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UID:pretalx-nss-convention-2026-EKVJKX@talks.caving.dev
DTSTART;TZID=EST:20260708T140000
DTEND;TZID=EST:20260708T143000
DESCRIPTION:In late August of 2025 cavers from across the world\, including
  six Americans\, converged in Lefka Ori (the White Mountains) of Crete\, G
 reece with the objective of continuing exploration in Sternes Cave. Origin
 ally explored in the early 90s by French cavers to a depth of 428m\, Stern
 es has seen a renewed exploration effort over the last decade. This renewe
 d effort has been led by The Speleological Club of Crete (SPOK). Since 201
 8 several large\, international expeditions have continued to push and exp
 lore Sternes which has slowly been revealing its secrets. From the origina
 l deep point of 428m exploration slowed drastically as cavers battled tigh
 t meanders. In 2018 they finally broke through to a large 60m shaft named 
 Bulldozer Pit. From here the way forward evaded cavers until the end of th
 e 2022 expedition when there was a major breakout into an extensive horizo
 ntal passage named First Light. The 2023 and 2024 expeditions were very fr
 uitful\, finding kilometers of horizontal passage\, colossal rooms\, and a
  large river passage which ended in a sump. The 2025 expedition was hopefu
 l to find a way around the sump and continue deeper. Making use of two exi
 sting camps and establishing a third\, with sleeping bags purchased with a
 n NSS international exploration grant\, multiple teams were able to explor
 e several new areas of the cave. Despite not finding a way to bypass the s
 ump a new deep point was discovered pushing the cave's depth to -728m. In 
 addition over 2\,700m of passage was surveyed extending the cave's length 
 to just over 10.7km making it Greece's third longest cave. Several other n
 earby caves were re-explored and pushed with exciting results. Sternes slo
 wly continues to reveal its secrets and it is hoped that future expedition
 s will push it past the -1km level.
DTSTAMP:20260826T232356Z
LOCATION:Auditorium
SUMMARY:Sternes Cave Project\, Crete\, Greece - 
URL:https://talks.caving.dev/nss-convention-2026/talk/EKVJKX/
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