Grottes et karsts de Chine
Sur les traces de Xu Xiake

Near Hai Yi village, Shilin

Xizi's alluringly over-hung entrance is visible from camp, but deceptively hard to find closer up. The pitch head is reached by a scramble down through bushes to a traverse down and to the right over piles of dead vegetation. A sizeable stump provides the belay for the first short drop onto a large ledge. A scramble up and to the left gains another tree-belay, this time over a proper Chinese-style drop, complete with rope protectors and a constant shower of debris. After 16 metres an overhang and 2 bolts are reached. From here the loose rocks fall a further 50 metres to a soft mud floor.

From the base of the shaft, facing South, away from the descent route, behind (North) a mud slope goes up to a wide alcove with no way on. Down and to the left a soggy channel in the mud is followed to low mud-filled passage ending in a sump. Up and to the left a crest in the mud is reached from which it is possible to descend to a second passage. Here twin steep mud banks flank a channel of very wet mud leading to 6 Second Sump, where the passage bells out and the ceiling rises in an arch that returns a six-second echo.

Back at the pitch, the main way on lies straight ahead, up the steep mud slope. Ascent is possible by kicking mud steps along the right-hand wall. Past a thin cover of vegetation at the top, the gloopy wet mud is thankfully left behind. To the right, a high window looks back into the daylight shaft, while ahead the Gallery Slaves Passage slopes up with an increasing density of fossil formations. Scrambling past a large ice cream cone flowstone mound, the passage descends briefly before encountering a calcite cliff on the right. The passage forks, with a short branch going off to the left to a calcite-coated end, while to the right a climb up along the left-hand wall gains the top of the calcite cliff and the final 20 metres of the cave.

Hilary Greaves

Erin Lynch

Gavin Lowe