Jaskinie - The Caves, issue 18

Jaskinie - The Caves, issue 53 (4/2008)


Expeditions

Kanin 2008 - it goes deep again!

Piotr Sienkiewicz, Paweł Ramantowski

The summer 2008 expedition of STJ KW-Kraków to the Kanin in Slovenia was aimed at deepening BC 10. This cave, discovered in 2004 and then neglected in favour of Polska Jama, was revisited in 2007 but exploration got stucked in tight meanders. Nevertheless, position of the cave within the massif was considered interesting enough to push in 2008. A 170 m-deep shaft opened behind the sqeezes, followed by meanders and shafts. The last shaft encountered was not bottomed for the lack of time. The deepest point reached lies less than 400 m above Mala Boka. Soil that looked like washed from nearby surface was abundant on the walls of one of the meanders, suggesting a chance for finding an easier access to the deep parts of the massif.

The November 2008 trip of STJ KW-Kraków to the Kanin massif

Piotr Sienkiewicz

The open problem left in BC 10 during the summer expedition (see above) motivated a team of four to go there again in Novemeber. Another shaft was reached soon, but its bottom was blocked with rock debris. Tight meanders opened after hard digging led, through smaller shafts, to the top of another deep one. The cave was surveyed to the depth of 503 m with the lowermost part not yet surveyed.

Slovacka jama - the deepest cave of Macedonia

Krzysztof Dudziński, Martin Sluka, Jan Šmoll

Limestone massifs south of Skopje rise to altitudes of 2583 m, 2000-2300 m above the valley bottoms. Slovacka Jama (Ceki 1), with the entrance at altitude 2240 m, was explored in 2007 to the depth of 200 m. The vertical potential of the cave is determined by the position of resurgences at altitudes 560-590 m, possibly even as low as 293 m. The Slovak expedition in the first half of September 2008 rerigged the entrance series, where old ropes disappeared within massive ice in which this part of cave has formed. Continuation is already in rock and descends steeply to the depth of ca. 400 m, where a complex horizontal series is present that was surveyed only in part, with the deepest point at - 524 m. The cave continues.

Montenegro 2007/2008

Agata Maślanka

The author summarizes the results of a reconnaissance and three exploration trips to the caves and resurgences in the central part of Montengro. The participants dived in the Jama resurgence in the Mrtvica canyon and explored the Maganik massif above that canyon. A sump in Jama, 140 m long, was explored with the dry series behind it. An unclimbed chimney and some other leads remain in the dry series. The Maganik massif seems very promising for farther exploration. More than thirty entrances were found and explored. Most led to vertical caves choked by debris, ice or snow near the surface. Three caves were explored to the depths 225 m, 170 m and 110 m, and all still going.

Poland

The end of a myth

Jakub Nowak

Dmuchawa is a cave in the Chochołowska Valley, known for many years as a narrow cave with exceptionally strong stream of cold air and permanent ice. It has been deemed to be a low entrance to the Bandzioch system. The cave follows a single fracture, apparently opened by gravity, and terminates in impenetrable squeezes. The accumulation of ice and the air draught are the result of local air circulation.

Between the Kościeliska Valley and Ciemniak

Jakub Nowak

Sixteen new surveys and one revised of small caves in the western part of the Czerwone Wierchy massif in the Tatra Mountains are presented.

Szachownica

Andrzej Górny, Mariusz Szelerewicz

Szachownica (Chequerboard) is a cave system in the Jurassic highlands in central Poland, north of Częstochowa. The cave was probably opened during exploitation of Jurassic limestones. The quarry existed for at least 120 years until 1962. Quarrymen excavated stone from the cave galleries making them wider then original. Cavers got notice of the cave from a geologist doing research there in 1972. The recent survey of the cave has given the total length of 690 m, including 280 m reshaped by quarrying. The cave forms a maze of galleries confined within an area ca. 80 x 80 metres.

Caving news from the Pieniny National Park

Wojciech J Gubała, Adam Kapturkiewicz

Eight new small caves were found and surveyed in the Pieniny National Park, and Pienińska Cave was extended by 53.5 m, making it now 154.5 m long.





Editors:
Michał Gradziński, Grzegorz Haczewski, Jakub Nowak i Mariusz Szelerewicz.
This HTML-version: Dariusz Bartoszewski
Editioral address (main):
ul. Ehrenberga 36a 31-309 Krakow, Poland e-mail: szelerewicz@ceti.pl
Internet edition:
dbart@sktj.pl WWW: sktj.pl


BACK BACK
to index
EPIMENIDES
polish speleo page.

Last change 2009.03.17