Sila Narave
Summary
The Sila Narave (‘Force of Nature’) expedition led by ICCC took place from 2nd July to 7th August 2022. In total 23 cavers took part in the project which saw the set up of a new underground camp (complete with a two-station CaveLink communications setup) as well as technical deep exploration of Primadona, part of Sistem Migovec, the longest cave system in Slovenia. New members of the exploration team learned to survey cave passages using a paperless set-up (distoX2 and phone), rig climbs and pitches, and dig new cave passages in a demanding alpine setting.
- Summary
- Underground camping and deep explorations
- Ticking off shallow leads in Primadona and Monatip
- Explorations in Brezno pod Vrhom Planje
- Surface exploration
Underground camping and deep explorations
Death star, Cantina canyon and below
The Deep Awakens
Continuing the series of pitches that ‘The Expo Strikes Back’ pushed, ‘The Deep Awakens’ consists of 2 pitches roughly 20m deep, followed by a tight pitch head dropping down into a boulder chamber below. Here a small climb leads to a small tight squeeze that immediately dies, with a 5m drop next to it. Following this through a rift with a false floor, a second, larger boulder chamber is reached. Here there are multiple levels and ways on. One leads down to the bottom of a ~10m waterfall, where a difficult traverse leads up to the narrow crack where the water flows out of the far wall. This would require bolting to be safe, and is currently unpushed, though the crack looked rather uninviting. The water disappears between the boulders in the floor, most probably leading to the third route from the boulder chamber. Back at the large boulder chamber, a second way on through the roof leads to a tricky slippery climb, and a short passage beyond (‘Who Dies First’), where a drop halted pushing progress. A 10m drop leads to an unpushed passage, and straight across the passage continues, although the large rift would need to be crossed. Finally, the third, and most obvious way on from the large boulder chamber follows the stream in the floor to a wet, handlined 5m climb in a rift, leading onto a muddy streambank. Following the stream down, a tight inlet is found, leading to a large pitch - Cantina Canyon.
Cantina Canyon
The first pitch of Cantina Canyon is an impressive 30m drop which is traversed across to avoid the spray as much as possible. At the far end of the canyon a short climb down leads to the streamway, which is walked along for ~20m until the next pitch is hit. This drops down into another series of pitches, following the bedding plane along the ceiling. A short way down Sithyphus’ Slope bends down to the right, and Cantina Canyon continues to the left. Here a large rift leads to a constriction, still following the bedding plane along the ceiling, that gradually opens out into a large chamber. Following the right wall, the rigging keeps cavers out of the water, and finally drops into the impressive pitch ‘Antares’.
Warp Core Breach
From the bottom of the impressive last Cantina canyon pitch the nature of the cave changes. A short 7m pitch lands on a gravel slope with the water going into a canal. A 10m thrutchy tube provides a bypass to this, ending in a 10m pitch rejoining the water part way down. At the base of this pitch the rift narrows significantly with the water shooting through a crack onto a tight looking pitch. However approx 5m up from the bottom on the opposite side, an opening in the rift allowed a muddy tight squeeze followed by another tighter squeeze (necessitating a full SRT kit removal and some brute force) to gain a 10m pitch to a stunning mud floor. From this chamber the water can be seen through a crack dropping down the previously bypassed pitch. This then runs along the floor into the terminal duck, which had 3cm of airspace but would require a serious mission to pass. Also in this chamber a 5m climb up was bolted to a rift continuation which then closed down. However a further window could be seen approx 15m higher up, however due to the technical squeezing and distance from camp could not be pushed on this occasion and would require a determined pushing effort.
Beam me Up and below
Beam me up
During the October 2021 super action, beam me up was surveyed and continued, leaving a wet pitch lead, where the water appeared unavoidable. Echo falls - continue pitch series - wet Really wet pitch - big dry ledge then descend down wet pitch Then a squeeze/crawl into a little chamber Go out of window, tight pitch head into drippy pitch series with ledges (Off to the right there’s a tight lead also going down) One of the pitches at the last rebelay there’s a traverse to reach a cross rift which is so far unexplored and has a promising up climb At the bottom of the pitch series there is a small crawl entering a constricted passage with three levels above pristine pools of water that leads to an short awkward pitch which lands in a small chamber A crawl at floor level opens out into the middle of a large chamber and the pitch is descended by a number of ledges and rebelays Narrow passage is then reached and several free climbs lead to another small pitch You then reach another short pitch in a bedding plane which lands in a sandy chamber with an inlet of water Following the water through a narrow rift with a low ceiling reaches an undescended pitch which is still an ongoing lead
Ticking off shallow leads in Primadona and Monatip
Although a lot of attention went towards setting up the deep underground camp and exploring beyond, we also visited some shallower parts of Primadona and Monatip to tick off some remaining leads. Some of these visits were fully committing day trips in their own right.
Coda
This was pushed by Matti and James Wilson in the Monatip connection passage.
Mudaholic
A team went to check out the continuation of passage located 20m above the floor of Mandare junction at the top of a previous bolt climb. The rift was blocked straight ahead after 10m but was intersected halfway along by a drafty muddy tube. Upstream (to the left) became too tight with mud after 1 body length but downstream (right) continued for 27m as a low crawl until it reached a cross rift. The rift was approx 25m long and could be safely climbed down rift where it became too tight, with a tiny window allowing a Disto shot into blank space (with ironically ended up being within 2m of a resurvey station on the main TTT branch passage, and is therefore located within the same chamber). Two leads remain here; a continuation of the muddy crawl taking the draft continuing opposite the entry into the rift (only spotted as the team exited) and a 20-30m careful climb up the rift, which was climbed but continued out of earshot of the lone explorer at the time. Additionally by the climb up from Mandare junction, the aven continued another 30m further up which has bolt climbing potential, and the aforementioned rift blockage could be removed to aid in further progress this way.
Explorations in Brezno pod Vrhom Planje
This cave was discovered back in August 2020 by members of ICCC and JSDT. Its name translates as ‘pit below the peak of Planja’. Early explorations and digging revealed over 200 m of cave passage with a series of small but loose pitches. The good inward draught felt during the summer led through a series of windows (Okna pitch series) to a small chamber with a ‘blank slate’ (an exposed fault plane) and junction with two ongoing leads. On the expedition, leading off from this chamber, a crawl over sand and mud emerging in boulders was quickly dug out, with a promising deep pitch beyond (4 second drop). From a climb below the chamber, we managed to drop two new pitches, 12 and 15 m deep respectively (Bingo Flamingo) to the start of an impressive 50 m pitch (Osmica), with a little water trickling down the wall. In the spacious chamber at the start of Osmica, a traverse and an undescended shaft remain as potential leads. At the bottom of the Osmica shaft, a climb up a shelf gains a squeeze on the right to a torturous streamway which continues until another 5m drop (a notable side passage also has a 30m undescended pitch). Although the way on is narrow, the cave is an extremely promising prospect located far to the north west of the main Migovec cave system, though unconnected as present.
Surface exploration
Migovec limestone pavement
Just north of Tolminski Migovec lies a large limestone pavement at the bottom of a valley intersected by many shakeholes and shafts. Halfway down one of these shakeholes (near Samo1) a large 1x12m hole had opened up in a scree slope to reveal a 10m drop onto boulders with a howling draft coming out. Due to the loose nature of this find it was partially gardened but not descended and requires more gardening to make it safe. This loose rock has earned it the nickname Gardeners of the Galaxy. It is theorised to have opened up in spring 2022 due to the absence of a snow plug. A lantern and camera were lowered in allowing an arch continuation to be tantalizingly glimpsed. A dig on the opposite (south) side of the limestone pavement went after moving some boulders, gaining a 10m climb down to a continuing squeeze past a snow plug. Exploration here was halted at the discovery of Gardeners of the Galaxy and requires some entrance boulder stabilization with feathers and wedges to continue. During a revisit to Samo2 at the eastern end of the limestone pavement (Samo2 did not reveal any new passage), a small group in TR01 nearby discovered a blank space under one wall just inside from the entrance slope. This was dug by hand and revealed a climb down to a 3x4m chamber with an ongoing too tight rift and a ceiling climb where daylight could be seen. The draft was unfortunately lost between boulders. This area is full of potential, but both the shattered nature of the rock and scree infill are a particular problem in this area. A determined pushing and mapping of the limestone in this sub-area may yield future cave entrances and passages to the determined explorer.
My Little Cave (MLC)
A short revisit here confirmed the previous assessment of this cave as devoid of further leads, though it was thoroughly checked and the drafty hole was re-rigged and the lower chamber explored. After this exploration it was noted that the nearby (west side of the Kuk path) B/V10 cave had potential, with a squeeze onto an undescended pitch being noted, this may yield to further investigation.