51st speleological exploration campaign in the Sierra de Tendeñera.
Tendeñera mountain range is located in the Central Pyrenees, in the province of Huesca, Spain. It is characterised by an abrupt relief formed by Pleistocene and Holocene karst glaciers, with a strong east-west trend between the Ara and Gállego rivers. The Arañonera cave system is the most important of the Sierra de Tendeñera, with 1,349 m of depth, a survey of more than 47 km and 8 cave entrances.
This year the xploration was mainly done in the upper part of the Arañonera cave system focusing on continuing and closing the explorations in the new deep route known as the “Groga” line, discovered the previous year, and explored from -900 m up the “Riu Amunt”, in the “Somnis de Glòria” collector. Several exploration and topography works have also been carried out in the “Eclipse gallery” and in the upper galleries of the “Riu Fantasma”, extending the total length of the system. A new route with great potential has also been explored in the “Gran Cañón”, called the “Crunxi” line and “Zig-Zag river”, which represents a large water input above the “Riu Primigeni”.
Finally, multiple re-equipping, exploration and topography tasks were carried out, as well as collection of subterranean fauna and a hydrogeological study of the Tendeñera karst. The 2023 campaign consisted of multiple exploration attacks from March to July and finally the international caving camp (7-27 August) located in the Soaso valley, near the S1 cave entrance.