Expedition News

Speleologists have reached a new cave depth world record!

Last week a team of Lithuanian and Ukrainian cavers reached the bottom of Krubera – Voronya cave, the deepest cave on Earth. Ukrainian caver Genadij Semochin has dived into the water sump “Two captains” and has improved cave depth world record by 6 meters!

In 2007 Genadij Semochin has dived 46 meters into the water sump “Two captains” and despite a lot of problems has reached a depth of 2191 meters. After that expedition he had some health issues and even though other teams tried to repeat his achievement, Genadij was the only one who could dive so deep in this sump. This year Genadij came to visit one of the most experienced divers in Lithuania Vytis Vilkas and took some lessons. With help of Lithuanian team, he has descended to the bottom of Krubera – Voronya cave and reached 2197 meters depth! A new cave depth world record was achieved.

Although heavy rains in the Caucasus Mountains haven’t repeated this week, it still continues to rain, so now the biggest concern of the cavers is to reach the surface safely. According to one of Lithuanian team members Daumantas Liekis, water sumps in Krubera – Voronya cave are flooded and a couple of people reported various health problems (colds, inflammation, etc.), so the trip to the surface will not be an easy one.

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).