In February ’93, thanks to almost 40 hours of work by helicopter, 2 tons of transferred equipment and complex radio communications, three groups worked for twenty days on the surface and in the depths of the large quartzite plateau of the Auyan Tepui. Works performed on the surface allowed us to draw detailed maps, thanks to modern satellite systems and detailed topographic mapping. We handled with several problems caused by the features of quartz arenite (abrasiveness, hardness on the surface and friability at depth) and with extreme climatic conditions (hard rainfall and sudden floods), nonetheless we were able to study one of the world’s deepest cave in this kind of rock: the Cueva del Rio Pintado (370 m deep, 2500 m long). Explorations of the Aonda and the Sima Churun platforms also produced unexpected results. Further on the data on the lenght of caves, we found clear evidence of the development of complex karst systems within quartzite and we were gaining a better understanding of the genesis of such phenomenon.
During the ‘93 Tepui expedition a documentary film was shot for the TV programme “Reportage” (Canale 5). The film obtained great success, thanks to its filming techniques and it’s amazing settings.