Congress Report

Alpine Caves : Alpine Karst Systems and their Environmental Context

Asiago, Italy. 11th-14th June 1992

The congress was held in the small town of Asiago between Trento and Padova in northen Italy. Being situated on a alpine plateau at an altitude of around 1000 m it is a successful ski centre during the winter months but quiet during the summer. The location therefore was ideal, being in the heart of a caving area hand having good roads approaching from the south, though from the north it was a bit more tricky.

This was a congress with the potential to be a major international event, offering a valuable source of information to cavers worldwide, on an extensive range of subjects relating to alpine karst. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, te international attendance was disappointingly poor, certainly the cost of the congress could not blamed for this, which, at 80.000 Lire (around £ 35/US$66) for full partecipation and proceedings was very reasonable. This is the sort of affordable price more conference organisers should be aiming for to make events more accessible to ordinary cavers.

The accomodation available which could be arranged on arrival, varied from relatively inexpensive camp sites (remembering of course that we werw in Italy where everything tends to be on the dear side) through Hostels and up to four star hotels.

The effort put into the organisation of the congress was considerable, with no shortage of caving trips and sight-seeing tours to complement the lectures. Speakers came from as far away as Canada, and presented papers covering a wide range of topics all of course concerning alpine cave systems. A major achievement which was refered to several times was the cleaning up of Spluga della Preta, from which four tonnes of rubbish was removed over a period of 40 months. This was maily the residue from cavers' bivouacs, and it can only be hoped that an operation of this nature will not be required again.

The two conference languages were Italian and English. Throughout the presentation of the papers there was a simultaneous translation service provided. This was of the highest quality and was only reluctantely defeated when speakers read from prepared scripts which were not made available to the translators.

The caving excursions which were organised varied in difficulty from "tourist", "easy", "moderate", to "not very easy" (the latter sounding a little ominous). Many of the trips involved pitches of significant length, though there were also "horizontal" caves for the less energetic. An unusual conglomerate cave was put on the agenda and I found this interesting, though the two and a half hour drive each way made it a full days trip.

The display stands present included cave diving (Gruppo Grotte Giara-Modon), Operazione Corno d'Aquilio (the Spluga clean-up) and photographic display from many other Italian clubs including G.S. Bassano del Grappa, several Trieste groups, and G.S. Martinese. The commercial stands ranged from books to general clothing and caving equipment plus of course the International Caver stand. The secret to gathering a crowd appeared to be to sell novelties such as hand painted "flashing" bats. Despite the disappointing attendance, most traders seeme to consider the congress worthwhile.

The evenings were occupied by countless films and slide shows as well as the important socialising in te bar. On the last night we were treated to a caving "opera" - Genesis, which followed the history of the world through cavers' eyes. Although some of us could not understand the words, the meanings of most of the sketches were blatantly obvious!

Although starting during the week, and at four days, being slightly longer than most similar events, it was an opportunity missed for those who did not manage to attend. It was a good "do" and all congratulations are due to the organisers for a tremendous effort. (Report by Marcus Crabbe)