New discoveries in the Prealpi Carniche (Carnic Pre-Alps) - Mount Naiarda
News by Michele Umek - Gruppo Triestino Speleologi (Trieste)
Translation by Giuseppe Moro
After six years of explorations and surveys we have found several snow-shafts and caverns (some 50 marked with the code NA), that don’t go further than 10 - 15 meters in depth, except for a drop 50 meters deep (NA10), a meanderin cave that has a planimetric lenght of 150 meters (NA15) and a pit that goes on in a meander, still unexplored.
The karstic area is not large and is completely included in an estate (hunting estate) so that permission by the owner is required to access the place. At the end of August 2007 the gamekeeper of the estate took us to what would be proved to be the access door to the inner part of the mountain (NA42). The cave, after two small pits, goes on with a long passage, until it reaches and intersecates a crossing tunnell. Walking towards one side the cave drops down to -300 meters, where we stopped due to equipment lack in a small draining passage. In the opposite direction an ascending passage leads to a depth of only -18 meters under the cave entrance. Some climbs are still to be trusted (gaining a new entrance would shotr the walk of almost 300-350 meters of passages). The whole explored lenght of the cave accounts to c.a 600 meters. To reach the area a drive along a forest road 10 km long is needed (permission required by the regional forest administration) followed by a further walk of an hour.
