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Cave diving is very fasci-nating, but it is also a mostdangerous passion to have.The advances in underwa-ter cave exploration havealways been determinedby the state of the avail-able equipment. In Russia,the first underwater caveexploration took placein 1964 when a group ofenthusiasts managed to getpast the first sump (a sec-tion of completely floodedcave passage) in the cavesystem of Ayan on theCrimean Peninsula. Withoutfins, they passed the sumpby walking on the bottom.The length was seventymeters, and the maximaldepth was five meters. Notmuch by today’s standardsit seems, but this achieve-ment is now considered thebirth of underwater speleol-ogy in the former USSR.

Decades have now passed sincethis pioneering event. Inventors ofdiving equipment have steadilycreated more perfect and trouble-free underwater devices, but cavediving in Russia is still an activity for a devoted few.Today, in Russia there is an esti-mated fifty thousand certifiedSCUBA divers, among which nomore than 50 (only 0.1 percent ofthe population of divers) ventureinto cave diving. These people usespecial equipment for diving, andthey are easily recognised. Theyalways use at least two regulators,carry dual cylinders (either a twinset on the back or a side mountconfiguration where two or moretanks are carried on each side), aminimum three torches, a helmet,a reel with a strong thin rope (theguide line) and their particular swimming style,

frog kicking

, whichprevents whirling mud or silk to kick up from the bottom. They reel outa guide line to mark their routeduring the dive. Wreck divers usevery similar techniques for wreck penetration.To perfect cave diving tech-nique and skills, it is necessary toundergo a long training programand to be passionate about divingin underwater caves. Insufficientlytrained divers can perish in cavesonly too easily. Therefore, few peo-ple venture there.In this little community, mostdivers know each other well.Members of this little select groupare at the same time heroes andoutcasts of the diving community.Their passion for underwater spe-leology is “vicious”, but the per-formers are also seen as idols andbrave individuals such as Sheck Exley and Jocben Hasenmayer.Underwater cave explorationsand the achievements of Sovietand Russian cave divers were soinsignificant on a global scalethat very few people in gen-eral knew about the existence ofunderwater caves in our country.Russian caves, with their difficultentrances, vertical pits, narrowpassages and cold muddy water,are strikingly different from those inthe warm-water recreational des-tinations such as those in Florida or Mexico where it seems that onlythe laziest divers don’t pursue div-ing in the underwater caves foundthere. Recreational cave divers inthese spots can set up a dive rig-ging directly out of their car trunks.

Ordinskaya Cave

The longest underwater cave in Russia

Text and photosby Andrey Bizyukin, PhD

The hitherto previously unknown underwater world of Russia, Ordinskaya Cavehuge under-ground cavities filled with crystal clear cold water. This is exciting darkness that beckonsThe first cave diving explora-tion in the USSR took place inMay 1964 (image taken froman old film movie). The datemarks the official birthday ofSoviet cave diving science

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The beginning of moderncave diving in Russia

The picture in Russia was about to changewhen a landslide on the banks of Kungur River, which is about 80 kilometers fromKungur City in the Ural Mountains of thePerm’s region, exposed an entrance to ahitherto unknown cave.The first visitors to the cave were localpeople who had gone down the slope ofclay in search of a cow which had fallendown into the cave. When they got downthere, the rescuers caught a glimpse of thebig cave halls, chambers and three under-ground lakes with crystal-clear water. Thecave was named Ordinskaya in honor of thenearby Orda village.Igor Lavrov, thewell-known scien-tist and researcher of the Ural caves, vis-ited the cave for thefirst time in 1993, wherehe made topographical maps ofthe dry part of the cave. He alsoinvited Victor Komarov, a cavediver from Ryazan City, to do thefirst reconnaissance dive in oneof the cave’s underground lakesin April 1994.Much to their surprise, theyfound that the cave lakes werecovered with a 20cm-thick layer of ice. Not letting this stand intheir way, Lavrov and Komarovasked local fishermen if theycould borrow some of their spe-cial devices for ice drilling. Withthese tools, they made a smallhole in the lake ice that wasbig enough to squeeze a diver through.For this first dive under ice and into thecave, Komarov took one 7-liter tank. Lavrovsecured Komarov at the surface with a safe-ty line that Komarov gradually let out. Thediver let out about 30 meters of line when hesuddenly plunged into a narrow crack andwent down to a depth of seven meters.Komarov had fallen through the ceiling ofa wide underwater tunnel. Absolutely clear water, huge spaces and prospects of futureexploration were tantalizing. But to venturefurther on one little tank was too danger-ous. So, Komarov came back to the surfaceto get another cylinder and returned to thelocation for a second look.This time, Komarov went much further intotheunderwa-ter tunnel.Subwayswith snowwhite wallsspread outin differentdirections,leading thecave diver fur-ther and further into this under-ground realm.Komarov hadalready let out 70meters of the guideline when it becamestuck in the narrow entrancecrack underwater. He couldn’t goany further and had to turn back. Koramovgathered up the rope by rolling it aroundhis elbow and managed to untangle it and

Ordinskaya

◄ This is a nook in the endless underwater cavesystem. Many narrow and wide passages divideinto different directions, so cave explorershave to search for the right way out. Bigheavy stones that have fallen fromthe ceiling to the floor of the caveremind one about the dangersCave divers descend into the entranceof Ordinsakaya CavecaptionsA lot of underwater space and clear water gives unexperiencedbeginners the oppor-tunity to swim with finskicking in a similar wayto that of typical PADIinstructors. There is notso much silt, so water clears quite quickly. Youneed only a good drysuit, a maximum sizetwin set and the big-gest torch batteries youcan find (the big steelcylinder on the diver)for long life to get twohours of fun diving invery coldwater

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pull out the guide line from thecrack. He eventually made itout of the sump.Intent on having this cavefor themselves and not hav-ing other cave divers run-ning around in it, Lavrov andKomarov decided not to speak to anybody about the cave for the time being.Only three years later, in thesnowy winter of 1997, 20 cavedivers from different Russiancities arrived in Orda villageat the invitation of Lavrov. Thejoint team of underwater caveexplorers organized dives rightaway into all the undergroundlakes of the cave.They dived in buddy teamsa couple of times a day, andthere were enough first explo-rations in this huge system togo around for everybody. Newunderground labyrinths crossedhuge halls, underwater passag-es and canyons disappeared indifferent directions and seemedendless.

Current views

Today, it is known that theOrdinskaya Cave system is ahorizontal gypsum labyrinth with-in the body of the mountain namedafter Kazakova. The greatest part ofthe cave labyrinth is filled with verystrong mineralized water, so after each dive, all dive gear is coveredby a thick coating of gypsum salts.Gypsum is not very solida frag-ile mineralsocollapses occur quite frequentlyin gypsum cavesabove thesurface, espe-cially after strong rains inthe spring andin the autumn.Undergroundhalls of gyp-sum caves ondry land veryseldomexceed20-30metersin size.But inthe under-water gypsumcaves, water helps to sup- portthe caves against the tug of gravity,which is why the underwater tun-nels and halls of underwater gypsumcaves are bigger than their abovewater counterparts.However, vaults in OrdinskayaCave have collapsed every year.Huge gypsum boulders break loosefrom the ceiling and fall to the bot-tom stirring up a lot of silt. On oneoccassion, a five-ton plate collapsedfrom the ceiling and fell onto sev-eral meters of the main guide lineof a group of divers. It forced thecave divers to do a lengthy searchfor a new way out to exit the cave.Despite the seeming simplicity andease of navigating these caves, oneshould always remain alert, cau-tious and prepared to handle anyunforeseen occurrences or inci-dents under the surface.The maximum depth of any ofthe known underwater passages inOrdinskaya Cave does not exceed20 meters. Therefore, even the long-est dives during the exploration of thecave did not require decompression.Cave divers from Krasnoyarsk,Chelyabinsk, Novokuznetsk,Ekaterinburg, Perm, Arkhangelsk,Chernomorsk, Alapaevsk andMoscow have found underwater pas-sages connecting all the lakes of thecave and have navigated throughall the widest underground tunnels,which have many smaller branchesand air chambers under arched ceil-ings. They have laid out several kil-ometers of guide lines from thin cordsthe size of cheap packing string up tothick mountaineering ropes markingeach new passage. Now, it all lookslike a horrible messa confused cob-web put up by some new species,the “cave spider-monster”.

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Ordinskaya

The first Russian cave divers used oldmilitary stuff or homemade equipmentand unduplicated breathing devices.It was a time when divers thought thatit was very unprofessional to use fins for swimming, and they got past sumps bywalking on the bottomIf you swim up from permanent guide lines in some places in the cave, you can tofind air bells on the ceiling. But please don’t try to breath there without a regulator Modern equippedunderwater caveexplorer