breathe OXYGENE: 2019

Finally I catched the time back... .
After 24h and 21 minutes drive, I arrived in Lofer. I enjoy driving so much that I was almost sorry that the trip ended. Was on 22nd of September 2019.
I found Lofer more peaceful and quiet than usual. Even the Shell gas station was closed. Nobody on the streets so I went with the car straight through the roads of the center of the village. Only on the asphalt some chalk drawings disturbed the landscape. I think it was a festival or something.
I managed to fall asleep in the car at 2:30 a.m. My body was shaking because it forgot the lay down position. I slept "dead" untill 9:30. Of course I needed coffee so I went to search for it back in the center of village. All traditional shops were closed, of course so I had to rely on the trusty Dankl restaurant where I usually eat before each expedition.
My backpack was ready made from home but I wanted to double check everything. Missing something was the last thing that I wanted. After one full hour of repacking, I still forgot something in the car: the mp3 player ! I will have some very quiet nights in bivouacs... .
I lifted my monster "Fjord Nansen 100l Nanga Parbat" and went to the trail that goes to the hut. This is a new type of trekking with such a luggage: slow and steady. At least that's what I tried. I found both springs dry, without any drop of water. There must have been some really dry summer here. I never saw the springs so dry. Fortunately I had with me a Powerade bottle of 500ml. Unfortunately it had only 500 ml... .

I arrived at von Schmidt Zabierow hut after 6 hours and 30 minutes. Instantly 1l of Coke disappeared in my mouth. Then a big coffee. The others, Oli, Mark and Tom, did two trips between hut and the Kreuzhohle entrance to carry the stuff from this year, including their personal gear. Bad thing was that I had to carry everything the next day, when we enter the cave. Good part is that they offer to help me and split the weight. That's team spirit !
We've eat a big dinner and had some drinks and while talked about what's about to happening this year. Oli and Mark will go straight to their bivouac from "Hall of Dreams" at -700. Me and Tom have to move the bivouac from "The Ruins" at -380, to the area where "The labyrinth" begin, at about -600, the segment that we explored last year.
They went to sleep at 20:30 in the room with lots of beds from the last floor of the hut. I looked outside the window and saw the stars embracing the peaks all over. I decided to sleep outside to get in touch again with this beautiful place.
For me, every place have it's own spirit and untold tales that you have to listen not from the people, but from nature itself. Everything happened too fast with my arrival here this time. I usually take my time one day to clear my mind and get in the mood of a tough exploration. This time was way too fast.
I managed to sleep very deep, barely hearing Tom calling me at breakfast. Was 7:00 a.m. I got eggs with ham, beside coke and coffee of course. Then I started to pack my gear. Mark took all my SRT gear in his backpack. Oli took my oversuit, the gloves and knee pads. Tom took my 6l drum full with accu's for my Petzl Duos S, tablet and DistoX. So, in the end, I had just few things to carry with my back till the cave entrance. The weather started to be really bad. Tiny drops of rain and fog. The forecast was not great at all for this first day in the cave.
Oli and Mark went already in the cave when I arrived at the entrance. Me and Tom had 5 kit bags.

After the "Faraonic block" at -200, two more kit bags were wainting for us. They were stored there by our colleagues in the pretour this summer.
There was some energy consumption moving all the stuff around in the cave, but surprisingly, we've been moving very fast actually. At the "Faraonic block" we didn't found any kit bags so we thought the others took them for us. What a nice surprise !
We arrived in the first hall of the Ruins, after 3 hours and 30 minutes only ! It seems to us much longer because of the weight of the luggage. We could still hear Oli and Mark that just left the Hall to go further to their bivouac. Tom asked me if we should continue also to our new place for bivouac near the "Labyrinth".
"Hurry slow" is my motto, so we stay in Hall nr.1 for the first night here. We were just preparing our first soup when we heard Oli and Mark coming back from "Niehamawassa" shaft. The rain from outside transformed the entire shaft in a cascade so they had to wait till the water calm down.
So, plan B: all four will rest in "the Ruins" the first night. We eated our pasta with cream soup and had lots of tea. Then we went to bed early, to have at least 10 hours to sleep. I still felt tired after so long drive, so I fell in the dream's land soon.
We woke up at 7:00. The breakfast was musli with milk and lots of teas and coffee's. Oli and Mark had the things already packed so they were already ready to go. The sound of water on "Niehamawassa" shaft was much lower than the previous day. Me and Tom prepared all our stuff. 100m of Courant "meetic" of 9mm, 80m of Beal Spelenium "Unicore" of 8,5 mm, 25 bolts with hangers and carabiners, Edelrid slings, Bosch Uneo Max with two accu's, bolting kit, survey equipment and of course, food for 4 nights. We had also 2 new mattresses, cooking pot with MSR multifuel stove, should I continue the list... ? Well, SEVEN kit bags ! Six of them of 30 l and one of 35l. Mark helped us with two kit bags till where the climb to Hall nr.4.begin. After that, the fight begun.... The team work that we did was so great that we managed to move all the stuff in 4 hours. Of course we felt the effort but the time was incredible good.

We then, started to "decorate" our brand new bivouac place from -640m. The place is actually pleasant and dry. You can hear constantly the waterfall that comes from "West Shaft" and by the sound of it, we could also take notice of the weather outside.

Tom installed the CaveLink antenna and terminal and we started to eat. We got a new message from outside through GSM antenna with forecast so we were assured that we are connected somehow to the world. The other team also wrote us that they finished setting up the bivouac so a feeling of calm embrace us. We went in the sleeping bags early, was 18:30. We couldn't sleep so we talked about different things. We finally closed the headlights and went in the land of dreams... untill some time in the night when the noise from the waterfall woke me up. Was so loud ! I fixed my "Skull cap" better on the ears and went deeper in my new "Makalu" sleeping bag. In the morning Tom didn't heard the watch ringing so we wake up after 13 hours of sleep !
We had a consistent breakfast and after we fixed our gear we went on rope. The passage that we had to continue starts above our bivouac. In 2018 Tom did a traverse from the main shaft and we fixed a rope in this segment to use it this year. Doing the trip second time here, we saw a window in the floor that goes directly in our cooking pot from the bivouac. That was sooo funny. So, we could rigg a rope and descend directly to hot tea and coffee when we return. The passage is very nice, with white calcite marks here and there over the brown limestone walls. It ends in a hall full of blocks that fallen to many years ago.

These stone blocks actually block what was actually a large shaft. Fortunately we can pass between them. Here starts the "Labyrinth". Descending carefully through blocks we discovered several other ways to do it, but most of them had to be rigged with rope. So, we kept the footsteps of last year exploration. We had to use 7m of rope on one step but otherwise, climbing down is not difficult. What was a nightmare was to survey the thing and the draw of the overlaping segments is insane. I am still working on it.
We reached '2018 last point and we went to the crack where we dropped a stone last year. I started to plant 2 bolts for the lifeline and 2 more for the pitch head then went down. The rope was touching the wall just before the bottom so I used another bolt for this rebelay. Tom came to explore together this new bottom. The water come from the opposite wall of the shaft and is flowing through a meander. A classic meander here, wow ! Corrosion, errosion waterfall steps. I didn't expected that. Unfortunately the meander is becoming too narrow after just 30 meters, so that's a dead end.

We spent more time looking around and thinking how to survey the passage because there were 3 ways to go down in the meander. We surveyed all on our way back to bivouac. We derigged the entire passage including the "Labyrinth" part. Nobody will gonna come here again too soon. From the Labyrinth entrance we rappeled straight in our sleeping bags, just for fun. We went for water in the main shaft and we started to cook. Unfortunately this was the bottom part of our exploration. We reached about -710 on this side. Did some Cave Link messages exchange with Tom and Oli that were trying to push beyond - 780 from their side. They found something also but the cave does't allow us to go deeper, the development is rising tho. Planning for next day was kind of lottery. There are about 4 passages to check left from previous explorations. We picked the "Crystal Meander" end from last year where we found a shaft at the end of the meander. Actually everywhere in this sector of the cave there are shafts. Some of them are connected, some are not. You never know till you explore them.
I started to cook a meal to refill the calories that we burned and wrote some notes in my notebook. I exchanged some messages with Roxana also. There are some things that can't be written. The feeling, the moment, the darkness. These are just inside you.

We went to sleep at 22:00.
Tom woke me up at 8:00. Coffee, coffee and some musli with milk. We had to climb up about 200 meters elevation, till "Hall V" to enter in "Crystal Meander". In "west meander" we collected some soil samples. Is black and may be volcanic. This meander is also fantastic because it have two floors and the one that we step is above the other. We explored the other part till it became too narrow in 2018. We called it "Micro meander" because is tiny, like a model scale meander. From "west meadner" we continued through Hall VII, VI and V where a rope rigged 4 years ago is leading us to "Crystal meander". Everytime I come back here I try make some good pictures but always is not time for this. The small crystals from the walls are trying to scratch your caving suit. We try to be carefull with them. Are at macro scale and are pretty sharp. The floor is full of clay and suddenly you carry with you some other kilograms on the legs without asking for it.
We prepared the material and I started to drill. The pitch head is pretty narrow so drilling wasn't comfortable at all. Looking from above, the bottom of the shaft started to look familiar and I was thinking where is this "picture" from ? I went down straight after setting up 4 bolts. The rope was long enough. It still has the smell from Courant factory. I just took off my descender off rope and I saw a red dot on the floor before I could yell "rope free" to Tom. Hmm, this is red dot from some survey... . Where the heck are we ? I kept looking around speaking for myself. I looked up on the opposite wall, also looks familiar. There is a corroded rock that some years ago I used it for a rebelay. Well, in that moment I realised... . Yes, was the red dot from our survey from 2015 when I reached this place first time, rigging from the "Wunderland" meander together with Oli. This is Piata Unirii !!! I can't describe how happy I was in that moment. I started to tell Tom where we are. We just made another connection. There are two ways now to reach this place from The Ruins: through Steingarten - Wunderland or through Hall V - Crystal Meander. We are deciphering some mazes.

On the way up to pitch head of the meander, Tom tried to check a crack on the wall which looks like a chamber. Was just a chamber with no continuation, but we let the rope there for "visit" next year expedition. We went back in our bivouac with a happy mood. We told the others what we did....
We eated a nice dinner and spend the time with the tablet to make invetory. We planned our exit. Tom and Oli will leave straight outside the next day. Me and Tom will take a break in the old bivouac at -175m for a last night. The problem was, how many things we had to pack.

This bivouac place is very comfortable but far from future explorations. So, we had to get everything up, but the mattresses.
The next morning we started to pack everything. We managed to have only 5 kit bags on the way outside, leaving the 5th full with rope and exploration materials in "Hall V". I sent a last message through cave link that we plan to exit on Saturady between 12 and 2 p.m., so maybe Oli and Mark could come to help us carry the stuff. On the way back we spoke about the other places of explorations. It's like we are afraid to put a point to the exploration of this magnificent cave which served us many surprises each year. We arrived in "Hall 1" bivouac after 5 intense hours. We made a break of almost two hours. We refilled our bodies and also made the inventory with what we left in this big hall for future expeditions. We ran out of sugar that day. So, we used chocolate bars in teas and coffees to make them tasty.
We then, continued up. I set up my camera on a stone while Tom was ascending from "Hall 1".

I heard the reverb of the darkness "rope free" and I went on rope myself. We managed to reach the old bivouac in 3 hours. We had energy to exit but we stayed to the plan. We will sleep here for last night.
Brand new stove and eating accessories. This place is windy and colder than the others. I remembered when we use it for the first explorations here. At that time, we felt comfortable in this place. Now, we have options. Three more bivouacs are in this cave now.

We also made the inventory of this site after we used a part of aliments and we went in our sleeping bags. We used 2 mattresses each to have a comfortable lay down position. Was a good night.
Next morning, we had the usual breakfast. According to the plan, we should be outside between 12:00 and 14:00. We started slowly to enter in rhythm at 10:30. Just 3 hours ahead of us was the exit and the we hoped for a blue sky.
Passing kitbags in tight passges, tandem walking and motivation was all. We reached the bottom of the monster shaft of 93m in less than 2 hours. Tom went ahead. I had plenty of time to prepare my 2 footloop system consisting of 2 independent footcords from Petzl, one for each leg. I don't use footascender like my colleagues, I got used in time with double footloop and now I tried something different. The key is the lenghts of these. Should be exactly the same so I kept one fixed with a knot and the other one the way it's designed from the factory, with a stopper to increase/decrease the lenght as you desire. I connected both with my tiny Edelrid "ninteen" carabiner to my ascender. I can improve the system by adding a second "ninteen" so, the footloops would be completely independent. In the new Petzl ascender lower hole there is enough place for this system. I like it !
It took me as usual, 25 minutes of "pomping" on the rope. After the first rebelay, when you hang in complete darkness at 60 meters above ground, you have plenty of time to think if your gear is in perfect condition :). After 3rd rebelay, you can touch the wall finally and the smell from outside is invading your nose. Suddenly you realize that another life experience has ended. You are catched between the feeling that you are stepping outside and the one that calls you back in.
I started to hear voices and I realized that is Tom talking with Oli. The guys were on the trail to us. Perfect timing !

Was a good plan to not push further the night before because outside rained a lot. The others came to get their gear also because when they exited the weather was awfull. They exited a day before and went to hut straight.
We managed to pack everything in the backpacks. I was afraid that I will need two tripsbut fortunately this wasn't necesarry. We also demounted the cavelink antenna and packed it, derigged the traverse of the exposure passage.
In two hours I called back home that I still exist.

For now, the cave reached 4,5 Km of development and a -782m depth.
Sunday, 29 of September 2019, we went down on the valley. The autumn already entered in it's rights. The brown, the yellow and the light green acompany us on our way.

I didn't had any sponsor or organization behind this, like always. But I would like to thank the persons that support my presence in this expedition: Roxana, Mr.Dan, Laura and Mr. Diaconu. A special thanks to Misu for the topo device ! You all were there with me !

Equipment that I used underground:
Helmet: Edelrid Ultralight Junior
Main light: PETZL Duo S
Secondary light: Petzl Tikka (2017)
Undersuit: Steinberg Alladino
Oversuit: Aventure Verticale Titan red
Socks: 1 x Lorpen TETA, 1 x Lorpen T2 Hunting Extreme Overcalf
"second skin": Fjord Nansen Are
Beanie: Edelrid skullcap
Jacket: Down jacket Simond Makalu light
Gloves(caving): 2 x Ansell Marigold Multiplus 40
Skin gloves: Quechua
Gloves: Quechua Forclaz 20
Boots: EtcheSecurite Clark
Knee pads: Warmbac
Elbow pads: Warmbac
Harness: Aventure Verticale Muruck
Chest harness: Petzl torse
Footloop ascender: Petzl Ascension
Chest ascender: Edelrid Wind Up (2016 model)
Descender: PETZL stop (pre 2018 model)
Cowtails: from dynamic rope Singing Rock Icon 9,3mm
Cowtails carabiners: Edelrid Pure
Descender carabiner: Petzl OK triact
Backup ascender: Petzl Tibloc 1 + Petzl OK Triact
Braking carabiner: Edelrid bulletproof
Harness maillon: Peguet 10mm steel
Footloop: Petzl footcord x 2 pcs.
Tackle bags: Steinberg Ovoidale, Aventure Verticale
Rigging boltbag: MTDE Spitkit
Caving hammer: Kong speleagle
Cliff: Edelrid
Tablet bag: Petzl Boltbag
Auxiliary carabiners: Mammut Wall keylock
Sleeping bag: Simond Makalu II Light (-9 comfort)
Bivouac bag: Vaude Biwak I
Bivouac lamp: Petzl Noctilite + Petzl Tikka 2017
Survival blanket: 3 pieces.

Equipment that I used on surface:
Jacket: Simond Alpinist Light Windproof
Pants: Simond Alpinist Light stretch
T-shirts: cotton Simond BeDifferent
Technical T-shirts Short sleeves: Simond merinowool
Technical T-shirts Long sleeves: Simond 1/2 zip sweatshirt
Socks: Simond Alpinism
Fleece: Simond hoody
Gloves: Simond Sprint, Simond Cascade
Bandana: Simond edge turquoise
Beanie: Simond Alpinism grey
Boots: Simond Alpinism light
Backpack Fjord Nansen Nanga Parbat
Sunglass: Orao SG 500
Poles: Northfinder Sherpa

Electronics:
Tablet: Lenovo TAB3A7 essential
Video: GoPro Hero 5
Photo: Sony Alpha 5000
Power Bank: Hama Pipe power pack 10400mah + Promate 13200mah
Distance metering: DistoX 2 (leica X310 modified)
Accesories: 6 x Petzl Duo-S accu, 3 x GoPro Hero rechargeable battery, 1xUSB cable, 1 x USB cable.

Now that I used it in real exploration situations for almost a year, I can write this full review. So, here you have it:
1) The design
Let's be straight: most of the caving lights from today look the same: a round metal housing in front, usually from aluminium and a metal or plastic case on the back of the helmet, that is holding the batteries or the rechargeable batteries. There are several brands out there (Scurion, Elspeleo, Phaethon etc.) but all look alike. Petzl approuch to powerful Caving light was different: plastic material, ovoidal reflector and a dedicated and patented system for accu's.

The weight
With it's 370g it weigh less than the competition (470 g for a Scurion). The accu is 168g.

The light beam
The light beam is wide on the horizontal axis, looking the same as the one in the old Ultra Vario model. Somewhere between 160* and 170*. In the vertical axis, unfortunately the light beam is narrower than was on old model. And I mean, I can see and feel the difference clearly, especially after I switched straight from Ultra Vario to Duo S.
The color temperature of the light is on the cold side of the spectrum. Somewhere around 6500* K like the color temperature of photographic flashes. This is not bad by any means because anyway you get use with any color temperature very fast. I just mention this because is useful for "contre-jour" effects in pictures, because you can obtain a similar effect as one of a flash.

The accumulator
The accu case have the same dimensions as was for Ultra Wide and Ultra Vario, only visual difference is that is completely black, the cap is grey and is encapsulated in a black rubber and have the white Petzl logo painted on it. So you can be sure you buy latest model only by it's design.

The differences are inside these patented boxes: 3600Ah accu's that last longer than the old ones (2200Ah for Ultra Wide, 2600Ah for Ultra Vario). Well, how long it last then ? Depends on how much light you want, of course. But as a average, it can stand 6-7 hours before it switch to reserve mode. This is actually a full "normal" caving trip. I think this is the major improvement of this model over the old ones, the accu got real. Of course you should buy from the beginning a second accu together with this caving light. That's a must for long trip or for a bivouac.
The rated power on maximum is 700lm, and for sure it deliver it. You can cover easily with Petzl Duo S a 100 m deep shaft or a big chamber (imagine something like 50 m long, 50 meters tall and 50 meters height).
The modes are 5 and all are factory presets that you can't change:
Mode 1 is rated at 80lm and is more than enough to walk around camp, crawling in tight passages, walking slowly in technical sections of a cave...
Mode 2 is rated at 180lm and in this mode the light starts to get serious. Good beam surrounds you. You can travel comfortable in horizontal and vertical passages. I use this mode much often than the others. Is kind of "de facto" light of this caving light.
Mode 3 is rated at 330lm and is good for observing larger passages, taking pictures, filming and so on... .
Mode 4 is rated 700lm and it provide the maximum light this lamp can bring in the mighty darkness. You can see the bottom of a 100m deep shaft, you can see the volume of a huge chamber, well...you can SEE !
Mode 5 is reserved for spot only and is 450 lm. Deep light indeed. Perfect for exploring distance spots at more than 100 meters.
There is also a "boost" mode of 1100 lm that you can use for a short period of time (5 seconds) and only if you still have enough power left in your accu. Is useful when you make a long exposure picture or anytime you need a bigger amount of light in a passage. I am not considering this mode a real thing even if on the box of the product it is marketing with big letters that it has 1100lm max light. It's a marketing gimmick.

It has also a system called "face 2 face" that I didn't tested. This should provide instant dimming of light when you look at somebody wearing a "face 2 face" compatible light. It's a sensor that detects this. More details are here.

Waterproofing is provided by it's IP67 rating which is tested for sinking it at -1m for 30 minutes. I didn't had any problem with it until now regarding waterproofing. Also, the accu's I think are very good sealed because I am still using the boxes from the first model that I got back in 2011.
The reflector is smaller compared with previous models and for sure smaller than the competition. Which is good for tight passages especially. The plastic used seems alright to stand the test of caving for several years. The Petzl warranty is 3 years for the reflector and 1 year for the accu's.
Final thoughts
This lamp is definitly an improvment over the old model from Petzl (Ultra Vario). The light beam is narrower on vertical axis while having about 160* on the horizontal axis. The volumes you can cover with it are big. Halls, deep shafts, no problem seeing them. It is also smaller which can be only a good thing. The accu mounting system is the best you can get. Clipping and unclipping an accu never been so easy and the system stood the test of time. The price is good compared with the competition (370 euros).
The thing what I'll improve and I am disappointed it doesn't have, is a larger angle of light on vertical axis.
Using 1 accu each day, you'll need to count how many days you'll spend underground and get the accu's accordingly.

The big one, Accu 4, is not made anymore. They were bulkier and heavy. Were not meant to be wear on helmet but I got one for curiosity. Inside of it you'll find 4 Li-Ion cells instead of 2 but is way better to get 2 distinct smaller accu's than that monster.