Underwater exploration
The presence of numerous underwater caves in the Brenta valley offers the opportunity for carrying out interesting speleological explorations. Starting from the south, in the Solagna area, the Fontanazzi karst spring is a draw for enthusiasts and allows them to enter a truly unique zone. Proceeding north and entering the Municipality of Valstagna, the Caves of Oliero hypogeum is the most important karst phenomenon in the whole valley, followed by the major complex of the Caves of Subiolo, just a few kilometres further north. There are two caves that can be visited in the Caves of Oliero Park; Covol dei Siori or the Parolini Cave and Covol dei Veci. Cave-diving exploration is very popular in these two caves, both by recreational cave-divers and true speleological experts. The most important speleological diver who brought the Caves of Oliero Complex to everyone’s attention with new records and new discoveries was without a doubt Luigi Casati. He is an expert in karst phenomena and hit a very important juncture in his career in the Caves of Oliero.
In March 2004, after numerous explorations of Covol dei Siori, the speleologist from Lecco set a new distance record diving in this cave as far as 3,603 metres, exceeding his previous record by about 235 metres. However, setting a new record was not the purpose of his mission. He actually wanted to work out the orientation of the cave and above all see if there was an actual connection with Covol dei Veci, whose entrance on the surface is just tens of metres from that of Covol dei Siori.
In January 2005, Casati was back again, convinced that he had found what he was looking for. Yet another expedition was thus launched, coordinated with his team of experts from various parts of Europe, including the Swiss Jean Jacques Bolanz, Greek Christos, Belgians Roger Cossemyns and Marc Vandermeulen, Massimiliano Cimabue Valsecchi, Massimiliano Ciquita Cichellero, representing the Gruppo Grotte Giara di Valstagna, and Francesco Boaria and Dilda Modesto from the Vicenza Fire Department. After a few days of intense training and preparations, Luigi dived into Covol dei Siori on Sunday 16th January 2005 and, passing though funnels, sumps and submerged chambers with a depth of anywhere between -40 and -60 metres, at a certain point, he came across the trace thread left by the English team led by Rick Stanton who had entered from Covol dei Veci the previous year, therefore from the other side. This particular find just confirmed what had previously only been a theory, that the two caves were indeed connected.
Luigi wrote in his diary: “…I’m moving around cautiously between one boulder and another, because for a second it seemed, on observing the suspension, there was a current coming from behind me. After 32 metres, bang in front of me, oh my God, crossing another gallery, I see a tiny little thread! I know what it is! It’s the same thread I saw on Rick Stanton’s reels this summer in France. I can’t believe my eyes, because I never ever imagined being able to connect the two Oliero tunnels. From now on, it won’t just be Proteus, which I run into on every dive, who enter via the Siori and come out in the Veci or vice versa. Smiling away into my mask, I nurture the thought of future explorations, of surprising routes and almost without noticing I reach the gas tank that will help me reach the cave entrance…”.
There was no waiting around for those new explorations. In fact, towards the end of January, Englishman Rick Stanton arrived in Italy and preparations commenced. When the two big fish of the cave-diving scene, plus Volanthen, decided they could do a 3-day dive, their enthusiasm started to catch on until the Swiss Jean Jacques Bolanza, adviser and assistant to Casati, of some thirty years’ tried-and-true experience, gave his blessing to the venture. In 2004, on a dive inside Covol dei Veci lasting many hours, after 2,000 metres’ progress, Rick Stanton reached a resurfacing zone 200 metres long, an “island” where they were able to stop and create a sort of base camp to depart from to enter and explore the other chambers there. After days of training, they set off from that point to discover new caves and galleries in all different directions seeking to get their bearings in this immense underwater labyrinth.