Ιστορικό εξερευνήσεων στις "Στέρνες" (GSO21) με βάθος -595μ: 1991 εως 2012

Στις ημέρες των διακοπών ολοκλήρωσα ένα αναλυτικό ιστορικό για τις εξερευνήσεις στο σπηλαιοβάραθρο "Στέρνες" GSO21) με βάθος -595μ. Το βάραρθο αυτό το οποίο συγκαταλέγεται ανάμεσα στα 15 βαθύτερα τις χώρας μας (από όσα είναι γνωστά μέχρι τώρα) έχει ανέλθει πρόσφατα στην 6η θέση (παρέμενε στην 13η μέχρι το 2018). Αφορμή ήταν μια εργασία που ετοιμάζεται για το Παγκόσμιο Συνέδριο Σπηλαιολογίας που θα πραγματοποιηθεί το καλοκαίρι του 2020 στην Γαλλία. 

Προς το παρόν είναι στα αγγλικά αλλά θα ανεβάσω και ελληνικό κείμενο με την πρώτη ευκαρία.

History of Exploration – Sternes cave (GSO21) Lefka Ori Crete – 1991 – 2012

Written by Kostas Adamopoulos
Athens, December 2020

Abstract

 

Sternes cave (marked as GSO21) was first reported in 1991 by Group Speleo d’Orsay (GSO) from France. The French team found evidence of previous (unknown) exploration up to -130m were the cave was blocked by boulders. The GSO team made a breakthrough and they reached on the same year -400m depth. They return a year later (1992) to continue, and they eventually stopped at -428m on another narrow passage. GSO abandoned the cave ever since. They published an article on Spelunca (June 1992) and posted info on a web page. Thanks to pictures published on that web site, cavers from Greece were able to find the entrance of the cave and restart the exploration in 2005. Between 2009 and 2012 the cave was enlarged in several places but no major breakthrough. It was only after the 2017 - the fifth year of efforts to cross the narrow passage - that a breakthrough occurred and led to consecutive steps of progress to current (at 2020) level of known passages.

 

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Sternes cave is located just about 100m away from one of the most visited mountaineering pathways at Lefka Ori massif. This path is leading to mountain’s highest peak (Pahnes 2454m) and is used over the centuries to traverse the mountain from north to south. The cave is located appox 85m higher in altitude and its entrance cannot be seen from the path level. Despite being so close to the path (and today the dirt road that is ending a few dozens of meters later), the cave was first reported as in the early nineties (1991) by Group Speleo d’Orsay (GSO). The location of the Sternes cave is very close to Lagkonia cave (LA2-LA3) and the homonymous small valley[1]. Lagkonia cave (marked LA2-LA3 as it is having 2 entrances) was first explored by Sheffield University Speleological Society (SUSS) during their 1981 expedition in the area. This appears to be the first speleological expedition that reached both Ammoutsera and Lagkonia area and they explored several caves nearby.

 

One may conclude that, both Lagkonia and Ammoutsera[2] valleys were far away from nearest dirt road at that time (80s), making it very difficult to reach and this delayed the speleological expeditions in the area by a few years.  On the contrary, sustainable road access to Omalos[3] valley allowed local Speleologist (Houliopoulos, Plimakis, et al) to explore “Tzani’s” cave (-280m) starting in 1961 followed soon by French [4](1964, Cultural club from Romans) and later by British cavers from Birmingham University Speleological Society (BUSS) in 1967 and some more during 70s and 80s. Similarly, French expedition “Minotaur ‘75” & “Minotaur ‘76” by GRESPA[5], they explored “Mavro Skiadi” (-346m) to the north, thanks to its proximity to Melidoni village (4 hours walk). Both “Tzani” cave and “Mavro Skiadi” attracted foreign expeditions on Crete.

 

As wrote above, SUSS arrived in the area in 1981 during which they explored “Drakolakki” (+175m) and deployed cavers at Ammoutsera and Lagkonia valleys (among other areas) for first time. This is the first known expedition in this part of the mountain. More specifically, the SUSS “Crete 1981” expedition report describes 14 caves around Lagkonia, with LA6 and LA7 marked on the map in close proximity to Sternes (GSO21) cave. None of these caves though – including those in close proximity - matches the characteristics of Sternes. There are no other known expeditions in the area between 1981 and 1988 when GSO arrives there with their “Lefka Ori 1988” expedition. The French expedition was consisted of 9 members [6], started July 3^rd and finished July 30^th of 1988. Most likely the GSO expedition was aware of the SUSS expedition report as they are using “KA2-KA3” code name for “Lagkonia” cave (no direct reference found on their expedition report). They also made an in-text reference to GRESPA[7]. This first GSO expedition focused on Lagkonia area and they explored & surveyed 11 caves in the area. This expedition used “GSO”[8] marking and coding for the caves explored (opposite to “LA”[9] coding used by SUSS)

 

GSO returned to the mountain 3 more times: in 1990, 1991 and in 1992. This is confirmed by an article in Spelunca (June 1992), written by Jean-François Gaucher [10]and through a direct communication with Rami Aubourg - a member of the 1991 expedition[11]. Jean-François Gaucher appears to be a key / leading figure behind these 4 expeditions, and he attended all taking a leading role. Despite our efforts to obtain the reports of these expeditions, we have in our possession only the 1988 report, the Spelunca article of 1992 and a webpage with information [12]plus some pictures. Pictures were proven very useful for the Greek expeditions in early ’00. It was made known to us that the expeditions of 1990 and 1991 did published a report (not found still) and that 1992 report was never completed nor published.

 

Rami Aubourg also confirmed that the team first descent Sternes in 1991 and that they found a spit close to the pit leading to “Sisyphe” [13](-140m according to latest survey). The cave was blocked at that level but one of the team members[14] observed that the flow of air was disappearing towards the floor of this small room (room named “Sisyphe”). It took the team 2 days to enlarge the passage large enough to allow continuation of the exploration. After crossing the narrow at -140m GSO team was challenged by the narrow meander at -240m. Enlarging this 8-meter-long passage took them another 2 days. 1991 exploration finished at -400m (as per GSO survey[15]) and the 1992 expedition finished at -428m [16](marked -440m by GSO). The narrow passage at -428 was too narrow and too difficult to proceed and the team never returned there till the moment of writing this article.

 

The cave is then abandoned for a few years – with only the web page probing information about its existence to wider audience: the map of the cave, a few pictures – no location co-ordinates. In 2003 a new project began led by the author (Kostas Adamopoulos) and a few team members – mainly from SELAS club. The project is targeting the “High Dessert” of Lefka Ori and initially seeking to locate LO50 (-267m) cave (explored by SSP 1981 expedition[17]). The small team searching for LO50 in summer 2003 and returned with 38 new caves (18 explored / surveyed) but not the objective (location of LO50). August 2004 there were 2 attempts to locate LO50: a 3 day trip (a team of 4) and a trip of 4 days (team of 2): the later was executed by Peter Stavropoulos and the author. In this 3^rd attempt to find LO50 which took place between 28/10/2004 and 31/10/2004 the 2 cavers camped between “Askifiotikos Soros” peak (2210m) and “Grias Soros” (2339m) peak. Around midday of the second day, the two cavers managed to locate the entrance of LO50 cave (along with numerous more caves). On that very same afternoon, they disassembled their camp and walk a few hours to the west to meet SPOK cavers which happened to be at Katsiveli refuge on the same dates. They stayed the night there; they shared the news and on the following day they departed towards Lagkonia – where they parked their vehicles 3 days earlier. After a few hours walking and while traveling the SSW slope of peak “Sternes” (2339m), the 2 men saw Lagkonia cave entrance (LA2-LA3). The view from that angle was very similar to the picture that GSO had posted on their web site. That picture – taken obviously during the GSO 1991 expedition - was portraying cavers preparing to descent into Sternes (GSO21) cave, with Lagkonia cave (LA2-LA3) and the pathway being clearly visible on the background. Judging from the angle of the view the author immediately understood that the picture was taken somewhere above their line of sight (both author and Peter Stavropoulos were at the pathway level at that time). They immediately took some co-ordinates and they decided to work on it for a possible return.

 

 

This sudden discovery changed the course of the project which was formerly seeking to find and explore LO50. GSO21 became now the new objective as the team decided that LO50 can wait a bit longer. Location of GSO21 next to the dirt road made it easier to reach compared to LO50 which was at least 1h45m away from the same starting point. In addition, GSO21 appeared promising on the web page - the map shared was the 1991 survey, stopping at -400m depth on the top of a large puit – looking indeed very promising. 

 

The team returned with 5 team members late March 2005[18]. On that trip[19] the team was unsuccessful to locate the entrance of GSO21 as it was covered by snow. Still, multiple pictures were taken during the trip, all pointing on purpose towards Lagkonia (LA2-LA3) but from several waypoints on the south slope of Sternes peak. After returning in Athens, Peter Stavropoulos studied the pictures and the relevant waypoints and made some more accurate projections on the location of the entrance (GSO21). The team also planned for a full week expedition in June of the same year[20].

 

 

 

 

Upon arrival in Lagkonia valley, on the afternoon of June 13^th 2005, Peter Stavropoulos accompanied by Tolis Sioutis located the entrance at 19:35 after walking nearly on straight line following the potential GPS waypoint. This summer expedition - the first one from a Greek club - rigged the cave till the same level that GSO 1992 stopped. The team explored several caves in the area but made no attempt to enlarge the narrow passage (lack of equipment). The team did notice the steady and strong current of air at the -428m level, indicative of the potential the cave had. The expedition was presented during the 14^th International Congress of Speleology that took place the same summer in Greece. In 2006 the team returned and explored LO50. Between 2003 and 2006 the team found 142 new caves of which 44 were explored and surveyed.

 

In 2007 and 2008 team joined Nikos Paspaliaris at Kako Kasteli around Pralina cave (-620m , Nikos Paspaliaris et al.) and also distracted by the exploration of Lion cave (-1110m) on the same year. After this break, the continuation of the Lefka Ori project was decided and Lagkonia and Sternes became again the focus point. Four expeditions were led by the author between 2009 and 2012 all having Sternes as the main objective. The cave was re-surveyed and was enlarged in several places (-25m, -140m, -240m and lastly at -428m where a slow progress of a few meters was gained (approx. 6-8 meters in 4 years). During all these 4 expeditions[21], after completing 54 days in total (2 weeks every year), 142 new caves were found of which 60 were explored and surveyed. In total 91 cavers participated – some from local clubs only during weekend. Some of the expeditions were international where French, Italian, Romanian and other nationalities joined the Greek local teams.

 

A core of team members of 2009-2012 [22]expeditions (greek teams) abbandonned Sternes (GSO21) again between 2013 and 2015 by focusing on Lion cave (-1110m). This core was enriched during the Lion expedition and returned in the cave (without the author) starting with 2017 expedition after succefully blended with SPOK new generation of cavers. They scored much better results with the desobtruction of the narrow passage at -428m leading to greater depths and length of the cave.  

 

It is still a mystery which was the first team that explored the cave till “Sisyphe” point at -140m. That might have happened between 1981 and 1988. A hypothesis that is to be tested is that some of the SUSS team members returned in the area but there is no report published. It could also be an unknown expedition – although the later will be more difficult to happen without noticing. In any case remains a mystery, but the biggest mystery of all remains what will be the development of the explorations. Will the cave grow longer or deeper or both? This is to be found in the years to come and to be answered by the determined team currently exploring the cave or by another team that will take the lead in the future. To be continued. 

 

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[1] Lagkonia cave and valley are located to the west side of Ammoutsera and surrounded by Thodoris peak, Troharis (2400m) and Sternes peak (2339m) on the way to Rousies water resource and Pahnes (2454m) peak

[2] Ammoutsera is a long valley following Kakovoli peak from South to North. It is the valey that the dirst road in use today is using to access the central Lefka Ori area and to approach the highest peaks of the mountain (Pahnes and Trocharis). Early on the ascent Ammoutsera – to the south part of the valley – one my found a major water supply (cistern) – very important for the speleological expeditions in the area.

[3] Omalos valley is located to the West side of the massif, just in front of Samaria gorge and very close to peak Gkigkilos

[4] Plymakis A. “Spilaia sta Chania” p.217

[5] GRESPA VI: Groupe Etude de Speleologie Paris VI, university team

[6] Members of 1988 GSO expedition: Denis Bayard, Pascale Cozic, Mourielle Drouin, Cecile Durand, Jean-Francois Gaucher, Thierry Guyommard, Eric Manoury, Christophe Ney and Christophe Ribeau, in majority students of University d’Orsay

[7] “Lefka Ori 1988” GSO, expedition report, p.1

[8] GSO = Group Speleo d’Orsay, caves were numbered after the code e.g. GSO1, GSO2, GSO3,…

[9] LA = Lagkonia prospection area defined by SUSS in 1981 and coding applied to designate caves in this area e.g. LA1, LA2, LA3, …

[10] Spelunca (FFS) article Nr. 46, June 1992 ISSN 0242-1771, p.9

[11] Known members of the GSO 1991 expedition – active in exploring Sternes (GSO21): Jean-François Gaucher (expedition organizer/leader), Christophe Lambourg, Lubin Chanterelle, Philippe Carbone, and Rami Aubourg, info provided in person after contacting Rami Aubourg, August 2019

[12] http://kaires.freeboxos.fr:16800/

[13] Rami Aubourg is most likely behind all the names written in the initial GSO topography (survey), source: direct contact with Rami, August 2019

[14] As per Rami Aubourg, it was Lubin Chanterelle that noticed the air current which led to the continuation of the cave.

[15] There is approximately 10-12 meters variance in depth between GSO survey and the later surveys (2010 and 2020) with the later matching each other

[16] There is a difference of approximately 10 meters between the French survey (GSO) and the later surveys by Greek clubs: using DixtoX, multiple times, by multiple groups, in different years all confirming the same results. The difference is not material if we take into consideration the differences in techniques and instruments between 1990 and 2010 & 2020

[17] Societe Speleologique du Plantaurel (SSP), “Expedition Speleo en Grece - 1981” report, on Crete between 31 August and 23^rd of September 1981

[18] Team members of the March 2005 trip: Peter Stavropoulos, Elias Kazais, Thomas Ditsas, Kostis Lymakis and the author

[19] 25 to 27^th of March 2005

[20] 12 to 21^st of June 2005, team members: Kostas Adamopoulos (exp. leader), Peter Stavropoulos, Elias Kazais, Kostis Limakis, Tolis Sioutis, Nadia Kontonopoulou, Nikos Mitsakis, Olympia Anagnostou, Komninos Mpoutaras, Nontas Emmanouil and Margarita Kanellidou

[21] “Sternes 2009”, “Sternes 2010”, “Sternes 2011” and “Sternes 2012”

[22] Alexandros Margiolis, Michalis Tsopelas, Stelios Zacharias, Panos Georgopoulos, Lefteris Tzelepis, Margarita Kanellidou and the author are having multiple participations to both the 2009-2012 expeditions and to lion expeditions. Some are still active in exploring Sternes (GSO21). Phil Bence, Alain Subiraine are also to be named from the French teams as the attended both the 2009-2012 period, the Lion period (2008, 2013-2015) so they have a presence across that goes beyond the last decade.