Expeditions

Expedition to Norway 2005 - Wojciech Sieprawski

Eight cavers from Kraków, led by Marcel Nawrot went to Norway in July and August 2005. First they explored the extension of the same narrow belt of marbles in which lies Tjorve, the largest cave of Norway, several kilometres away. They found there several caves, up to 200 m long and less than 20 m deep. Then they joined a team of Norsk Grotteforbund exploring Tjorve and neighbouring caves. The result was 350 m of new series in Tjorve, 1176 m in Steinaksla and 120 m in Stoppenolen.

Flow through type cave, ph. W. Sieprawski	Lower, covered by ice, entrance of Svarthammarhola, ph. W. Sieprawski	Map & section of new discoveries in Steinscala

Expedition to Krubera-Voronya - first Poles at - 2000 m - Piotr Pilecki

Artur Nowak, Piotr Pilecki (both from Speleoklub "Gawra" Gorzów) and Łukasz Wójtowicz (Speleoklub "Bobry" Żagań) took part in the international expedition to Krubera-Voronya lasting from 15 June to 8 August, 2005 and led by Denis Provalov. More than 60 cavers from 10 countries took part in the expedition. Getting into Abkhasia was a serious problem for the cavers from outside the Confederation of Independent States, who could not obtain vises; hence crossing the border out of the view of the frontier officers was an additional adventure for some expedition members. Two Poles, Artur Nowak and Łukasz Wójtowicz, were among those who reached the bottom. Exploration was interrupted by an accident of Andrey Sizhnikov, who fell 10 m in a 60 m pitch. After 7 days of extremely difficult but efficient rescue he was lifted to hospital and successfully operated. Greetings for all members of our expedition to Krubera - Voronya. Jenya, Denis, Shum and Vitya - thanks a lot.

Before the entrance to Krubera/Voronya Cave ph. A. Nowak	Wreck of a chopter, 200 m outside base camp ph. P. Pilecki

Torotoro - Andrzej Ciszewski

National Park Torotoro in remote depression of the Bolivian Andes hosts the greatest cave of Bolivia Cueva Umajalanta, 164 m deep and ca. 4600 m long. The park was visited by three Polish cavers who explored some caves, not great, but interesting from geological point of view.

Plateau Araria ph. Cz. Dąbrowski	Entrance to Umajalanta Cave ph. Cz. Dąbrowski

Nebelsbergkar 2005 - Andrzej Ciszewski

Though 21 people led by Andrzej Ciszewski came from Poland to the Leoganger Steinberge this summer (24 July through 27 August), and amounts of ice and snow were quite small, the terrible weather limited the effects of the expedition. Peter Pointner from Austria joined to the expedition. They explored 700 m of new series and negatively solved some older leads. The biggest explored caves are: PL-05/6 (350 m long), PL-05/1 (150 m) and PL-05/2, PL-05/7 (100 m).

Speloturism

Tourist caves of Laos - Andrzej Wojtoń

The author briefly recounts his tourist trip to the Laos caves. Many caves have figures of Bhudda in them, while those near Vieng Xai, near the border with Vietnam, were transformed into military objects by Pathet Lao and now can be visited as underground shelters complete with equipment.

Vang Vieng area ph. A. Wojtoń	Entrance to Pak Ou Cave ph. A. Wojtoń

Poland

Kochanów caves - a karst system in the Sudetes more than 1 km long?

A series of largely interconnected narrow caves in the wall of an old quarry remained nearly forgotten for decades. Detailed surveying and exploration gave total length of 950 m with some prospects for extension. The caves are developed in the roof part of Permian limestones capped by Triassic sandstones.

23 kilometers in Wielka Śnieżna

New discoveries by Speleoklub Bielsko-Biała in Litworowa Cave, a part of the Wielka Śnieżna Cave System, extend the total surveyed length, so that with the unserveyed series the length certainly exceeds 23 km.

Sala pod Płytowcem ph. A. Żera	Eldorado ph. Cz. Szura

Caves of Wyżyna Śląska

Wyżyna Śląska (Silesian Upland), an area built of Upper Carboniferous coal measures, locally covered with Triassic sandstones, clays and carbonate rocks, did not hitherto have a systematic speleological inventory. The paper present information on the recent work by members of Jurajski Klub Speleo-Będzin aimed at making a full inventory of caves, abandoned mine galleries and other underground spaces in this region. There are 160 caves with total length above 1,700 m and 33 artificial objects. The longest cave is 107 m long.

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Last change 2006.02.20