The major aim for this year’s exploration was set to be the continuation of the exploration of the upstream leads of the conduit, the survey of the new passages, and the recording of the exploration effort. The most important lead was the ‘full moon’ pit that was discovered during the last day of the 2022 gallery exploration. The pit was rather big and deep, making it a promising lead for going deeper into the cave. Moreover, a small passage with strong air current near the sandy bivouac location that was discovered in 2022 was also an important lead for exploration. The passage was quite narrow, full of aragonites and moon-milk, and needed enlargement for cavers to pass.

The focus this year was set for the deeper parts of the cave, mainly the meander at -428m and some narrow entries to the pits at -480m and -530m. After the discovery of the conduit, the cave has mainly developed horizontally in various directions (~2.5km of horizontal passages).

The surface exploration of remote places, for locating and recording of other unknown and promising caves further away from the camp, is always an aim for cavers that take a break from the Sternes cave and go for a hike.

Regarding the scientific aspects, an important objective was the recording of geological information within the cave, in terms of measurements of dip and dip direction. In the same direction, the continuation of the recording of cave life forms and collection of samples in a systematic way was again a main objective.

Here you can download the full report.