Ice cave on Viševnik - it's true, again ...
Upper parts of the ice cave - 2012-06
Nothing has changed since my complaint in the last post, as we went to "Ledenka" again this time. The winter was scarce with the amounts of snow and the temperatures were high enough to melt whatever was lying in the hollows, so Miha's call was enough for a new act. The usual suspects, expanded with a few newbies, sleeping at Pac Hotel as usual and an hour and a half long walk to the entrance into the cave – the golden classic, which you can't avoid.
But this time we handled everything a bit differently. Our goal wasn’t to explore the bottom of the cave, but instead to connect the cave with the upper entrances, which was, up until now, only an assumption. To get to the upper entrance, you have to work quite hard, as it’s situated in the middle of the wall, from which a 100 meter fall won’t be missing – especially if you get caught by the rain. In that case, I’d rather not imagine the descent through the wet grass without the help of a rope.
Well, after some short climbing, we saw the beautifully formed entrance after the corner into the upper parts of “Ledenka”. From here, there is a beautiful view of Pršivec and apparently, the entrance to the cave is very well visible from the opposite part of the hill. The cave has nicely leveled flooring for the first few meters and they would be appropriate for bivouac, but this time we weren’t interested in a rest, as we were already pressed for time.
A few dozen meters after the entrance we were already clipping in the descendeurs and descending into the beautiful and spacious drop. From here, we could feel where the dark places were leading. On the right side there must have been the already known parts of the Hall of rings, but to reach the ice ridge between the spaces, we had to think of a few technical solutions. We saved the left side for the final act, well, the rope chose the way downwards, where we reached the next, sadly also last, small hall through a narrow passage.
Despite the ending, we were quite satisfied. The small hall, framed in ice, created a beautiful, although cold atmosphere, especially with interesting ornaments and magical reflections. At the beginning, we were going back and forth with the naming between Fridge and Freezer, but in the end, the most appropriate name Ice dreams, won.
What remained was the mistery on top of the ridge. Nobody was looking forward to the fitting over the steep ice plate and even with hanging on the rope, we wouldn’t have accomplished much. Luckily, we found a narrow but beautiful gap between the block and the wall, strewn with ice crystals, which, after a few meters of tamping, responded positively about the connection between the upper entrance with the Hall of rings.
What followed was, of course, the measuring, photo documenting and collecting samples of the ice by the “witch of Viševnik”. An unwelcome surprise awaited us there at the transition to the newer parts. The transition was flooded! We’re not really interested in how often this happens and whether the water will ever drain. With all the junk we carry into this cave, one little dinghy will be like a drop in the ocean. We’ll come around soon again, as usual.
