Slovakia – Caves, Sumps & Karst Springs

Slovakia has thousands of caves, and every one is a natural monument under the Nature Protection Act: entering a cave that is not open to the public is prohibited, and exploration needs the consent of the nature-protection authority. So there is no tourist or commercial cave diving – what exists is decades of sump exploration by the Slovak Speleological Society (SSS) and Czech partners. In the Slovak Karst (UNESCO, shared with Hungary's Aggtelek) the greatest prize is Skalistý potok on the Jasov plateau, where divers passed 22 sumps between 1982 and 2000; in the 203 m Kunia priepasť they dived the lake at −150 m. In the Low Tatras the 'Water Road' links the Demänová Cave of Liberty with the Vyvieranie spring – Vladimír Žikeš swam it solo in 1982–83 and died in its Pekelný sump in 1984. The only site with something like regular diving, the thermal Morské oko at Tornaľa, has been registered as a cave since 2006 and diving there is administratively restricted. Show caves such as Domica or Gombasecká have no diving and are not listed. Sites are listed so that you know what is there and who to ask – never to be dived without the permits.

Facts

• Legal status: Act 543/2002 §24: caves are natural monuments; entry into non-public caves is banned; exploration needs the nature-protection authority's consent; research only by qualified persons notified 7 days ahead (§56).
• Cave custodian: Správa slovenských jaskýň (Slovak Caves Administration), Hodžova 11, Liptovský Mikuláš; tel. +421 44 553 64 11, caves@ssj.sk.
• Fatalities: Vladimír Žikeš died in the Pekelný sump of the Demänová Cave of Liberty (1984); Czech speleodiver Miroslav Nešvera died exploring the Teplica cave near Tisovec (1994).

Season

• Acceptable: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
• Water temperature: 4–22 °C

Expeditions run all year but only at low water: after snowmelt or heavy rain karst springs rise and sumps turn murky and dangerous (Hlbokô swells then). Documented dives took place in January (Pustá, 2011), October (Hlbokô, 2015) and December (Cave of Liberty, 1984). Tornaľa's Morské oko is fed by thermal springs; no exact temperature source was found.

Dive sites (9)

Western Tatras (Orava)

• Brestovská jaskyňa – advanced

Low Tatras (Demänová & Jánska dolina)

• Demänovská jaskyňa slobody – Vyvieranie („Vodná cesta”) – advanced
• Pustá jaskyňa – Sifón rešpektu (Žikešov dóm) – advanced
• Vyvieračka Hlbokô (Jaskyňa Hlbokô) – 0–6 m, advanced

Slovak Karst (Jasov, Silica & Plešivec plateaus)

• Jaskyňa Skalistý potok – advanced
• Krásnohorská jaskyňa – advanced
• Kunia priepasť – advanced
• Nová Brzotínska jaskyňa – 0–20 m, advanced

Gemer (Tornaľa)

• Morské oko (Tornaľa) – barlangként védett / protected as a cave – 0–38 m, advanced

All caves listed here are protected natural monuments and closed to independent diving. Sump depths and lengths are rarely published; figures come from the Slovak Speleological Society bulletin (Spravodaj SSS), Wikipedia and showcaves.com. Positions are cave entrances, not sumps.