Karbolet Cave, Mount Sodom
- Grid ref.
- 1867/0591
- Location
- South Mount Sodom
Cave mapView the map (PDF)Description of the cave:
The cave opening is a giant sinkhole that drains a wide area in the south of the mountain. Channels from its northern and southern sides drain into the sinkhole.
The northern channel pours into the cave opening in a large waterfall about 30 m high.
The southern channel is the more interesting one and begins its underground course about 100 m before the cave opening, where the channel incises beneath large blocks of cover rock, creating a kind of large bridges of cover rock in the middle of a channel flowing over the mountain plateau.
When the southern channel reaches the cave opening it descends to the floor of the opening in three waterfalls. The height of each of the two upper falls is a few meters. The height of the third fall is about 20 m. From the floor of the entrance opening the cave develops south; to descend to the cave passages one must descend another low step about 4 m high. At the bottom of the step there is a small, spacious chamber from which a network of narrow passages spreads out, developing in a general southern direction.
From the small chamber at the bottom of the low step, from which the passages spread out, another passage was found which was blocked at the time the cave was mapped. This passage develops east and has branches that have not yet been examined.
This passage was not mapped and appears on the map as an unknown continuation.
Access and hiking:
Access to the cave opening is not problematic.
The descent to the bottom of the cave opening requires the help of ropes.
Anchors: when descending through the northern channel, one can wrap a rope around a large hill located next to the cliff edge.
When descending through the southern channel, one can wrap a rope around a large block of cover rock located above the upper fall above the opening.
Moving through the cave's network of passages is usually only by crawling or walking "on all fours".
At the beginning of winter 2008 no passage could be found to the inner part of the passages and to chamber C. The blockage is apparently the result of a large flood that passed through the cave about a week before the visit to the cave.
Equipment:
- A 45 m rope for descending the chimney from the southern channel, or a 30 m rope for descending from the northern channel.
- A 10 m rope/sling for anchoring before descending to the bottom of the cave opening. If the descent is made from the northern channel, a rope/sling about 25 m long is needed for anchoring.
- Knee pads.
Written by: Boaz Langford
