2012 08 10

Lithuanian-Ukrainian speleologist team reaches bottom of world's deepest cave

Despite recent unfavorable weather conditions, a group of Lithuanian and foreign speleologists managed to reach the bottom of the world's deepest Krubera-Voronja cave in Abkhazia, Vaida Jurkėnienė, spokeswoman for the expedition, told BNS.
Genadijus Semochinas
Gennady Samokhin / Organizatorių archyvo nuotr.

Gennady Samokhin, a Ukrainian member of the expedition, beat his own previous record by six meters after reaching the depth of 2,197 meters. According to Jurkėnienė, the Lithuanian team of speleologists played an important role in setting the record.

Due to continuous rainfall, weather conditions in the area have been pretty bad recently.

Last week, communication was temporarily lost with the team due to a technical failure, but it was later restored, and the team was fine.

Jurkėnienė said reaching the surface safely was the team's main task now.

"There have been no heavy showers this week but weather conditions remain bad. It is still raining and conditions inside the case are rather bad. They said three siphons they have to dive through to reach the bottom are flooded. It will be a bit harder to come out," Jurkėneinė told BNS.

Lithuanian Vytis Vilkas had planned to reach the record depth but he dropped the plan after his health deteriorated.

The expedition included around 60 representatives of various foreign countries, mainly Ukrainians, as well as 15 Lithuanians.

Located in the Georgian breakaway republic of Abkhazia, Krubera-Voronja was discovered in 1960.

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