2026 Granada Plateau Expedition

Following expeditions in 2022, 2023 and 2024, this team returned to the Pico del Oro Plateau in northern Peru, an area which has the potential to house the world's deepest cave. Extremely wet conditions made for a challenging expedition and the team were unable to access either the Tragadero de la Soledad or Golondrinitas due to flooding. As a result, the party turned their attention to locating an entrance to the largest river sink on the plateau. Despite some promising leads, this ultimately proved unsuccessful. Fortunately, the wet conditions began to clear in the second half of the trip and, on the final day, a new cave entrance was discovered that is ideally situated above the upstream continuation of the Tragadero de la Soledad streamway, just beyond its previously mapped terminal boulder choke. This new cave was pushed to a depth of 197m in the last 24 hours of the expedition by three teams, including one night shift. Excitingly, it was left ongoing in large-sized rift-passage at a 7m pitch, about 7m above the level to the main Soledad streamway. This leaves an exciting prospect for future expeditions.