The international cave diving expedition Punar u Luci 2025 was organized by the Caving Department of CMC St. Michael from Šibenik.
The expedition was held from May till September while the central part was held in the period from August 15th to August 24th. During the main part of the expedition, 77 cavers from five countries: Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria, Uruguay and Germany, gathered with the aim of transporting heavy diving equipment to the 1st sump. This required technical climbing of several chimneys, searching the surface for new entrances and exploring new found pits.
The expedition was divided in three main parts; a pre-expedition where the cave had to be rigged to a bivouac and searching of the area to discover new entrances. In the main part of the expedition a diving team was formed, together with a transport team and base camp team. The part of the cave between the bivouac and the sump was equipped with ropes and anchor points. The transportation team transported more than 500 kilograms of diving, bivouac and technic equipment and food and also installed a CaveLink communication system. The post-expedition part was for derigging and cleaning the cave of everything that was left.
Despite cave divers not reaching the 2nd sump the caving team surveyed more than 1 km of new passages above chimneys in the Punar u Luci pit and a new cave Paležinka to a depth of -191 m with 345 m length.
This Euro Speleo Project was sponsored by the European Speleological Federation and Aventure Verticale equipment from France.
Read the full report.