13/03/2026
Another ultra-deep cave exploration powered by Seacraft DPVs 🚀
At the end of February 2026, a team of Polish cave divers travelled to the Veneto region in northern Italy to continue exploration of the Elefante Bianco spring 🇮🇹
The cave had previously been explored by the same group in 2024 to a depth of –227 metres, more than 650 metres from the entrance. That expedition marked a major breakthrough, taking place 20 years after Luigi Casati’s record dive to –186 m (530 m from the entrance).
During the 2026 expedition, supported by Italian friends, the team discovered nearly 200 metres of new passages, pushing the cave to an astonishing depth of –292 metres.
Bartłomiej Pitala the expedition’s push diver, describes the newly discovered section:
“After reaching the terminal shaft where I ended my exploration in 2024, I descended to the bottom at –235 metres and found a corridor leading deeper into the cave. After advancing about 100 metres, another shaft appeared in front of me — a several-metre-wide crack with no visible bottom.
My computers already showed several hours of decompression, but I decided to descend head-first using my dual Seacraft Ghost DPVs. The depth on the navigation console increased quickly: –250… –260… –270… –280… and still no bottom in sight.
Only after passing –280 metres could I begin to distinguish the shapes of rocks below me. I reached the bottom at –290 metres, pushed forward for a few seconds to gather more information about the cave’s topography, dropped my reel, and immediately started the return with my DPVs set to the highest gear.” said Bart.
Elefante Bianco is a cave system combining deep vertical shafts with long horizontal passages between them. In such environments, the speed of travel through horizontal sections plays a crucial role in reducing the enormous decompression obligation.
Using dual Seacraft Ghost DPVs, capable of speeds exceeding 80 metres per minute even with a fully equipped technical diver, greatly improved the efficiency of exploration. A power converter providing an almost unlimited energy source for heating during long hours spent in 9°C water proved to be a major advantage in such demanding dives.
The ENC3 navigation console also allowed the team to create detailed cave surveys — something that would be nearly impossible at these depths using traditional line-and-compass techniques.
Team: Bart Pitala, Tomasz Wciórka, Bartosz Zdziebłowski, Michał Sojka, Andrea Mescalchin, Matteo Mescalchin, Luca Cavicchioli
Link to the video from the expedition in the comment 👇
