Cave Depth Record Achieved Using KISS Rebreather

Expedition diver Jason Mallinson describes a record-setting dive into the Western Hemisphere’s deepest cave, using the Classic KISS rebreather.


Mexico’s Sistema Huautla is perhaps one of the most complex of the world’s deep caves. With 17 entrances and numerous independent and physically demanding deep routes, dropping nearly a mile into the earth, this dark labyrinth requires extensive rope work and multiple days of effort to reach the lower depths of the system. The last extension to the cave took place in 1994, when Dr William Stone used his self-designed CIS Lunar rebreather to pass what was then considered the terminal sump. Staging their dive from a portable platform suspended over a pool of water, the transiting a flooded tunnel and went on to discovered some 3.3km (2 miles) of new passage, but were ultimately stopped by Sump 9.(...)

Read more: UnderWaterJournal.com

Four Hebrew U. researchers reach new lows in Abkhazia, and find new species of transparent fish

Boaz Langford of the Israeli cave exploration delegation
at a depth of 2,080 meters in the Krubera-Voronya cave in Abkhazia

Four researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem partook in a spelunking expedition to the deepest cave in the world, also known as the “Everest of the caves.”

The four explorers — Boaz Langford, Leonid Fagin, Vladimir Buslov and Yuval Elmaliach — joined the Ukrainian Speleological Association as part of an international delegation that aimed to break the world record for deepest place reached by spelunkers. On the team, which just returned from the trip, were members from nine countries, including Israel and Lebanon.

“The purpose of the venture was to break the world’s record for cave exploration — an achievement reached when a Ukrainian researcher reached a depth of 2,196 meters beneath the earth’s surface, five meters deeper than the previous record,” Professor Amos Frumkin of the Department of Geography at the Hebrew University, who heads the university’s cave research unit, said in a press statement on Sunday.

The second deepest cave in the World became deeper

An ongoing joint expedition of caving clubs from several Siberian sities to Sarma Cave in the Arabika Massif (Western Caucasus), led by Pavel Rudko, has reported that the cave has been pushed 60 m below the previous deepest point (-1760 m) reached last year.

This firmly establishes Sarma Cave as the second deepest cave in the world with depth of 1830 m, following Krubera Cave, located in the same massif, which has been explored this August to -2197 m by the Ukrainian expedition. The third place is hold by Snezhnaya Cave in the nearby Bzybsky Massif, with a depth of 1760 m.

Source: Speleogenesis

Lethal cave diving accident in Ilyuhinskaya

On August 20th cave diver Alexei Savelyev passed away after an accident in the second siphon of the Ilyuhinskaya cave at a depth of around 1000 m. 

He was a member of the Sokolniki club, who were exploring the cave. Together with his diver partner Aleksey Aksenov he was on his way back from explorations beyond the 4th siphon.

His dive partner tried to resuscitate him but he was unsuccesful.

Currently, participants of nearby expeditions (Kuybishevskaya, Voronya) are working together with the expedition team to extract the body from the cave. 

Given the depth and many obstacles along the way (including a siphon), the rescue action is going to be long and difficult.

Our thoughs go out to all family, friends and fellow cave divers. 

Source: Cavers Mailing List & Sokolniki RUDN

Krubera - Voronya: The deepest cave in the world became 6 m deeper

In august 2012 an international group of cavers descended the deepest cave in the world: Krubera-Voronya which is located in Abkhazia (Georgia).

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

The news is still sparse, but it seems that the Ukrainian cave diver Gennadiiy Samokhin, was able to find a new lead and push the depth of worlds deepest cave to a new record of 2197 m.

This is six meters deeper than the previous record.  A big thanks goes out to the Lithuanian's support team who laid out all the lines.

As for now it remains the only cave with a depth of more than 2000 meters.

The expedition had to deal with high water levels and had some technicial problems (communication was lost for a while) during the beginning of the expedition.

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."

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

More news will follow.

Expedition Documentary: Sima GESM (-1101 m)

Sima GESM

English version of the award winning documentary by Marcus Taylor, showing the exploration of the cave system sima GESM - Sima de la Luz.

The documentary was mainly shot during the 2006 expedition and gives the live report of the discoveries from -950 m and on.

More information on this cave can be found at the dedicated page of the Spanish federation or on the website of the explorers: http://www.espeleoclubpasoslargos.com/

The documentary is split into three parts of about 12 miutes each. Click read more for the other video's.

Invitation Exploration "Berger 2012" - France

The Speleological Committee of Jura (FFS - French Federation of Speleology) organizes a European exploration camp in the first -1000 of the planet : the Gouffre Berger, in Vercors - France (near Grenoble).

The cave will be completely rigged from 21 till 29 of July 2012.

Cavers from others national speleological federations from Europe are invited to join the French exploration teams.

It will be the opportunity to carry out a magnificent exploration, by taking advantage of enriched human exchanges.

Bilingual information here :
http://limagne.perso.neuf.fr/rdv/rdv2012/berger/berger2012.htm

If you are interested, please send an email with all your personal data to : Rémy Limagne : [email protected]

Update:
With 140 participants from 14 European countries and from Libanon, the camp "Berger 2012" is full and the registrations are closed. No need to send other registrations email to Remy Limagne because they will not be taken in account.

Sarma Cave became the second deepest cave in the world

Pavel Rud’ko of Krasnoyarsk (Rissia, Siberia) has reported the success of the recent expedition of Krasnoyarsk cavers to the Sarma Cave, Arabika Massif, Western Caucasus.

The cave, previously explored by cavers from Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk to -1570 m, has now been made
almost 200 m deeper, to reach depth of -1760 m and become the second deepest cave in the world.

The expedition led by Pavel Rud’ko has been carried out between September 1st - October 7th, 2011. The main branch has been pushed to -1760 m after breaking through a narrow meander at the old bottom.

Many side and ascending passages in other parts of the cave have been also explored. The expedition performed systematic temperature measurements, and speleobiological and microbiological sampling.

With its new depth figure, Sarma surpassed the Illjuzia-Mezhonnogo-Snezhnaya system (-1753 m), located in the nearby Bzybsky Massif, and became the second deepest cave in the world, following Krubera Cave (-2191 m) located in the same massif. Thus, the western Caucasus now hosts three deepest caves in the worlds, two of them in Arabika Massif and one in Bzybsky Massif.

Gouffre Berger, Petzl team follows in the footsteps of Fernand Petzl

From August 1-6, 2011, climbers and alpinists from Team Petzl were introduced to caving in the Gouffre Berger cave, which descends to -1100m. Team Petzl member and organizer of the expedition, François Lombard, tells the story.

"Caving has a long history for Petzl. In the 1950s, Fernand Petzl played a very important role in opening numerous caves in the Vercors region of France, designing and producing equipment that enabled him to make these incredible discoveries. In 1955, he was a part of the legendary team that first reached a record breaking -1000 meters at Gouffre Berger.

To retrace his steps, Phil Bence, an active caver and member of Team Petzl, along with Florence Guillot and Guillaume Capgras and in collaboration with their club from France's Ariège region, SSAPO Ariège, asked us to organize a "Team Petzl meeting at the Gouffre Berger.

Badalona: New junction in the massive Escuain (Spanish Pyrenees)

Since last Sunday, 31st of July, the cave C9 (-830m) is connected to the system of Badalona (B15-B1), resulting in a new throughtrip of -1060m.

The connection is made via a small affluent near the siphon terminal to - 610m at the Gallery of Velles.

Here you can see a short video with the celebration at the entrance of the cave, having spent three days underground:

Abisso di Malaga Fosetta pushed to -1011m

Members of the Gruppo Grotte Emilio Roner Rovereto and the Gruppo Grotte Schio Cai pushed the depth of the Abisso di Malaga Fosetta in Veneto, Italy to -1011m during a 32 hour trip into the system, making it the first cave in the Veneto-region to pass the magical -1000m border.

The cave is now the 93rd deepest cave in the world!


Source: Scintilena

Speleological expedition: Lukina jama 2010

The Speleological expedition „Lukina jama 2010“ was held between 24th of July and 15th of August 2010.

It was organized by Speleological section Velebit and the Speleological Committee of the Croatian Mountaineering Association in cooperation with Northern Velebit National Park, with logistic support of The Croatian Mountain Rescue Service (CMRS).

Around hundred of speleologists from 14 Croatian speleological clubs and associations participated in the expedition as well as colleagues from Bulgaria, England, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Spain.

This was one of this year’s most challenging expeditions in Europe given the logistics and large amounts of equipment transported to the bottom of the pit in conditions of low temperature and significant water activity.

The expedition resulted in cave diving in the lake at the bottom of the pit, in new speleological topographical maps and scientific research which includes studies of the subterranean fauna, hydrogeology, physical, chemical properties and other characteristics of the pit.

Cave divers and members of the Speleological section Velebit as well as CMRS, Ivica Ćukušić and Robert Erhardt, dived into the submerged passage at the bottom of the dry part of the pit for 135 m in length and 21 m in depth, increasing the overall cave depth to 1400 m and more.

During the expedition, well known Croatian cave diver and member of Speleological section of HPD Željezničar as well as Croatian Biospeleological Society (CBSS), Branko Jalžić, dived into the submerged passage at the bottom of the pit at 40 m in depth.

New overall cave depth is now 1421 m, which makes it the 15th deepest cave in the world.

Bulgarian Speleologists Trapped in World's Deepest Cave

Three Bulgarian speleologists and their partners from the Ukrainian-Bulgarian expedition Krubera 2005 have been trapped in the world's deepest cave - Krubera.

Due to the torrential rains continuing for a fourth day in a row the members of the expedition are trapped in their camps in the cave located in West Caucasus, Bulgaria's Speleology Federation announced.

Bulgarians Teodor Kisimov and Konstantin Stoilov are with their Ukrainian colleagues at a camp located at a depth of 1,790m.

Svetlomir Stanchev, the third Bulgarian in the expedition, is at a camp at a depth of 1,200m along with Russian speleologists.

It is still not clear when the speleologists will continue with their work, but the rain is expected to go on for another 4 to 5 days.

The head of the Bulgarian Speleology Federation Alexey Zhabov was cited as saying that the teams are fully equipped and have enough provisions for at least ten days.

The two base camps in Krubera are linked through a wire telephone and they keep in touch.

The Krubera 2005 expedition is a scientific one. The Bulgarian participants have to study the vertical and the horizontal galleries. The expedition is expected to end October 28.

Source: Novinite