OUCC Proceedings 6 (1974)

During July and August 1971, Oxford University Cave Club undertook the third in a series of expeditions to the area of El Mazuco in Asturias. Accounts of the Club's previous work in this area have been published in Proceedings OUCC 5 and the Transactions of the Cave Research Group of Great Britain Vol. 13. No. 1.

The major objective of the 1971 expedition was to complete the exploration and surveying of a number of caves which, either for technical reasons or because of pressure of time, the 1970 expedition had been unable to explore thoroughly. The highest priority was given to La Boriza, since it possesses the greatest potential of all the caves in the area. It was for this cave above all that diving equipment was taken to Spain. The expedition also entertained hopes that the summit ridge of the Sierra de Cuera could be persuaded to yield up a pothole which would give a through trip to the resurgence of La Boriza. It was further intended to explore more thoroughly two caves at either extremity of the chosen area, Cueva Laneveru and Cueva de Puron. Neither of these had been fully explored in 1970. Finally, it was the expeditions intention to make a serious search of the whole locality for other caves, something which the previous expeditions had not done since they had had more than enough in the way of caves in the immediate vicinity of El Mazuco.

Followers of OUCC expeditions may be gratified to learn that, happily, the club was rather more successful in extending and finding caves in 1971 than in producing a report on its activities. We feel however that the report contains enough of interest to make up for the inordinate amount of time which has elapsed since the expedition took place.