rhychydwr1
Active member
?vre ?ltsvattenomr?det Expedition 1970 by Rabbe Sj?berg
Between July 6 and August 8, 1970 occurred the first international cave expedition in Sweden. The goal was then virtually unknown Upper ?ltsvatten area on the border towards Norway in northwestern V?sterbotten.
Pretty soon it was clear that we would need to seek the participation of the English cavers who for many years researched the caves on the Norwegian side of the border. They had completely different skills than we then had. Here began the planning.
A larger expedition consists of several phases: 1. Planning, 2. Execution and 3.Finishing work and report writing. During the winter, an invitation was sent out to the groups I wanted see as collaborators. Accommodation in the Strimasunds mountain cabin was booked and information was sought on the accessibility of Norwegian construction roads. Further more, Sorsele municipality was contracted and permission to use their reindeer herder cabins was granted. The mountain pilot Kurt Atterberg was contacted if the possibility to be able to fly up heavier material. Comprehensive letter contracts were maintained with the participants who have registered their interest. Several specialists in different areas were contacted and we accessed the latest hand-drawn geological map of the area as well as a hydrological base map where streams and lakes matched much better than on the old General Staff map that then applied. Local newspapers were given a press release and at the end of July the preparations felt ready.
On July 26, almost all the participants gathered at Perssons in Strimasund's mountain cabin: The participants were Tony and Ann Oldham from England, Hedwig from the USA and Denmark, Leif Engh from ?hus and Mischa Gavrjusjov from Gothenburg and Alf Olert, Link?ping. The next day, the English David and Shirley St. arrived. Pierre who lived on Grand Cayman, had been researching caves in Norway for years. Shirley would then join the expedition up on the mountain while David would be a babysitter in Norway. Then it was also press visits by V?sterbottens-Kuriren, V?sterbottens Folkblad and the newspaper Nord-Sverige, who all wrote long, well illustrated reports.
After a day of driving together the expedition members arrived at Sotsb?cksgrottan, it was off to the mountains. The heavy equipment was packed into my Volvo PV which drove down to T?rnaby and Kurt Atterberg's airport. The remaining, with "light packing" packed in two cars which via Norway drove to the northern tip of Kalvandet where the hike to the reindeer herder's cottage at Djupvattnet (Giengeljaure) began. Hedwig and I followed the plane up: It was so heavily packed that we needed almost the entire Lake Gautan to be able to get up in the air. On the other hand, the landing distance up at Djupvattnet became all the shorter. Later in the evening, the others had also arrived and the expedition could take its beginning in earnest. Our common language was English and every time we went back to Swedish, Tony's comment came: "Speak white man's language please!"
The coming week was intense with long working days in the bright nights. Tony and Ann, who were unfamiliar with the Nordic summer nights, actually stayed up all night to see if it really did not get dark at some point.
We had divided the expedition area into eight sub-areas. To catch up as much as possible, we divided into two groups, which varied from day to day. In this way, everyone got to know each other. In this way, two different areas were roughly investigated every day and we were then able to gather the whole gang to investigate and map particularly interesting finds. To keep in touch, we had received two powerful Tokai private radios from Ume? University. Now it turned out that they were on the same wavelength as the NATO base in Bod?, which at first caused some problems but which with international cooperation was solved in a simple way
The results from the expedition were far superior and in almost every sub-area we found one or a more caves and the whole area showed a fantastic nature with exciting landforms and a special flora. The most important finds were the large Marble Canyon in Roupsokjokk (Gapsjukke) and the Marble Cave higher up after the same area. There was the premiere for wetsuit in a Swedish cave. It was Hedwig Wagner who had this with her. The Murevardo area on the other side of Djupvattnet we found the exciting. Murevardola Labyrinth and on Gusepakte's slopes down towards ?vre ?ltsvattnet we found Kanjongrottan with accumulations of rock milk. We were able to reveal the areas intricate drainage pattern through various dams that brought the water down into various underground passages, which were checked with fluorescein. The deep Marble Canyon, later became something of an official symbol for the whole area. Another result of the expedition was that we found that the streams in the karst area were easily polluted, which could be explained by emissions from the various ironworks in Mo I Rana. An early element in the environmental movement. It would be interesting with a follow-up now that the ironworks has been closed for many years.
Once home, the third part of the expedition began. Finishing work and report writing. It was a lot of work to coordinate a dozen writers: invited specialists in geology, geomorphology and botany as well as members of the expedition. In February 1971, the 70-page report was able to go to print. Furthermore, a popular report was written which was published in V?sterbottens-Kuriren in May 1971.
Our report was processed before the ten-year anniversary in 1980 to a volume in the association's publication series Svenska Grottor.
from Grottan 55 (3) 31-33 Sept 2020 trans TO.
Between July 6 and August 8, 1970 occurred the first international cave expedition in Sweden. The goal was then virtually unknown Upper ?ltsvatten area on the border towards Norway in northwestern V?sterbotten.
Pretty soon it was clear that we would need to seek the participation of the English cavers who for many years researched the caves on the Norwegian side of the border. They had completely different skills than we then had. Here began the planning.
A larger expedition consists of several phases: 1. Planning, 2. Execution and 3.Finishing work and report writing. During the winter, an invitation was sent out to the groups I wanted see as collaborators. Accommodation in the Strimasunds mountain cabin was booked and information was sought on the accessibility of Norwegian construction roads. Further more, Sorsele municipality was contracted and permission to use their reindeer herder cabins was granted. The mountain pilot Kurt Atterberg was contacted if the possibility to be able to fly up heavier material. Comprehensive letter contracts were maintained with the participants who have registered their interest. Several specialists in different areas were contacted and we accessed the latest hand-drawn geological map of the area as well as a hydrological base map where streams and lakes matched much better than on the old General Staff map that then applied. Local newspapers were given a press release and at the end of July the preparations felt ready.
On July 26, almost all the participants gathered at Perssons in Strimasund's mountain cabin: The participants were Tony and Ann Oldham from England, Hedwig from the USA and Denmark, Leif Engh from ?hus and Mischa Gavrjusjov from Gothenburg and Alf Olert, Link?ping. The next day, the English David and Shirley St. arrived. Pierre who lived on Grand Cayman, had been researching caves in Norway for years. Shirley would then join the expedition up on the mountain while David would be a babysitter in Norway. Then it was also press visits by V?sterbottens-Kuriren, V?sterbottens Folkblad and the newspaper Nord-Sverige, who all wrote long, well illustrated reports.
After a day of driving together the expedition members arrived at Sotsb?cksgrottan, it was off to the mountains. The heavy equipment was packed into my Volvo PV which drove down to T?rnaby and Kurt Atterberg's airport. The remaining, with "light packing" packed in two cars which via Norway drove to the northern tip of Kalvandet where the hike to the reindeer herder's cottage at Djupvattnet (Giengeljaure) began. Hedwig and I followed the plane up: It was so heavily packed that we needed almost the entire Lake Gautan to be able to get up in the air. On the other hand, the landing distance up at Djupvattnet became all the shorter. Later in the evening, the others had also arrived and the expedition could take its beginning in earnest. Our common language was English and every time we went back to Swedish, Tony's comment came: "Speak white man's language please!"
The coming week was intense with long working days in the bright nights. Tony and Ann, who were unfamiliar with the Nordic summer nights, actually stayed up all night to see if it really did not get dark at some point.
We had divided the expedition area into eight sub-areas. To catch up as much as possible, we divided into two groups, which varied from day to day. In this way, everyone got to know each other. In this way, two different areas were roughly investigated every day and we were then able to gather the whole gang to investigate and map particularly interesting finds. To keep in touch, we had received two powerful Tokai private radios from Ume? University. Now it turned out that they were on the same wavelength as the NATO base in Bod?, which at first caused some problems but which with international cooperation was solved in a simple way
The results from the expedition were far superior and in almost every sub-area we found one or a more caves and the whole area showed a fantastic nature with exciting landforms and a special flora. The most important finds were the large Marble Canyon in Roupsokjokk (Gapsjukke) and the Marble Cave higher up after the same area. There was the premiere for wetsuit in a Swedish cave. It was Hedwig Wagner who had this with her. The Murevardo area on the other side of Djupvattnet we found the exciting. Murevardola Labyrinth and on Gusepakte's slopes down towards ?vre ?ltsvattnet we found Kanjongrottan with accumulations of rock milk. We were able to reveal the areas intricate drainage pattern through various dams that brought the water down into various underground passages, which were checked with fluorescein. The deep Marble Canyon, later became something of an official symbol for the whole area. Another result of the expedition was that we found that the streams in the karst area were easily polluted, which could be explained by emissions from the various ironworks in Mo I Rana. An early element in the environmental movement. It would be interesting with a follow-up now that the ironworks has been closed for many years.
Once home, the third part of the expedition began. Finishing work and report writing. It was a lot of work to coordinate a dozen writers: invited specialists in geology, geomorphology and botany as well as members of the expedition. In February 1971, the 70-page report was able to go to print. Furthermore, a popular report was written which was published in V?sterbottens-Kuriren in May 1971.
Our report was processed before the ten-year anniversary in 1980 to a volume in the association's publication series Svenska Grottor.
from Grottan 55 (3) 31-33 Sept 2020 trans TO.
