Snowy (cave)

The depth of the cave is 1760 meters, the total length of the passages is about 32 kilometers. The depths of the caves included in the system are: Illusion −832 m, Mezhenny −569 m, Snezhnaya −1361 m. (The lowest point is −19 m below the mirror of Lake Morozova). In the Great Hall (depths of 120-160 m from the surface) - the largest underground snowfield on the territory of the former USSR - a snow cone with an ice core, the height of which periodically changed in different years from 25 m (according to the filming of 1971–74) to the maximum possible height 60 m (observations 2002-2005). The volume of snow and firn in this case varied from 50 to 96 thousand m ³ . respectively. In the bottom part there is the Throne Hall and X Hall - the largest underground halls in Abkhazia. Their dimensions: Throne Hall - 309 m by 109 m with a ceiling height of up to 40 m; X-hall - 250 m by 70 m with a ceiling height of up to 50 m. Other large halls: Universitetskiy, Enfilada (actually three adjacent halls under the same name), the halls of Hope, Victory, Dolmen, Expectations, Gremyachiy, Clay Zaval halls, IGAN , Penelopes, Vienna, Space. All of the listed halls, except the Bolshoi and Universitetskiy, are confined to the cave river, being, according to the genesis, over-river landslides. On the way from the headwaters, the underground river receives large tributaries (flow rates of up to 10-15 l / s at low water): Nevsky Stream, Novy Stream, Zayachiy Brooks, Delusions, Struyka, Gremyachiy Brook (falls from the ceiling of the hall by a waterfall). In the bottom of the cave goes to another large watercourse - Tatyana (New) River (flow rate is estimated as one third of the flow rate of the main channel). Water staining showed that these rivers do not connect anywhere and come to the surface in different places. Three large underground waterfalls on the Snow River: Irkutsk (the height of the two knees of the waterfall is 45 m), Record (25 m) and Olympic (32 m). Large wells in the cave: well “7 Seconds” (depth 270 m), well “Oreshkovy stream” (depth 185 m), Large well (depth 165 m). However, even “7 seconds” is inferior in depth to the well in the Abac cave (western part of the Bzyb Range, well depth 410 m). A giant block collapse at the bottom - the Metrostroy block 127 meters high. There is also a nameless collapse at the junction of the Snezhnaya and Mezhenny caves, 97 meters high. Most of the route to the bottom passes along the underground river (length is more than 7 km, water consumption is at least 50 from low-water l / s in the upper reaches, up to 200 l / s in the bottom). During floods, water in the channel rises in places tens of meters. The way to the bottom through the upper entrance (p. Illusion) takes 10-12 days, through the lower entrance - two days. Other interesting places in the cave: Diamond Gallery - the side passage of the cave at a depth of 750 m, over 100 m covered with gypsum antolites (parallel-fiber aggregates). The flower passage is a passage in a blocky blockage covered with white crystals of hydromagnesite ^{[3] [4] [5]} . Crystal conflict gallery is a passage more than 2 km long, covered in large areas by a carpet of crystallite (branching aggregates of aragonite). Yields of karst waters in the river valley Hipsta through the Estavella karst well (vokluz) (335 m above sea level) and through the Vodozabor vokuz (640 m above sea level). The latter is used for water supply in the village. Duripsh. The connection between the gates and the cave is proved by coloring the cave waters. Also, colored water from the cave was recorded in the valleys of the Aapst and Dohurt rivers.

The cave was discovered on August 9, 1971 (cavers T. Guzhva and V. Glebov) and explored to a depth of 720 m by the speleoclub of Moscow State University (led by M. Zverev) in 1971-1972. The greatest depth was established up to 1335 m by expeditions 1977-1981. (leaders A. Morozov, D. Usikov, T. Nemchenko). In 1983, connected to a cave to them. S. Mezhenny (LSS expedition V. Demchenko, O. Demchenko, L. Spiridonov). The total depth of the system reached 1370 m. In 2005-2007, as a result of three expeditions, it was connected to the Illusion Cave (headed by A. Shelepin). The total amplitude of the system was 1753 m. The December 2008 expedition (headed by A. Degtyarev and Yu. Evdokimov) discovered the Throne Hall, the Petin meander course and Lake Morozova in the bottom of the cave, which increased the length of the cave by 750 m ^[6] . In January 2011 there was an immersion in Lake Morozova (submariner D. Khodykin, expedition leader A. Shuvalov), the investigated depth of the cave increased to 1760 meters ^[7] . In August 2015, the Bank cave was connected to the Snezhnaya cave (headed by A. Shelepin). Thus, the system has a fourth, lower entrance (altitude of approximately 1515 meters above sea level), leading through a lateral tributary (through the Looking Glass System) to the bottom of the cave system.

The four entrances of the Snow Cave are (in opening order) at altitudes of 1971, 2015 and 2389 and 1515 meters above sea ​​level on the slopes of Mount Hipsta, 10 km north of the village of Duripsh of the Gudauta district / municipality of Abkhazia. The plateau overlooks the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus from New Athos to Cape Pitsunda .

You can go to the cave along the forest road from the village of Duripsh. Part of the trail goes through the centuries-old beech forest, further along the mountain meadows.

• Speleology

• http://snowcave.ru/ - site dedicated to Snezhnaya, a number of materials taken from it (with the consent of the owner)
• http://club13mm.ru/topo/ - actual topographic survey of the Snezhnaya cave
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