page_title: Pavel Evgenjevič Demidov
section_title: Verëvkina Cave
hierarchical_section_title: Pavel Evgenjevič Demidov / Verëvkina Cave
caption_attribution_description: English: Caver Pavel Demidov of Perovo-speleo (Moscow, Russia) team is going up the Babatunda pit, the biggest (155m) pit of the cave Veryovkina. Русский: Спелеолог из команды Перово-спелео Павел Демидов поднимается по колодцу Бабатунда, самому большому (155м) колодцу пещеры им. А. Верёвкина. Español: Espeleólogo Pavel Demidov del equipo Perovo-speleo de Moscú está subiendo por el pozo Babatunda (155m), el pozo más grande de la sima Veryovkina.
context_page_description: Pavel Evgenjevič Demidov was a Russian speleologist, most known for his work in extreme cave exploration, especially as the leader of the Perovo-speleo team expeditions to Verëvkina cave on Arabika massif in Abkhazia, from 2017 the deepest cave in the world.
context_section_description: When the team started to work in Verëvkina in 2000 it was 440 m deep with a narrow and long meander at the bottom. It was necessary to carry the excavated material very far. In November 2002 there was one more trip to the bottom: Demidov, Kostja, Petja, Grigorij Sanevič - Griša, also with Danila and Filip Čeredničenko from St. Petersburg. They decided to search for some other continuation on the way from the bottom to the entrance. At the depth of 120 m they discovered a narrow meander, where Demidov managed to pass through, to the top of a shaft. It continued. Every year until 2010 the team advanced, on 6 expeditions, following the draft in windows above the blind shaft bottoms. In 2010 they came to a meander at the depth of 320 to 340 m where they stopped and abandoned further exploration of the cave.
  In February 2007 Perovo-speleo started to continue the development of Moskovskaja cave. It is also situated in the Dzou area, it was explored in the eighties to a depth of 980 m; the entrance is at 2,307 m above sea level. Evgenij Starodubov, the only one left of the team who initially explored the cave, left the cave to Perovo-speleo to develop it further. They made 5 expeditions into it. On the second expedition they dug through a narrow meander, bypassed the siphon and reached the depth of 1,000 m. Further expeditions brought the depth of 1,250 m where an underground creek flows into a siphon. For the work in Moskovskaja cave the team, led by Demidov, was awarded the A. Morozov medal for 2011, the highest Russian award for achievements in speleology. Further expeditions, the last in 2015, discovered several side branches of the cave but none past the terminal siphon. As the team returned to Abkhazian coast in August 2015, to Gagra, they met Aleksej Baraškov, the new president of Perovo caving club, where the team's caving career began. They were also exploring Verëvkina and in 2009 while they traveled to the cave from Gagra, on a track high in the mountain the jeep, a GAZ-66 capsized and two explorers were injured, one badly. So Perovo speleoclub discontinued explorations in Verëvkina, until 2012. In 2013 they broke through a narrow passage at the new bottom (where Perovo-speleo stopped in 2010), at -340 m, and reached a junction of two meanders. One had a strong draft, the other had flowing water (Narnia branch). They followed the water and lost two years in that branch, it was all very narrow. In 2015 they decided to try the meander with draft and with little digging they reached another shaft, at an estimated depth of 360 m, where they stopped because of lack of rope and time. As the cave was developed by both clubs Perovo-speleo, led by Demidov, decided to proceed at that point. In the winter 2015/2016 the access was too difficult so the next, very small expedition took place in June 2016. At the bottom of the last, 30 m shaft, Evgenij Kuzmin discovered a continuation, Babatunda, the biggest hall in the cave, 155 m deep. They reached the depth of 630 m.
  In August 2016 a joint expedition of both teams followed and reached the depth of -1000 m, with an open continuation. During the October/November 2016 expedition of the two teams the cave was deepened to 1350 m, but snow surprised the cavers on exit, roads were impassable, all-road truck could not come and they walked 3 days in the snow to reach the valley. Next expedition in February 2017 used a helicopter to get to the entrance and reached the depth of 1832 m, Verëvkina cave became the second deepest in the world, after Krubera-Voronja. The achievement brought Perovo-speleo team, represented by Demidov, UIS Prize for 2017 in the category The most significant discovery/exploration. In early August 2017 cavers of Perovo speleo club descended to -2155 m, where they found a siphon and returned. In mid-August Perovo-speleo team, with Czech caver Zdenek Dvořak, mapped 7 km of new horizontal passages, reached an underground river with a flowrate of 500 liters per second and two terminal siphons at the depth of 2204 m. Verëvkina became the deepest cave in the world.
  In Fe
caption: Demidov is ascending the Babatunda pit in Verëvkina cave, by Pëtr Ljubimov
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