Summer camp at Grigna (Italy) and exploration news
Giovedì 31 Maggio 2007New from Andrea Maconi. Translated by Elisa Carboni
Summer camp at Grigna and exploration news.
The usual summer camp at Grigna will be from 4th to 20th August, as usual making use of Rifugio Bogani. Anyone wanting to participate is asked to contact me
(andrea.maconi@fastwebnet.it).
In the period 28 April - 1 May a small camp is established in Grigna called
Vertigini 2007 after the place of exploration. From the Rifugio Bietti some
entrances on Sasso dei Carbonari were reached.
In particular, the Finestra di Sengg, an enormous entrance visible from
Lake Como (6km distance) has been explored. The lower entrance is about
20m high and 5-6m wide and is placed half-way up a wall of about 400m. From
the climbing route below it was understood that the cave had another
entrance above - it was basically an enormous pitch with an entrance high up
and another at the bottom.
An impressive abseil of 145m (half inside and half outside the pitch)
reaches the bottom of the pitch, that to start with measures around 20×25m.
It is the widest pitch in the open air that has ever been discovered in Grigna !
In fact looking at aerial photographs a clear black mark can be seen, but
I thought it was only a shadow.
The last 20m abseil into empty space with
clear views of the grassy fields 300m below was particularly impressive.
The cave continues uphill and two aid climbing allow access to a
descending branch which stops above a small pitch which was left undescended
due to a lack of rope!
The following day a steep gorge below the Finestra di
Sengg was rigged and 30m were climbed to explore the big pitch
that was reached last year by Carlo and Mattia. Also in this
case the reaching of the cave was full of adrenaline thanks to the
rocks that fell down from the wall above, passing through the
Finestra di Sengg whistling like bullets…
The cave consists of a wide pitch of 80m (initial cross-section about 20×20m)
unfortunately closed at the bottom by rocks and boulders. At the bottom two
aid climbs were done, that however did not yield good results. Towards
the top the cave continues with a big aven that heads towards the Finestra di Sengg.
Today instead two small caves were found: one stops at -15m and the
other consists only of a modest hole reached aid climbing.
Participants: Luana A., Carlo C., Marco C., Andrea F., Andrea M., Gabriele M., Antonio P., Mattia R., Roberto Z.
Speleo Club Erba - Gruppo Grotte Saronno - Gruppo Grotte Milano