The 2024 Migovec expedition was a tremendous success, celebrating the 50th anniversary of exploration in Sistem Migovec (“Pol Stoletja” meaning “Half Century” in Slovene) and also marking 30 years since the Imperial College Caving Club joined the local JSPDT caving club in making it the longest cave in the whole of Slovenia. This year over a kilometre of new cave was added to the system, we left with more leads than we had started with, 6 cavers were introduced to alpine expeditionary caving for the first time and a fantastic anniversary celebration was had at the end, bringing together cavers from the past 50 years of the expedition to share photos and tales from the depths. A guest appearance from the British Embassy in Slovenia to mark the occasion made for an amazing end to an expedition of great discoveries, fine weather and high spirits. The expedition was joined by 30 cavers from 10 countries.

The 200m of Korda’s rope was incredibly well received, with numerous comments on its superior quality to other ropes on the mountain, and the tackle sacks from Aventure Verticale were much loved, providing a long overdue upgrade to the decrepit and well-used existing bags, many of which were immediately retired.

While there were a few minor setbacks, such as fewer than expected leaders in the first week and one of our three cavelinks breaking, the Pol Stoletja expedition exceeded its aims, and left a multitude of exciting projects to return to next year. Most importantly, after the catastrophic storms and lack of underground camp in 2023 left the expedition feeling a little worse for wear, this year proved once again that our continued effort to train the next generation of leaders set us up for success when it matters. In particular, Chris Hayes and Ellie Pizey, both of whom first joined the expedition in 2022, each led multi-day underground camping trips and both made major discoveries.

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