Grotta Di Monte Cucco, 1969—1970

D. M. Judson.

1969: A party of 20 cavers, gathered from many parts of England and Wales under the leadership of our member David Judson, descended the Grotta di Monte Cucco, (province of Perugia, Central Apennines, Italy), in July and August 1969. Their objectives were to explore further the Grotta di Monte Cucco, both in depth and laterally, and to survey and photograph.

The entrance is at an altitude of 1,390 metres, near the summit of the Monte Cucco (1,566m.), almost in the centre of its precipitous East face. The seventy feet deep inclined entrance shaft has a very sturdy fixed iron ladder. Two initial large high galleries have been operated as a sort of show cave for many years, small parties of visitors being shown round by local guides with long paraffin wax flares.

An Italian party, of the Gruppo Speleologico di Perugia, Club Alpino Italiano. (GSP-CAI), had reached an apparently terminal mud and boulder choke in May after descending a gruelling series of pitches following in close succession: 178m (585 ft.) ‘Gitmo’; 130m (405 ft.) ‘P-X’; and 110m (360 ft.) ‘Pozzi Miliani’. They had reached a depth of minus 807 metres, (2,650 ft.); possibly the deepest in Italy. Two parties from the British Expedition reached the bottom, five men in all, but found it to be a hopelessly muddy region, with very limited prospects for further exploration.

During the last few days of the Expedition a completely new series of passages was entered from the Saracco Hall, at minus 600 feet. An enormous cavern, rather larger than Gaping Gill Main Chamber, was entered, and another series of pitches discovered. “Expedition 1970 to the Grotto di Monte Cucco” has been formed to follow up these explorations, and to make a survey of the whole system so that the different vertical sections of the system can be related on plan.

Close liasion has been maintained with the GSP-CAI throughout, and an extremely valuable working relationship developed with some of their members.

1970: July—August; again a team of twenty, under the leadership of David Judson, with a strong Y.R.C. contingent; John Middleton, Glyn Edwards and Bill Woodward.
 
Despite an extended ten man Italian camp in the lower regions of the 1969 British discovery during April—May 1970, parties are still able to make considerable new ground. There was evidence of an Italian descent of the Wet Pitch as far as — 280 ft., Middleton and Edwards pushed on down a narrow rift to — 330 ft. Beyond the water disappeared down an impenetrable fissure. The ‘enormous cavern’ discovered in 1969, called Salone di Luna because of the likeness of its floorscape to the surface of the Moon, yielded no more, but gave rise to some dramatic photography.

The Fault Passage, beyond the top of the Wet Pitch was explored exhaustively and produced about 1 Km. of very interesting new passage. The whole system, old and new, with the exception of the deep shafts below Salone Saracco, was surveyed to CRG grade 5c. It is hoped that the finished product will appear shortly in the 1970 CPC Journal, together with a more detailed account of the Expedition.