September 2009 saw the continuation, after the initial ventures in 1993, 1994, 2006 and 2008, of the exploratory expedition to Albania by the Caving Society, the Commissione Grotte “Eugenio Boegan” CAI Trieste. Its purpose was to survey the enormous karst plateau which acts as a reference to the area of the Hekurave and Boshit mountains, both at the summit altitudes (2000mt-2400mt above sea level) and at the lower altitudes at the karst springs where the main base camp was installed at Qerec Mulaj (altitude 800mt above sea level). The caving explorations were conducted by various small teams which subdivided the search areas: one advance team spent 5 days at maximum altitudes to carry out an initial high-altitude alpine caving search on the plain of Mount Hekurave, surveying and exploring 7 new caves, all unfortunately without any clear continuations. Another team, instead, returned to the “Shpella Zeze” already explored by the Commissione Grotte in 1993 and 2006, a wide semi-active spring, and, finding the passages open due to the period of drought and forcing an internal landslide, managed to enter the very heart of the karst system, exploring about 1,5 km of new tunnels and paths featuring particular karst forms and significant deposits of sand and pebbles, an indication that these zones are completely flooded when the water table rises during heavy rain. Again at the “Shpella Zeze”, which today has a surveyed development of about 3 km, a promising passage was identified, to be widened, which should give access to the fossil part of the spring. In addition, other teams, with operating and logistic autonomy, moved into the Mount Boshit sector in search of the “Perr Boshit” spring, a promising cave with a huge water regime which had been identified and partially explored in the 1993 expedition but unfortunately without managing to identify the cave entrance: this zone is about a 10 hours walk from the base camp. The expedition, which also featured Slovenian cavers, consisted of:
Louis Torelli (C.G.E.B. Trieste – Italy)
Adriano Balzarelli (C.G.E.B. Trieste – Italy)
Riccardo Corazzi (C.G.E.B. Trieste – Italy)
Federico Deponte (C.G.E.B. Trieste – Italy)
Piero Gherbaz (C.G.E.B. Trieste – Italy)
Fabrizio Pancotto (C.G.E.B. Trieste – Italy)
And from Slovenia:
Rok Stopar (JD Dimnice)
Ivo Sedmak (DZRJ Luka Cec)
Marjan Vilhar (DZRJ Luka Cec)
Izidor Santek Zupancic (DZRJ Luka Cec)
Mitja Mrsek (JD Rakek)