Sehezar Valley
The great valley of Sehezar beside Dohezar valley is one of the main regions of Alborz mountains in Tonekabon. There are plenty of great peaks, caspian forests, walls, caves, springs and at last nice villages in Sehezar.
Sehezar is also beside Takhte-Soleyman Massif and was a bridge between the ancient Tonekabon and Taleghan(Hope to introduce Taleghan paredise in future). The valley has a long history and really needs to be studied better than it has been till now.
Sarbalan
Sarbalan used to be one of the main villages of Sehezar but these days by selling the lands you see some villas there and there is less remain of the village left.
Beside Sarbalan there is a wall on a mountain slope called Qajar-Khak(Tomb of Qajars-Qajar was a kingdom in iran) and Yaqi-Oskul enterance is just beside the slope.
The area has a great view and there are some small rocks arround which are good for practicing climbing, caving and rappling techniques with begginers like me!
The Cave
Yaqi-Oskul is not a big cave but its nice and a great one to start technical caving. At leat for me it was. Its about 1500 meters above sea level.
I will never forget the fear of my first descend. In Yaqi-Oskul after a few meters from the enterance you should descend by rappling. There are three stones that are great for preparing a combined anchor. There is a 17 meter descend. 3 meters steep slope and a 14 meter vertical descend which for me was killing in the first two meters and then I didnt want the rope to ever end!
Now you are in the great unique hall of the cave. All the floor is covered by an at least 15cm bat excrement and the air is full of its dust, but its still a lovely place.
The distance between the ceilling and the floor differs between 15 to 30 meters. The hall is elliptical and the size is about 31*24 meters. There are Flowstones, Stalegtites and Stalegmites in the hall mainly in the South-East corner.
The cave has two small crypts. One about 1*35 meters and one 3*4 with a height of about 3.5 meters.
The Surprise
This was the second time our club was visiting the cave so we choosed to look arround more careful than the first time and this was how the surprise came out!
Till the day it was thought that Yaqi-Oskul was a unienterance cave. But during my examination in the northwest crypt I felt a considerable difference in the temperature, so I looked for any sign that could explain this. Would there be any other way out?
When I turned my headlight off I saw a very weak brilliancy of light comming from a hole. I couldnt belive it.
I worked hard for about 30 minutes taking the stones and debrises out. Then my friend came and took my place. After about an hour it was opened. About 3 meters of crawling in an area about 30*45cm would take you out! This was the first way I had ever found in a cave and also was a big change about Yaqi-Oskul so we celebrated it later.
The new way gave us the chance to bring the beginners of the team into the cave and share our joy with them. The way will be called in my name! Funny huh?
After finishing our job we hided the second way again. Its better for the cave this way so that villagers ond other people wont damage the Stalegtites, etc.
The distance between the two enterances is about 60 meters.
Getting There
So easy to reach. In Sehezar road drive to Sarbalan. There, ask for the cave and a 5 minute walk will take you to it. You can also use the Lat/Lon if you are using a GPS.