Charco 2021 Cave Diving Expedition
Donation protected
Update: Due to a combination of last minute cancellations and safety considerations we have decided it prudent and more practical to postpone this expedition to spring of 2021. You can see more updates on our facebook page.
We are a small international team of cavers and cave divers. We are organizing an expedition March/April of 2021 to dive an unexplored water-filled passage at the bottom of one of the most challenging deep caves in the world, which is part of a system that has the potential for being the deepest in the world. We are all volunteers and expenses (rope, rigging hardware, in-cave food and camping gear etc.) are all paid out of team member pocket. We have set up this campaign in the hope of humbly raising some more funds to support our expedition. Please see our story below.
Thank you very much! - The Charco 2021 Expedition team.
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The Cave
Charco is the third deepest cave in Mexico and 35th deepest in the world at 1278 meters of depth and is situated in between J2 and the Cheve Cave System in the state of Oaxaca. It was last explored in 2003 when a sump was discovered at the bottom of the cave.
The Charco Karst area (Oaxaca, MX)
The Objective
Our intent is to return to dive the sump (water-filled passage) to see if Charco can break into the hidden section of cave between Cheve and it's resurgence Cueva de la Mano in the Santo Domingo river gorge - a connection that has already been confirmed by dye trace. The Cheve Karst System covers all the aforementioned caves and is the deepest proven karst dye trace in the world at approximately 2600 meters of depth.
The 1000m deep sump at the bottom of Charco discovered in 2003.
Charco has a reputation as an exceedingly difficult cave, and will require a highly specialized team that has experience with tight cave passages, ropework and diving under less than ideal conditions. In the spring of 2020 we are planning on returning to Charco to re-rig the route to the bottom, haul gear, and conduct reconnaissance dives into the sump.
Camp 1 in Charco (2003). The entire cave is tight and sporting, and even finding a reasonable place to camp is a challenge.
To make diving at the bottom of this unforgiving cave feasible, we are working on building the smallest possible closed circuit rebreather (CCR). This will allow us to safely dive the sump while keeping the amount of dive gas and gear we need to carry into the cave to a minimum.
We are woking on modifying a KISS Sheppard to optimize for the lightest, most compact closed circuit rebreather.
Test diving the modified CCR unit in Florida (Oct 2019)
The Team
We are an international team of highly experienced cavers and cave divers. Charco 2020 participants have participated in numerous deep caving, and cave diving expeditions in some of the worlds deepest and most challenging caves.
Why we could use your help
Like most deep caves, Charco will require over 1000 meters of rope, and large quantities of rigging hardware in order to allow for travel to the sump at the bottom. Furthermore, all equipment transported into Charco will need to be carefully packed in containers to ensure safe transit to the bottom. Additional expenses include such things as specialized cave camping gear, specialized light weight carbon fiber diving tanks etc.
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We plan to publish trip reports, maps, and photo documentation.
For more information, please see our facebook page. Updates and photos will also be shared on this page:
Charco 2020 Expedition facebook page
Charco 2021 is an official Karst Underwater Research (KUR) project.
https://sites.google.com/view/karstunderwater/home
We are a small international team of cavers and cave divers. We are organizing an expedition March/April of 2021 to dive an unexplored water-filled passage at the bottom of one of the most challenging deep caves in the world, which is part of a system that has the potential for being the deepest in the world. We are all volunteers and expenses (rope, rigging hardware, in-cave food and camping gear etc.) are all paid out of team member pocket. We have set up this campaign in the hope of humbly raising some more funds to support our expedition. Please see our story below.
Thank you very much! - The Charco 2021 Expedition team.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Cave
Charco is the third deepest cave in Mexico and 35th deepest in the world at 1278 meters of depth and is situated in between J2 and the Cheve Cave System in the state of Oaxaca. It was last explored in 2003 when a sump was discovered at the bottom of the cave.
The Charco Karst area (Oaxaca, MX)The Objective
Our intent is to return to dive the sump (water-filled passage) to see if Charco can break into the hidden section of cave between Cheve and it's resurgence Cueva de la Mano in the Santo Domingo river gorge - a connection that has already been confirmed by dye trace. The Cheve Karst System covers all the aforementioned caves and is the deepest proven karst dye trace in the world at approximately 2600 meters of depth.
The 1000m deep sump at the bottom of Charco discovered in 2003. Charco has a reputation as an exceedingly difficult cave, and will require a highly specialized team that has experience with tight cave passages, ropework and diving under less than ideal conditions. In the spring of 2020 we are planning on returning to Charco to re-rig the route to the bottom, haul gear, and conduct reconnaissance dives into the sump.
Camp 1 in Charco (2003). The entire cave is tight and sporting, and even finding a reasonable place to camp is a challenge. To make diving at the bottom of this unforgiving cave feasible, we are working on building the smallest possible closed circuit rebreather (CCR). This will allow us to safely dive the sump while keeping the amount of dive gas and gear we need to carry into the cave to a minimum.
We are woking on modifying a KISS Sheppard to optimize for the lightest, most compact closed circuit rebreather. Test diving the modified CCR unit in Florida (Oct 2019)The Team
We are an international team of highly experienced cavers and cave divers. Charco 2020 participants have participated in numerous deep caving, and cave diving expeditions in some of the worlds deepest and most challenging caves.
Why we could use your help
Like most deep caves, Charco will require over 1000 meters of rope, and large quantities of rigging hardware in order to allow for travel to the sump at the bottom. Furthermore, all equipment transported into Charco will need to be carefully packed in containers to ensure safe transit to the bottom. Additional expenses include such things as specialized cave camping gear, specialized light weight carbon fiber diving tanks etc.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We plan to publish trip reports, maps, and photo documentation.
For more information, please see our facebook page. Updates and photos will also be shared on this page:
Charco 2020 Expedition facebook page
Charco 2021 is an official Karst Underwater Research (KUR) project.
https://sites.google.com/view/karstunderwater/home
Organizer
Gilly Elor
Organizer
Bothell, WA