Gradisnica - 14th Aug 2009

Friday August 14th 2009

Members present: Alexander Stelfox,  Chad B,  Louise Bell,  Matt Gosling

After not getting down this one a few days earlier due to lack of sleep I was fired up for this return to a cave I had passionately wanted to get to the bottom of since learning that we would be going to Slovenia. The Gradisnica entrance pitch is absolutely huge. The rock bridge that crosses the shaft around twenty five meters from the floor, covered in moss and fern, partly obscures the bottom of the pitch yet even this seems a very long way down when viewed from the top. I love the little trail that leads to the cave. It has a spooky and spiritual feel with little shards of overgrown limestone rock protruding from the ground of the forest. There is such an abundance of life here with warm sunlight streaming through the rich green canopy of forest leaves.

A large tree provides the initial belay which I rigged with a tensionless hitch leading to a horizontal Y-hang off a couple of bolts on a solid limestone rock. The fairly intimidating abseil over the edge then ensues to a cluster of Petzl long-life bolts. I rigged this very exposed rebelay with a psychotic wasp bumbling around my face. Bastard things! The free-hanging abseil down from this point was really thrilling and I landed on a large, yet sloping ledge adjacent to the incredible rock bridge. I could see the next long-life bolt protruding from a knobble of rock over the rest of the pitch so I stood up and launched into a swing on the rope hanging onto the rock with my left leg which I wedged around it to keep my hands free so that I could slam a cows-tail into the bolt. Once this cows-tail was in it guided my abseil onto the rebelay which I then rigged and passed without any difficulty. After passing another rebelay point I got to the floor which corresponded to the top of the newly christened scree slope of death, spiralling into the depths of the Earth.

The floor is incredibly loose with a seemingly endlessly deep flow of debris. I waited for Alex and wanted to take a picture of him passing the final rebelay but for some reason my camera was not working. Alex had his camera so I pulled the rope tight and the camera was zipped down to me on a karabiner. Once everyone was down the entrance pitch we negotiated the scree slope. Louise was very sure footed and seemed to manage this easily but I was taking things far more slowly knowing that the steep flow of loose scree culminates in a fair sized pitch to the bottom of the cave. I was very glad that I had wisely decided to do the cave in walking boots. Alex and I scouted the cave up to the left in a flat section off the main body of scree. We found gour pools and some other dried out formations and features. We then made our way down to Louise and thus the entrance to the main chamber. The entrance to the main chamber is a distorted rhombus shaped window into a total and overpowering darkness. The dried out and warmly coloured flowstone curtains give a foreboding feeling to the last pitch which had quite a number of belay points and was fantastically rigged by Alex. At the bottom of the pitch we landed on an island of scree in a sea of thick mud which, when combined with the impenetrable darkness of this huge chamber leads to a cold feeling of isolation. A solitary beetle traversed a rock, its fat body shimmering under our head-mounted lights. Alex said that he could easily imagine some demon lurking on a cyclopean pedestal in a dark corner of the chamber. The inability to make out the walls in such a broad arc around you really gives the impression that this place could go on forever.

On the way out Alex was to de-rig. As Louise and I made our way up the pitch, escaping the darkness of the main chamber, he said that standing alone in the bottom of the cave felt pretty creepy. We made our way tentatively back up the scree slope and then the entrance pitch. I had failed to completely take in the ferocious beauty of the entrance pitch on the way down so I took my time thinking “Wow, this is what I travelled all of this way to Slovenia for!” It was truly awe-inspiring. After we all got back onto firm earth we agreed that if Hell exists then Gradisnica is definitely the entrance to it! This feeling was compounded when I tested my camera and now, back on the surface, it seemed to be working again. Dark forces are at work?!