Nuovo record di profondità nel Caucaso (-1680) e continua...

Notizia in Inglese, di Sergio Garcia-Dils de la Vega

Dear friends,
First of all, I am sorry for writing in English, but my Italian is very bad…
As you probably know, last september our team (MTDE-Team), formed by spanish, french, russian and ukrainian cavers (all of us members of Ukrainian Speleological Association), have reached the depth of -1410 m in Voronya cave (Arabika Massif, Western Caucasus, Republic of Abkhazia), in the “International Expedition Voronya – 2000”.
Two days ago our ukrainian comrades, following the exploration from this point, have descended to -1680 m. They have stopped at the top of one pit 50-70 m deep, and the exploration continues!!
Greetings,

Sergio Garcia-Dils de la Vega
Expedition Leader of “International Expedition Voronya-2000, 2nd stage”

P.S.: This is the official info from Alexander Klimchuk:

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A NEW WORLD DEPTH RECORD IN ARABIKA MASSIF,
WEST CAUCASUS

Preliminary information

I am happy to inform all cavers, speleologists and karst people that the new world depth record has been set up at the very beginning of the new century.

It was set up on January 6 in Voronja cave, Arabika massif, West Caucasus, by the expedition of the Ukrainian Speleological Association led by Yury Kasjan (Ukraine).

Previously (during 80th) the cave was explored to a narrow impassable meander at -340m. Being located next to the 1110m deep Arabikskaja system (Kujbyshevskaja – Genrikhova Bezdna) and heading towards Kujbyshevskaja cave, Voronja was regarded as a part of the system, although not directly connected.

In 1999 the Ukr.S.A. expedition have re-inspected the cave and found two “windows” in the 60m deep pit, one at -200m and another at-240m, both leading to new branches. The second branch led toward the Kujbyshevskaja cave and has been explored to about -500m, yet not provided direct connection. The first branch went in the depth steeply by a series of pits.
Exploration was stopped at -750m in 1999 due to the lack of equipment.

The multi-stage expedition of the Ukrainian Speleological Association, held during August-September of 2000, pushed the cave to -1410m. During the first stage of the expedition the cave was explored to -1200 m. At the second stage held in the first half of September, in which a French-Spanish MTDE team took part (also the Ukr.S.A. members) leaded by Sergio Garcia-Dils, the cave has been pushed to the depth of 1410m.

The current expedition started on December 25.
On January 2-nd the underground base camp at -1200m has been set up. On January 3-rd the team started pushing the continuation remained from the last expedition (behind -1410m). On January 5 the depth of -1580m, and on January 6 – the depth of 1680 m has been reached. There was a next pit of about 70 m deep ahead.

This is the latest information which has been received in Kiev by phone on January 7. Exploration continues, so one might expect that the depth of Voronja is now over 1750m.

More detailed information and the final (official) figure about the depth of the cave will be reported in the next feature.

The depth potential of the system is illustrated by the hydrologic connection established by the dye test yet back in 1984, between Kujbyshevskaya Cave and the large Reproa spring located just on the Black Sea beach. The entrance of Voronja is located at about 2230m.

Expedition members:
Yury Kasjan, Poltava, Ukraine (leader)
Nikolay Solovjev, Kiev, Ukraine
Yulija Timoshevskaja, Poltava, Ukraine
Oleg Klimchouk, Kiev, Ukraine
Denis Provalov, Kiev, Ukraine
Konstantin Moukhin, Moscow, Russia
Sergej Zubkov, Kiev, Ukraine
Vitalij Galas, Uzhgorod, Ukraine
Anatolij Povjakalo, Poltava, Ukraine
Dmitrij Skljarenko, Moscow, Russia
Ilja Zharkov, Sverdlovsk, Russia (Pennsylvania, USA)

Sincerely,

–Alexander Klimchouk