Peşteri la Casa de Piatră, Munţii Bihor, cu hărţi şi descriere/ Ponorul mic de după Deluţ; Peştera de după Deluţ; Ponorul cu zăpadă din Vârtop; Peştera din Pârâul Orbului; Peştera Coiba Mare; Peştera Coiba Mică; Peştera Oilor; Peştera mică din Băroaica; Peştera Băroaica; Peştera din Dunga Vulturului; Avenul din Dunga Vulturului 

Liviu Valenas, de la

COIBA MICA-COIBA MARE SYSTEM, Bihor Mountains, Romanian Western Carpathians, ROMANIA.

Cartography by LIVIU VALENAS, 1973-2020, Map layout: EUGEN KAMP, 2020, Speleological Club "Z", Photos by Liviu Valenas, Dan Moldovan and Diana Daraban.

Abstract

The cave network Coiba Mică - Coiba Mare is an awesome Romanian cavern even if not the longest. The cave entrance portal is the largest, and its long stream has the biggest flow in Romania. A tremendous and complicated 4-km-long phreatic-pipes maze at entrance makes it unique in Europe. In 2014, scuba divers reached a depth of 92.5 m in final sump, a top national record of diving (Pereţ, Drăgan, 2016).

Physical dimensions

Total length: 6,400 m

VR: 213.5 m (-164.5;+49.0)

Extension (not sump no 2): 585 m

Total length/Extension: 10.9

History of explorations

The locals (Motz) have known the Coiba Mare cave’s large entrance for hundreds of years. They named it Stone House (Casa de Piatra). Over time, the hamlet near cave received the name Stone House and the cave, the name of Coiba Mare to differentiate it from neighboring Coiba Mică cave.

In 1922, the biologists René Jeannel and Arnold (Arthur) Winkler visited the Coiba Mare cave (Jeannel, Racovita, 1929). In 1953 and 1956, Marcian Bleahu, Iosif Viehmann and Dan Coman explored for the first time the cave mainstream, limited by upstream and downstream terminal sumps. They surveyed 760 m and published the map in 1957, declaring the cave as “finished” and “of a local interest” (?!). As for Coiba Mică cave, Marcian Bleahu & co. defined it as “an impassable swallow hole” (?!). For the next two decades, the two caves fell in complete oblivion.

It was in February 1973 when Liviu Vălenaş and Ioan Bele reached Coiba Mică cave and discovered not an “impenetrable swallow-hole”, but a true cavern. They explored and surveyed the cave on 270 m, but a sump stopped the downstream exploring. In 1975, the Speleological Club “Z” led by Liviu Vălenaş continued exploring and survey of the Coiba Mare cave. Between 1975 and 1976, the small team of speleologists: Liviu Vălenaş, Eleonora Vălenaş, Gheorghe Drimba and Emil Silvestru explored and surveyed the cave on 4.724 m. The most significant result is a vast phreatic maze near the entrance, with a total length of 3,874 m. The survey of the entrance portal proved it as the largest one in Romania: 74 m wide and 47 m tall. In 1977, a new team led by Liviu Vălenaş explored the cave with guest participation of Gábor Halasi†, Petru Brijan†, and Ovidiu Cuc†. The length of the Coiba mare cave reached 5,400 m. In January 1978, the scuba diver Florin Păroiu (supported by Liviu Vălenaş, Nicolae Sasu, and Dorel Pop) passed the sump between Coiba Mare cave and Coiba Mică cave, realizing the junction between the two caves, the length of the new caves network reaching 5,680 m. Liviu Vălenaş published in 1978 the detailed map of the 5,680 m (Valenas, 1978). In 1979 Nicolae Sasu, together with a group of Polish speleologists, discover a small pothole near Coiba mică cave, making the junction with Coiba Mică cave. The total length of the cave system Coiba Mică - Coiba Mare is thus 6,140 m. In 1979, search for airy-parts in caves ended. Plunging in last Coiba mare cave sump (Lake of Death) was sole choice to advance. In 1982, Liviu Vălenaş invited Lászlo Czako, a Hungarian scuba diver to dive the lake. A giant plug of submerged timber logs forced the scuba diver to abandon at 16 m depth. Between 1973 and 1982, Speleological Club “Z” organized 14 exploration camps attended by 57 speleologists and scuba divers.

In 1986, Liviu Vălenaş became a public enemy, as Romania’s communist institutions stated. In 1989, with the support of the political regime, caving club “Focul Viu” from Bucharest started the stealing of Liviu Vălenaş work. Without the author's permission, they copied the map made in 1978 by Liviu Vălenaş. After falling of Communism, this caving club hidden its act against U.I.S.'s ethics. In 2018, the theft repeated. G. Ponta, B. Onac, and C. Ciubotărescu (Ponta, Onac, 2018) published the Liviu Vălenaş map of 1978 without the author’s approval. They did it under a false signature of a fictional caving club ("Sfinx" Gârda), in a book issued in the United States at Springer Publishing House. The publisher is also liable for intellectual property theft. In 2011, was another action contrary to U.I.S.'s rules. Austrian cavers surveyed and published the water courses sketch of Coiba Mare cave (Huber, 2011).

In 2014, a small group of Finnish scuba divers: Sami Paakkarinen and Patrick Gronquist, in collaboration with Adrian Pereţ, did a great performance in the downstream sump of Coiba mare Cave (Lake of Death). They dived 200 m up to the depth of 92.5 m, a top record of Romania (Peret, Dragan, 2016). With this last action, the underground system reaches 6,400 m total length and a deep of 213.5 m (-164.5; +49). In 2017, Speleological Club “Z” collaborated with the scuba diver Cristian Cristea. The last one dived for the first time the small sump downstream of the open sump in Coiba Mare cave. He advanced 9 m to a depth of 5 m. Diving in this sump will resume soon.

LIVIU VALENAS

Speleological Club “Z” President

imagini din Peștera Coiba Mare sunt la

vezi şi

Recorduri de scufundare în Peşterile Coiba Mare şi Izbucul Tăuz, Munţii Bihor

Sifonul dintre Peşterile Coiba Mare şi Coiba Mică

Peștera de după Deluț

Donează 30 de lei