Primož Jakopin, photo diary

Wooden Ladder for the Galacijevka Cave, Part II
April 8, 2015, 18 pictures

Images are approximately 533 x 800 in size, numbers in front of picture descriptions are serial numbers of the original photo files. Excursion participants: Metod Di Batista, Marjan Juvan - Manč, Janez Kanoni - Žan, Marko Vogrič - Mare, Janez Ileršič - Ile, Jurij Trenz - Trenc, Janez Modrijan - Modrc, Andrej Baraga, Jernej Petrovčič - Jerko, Marko Kraševec and Primož Jakopin - Klok.

All pictures photo and copyright (c) Primož Jakopin 2015.

At the Najdena jama Cave Entrance

25238 Tevje (in Slovenian, there is no English word for it), Hacquetia epipactis in the entrance

At the Galacijevka Cave Entrance

25239. Metod descended on wire ladder to the bottom of the cave, to align bith poles, future ladder rails, and to start building the ladder from the bottom up by nailing ladder steps. But higher forces, unfavorable to the project, stepped in and the whole project, to the dismay of all the participants, had to be abandoned. Only a few of us were actually in the cave before, many decades ago, and before we started the ladder project nobody descended into the cave to check if there is enough and suitable room for the ladde. Today we had wire ladders with us and when Metod descended towards the bottom, he very soon realized that the shaft is too narrow and bent in places to allow the installation of a fixed ladder, let alone the passing of a person on it. So the decision to restore the cave to its pre-project state, to remove both poles, descended on previous excursion with great trouble, was the only reasonable one. But it proved to be a much more demanding task because the poles were stuck in several places, at different depths. So Metod stayed in the cave to help release the intertwined poles, inch by inch, as the others pulled them out, using two diagonally installed ropes (for better leverage).

25240. About 10 feet of the longer pole was already out when we fixed both pulling ropes, and Žan cut off the pole, as deeply as he could reach, to lessen the burden which remained to be pulled out.

25241. The procedure was repeated after Metod, helped by Manč, who descended to a lesser depth, released the poles which got firmly stuck, one by the other and by the bulges in the shaft walls.

25242. Finally both poles were out.

25243. The pullout of the pick followed. It was used as a lever to release the poles; a better tool would be a long rock breaking rod (pajsar in Slovenian) but there was none available.

25244. Metod and Manč stepped off the wire ladder, and Modrc, helped by Andrej, pulled half of it out for easier removal after the completion of the work (wire ladder was in two 10 m long sections) and fixed for final use only the second section.

25245. Metod ascended from the shaft,

25246. followed by Manč,

25247. who was obviously pleased by the favorable outcome of the operation (no harm done).

Blowhole between Najdena and Galacijevka Caves, slightly to the north of the forest track

25249. The blowhole, discovered during one of the recent winters, is especially interesting, as a large pile of rocks, densely covered with moss, is all around it. It looks as a very old dig, a suspicious candidate for the famous long lost Lipertova jama Cave. Metod and Mare started to open it again with a pick but Metod quickly found out that a motorized excavator would be a bteer tool.

25248. Mare and Metod were accompanied by Mare's she-dog, a boxer Lučka (would be Lucy in English).

Najdena jama Cave Yard

25250. Žan is making another wooden plate for the snack table which certainly follows such veteran gatherings.

25254. Lučka got company of two greyhounds, brought by Trenc. The brown one's name is Charlie, the white one's York. In the beginning the situation was rather static,

25253. but after some York's incentive at the derriere

25252. the flow of events got a very vivid upturn.

25255. Soon Žan brought into action this (using Manč's expression) crematorium.

25256. Besides the standard repertoire, new ideas how to tackle the Lipertova jama Cave problem, many other topics also surfaced, as well as reports of remarkable and surprising events from the past. The discussions took place in smaller and larger circles, and it was all followed by an extensive cleanup of the trail to Najdena jama Cave, still densely covered by the rubble, left after the February 2014 sleet and its gross recent forest cleanup.

Celebration of the 60-th Anniversary of JKŽ, Ljubljana Railway Grotto, March 27 Skednena jama Cave, Test of Radio Flash Triggers Yongnuo RF605C, May 6