Italy: LATEST NEWS FROM THE CANSIGLIO PLATEAU

[Scintilena]

From Scintilena http://www.scintilena.com/english
The caving clubs of Ferrara and Vittorio Veneto have wrote down some new exploration plans for the Bus de la Genziana (Genziana Cave: genziana is a mountain flower - Gentiana Lutea L.- n.d.r.), the most known cave of the “Pian Cansiglio”. Pian Cansiglio is a limestone plateau which lies at the border between the regions of Veneto and Friuli - Venezia Giulia, in NE Italy.
The Genziana, as it is also simply known, was discovered in the early 1960’s during the widening works of the local state road. Caver were prevented from entering it for some years but they eventually gained access and quickly explored it to a depth of -582m. The leading clubs at the time were the newborn local one of Vittorio Veneto and the old timer club AXXXO of Trieste. Along the decades other clubs have joined forces and shared expertise with the Vittorio Veneto’s club, most recent addition being Ferrara.
During last summer exploration camp held on the plateau, cavers paid more attention to a nasty prosecution which opened back a few years ago at about -100m: they were well rewarded. During three exciting trips almost 900m of new passages have been mapped, while at least three times more have been already explored. Passages are as varied as boreholes, tight passages and richly decorated rooms.
At present only some of the most obvious passages have been looked at, but many side leads await explorations and mapping as well.
Of great interest is also the fact that all new passages not only branch off under the big plain of Pian Cansiglio in a totally new direction with respect to the rest of the cave, but also that they are mostly horizontal. In fact the depth gain has been thus far of only -100m. This in stark contrast with most of the local caves, which are definitely vertical. Like the Genziana itself (-582m); l’Abisso del Col della Rizza (-796m) and the Bus de la Lum (-180m).
More explorations and mapping trips are planned in the nearby future: look out for more news about the “Old Lady” Genziana…