News from diving in Hranice Propast

Krzysztof Starnawski shared the latest news from his exploration of a Czech cave via Facebook. He managed to reach the depth of 217m and convinced that this is still not the end. Another section of the cave has also been rigged, which will help in further dives.

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Here is what “Starnaś” wrote on the Dualrebreather profile:

“Well the cave is currently 217m deep and will quietly be another 20m as that’s all my light reached down. Looking at how the new discovered well is widening and knowing the geology of the area, the cave has a great chance of becoming the deepest flooded cave in the world and will probably exceed 400m in depth!!!!!

It was only a matter of time before I reached that depth, as the passage into the cave was already tested and rigged. The clamp I discovered in January turned out to be not so tight and as I expected led to another, deeper part of the cave.

The only trouble with this passage is the large number of fallen trees interspersed with stones. Whatever I didn’t touch was moving and falling down. Fortunately, a diver using CCRs doesn’t generate too many gas bubbles that can destabilize this collapse.

The dive took me 7,5 hours in a water temperature of 15 degrees Celcius, so I didn’t even get cold too much. My dives were secured by Czech divers: David Cani at 130m, and the others (Libor Čech, Petr Vaverka, Mirek Lukáš) from 80 to 9m. Because of the chemical composition of the water, all those who dived deeper used CCRs in order not to muddy the water for the next trips (air from the bubbles reacts with the water and makes it cloudy for a longer time).

The biggest inconvenience in such long dives is the “corrosive” water (H2CO3), which causes severe skin irritation. My lips mainly swelled and I looked like a woman after unsuccessful botox injection.

We are already preparing another expedition to explore and measure the newly discovered well. For now, we are ready to dive down to 280m and will explore the caves to this depth.

On the surface, Honza Musil and Irena Stangierska coordinated the group of divers and transported them, while Czech cavers and Vladan Mickerts and Jarda Suchoň provided transport assistance

To all those who helped on this expedition I offer my sincere thanks.

Krzysiek starnawski”

Photo: Irena Stangierska/dualrebreather.com