Grottes et karsts de Chine
Sur les traces de Xu Xiake

Chang Sha Dong- ‘Barnstormer Pitch’- 25.304066°, 105.611642°

One of the expeditions certain objectives was the undescended pitch at the end of Chang Sha Dong which lay along the suspected line of development between An He Doline and the Si Fang Resurgence. This had been found at the end of the 1989 expedition but lack of time meant that it remained undescended.

Several members of the team found the largest and most westerly entrance into this cave on the first day in the field. The entrance was an open shaft of around 40m x 20m. This was rigged from a boulder on its lowest side and a descent through vegetation for 20m ended on a vertical rock lip with a further 30m free hang to the floor. This pitch ended on a large rubble cone in the centre of a vast, sunlit chamber some 150m across. The way on from this chamber to the head of the Barnstormer pitch was found through a narrowing in the north west corner. The ongoing passage was vast by any standards, over 100m wide in some places and easy to become disorientated in.

The Barnstormer pitch was rigged from the top of a steep calcite and rubble slope to a wide ledge above the deep vertical drop. The next 30m of descent was down flowstone pillars requiring re-belays bolted into calcite of dubious strength. A final free hang of 40m finished at a flowstone floor. From the floor to the roof in this area was around 150m. The chamber was thoroughly scoured for any continuation, the southern end provided the best prospects but the vast quantities of flowstone choked every way on. The chamber at the base of the pitch was extremely attractive but its inaccessibility would not make it a viable tourist site.