Obituaries

Jacek Dulęba

On February 23 our friend Jacek Duleba has left us for ever. He was engaged in caving since 1973. In that time he took part in many sportive and exploration events in the caves of the Tatra and in caving expeditions to Romania, France, Spain, Switzerland and, above all, to Austria. He explored in the Tennengebirge, Loferer Steinberge and, most of all, in the Leoganger Steinberge, in the Lamprechtsofen system. He was for many years the secretary and then the president of the Krakowski Klub Taternictwa Jaskiniowego (Kraków Club of Caving). At the end of the eighties he became the editor of the club bulletin Eksplorancik. It was under his editorial guidance when the bulletin gained wide popularity and became the country-wide magazine Jaskinie. Jacek has gave his time and passion to the editing and publishing of Jaskinie until the very end.

News

Jaskinia Wodna in the Piotrus mountain - Rafał Suski

A new cave - Jaskinia Wodna (Water Cave) - has been explored in the Piotrus mountain in the Beskid Niski range of the flysch Carpathians. Its interior holds a small water pool and an active stream course a few meters long, unique in the pseudokarst ,caves in this region of Poland.

Lubuska Jama, photo: D. Oleksy

Exploration in Jaskinia Mrozna - Jakub Nowak

A new series, 60 m long, has been explored in Jaskinia Mrozna (West Tatra) in October 2000. As a result, the vertical extent of the cave increased to 42 m.

New discoveries in Mroźna Cave - click for bigger version

"Space Garden", Romania, photo: S. Kotarba (main prize during "Speleophotography 2000" competition

In Lubuska Jama

Expeditions

Through meanders to the depth - Marcin Furtak, Piotr Pilecki

A 12-people expedition of cavers from Gorzów and Zagan to the Velebit massif in Croatia has taken place in September 2000 and was led by Piotr Pilecki. The Poles co-operated with SAV from Zagreb. The result was exploration of thirteen caves of total length above 1200 m. The most interesting discovery is the 330 m deep Lubuska Jama (surveyed to -262), continuing with another shaft.

Entrance to Lubuska Jama	Map of Lubuska Jama
Entrance to Studnia Młodych (Pit of Young)	Map of Studnia Młodych

Section of the cave, click for bigger one

Canin summer 2000 - 11th exploring - Marek Kozioł

Still another Polish expedition, already 11th, operated in the Italian part of the Canin massif
in September 2000. It was organized, as usual, by the Aven club from Sosnowiec. The team of 12 included cavers from Sosnowiec, Dabrowa Górnicza and Kraków. The expedition explored Sistemo del Foran del Muss. Narrow series have been discovered, with suspended sumps, situated near the bottom of the Seppenhofer cave. A great hindrance, as usual, were the rising levels of water flow.

Section of Sniezna Cave

Göll 2000 - Andrzej Poczobutt

Cavers from Wroclaw and Sopot came back to the Hocher GöII massif after
a few years break. Schnee Höhle was deepened by ca. 40 m and Ogrschacht was rerigged, where unsuccessful attempts at exploration of horizontal series were being made From a camp at -580 m.


More informations and pictures from this expedition you can find here (unfortuanately in polish).

Caving-photo-expedition - Stanisław Kotarba

Stanislaw Kotarba with his partners visited the caves of Romania (the Bihor mountains, Girda Seca valley) in September 2000. The main purpose of the trip was cave photography.
The visited caves included: Ghetarul de la Virtop, Hodobana, Zgurasti, Coiba Mare, Oilor i Pojarul Politei.

Coiba Mare, Bihor - Romania, photo S. Kotarba

Diving

Diving in the Bihor Mountains - Wiktor Bolek

A cave diving expedition to Romania has taken place in February 2001. Its participants were eight cavers and cave divers from Sopot and Wrocfaw.
The result was deepening by I0 m of the sump in the Tauz resurgence (Girda Seca valley). With its depth of 79.4 m this is now the deepest cave sump in Romania.

Diving in Mokra Dziura - Wiktor Bolek

An expedition led by Wiktor Bolek explored Mokra Dziura (Slovak High Tatra). The sump was lengthened a bit. It terminates with an impassable cleft. In order to prevent freezing of the regulators in water whose temperature was about 1 °C, trimix (containing at 20% of helium) was used as the gas mixture.

Siphone in Mokra Dziura, click for bigger version.

Diving at the end of the century - Agnieszka Gajewska

Krzysztof Starnawski has made a series of dives in Hranicka Propast during a week stay in Czech Republic in December 2000. He attained the depth of 181 m in his deepest dive. The descent lasted 18 hours and the ascent - 4 hours. The equipment and material used included 11 tanks with six different gas mixtures (including trimix and nitrox), two oxygen cylinders and five diving computers. The dives were made in a shaft parallel to the earlier known one and communicated with it through a narrow junction at the depth of ca. 80 m.

Sleeping before diving, photo A. Żerdzicka

Safety

Avalanche in Wielka Swistówka - Kazimierz Szych, Tomasz Traciłowski

Nine cavers were caught by an avalanche in the cirque of Wielka Swistówka in the West Tatra. The cavers suffered various, mostly light injuries. Thanks to calling the mountain rescue by mobile phone, the injured persons were taken by helicopter in only 20 minutes after the accident. We present the story told by both, the rescued and the rescuers.

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