science.nationalgeographic.com

Written by Alexander Klimchouk

Republished from the pages of National Geographic magazine

When Sergio García-Dils de la Vega kissed his girlfriend, Pilar Orche, goodbye at the entrance to Krubera Cave, he promised to return the next day. But after teammate Bernard Tourte bruised his side in a tight passage, García-Dils decided to stay with him at an underground camp, missing his chance to return to the surface before going deeper. It was two weeks before Orche saw her boyfriend again.

Our expedition, however, had come prepared for a long siege, bringing more than five tons of gear to the cave. Ever since 1956, when explorers in France first descended below 1,000 meters (3,281 feet), generations of cavers had dreamed of achieving the 2,000-meter (6,562-foot) mark. Would Krubera take us there?

Cutting a jagged path through the limestone of the Arabika massif on the edge of the Black Sea, the “trail” to Krubera Cave drops down a chain of pitches, cascades, and pits—some more than 100 meters (328 feet) deep—connected by narrow rift passages called meanders. The cave, located in the separatist region of Abkhazia, was named after Russian geologist Alexander Kruber. In 1960 researchers from the Republic of Georgia explored it to a depth of 90 meters (295 feet). Two decades later, I organized a series of expeditions to investigate new deep caves, using dye traces in cave streams to probe Arabika’s potential depth. In 2001 a team led by Ukrainian Yuri Kasjan set a world record in the cave of 1,710 meters (5,610 feet). Last July a Moscow-based team extended that to 1,775 meters. Our hope was to find a path past 2,000 meters (6,562 feet).

At the start of the expedition, Alexander Karpechenko, whose nickname is “Brick,” exulted in getting his hands on a brand new gasoline-powered hammer that he planned to use to bore holes for explosives to free up tight passages. Team members in nearby Snow Cave cleared blasted rubble from a passage that had been blocked by a “boulder choke.”

Like mountaineers scaling a Himalaya peak, our expedition of 56 cavers from seven countries established a series of campsites at depths of 700, 1,215, 1,410, and 1,640 meters (2,300, 3,990, 4,600, and 5,380 feet). There team members cooked meals, slept five and six to a tent, huddled for warmth, and worked for up to 20 hours at a stretch.

By the third week our downward progress was blocked by a sump at a depth of 1,775 meters

ngm.nationalgeographic.com

Deepest Cave. MAY 2005

By Alexander Klimchouk

Photographs by Stephen L. Alvarez

First an intrepid team of explorers broke the depth record in Krubera—the world's deepest cave—near the Black Sea coast. Then a second team went deeper.

Get a taste of what awaits you in print from this compelling excerpt.

When Sergio García-Dils de la Vega kissed his girlfriend, Pilar Orche, goodbye at the entrance to Krubera Cave, he promised to return the next day. But after teammate Bernard Tourte bruised his side in a tight passage, García-Dils decided to stay with him at an underground camp, missing his chance to return to the surface before going deeper. It was two weeks before Pilar Orche saw her boyfriend again.

Our expedition, however, had come prepared for a long siege, bringing more than five tons of gear to the cave. Ever since 1956, when explorers in France first descended below 1,000 meters (3,281 feet), generations of cavers had dreamed of achieving the 2,000-meter (6,600-foot) mark. Would Krubera take us there?

Cutting a jagged path through the limestone of the Arabika massif on the edge of the Black Sea, the "trail" into Krubera Cave drops down a chain of pitches, cascades, and pits—some more than 100 meters (300 feet) deep—connected by narrow rift passages called meanders. The cave, located in the separatist region of Abkhazia, was named after Russian geologist Alexander Kruber. In 1960 researchers from the Republic of Georgia explored it to a depth of 90 meters (295 feet). Two decades later, I organized a series of expeditions to investigate new deep caves, using dye traces in cave streams to probe Arabika's potential depth. In 2001 a team led by Ukrainian Yuri Kasjan set a world record in the cave of 1,710 meters (5,610 feet). Last July a Moscow-based team extended that to 1,775 meters (5,823 feet). Our hope was to find a path past 2,000 meters (6,600 feet).

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