Second trip down Agua, Joe’s Crack

Alex again,

Phil and myself embarked on another three day trip down Agua on Saturday 15th. With significantly lighter bags, the trip to Death Race was much quicker than the first time. I was able to appreciate the cave more on this trip, the trip to Death Race really is a good varied day of caving. We met Dan and Dave near Death Race heading out for a night of exploring.

The next day the plan was to push Joe’s Crack, the tight rift I had looked at previously. Phil decided this last was too tight for him, so it was up to me to bolt the traverse until it became wide enough to abseil down to the bottom of the rift.

The bottom of the rift widens slightly and the floor dips down below the traverse heading back towards Death Race. Part way along there is an opening into a much wider rift, estimated at 4m across, into which a pitch could be dropped, this was not done on this trip but is an open lead. The small rift turned a corner and chokes.

Returning up the pitch to get the survey kit turned out to be fairly unpleasant, due to the very tight nature of the pitch. Phil reaffirmed his belief that he wouldn’t fit, leaving me to do the survey alone. A shot down the large passage revealed it is at least 12.5m deep, so worth returning to by anyone keen to go down the tight pitch.

Left Death Race the day after in good time, including Phil doing the sump five times to get some video footage of it. Good effort, once is enough for me. Shame the video turned out to be pretty rubbish.

Thanks to Phil for the trip and making the necessary cups of tea throughout the day.