dong Dongbadong - 洞 坝洞

Dong Ba is the upstream active sink for the river which flows north-northwest from Tianxing village to the Furong Jiang. The cave is reached by walking 100 metres north-northwest from the centre of Tianxing village, to the head of the westerly trending valley which descends to the Furong Jiang. Follow the path down the right hand side of the valley to a small hamlet (approximately 30 minutes). From the house, drop down to the valley bottom and follow the dry stream bottom to the cave entrance.
The stream is channeled directly into this impressive 20 metre high, 12 metre wide entrance which is situated on a major joint on the down-dip side of the valley (the north side). A bedding plane provides a balcony on the left and a slope of large boulders descends to a short, 3 metre, pitch with a boulder belay. A few metres further is the impressive 37 metre entrance pitch which exposes the alternating black and grey limestones beds particularly well. At the bottom a series of low passages and crawls (which sump when the sink is taking water) leads to climbs and a series of short pitches in wonderful, clean-washed cave.
After about ten of these smaller pitches and climbs a 45m pitch is met and then three pitches of about 10m drop into a narrow passage carved along a calcite vein. A small slot at the end of this bells out into a much larger 108m pitch. A short section of gravel floored horizontal passage and a further pitch mark the limit of exploration in 1996. (No rope!)

YGE96(W)(S);YGE94 p75(S),76;2002



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1522 caractères - Lu 218 Fois




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