Expedition News

Speleologists will try to reach a new cave depth world record!

Extraordinary adventures await Lithuanian speleologists this summer – one of the biggest caving clubs in the Baltic states “Aenigma” fourth time now is organizing a travel to the deepest cave of the Earth, also called “Bottom of the World” or “Everest under the ground”! It is possible that this year speleologists will achieve a new cave depth world record!

The cave Krubera – Voronya in the West Caucasusis is known as the deepest cave on Earth. Its depth is – 2191 m (± 9 m), which has been reached only by a few tens of people until now. One of them is Saulė Vash (formerly – Pankienė) from Lithuania, who in 2010 became the first woman descending to the bottom of the cave.

This year together with speleologists from Ukraine and other countries Lithuanian team will spend more than two weeks in the dark, damp and cold environment attempting to descend to an unexplored part of the cave – depths of the sump “Two Captains”.

"Cave–diving is one of the most dangerous extreme sports activities in the world. As lower part of the cave Krubera – Voronya is filled with water, a new world record can be reached only by someone, who has very good diving skills, – says Lithuanian team leader Aidas Gudaitis. – This year three cave–divers from different countries intend to dive in the sump “Two Captains”: Lithuanian, Russian and Ukrainian. We hope that one of them will reach more than – 2191m".

Lithuanian expedition "Towards the Center of the Earth" 2012 is a part of the project "The Call of the Abyss", organized by the Ukrainian Association of Speleology (UkrSA).