Rob
Well-known member
Eldon PC / Team Awesome - Albania 2026 – Back to the grind
A few of us have let things slip a bit since Christmas so we’re heading back out to Northern Albania to get our yearly exercise. There are 12 of us this year, including 3 newer / younger / Awesome? cavers who’ve signed up for their first taste of Albanian limestone, long walk-ins and questionable life choices. The rest of us have been before and are mostly really excited to be heading back.
For those who don’t know the area – it’s a big high limestone mountain range absolutely riddled with holes, with “our area” at about 2000m elevation. The catch being the hut is at 1200m so you’ve got to walk your ass, the gear and the hangover up there every morning.
We’ve been exploring this limestone plateau since 2009, now with ~10 caves over 100m deep (deepest ~435m), but there is still a huge amount of ground left.
Last year was one of our classic trips: plenty of caves, plenty of effort, some decent depth (around -170m in one), and a lot of “this definitely goes”… right up until it didn’t. We also found a new high area with 10+ open holes that we barely touched, so naturally that’s where we’re heading back to. Mountain GOAT (last year’s big hope) turned out to be a bit of a Ghar Parau in the end, so we’re back on the usual Albanian programme: spread out, drop everything that looks promising, hope one of them actually delivers, and have a great time doing it.
Evenings are, as ever, spent back at the digs being very well fed, feeling slightly broken, and rehydrating with local beer. It’s a classic scene — last one back “wins”, having found the most cave that day. Honestly, it’s a cracking expedition that is made by the crazy characters. By the end I think I hurt from laughing as much as from the grind.
This rope would make a real difference. Everything out there is vertical, a long way to carry gear, and super sharp so ropes don’t last very long. An extra 200m would go straight into a kit store hidden in the new area up high, and hopefully get underground in the first couple days. 9.6mm may actually be a great compromise in diameter so we’re keen to try it.
We’ll keep a proper thread going on here. The digs now has wifi so you’ll get a daily diary entry, maybe even with a silly video, depending on how late down we are, and how much beer/raki gets drunk!
Cheers for running this again — it’s a cracking scheme and much appreciated.
A few of us have let things slip a bit since Christmas so we’re heading back out to Northern Albania to get our yearly exercise. There are 12 of us this year, including 3 newer / younger / Awesome? cavers who’ve signed up for their first taste of Albanian limestone, long walk-ins and questionable life choices. The rest of us have been before and are mostly really excited to be heading back.
For those who don’t know the area – it’s a big high limestone mountain range absolutely riddled with holes, with “our area” at about 2000m elevation. The catch being the hut is at 1200m so you’ve got to walk your ass, the gear and the hangover up there every morning.
We’ve been exploring this limestone plateau since 2009, now with ~10 caves over 100m deep (deepest ~435m), but there is still a huge amount of ground left.
Evenings are, as ever, spent back at the digs being very well fed, feeling slightly broken, and rehydrating with local beer. It’s a classic scene — last one back “wins”, having found the most cave that day. Honestly, it’s a cracking expedition that is made by the crazy characters. By the end I think I hurt from laughing as much as from the grind.
This rope would make a real difference. Everything out there is vertical, a long way to carry gear, and super sharp so ropes don’t last very long. An extra 200m would go straight into a kit store hidden in the new area up high, and hopefully get underground in the first couple days. 9.6mm may actually be a great compromise in diameter so we’re keen to try it.
We’ll keep a proper thread going on here. The digs now has wifi so you’ll get a daily diary entry, maybe even with a silly video, depending on how late down we are, and how much beer/raki gets drunk!
Cheers for running this again — it’s a cracking scheme and much appreciated.
