From March 29 to March 31, 2019, participated in the implementation of a project to organize a highline over a karst sinkhole, which is the entrance to the Bottomless Well cave on the Chatyr-Dag massif plateau of the Crimea peninsula. I was a photographer of this project.
Organizer: Slackline in Crimea (Simferopol)
Time at the point: 2 days and 2 nights.
Time for organizing the line: 5 hours.
Time on the line: 7.5 hours.
People on the sling: 9.
Highline height: impossible to measure accurately - the depth of the main funnel is about 30 meters.
Highline length: about 20 meters.
Iron: 6 12mm diameter anchors hammered in.
Average cost for 1 participant (accommodation at the base, transfer, iron): 2000 rubles.
For the organization of the main and safety lines, one MarathonPLAY sling 200m long was used.
From left to right: Mikhail Lapshin, Alexander Nikulin, Alexander Chasnyk, Varvara Pugach, Anton Zubkov, Artyom Makhinya, Denis Gryaznov, Erhard Steingel, Igor Pshenichny, Dmitry Terovsky, Vladislav Goloborodko
March 29, 2019. Day 0
At about 20:00, having enlisted the help of Vladimir and his little Niva, we stop by the tourist base "Onyx", located about 1 km from the desired cave. The road is medium-passable, but there is no porridge or mud - it's dry. Dinner. Mainly from buckwheat. In the process, we were busy discussing the upcoming symbolic glass of wine for acceptance in good weather. We went to bed early - a difficult day ahead.
March 30, 2019. Day 1
Wake up at about 7:30 am. It seems that the wine has worked - despite the dubious predictions, outside the window, the blue sky and the blinding white slopes of Eklizi Burun. On the lower plateau, snow is almost invisible, which is good news. We leave at 9 and in half an hour already in place. A preliminary inspection of the site showed that the soil for the hinge was fertile - two options were asked for implementation at once. By voting, they chose a line shorter and lower, but with the most spectacular view - above the very center of the well. We started creating points for the station. It was not easy to drill - the rock turned out to be very hard. We hammered in 3 anchors with a diameter of 12mm.The left station, among other things, was secured to a tree. By 15 o'clock, all preparatory processes were completed. And the inspector Igor began to woo the line, generously sprinkling the surrounding space with the ringing singing of the line at each break and comments on his assessment of the power of the tape tension. After it, about two more hours walkers followed each other, until the sunset and cold snap forced everyone to gather for a group photo. In the evening, they opened champagne at the base, boiled a huge pot of buckwheat like a king and got a charge of aesthetic pleasure by watching a fire show from Artyom.
March 31, 2019. Day 2
We got enough sleep. An amazing thing: the blue sky remained in the same place - outside the window. Until the larks finished their breakfast, the most motivated slackliners hung the shorty right at the base. Duets and other perversions were practiced on it. At about 10 am everyone came out to the cave together. We didn’t remove the sample for the night, therefore, having checked the stations, we immediately got down to business. Today it was clearly warmer: one of the walls of the funnel was continuously throwing off its insignificant ice cover directly on our photographer, who was catching interesting angles from below. A huge icicle froze threateningly over the center of the hole into some kind of underworld, clearly proving that further descent into the cave at this time of year is a self-destructive idea. When Varya's chilling cries and Artyom's triumphant exclamations died down somewhere in the steppe expanses, and the legs of those present began to refuse to walk, a hammock went into action, which turned out to be an excellent swing. At about 15:30, dismantling of the line began. At about 5 pm, they were already eating a late lunch at the base, and an hour later they were loading equipment into the car.
From left to right: Mikhail Lapshin, Alexander Nikulin, Alexander Chasnyk, Varvara Pugach, Anton Zubkov, Artyom Makhinya, Denis Gryaznov, Erhard Steingel, Igor Pshenichny, Dmitry Terovsky, Vladislav Goloborodko
