The Hollow Mountain

Our exploration in the Migovec System are written up into an surprisingly entertaining and sometimes informative publication called the Hollow Mountain. It is so far split into three volumes covering 1994 to 2006, 2007 to 2012, and 2013 to 2017.

It is available in physical form at the lowest cost possible and digitally for free.

The Hollow Mountain I

This volume covers the exploration from the beginning up until 2006. It includes the exploration of M16, M2, M18 and the first trips into Vrtnarija, as well as a vast collection of notes on surface exploration.

It is available from LULU.com for less than a tenner (including P&P to EU). 246 A4 pages of international caving exploration!

Full Print Ready 246 A4 Pages PDF (127MB)

Separate Chapters:
Introduction and Pre-Expedition
1994 A frustrating start to ICCC's Slovenian Exploration
1995 Winter Recce Blowing holes through snow indicate great potential
1995 Perserverance leads to the first breakthrough
1996 Three caves connected, major horizontal development
1997 Camping at -600m, pushing to -970m
1998 Another deep year camping in System Migovec
1999 Higher leads in the system pushed & surveyed
2000 Year of the Rain: Vrtnarija (Gardeners' World) found & pushed to -400m
2001 Year of the Sun: Hard pushing leads to Friendship Gallery at -550m
2003 A new underground Bivvi: Camp X-Ray
2004 Vast horizontal development continues at -800m
2005 More pushing in GW while plateau further explored
2006 No expedition, but a long Autumn recce
Geology Speleogenesis and Geology of the Tominski Migovec plateau, by Dr Paul Huggins
Sponsorship and Thanks
300dpi PDF of wrap-around cover (56MB)

The Hollow Mountain II

The Hollow Mountain II covering 2007 - 2012 is in progress.

The Hollow Mountain III

The exploration continues, now in the longest cave in Slovenia. The Hollow Mountain III covers the expeditions from 2013 to 2017.

In addition to the usual stories and exploration notes this volume includes some trip guides for some classic tourist trips through the Hollow Mountain, a geological appendix with all the latest information on speleogenesis.

It was published in January 2019, and is available from Lulu: here

Full Print Ready 334 A4 Pages PDF (80MB)

Cover art: 300dpi PNG of wrap-around cover (16MB)

Separate Chapters:

Introduction How we got there, from 1974 to 2013.
Geography of Tolminski Migovec Where to find the major caves of the mountain
2013 - Z Miga Na Kuk Deep camping in Vrtnarija, and a live creature spotted at Hawaii!
2014 - Zkozi Zrcalo Major extensions in the south, and some deep pushing to the Aja?! sump. Colarado Sump is a duck!
2015 - Pivo Mož Deep climbing, pushing and wading in neoprene beyond Colarado Sump. The final year at X-Ray. Coincidence Cave discovered.
2015 - Monatip connection to the system From one pitch in Monatip, the cavers traverse into a horizontal gallery and finish their trip by exiting out of the bowels of M16. The cave goes over 35km length!
2016 - Neprehojene Poti We start a new project in Primadona and find lots of shallow leads. One goes to a series of massive chambers, but no way on is found.
2017 - Čez Rob A return to Primadona: we finish off some leads from the previous year and find a completely new branch heading into blank mountain.
Geology of Migovec Summary of the local geology updated to include the very latest findings in Vrtnarija and Primadona.
Building the Survey of the Migovec Cave System A record of our workflow.
Excursions under the mountain A few descriptions of memorable 'tourist' trips in the cave system under Tolminski Migovec.
Thanks and Postscript

Enjoy the reading!