19 September – 4 October, Avenul de sub Vârful Grind – Piatra Craiului Mountains, Romania
The annual exploration expedition in Avenul de sub Vârful Grind (“Grind Pit”) will take place between 19 September and 4 October 2026, in Piatra Craiului Mountains, in the center of Romania. The expedition is organized by Silex Brașov and Focul Viu București speleology clubs. In the past years, other caving clubs in Romania and from abroad have been involved in the explorations as well.
Grind 2026 is happy to have the moral support of the Romanian Federation of Speleology and to be hosted by Piatra Craiului National Park.
The purpose of the camp is to continue the explorations of recent years in Avenul de sub Vârful Grind (Pit) – the deepest cave in Romania, with a depth of -815 m. The 2023 camp opened the way beyond the sump at -775 m, the 2024 camp prepared a safe passage in the sump area and this year’s camp main objectives are to dive the terminus sump, to explore beyond it and to further explore other leads in the terminus sector!
Avenul de sub Vârful Grind has its entrance located at an altitude of 1922 m a.s.l., on the eastern slope of the mountain’s saw-like limestone main ridge, near Grindului Valley. The entrance is located below the ridge, on one of the Hornurile Grindului steep valleys.
Being part of an underground team requires good S.R.T. skills (preferentially using European S.R.T.) as almost the entire cave is vertical and is traversed on ropes. In short, in the lower half of the cave, it is a difficult exploration/traverse for several reasons. You will participate in work/exploration trips at various points in the cave, for the objectives listed below. Details of the extended list of objectives and the possibilities of participating in certain objectives can be discussed with the organizers depending on personal experience/skills and the exploratory/organizational context of the camp.
Main objectives:
- Dive into terminal sump at -815 m
- Explore some leads found in the new sector explored in 2025 between -775 and -815
- Exploration in the the old terminus branch by enlarging the restriction point at ~ ‑807 m
Secondary objectives:
- Climbing a small waterfall wall at ‑400 m (side gallery with a tributary stream that leads to a parallel section, going up)
- Carrying out crossings/traverses and climbs in the Walter Gutt Shaft (at ‑500 m) and advancing on possible upward continuations
- Exploration of some lateral narrow leads below ‑600 m and a lead at -774 m (narrow horizontal gallery at the old sump level)
- Enlarging a narrow fracture in order to find an alternative route to bypass a potentially dangerous breccia plug area at ‑555 m (under the bivouac ‑540 m)
- Conducting geomorphological observations, (geology) structural measurements and water samples
- Photo/video documentation
- Further improve some rigging sections in various parts and replace more rope (10 years old rope)
You can find more details about the cave and about the expedition context in this document.
The Grind Explo 2025 expedition report and the FSE Eurospeleo project 2025 expedition summary.
The 2025 expedition has been awarded an exploration grant from F.S.E. (European Speleological Federation) and its partner sponsor Korda’s via the EuroSpeleo Projects funding program. In 2024 the expedition was awarded an exploration grant from U.I.S. (International Union of Speleology) and technical equipment support from ProAlpin .
For registrations, we invite you to fill out the following form integrated into the page:
(click on register button at the bottom)
After completing the form, please wait for the organizers accept (answer sent shortly). Then you will receive more details about the planning/objectives in several stages as we get closer to the start of the camp. The camp/expedition objective is to explore the cave and it is not dedicated to cave tourism, nor socializing.
The form can be also accessed via this link
The Grind Team.
