ALSÓ HEGY – A CAVING GUIDE
(This English version is not ready yet!!!)
(A. Nyerges – M. Nyerges, translated by E. Kalicza)
Contents:
„Here the hills are pretty high, made of filled limestone without any layer and fossil, full of cavities some of which are so deep and in the same time so round that it seems like if they are artificial.” (Robert Townson 1791)
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As a memeber of the Gömör-Tornai-karstfield, the
Lower-Hill (Alsó-hegy) is rising by being bounded by the triangle of Bódva-
and Ménes-brooks from the south and the Torna-brook from the north and it is
cut into two by the Slovak-Hungarian border in the direction of
West-East.(60% of it is Hungarian). It is reaching far on the west and is
connected to the Szilicei-plateau. |
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The area is a low karstic-mountain
with the direction of west-east and is widened to the south in the middle. It
has the extension of 50km² and is made up by „horst”-s
with the average height of 4-500 meters above the sea, the highest point of it
is the 615m high Páltútfej (Pavlovski vrch). The regions of the plateau are
divided with small relative difference between the levels. The medium-hills of
the higher peaks are rising above their surrounding with not too steep sides,
and on these emerging rocks and furrowed surfaces can be seen. The north-south
sides of it are made up by steep slopes with the average height of 300 m, on
which bottom there are flowing karst-springs with the height of 200m above the
sea. These mainly have the water collector areas with A-type karstic forms
which follow faithfully the effects of the weather. Water-flow on the surface
can only be seen on the hill-sides, around the springs and the short-living
shower-brooks which are formed by the sudden, rich rainfall. On the plateau the
karstic seep in to the cracks of the rocks are usual.
The area itself can be divided into three large units as
follows: The valley laying in the direction of about north-south next to
Vidomájpuszta, in which there is the Szögliget-Szádalmási road connecting the
valleys of Torna and the Bódva, separates the so called West-side, which
includes the Derenki-base and is connecting to the Szilicei-plateau by reaching
far above the Rabló-rock.
The area of the Lower-Hill’s most characteristic karstic
field is about 30 km2, which has been attracting the attention of
speleologyists for a long time with it’s deep depressions with a diameter of a
few hundred meters and deep shafts.
Separately can be discussed the Kis- or Szögligeti-plateau,
the strongly dissected area to the south which reaches as a wedge between the
Bódva and Ménes-brooks. This is also separated by morphology because of its
varied rock structure.
Most caves with the most significant sizes-mainly shaft-can
be found on the Szilas-plateau. These are the characteristics of the area and
are opened in the side of the dish-shaped cavities – töbör - with huge size and
no flow down. (usually in the upper 2/3 of it). Now there are 108 shafts known
in the area, from these 64 can be found on the Hungarian side. Only a few classic
water-collector caves are known. It’s spreading is limited mainly to the
west-side and the south-west edge of the Szilasi-plateau. Apart from the area
of the Szilasi-plateau (West-side, Dusa), the number of today’s known caves is
less and their sizes are more modest. The parts of the spring-caves on the
hill-side discovered until today are also not too significant (5-15m). With
their known sizes they don’t cause big excitment to the toursit cavers but are
being targets of the opening activities.
The Kis-plateau and the West-side are the easiest to
approach from the disection of Szögliget, while the most caves found on the
Szilasi-plateau are situated closer to Bódvaszilas village. Komjáti and
Tornanádaska can be a suitalbe starting point to look for the few caves and
springs which can be found at the Eastern end.
The potholes
Almási-zsomboly
„The gap is laying near Szádalmás, this is why we named it Almási-zsomboly.”
This
cave is 100 m deep, 358 long; The largest horizontal extension: 45m
Equipments: Old Part /the easier, classic way/: 18+33 m, and 43 m rope, belayed
with fix bolts to the end. (RN), + 7K;
New Part: 18+42 m, and 64 m rope,
(RN), 2Kgy, 10K;
Location: After 120 m on the siol road starting in the north
edge of the big field, which can be found to the East from the hunting-house of
Szabó-pallag, we take a left and go 400 meters to the north till the boarder
(passing by the Széki-shaft) where on the right handside there is the entrance
gap of the shaft in the boarder touching rocky side of the depression.
Direction for going through the cave: to approach safely the entrance we can belay the leading rope into the
attaching hole which can be found in the stone-edge in front of the shaft gap,
then into the two bolts above the hole. The first descending is 11 m long and
it leads to a big sloping, clayey rim where it is not suggested to move without
any belay. The next bolt here is on the wall opposite to the entrance gap, then
from this to the right there are other two bolts directly above the shaft. (
the New part can be approached from here!)
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If we take a tour on the
classic way from the lower bolt-ear we can descent 29 meters straight to the
bottom of the shaft, in the way that the walls are near us all the way. On
the bottom of the shaft we arrive to the top of a rubble hill from where we
can easily walk down to the bottom. From the bottom of the rope there is a
narrow gap opening in which it’s possible to climb a few meters to both
directions, up and down but there is no further way from here. The bolt for
the leading rope can be found on the bottom of the slope on the left wall,
then we can slip into the rim on the top of the shaft through the low gap
with belay. (Actually, this isn’t really the top of the shaft, rather the middle
of it, we can be convinced about this by exploring the new part, but before
we slide in it we can take a look into the upper parts of the shaft through a
few bigger-smaller window by climbing higher.) |
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While standing on the rim we can
reach the next bolt from which descending 8 meters we can find the center bolt
on the wall behind us, from which we have to descend 27 meters to the bottom of
the shaft.
While descending we can
observe, beside several dripstone windows on the side (somewhere dripstone
basins) the most beautiful and largest dripstone-flow of the Lower-hill and its
white sparkle in the light remains in the memory of almost everyone. On the
bottom of the shaft next to a track-sized rock block there is a vertical line
with two gaps going under the ruins so we can reach the very bottom of the
shaft (-100m) after getting over a few smaller narrow holes and ground stairs.
After climbing up in the opposite corner to the end of the rope we can get to a
small dripstoned side gap through a window. In front of this we can always find
good drinkable water in a base covered with small cave-corals and dripstone,
under the big dripstone-flow.
Place |
Shaft
length |
Rope
needed |
Short description |
|
Entrance-shaft |
11m |
18m |
Attaching
hole in the rock-edge (Tk), on the opposite wall 2RN |
|
Old Part: I.-shaft |
29m |
33m |
Looking
down from the rim on the left wall Rn, leading rope 2 m Kh, then 2RN
(Junction to the New Part!), from the
lower one straight down to the bottom of the shaft. |
II.-shaft |
7.5m 27m |
15m 28m |
Walking
down from there to the bottom of the rubble slope, on the outher part of the
gap leads further, on the left wall RN.Horizontal climbing with belay 3m Kh,
on the right wall 2RN, 7.5 m below on the opposite wall RN, from there
straight down. |
New Part
Installing and going through the new part requires a lot
more practice than the classic ways. We have to leave from the rim we can reach
after the first 11 m descending and now we can use the upper bolt. Here the
mission is to install a loose rope-bridge in the way that the 30 m deep shaft
of the old part is under us from the beginning (excitment factor this is why it
is so popular). Here on the wall on to the left we can discover a hidden
attaching hole behind a characteristic dripstone –flow after descending 8
meters and traversing 8 meters horizontally then traversing 4 meters from here,
when the gap under us starts enlarging, we can find a bolt on the wall to the
left. Above this to the left we can belay from a new attaching hole. Descending
7 meters from this in the side of the shaft, a few meters further we can see an
airy rim where direction of fracture of the crack changes. From here the next
step is a 2 m horizontal climb into the gap under the rope from where with
belay we can easily walk to the next bolt. Here are two bolts again above the
mouth of the shaft on the left wall (2 RN, the ones above 2 meters are
preferred), from which we can descend 19 meters in a gap which is pretty narrow
at the beginning. There the good observer can see a distribution on the same
wall where the descending bolts are then the 40 meters long descending the
bottom of the shaft near the large dripstone-flow, without touching the walls,
can compensate us. This is where we get back to the classic way.
Place |
Shaft
lenght |
Rope-needed |
Short description |
Entrance-shaft
|
11m |
18m |
Attaching
hole in the rock-edge (TK) on the opposite wall 2RN |
|
New Part: Travers |
8m |
19m |
Looking
down from the rim on the lelft wall RN, leading rope 2 m Kh, then 2RN
(junction to the old part!) from
the upper nit 8 m descending.climbing, (loose rope-bridge suggested) after 8
m travers attaching hole on the left wall, behind the dripstone-pillar laying
on a short wall (Tk) ( Be Careful! it’s not the finger-thick one!) |
|
4m |
6m |
Further
travers with fbelay in the grip above the shaft. |
|
|
7m |
17m |
On
the left wall Rn, it can be belayed from the attaching hole on the left
above. 7 m below, climbing horizontally to the opposite gap under the bolt
(belay!) to the next bolt. |
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II.-shaft |
19m |
23m |
Going
into the gap 3 m high on the left wall above the mouth of the shaft 2RN. |
|
40m |
41m |
Descending
19 m on the same wall where the upper bolts are RN. From there descending to
the bottom. |