a ledge on the left wall; in the spray and wind it was impossible to keep a carbide lamp alight. The next pitch followed at once and there was no way of laddering it out of the water. Sinclair went back to Q.E.2 and sent Lomas down with a bag of pitons, whereupon Mumford and I tried to peg out on to the left wall, but we were defeated by the danger factor and blind cracks; if an accident should happen there was little chance of bringing the victim out alive. It was upsetting having to leave this magnficent virgin river gallery but time was short and we had a tight schedule to keep. We called this Frustration Pitch.

Early on Thursday we went down the 90 ft. pitch, the three of 25 ft. and the 35 ft. to the top of the 140 ft. pitch in the old cave in order to survey this section, which is not unlike a Yorkshire severe. Four hours later we were back in camp and soon finished packing up and tidying; then we set off on the long trek back to the surface, surveying as we went. Good progress was made up the first three pitches but the 175 ft. pitch turned the tide against us. It took four hours to drag all the bags up; this shattered us and there was still the entrance passage. This is a series of climbs and traverses, awkward with kitbags; we reached the entrance in two hours and slept there until 7 a.m. on Friday, when we took the teleferique to the foot of Monte Corchia where we slept again before starting the journey home.

The following October David Sinclair organised a seven-man expedition to push the new river gallery downstream beyond Frustration Pitch to its limits and to survey and photograph it. No work had been done since we were there at Easter; the Italians had not even dye-tested the water to prove whether the river was the same as the Fiume Vidal known lower down the cave.

We left Stoke-on-Trent in a heavily laden Ford Transit on Friday 10th of October, but engine trouble delayed arrival at Levigliani until Tuesday the 14th; because of this plans had to be changed. To arrive home in time for work the following Monday we would have to leave Italy on Friday the 17th, which meant only two days’ caving and an immense amount of work to be done. So we decided upon just one long trip into the cave.

Permission to use the teleferique had been obtained beforehand so there was no delay and we reached the cave entrance early on Wednesday morning. Carrying only two kitbags of ladder each we went in at 9 a.m. and reached Camp 1 in three hours with little effort, though Lomas had to retire feeling unwell. From Camp 1 the new river gallery is only half an hour, so here we changed into wet-suits and from carbide to electric lighting.

After laddering Pozzo Vanouchi, Gamble, Sinclair and I went ahead carrying the ladders for the next three pitches, Q.E.2, The Roaring Forties and Frustration Pitch; we left Lewis, Roberts and Smith to follow with the 250 feet of ladder and rope for the expected new stuff. It was hard work traversing Torrent Passage but, as we had hoped the water had gone down a lot since Easter. The view at Frustration Pitch was quite different; at Easter all that could be seen was water, now a good ledge could be seen and using this we easily gained the bottom of this 35 ft. pitch. The landing was in a huge passage bestrewn with large blocks of limestone; round a corner I met Sinclair who excitedly told me of a pitch 200 feet plus, but on dropping down large rocks Gamble and I were able to convince him that it was no deeper than 150 feet. By this time we were worried as to where the others had got to, so we went back to find them. We met Lewis at the top of Frustration Pitch, laden with ladders and rope, Smith had stopped in Torrent Passage with a faulty light and Roberts had decided to stay at the top of Q.E.2. The last 120 feet of ladder was soon hanging in the unknown void from a ledge on the right.

Attached to the last 150 feet of rope I descended this magnifi-cent shaft, about 20 feet from the water and 10 feet from the nearest wall. The ladder appeared to be a longway off the bottom, but by the time I was 75 feet down I could see that it did in fact reach. Once on the bottom I did a quick reconnaissance while Sinclair and Gamble came down, leaving Lewis at the top. I was confronted with a huge boulder choke, bigger even than the one at the bottom of the cave, described by Arculus (Y.R.C.J., No. 34, page 156). There was no hope of a way through, we tried every nook and cranny. So again disappointed, we turned back, naming this fine last pitch Parliament Pot (fine on top but disappointing underneath).

De-laddering was slow and painful and as tackle mounted up it became obvious that we could not make it in one go. Back at Camp 1 fifteen hours after entering the cave we had our first meal. We managed to detackle as far as the bottom of the 175 ft. pitch where we left the stuff and made for the entrance. In the quarry building Lomas had prepared a fine curry, after which we immediately fell asleep. At 11 a.m. on Thursday, after sleeping for five hours, we went in again, this time accompanied by Lomas in fine fettle, he pulled all 14 bags up the 175 ft. pitch by himself in a fantastically short time; this more than made up for his absence on the previous trip. In 3 hours all the tackle was lying in the warm sun while we made for the village to have a cold bath. Later that evening an Italian insisted on showing us the sights of Viareggio and a marvellous time we had, feasting on squid with a view of all the forest fires raging in the surrounding Apuan Alps.

Members of the Expeditions

>D. S. Sinclair	B.S.A. Manchester (Leader)	April & October
H. A. Lomas	B.S.A. Manchester	April & October
G. Edwards	Yorkshire Ramblers’ Club	April & October
R. Mumford	North West Pothole Club	April
A. Gamble	B.S.A. Manchester	October
H. Lewis	Derbyshire Cave Club	October
D. Roberts	B.S.A. Manchester	October
P. B. Smith	B.S.A. North Midlands	October

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