FRASASSI CAVES 2004
On
Saturday 3 April, together with speleologists of the Groups Gruppo Speleo CAI
Fabriano, Gruppo Speleo Urbino, Gruppo Speleologico Marchigiano, Gruppo Grotte
Brescia and Gruppo Speleologico Lecchese I have been to the Frasassi Caves to
make a cave diving exploration in a series of three lakes discovered in 2002.
The lakes are situated at about 4 hours of the entry of the cave, the way to
reach them is decidedly fatiguing because of the quantity of mud present in the
tunnels which make it difficult to overcome the passages in free climbing, using
equipment like ropes etc. for the progression.
Once arrived at
the first lake we change ourselves and put on the diving suits for crossing it.
The lake is only about fifteen meters long, the water is milky because of the
effects of the sulfur dioxide and has a temperature of 13°. At the exit of the
lake an easy climb of about ten meters expects us, from here on the cave changes
completely and turns to a candid white, rich of very beautiful concretions, on
the rock and it is possible to see different fossilized skeletons of eels that
have been been dated to be 3000 to 7000 years old. After the discent we reach
the second lake which is at about the same level of the first one, at the exit
of it we have to go up again. The route is quite articulated, delicate unsecured
passages along the walls of the cave, which pass empty spaces of more than 10m
of height. After around one hour of progression with the diving suits we reach
the last lake, which is situated at the feet of a magnificent casting of
concretions. Here I prepare the equipment for the dive which weigh around 18kg:
two LED lamps, two lights with the small battery pack on the helmet, two cyclon
regulators with pressure gauge, two 4 l tanks filled to 270 BAR, one exploration
reel with 250 m of line and a HID 35W main lamp. I have decided to bring this
lamp because the third lake is an enormous 200 m long and about 10 to 20 m wide.
I enter the water, begin to cross the lake observing thousands of niphargus
(small pigmentless crustacean similar to prawns) that live in these waters. I
tie off the line onto a stone and begin to go down in direction of a tunnel that
had been signalled to me, at -3m I start to see the effects of the sulphurous
water and to feel the odor of the water inside the mask which has entered with
some drops. The visibility from here on is not good, the water is milky, the
bottom of the tunnel is covered by several centimeters of mud and rock in
decomposition, I remain as high as possible for not subsequently worsening the
visibility, but there is nothing I can do as the bubbles detach limestone and
chalk dust from the ceiling. After 50 m of progression I am at -12 m in a room
apparently without any way of exit, I tie off the line and turn back. I continue
to explore other galleries which result to be long about a couple of tens of
meters, the visibility continues to worsen in the whole lake and therefore it
becomes impossible to continue exploring; I decide to turn back and make an
exploration in the second lake. In this lake a water caption has been positioned
for a study of the water at different depths: it seems that at around -6 m the
PH value is 1…
I descend and
immediately I find a tunnel that goes down to -6m and continues for about 60 m;
in some places the visibility it is fabulous, in others it is reduced to a
couple of meters, I reach the bottom of the tunnel and to my right I observe a
shaft with a diameter of one meter that goes down in an angle of 60°; I decide
to descend even if I know that the mud will make a big mess, I make a tie off at
the only spur of rock, pull the line to verify that it is not coming loose of
the anchorage and I find myself with the same rock in my hands; the tie off is
not loose but the rock big like a 15 l tank has simply come off the wall. Dust
clouds all around me, I don't see anything and therefore I turn back. I also
dive in the first lake but with only 50 BAR in the tanks I am confined to
inspect wether there are further tunnels to explore.
After having
packed the equipment into the 4 speleo sacks we begin to return outside, we
leave the cave with empty tanks and with some kilos of mud on the overalls after
13 hours.
In total I have
explored 200 m of new tunnels and the maximum depth reached is -12m.
Exploratory possibilities are present in all of the three the lakes but
considered that they are situated distant from the entry, in a very complex zone
of the cave with labyrinthine galleries, fractures and with different formations
that make the exploration difficult, it becomes very demanding to organize the
logistics and the exploration. And further the presence of sulfur dioxide makes
surfacing in new found aerial spaces dangerous without the use of a gas
analyzers. Similar accidents have already happened, not in this cave, because of
the sulfur dioxide which is scentless even at high concentrations and which can
already be deadly with a single breath.
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