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Qaqa Mach'ay
Located in the Yauyos Province of central Peru, '''Qaqa Mach'ay'(Cliff Cave) is a limestone cave high in the Andes Mountains that was explored and surveyed in 2004 by an international expedition. At 4930m above sealevel, it is the highest surveyed cave in the world.
Cave Description
"It is thought that Qaqa Machay (Cliff Cave) is an abandoned glacial sink formed on a geologically-favourable bedding plane. Its enormous entrance, approximately fifty metres long, thirty metres wide and fifty metres deep, leads to a square-shaped descending passage twenty metres high and twenty metres wide. Although this large passage is almost completely blocked by boulders, two possible continuations were noted. Blue Lips Passage essentially follows the left (as you face into the cave) wall down past boulders and ice masses. Four pitches of 20m, 10m, 10m and 5m lead to a disappointing boulder ruckle 104m below the entrance. Red Face Passage descends down pitches of 18m, 9m, 4m and 38m to a breakdown floor at 125m. Both passages draught slightly. These passages were named for the effects of high altitude, cold and sun on the cavers complexions. About a third of the rigging in these passages was off ice screws. No open leads remain in the cave."
- excerpt from Pumacocha 2004 Expedition Report(unpublished)
References
McKenzie, I. A Hole in the Sky Alpine Karst Vol 2, 2006
The Canadian Caverno. 63, 2005 Pumacocha 2004 Expedition Report'' (unpublished)External links
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Qaqa Mach'ay
