New bridge being built in Chonqing.
Working out the expedition kitty at the Tongzi Karst and Cave Centre.
Packing expedition gear.
Packing chaos.
Packing the lorry.
Since the truck could only take four people, the rest of us hiked from Tongzi to the village of Er Wang Dong, for not quite 2 hours.
Tongzi is expanding.
On the hike to Er Wang Dong.
On the hike.
You can see an old resurgence there on the left.
Sorting gear at the farm house in Er Wang Dong.
Lots of oatmeal for cave camp breakfast. Phil and I were the only ones taking in ramen noodles instead.
Milk powder. For oatmeal, coffee, tea...
Recon trip to the cave entrance the afternoon we arrived.
After a lot of (mostly) horizontal and free-climbing passage with few hand lines, a series of little traverses and vertical drops follows. Getting ready to rig the first traverse line...
Sorting rigging gear in preparation of rigging another drop.
Rigging...
We had two floor-less tents that we hung from bolts and natural anchors to protect us from the wind chill and capture some of the body heat while in there. Worked great.
View from camp into the tiankeng at breakfast. Our first days were pretty cloudy, with fog / clouds hanging down far into the tiankeng.
Another view from our camp site into Da Luo Dang Tiankeng.
View of our cooking are, which opens up into Da Luo Dang Tiankeng. Clearer day, worse indoor lighting. ;-)
Another view into Da Luo Dang Tianken.
View from inside Da Luo Dang Tiankeng toward our camp.
View from inside Da Luo Dang Tiankeng.
View up from the bottom of Da Luo Dang Tiankeng.
A high ledge that can be seen from standing on the lower ledge that can be reached from the bottom.
View from a ledge in Da Luo Dang Tiankeng, toward the passage hosting our camp.
Two tiny cavers in camp.
A lead?
Bolt climbing a lead right around the corner from camp. Our water supply is the little waterfall coming down the dark rock. (Hard to see.)
Waterfall deviation device to allow us to fill darren drums with water that we would then treat using various mechanisms.
Climbing up freshly explored passage. I managed to get wet feet twice (out of many more times crossing the lake in front of the rope). Next time I'll be caving in wellies, like most of the expedition members.
"Small borehole" passage in between upward climbs.
This is in between a series of pits that were climbed to get to Tian Ping Miao Tiankeng.
Moonmilk off a side lead.
