Terminal sump dive in Melouri cave, Kumistavi, Georgia

@cavinggeorgia
Achievement unlocked: solo pioneer dive in a Melouri cave terminal sump. Melouri cave can now be pushed forward!
My passion in cave diving and caving in general is to push the limits further, to find new caves and to explore known ones even further.
Lately I had a great opportunity to do what I love in one of the most significant cave regions in Georgia - the Tskaltubo cave system.
Melouri cave is one of the biggest caves in this system, it stretches for kilometers and takes a lot of time to be explored. It is a wild cave and is not adapted for casual tourists. Experienced guides can provide you a quality tour if you ever decide to.
The way to the terminal sump was long and full of obstacles. The morphology of Melouri cave is varying from section to section, starting with large halls, followed by huge downward tunnel full of big boulders, followed by meandering canyons full of beautiful speleoforms.
So, after tiresome hours of hauling gear via difficult subterranean landscape and via waterfilled canyons and after covering more than 2 kilometers from entrance our team has arrived at a terminal sump. Here, the underground river was passing in an extremely low and wide passage which is parallel to the dry section. The dry section ends in an impassable pile of huge boulders and one subhorizontal hopper which may in future lead us to the surface. Down there, at the pile of boulders, after squeezing into some narrow passage, one can finally make it to the bank of the underground river. The crack leading to the water was quite narrow, you can see it from the videos.
I have assembled gear in the main hall, distributed it into caving bags and with the help of the team relocated it to the terminal point. After slow and methodical gearing up I was able to squeeze into the flow of underground stream.
I did use the old school rope as a tether line to be able to hold onto it in case if the flow is too strong. Fortunately, the flow was pleasant and helped to wash away all silt which I was generating while trying to squeeze into the crack with full diving gear. The water temperature was 11C. I was wearing 2-pieceiece neoprene so I didn't have too much time before hypothermia would kick in. I knew that there are narrow portions and decided to not use the drysuit. It also helped us to save weight and volume.
After brief gear check I quickly checked surroundings and discovered that there was a passage to the next portion which required no diving. I immediately called our smallest and most agile team member Alisa to take a look at this new passage. She jumped into water right where I squeezed in and carefully traversed forward.
Meanwhile I dived under the ceiling and followed the right wall parallel to this new passage. Visibility was good for sump conditions (more than 50cm), my trusty Orcatorch Mazu headlamp worked perfectly. Its narrow beam didn't create too much backscatter and didn't impede my vision. I was checking the ceiling periodically to resurface as soon as possible. Shallow sump ended in approximately 8 meters, I resurfaced and saw continuation of this dry passage and Alisas face behind some very impassable hole. This new passage ended abruptly, and next sump appeared. I used full length of my tether rope, dived into new sump for 3 meters, confirmed that it goes forward without visible obstructions and returned back to my vigilant dive tender Valeri Barbakadze.
Mission was accomplished, we found out that the cave continues and further work is required to push forward.
This is important step for exploration of Tskaltubo cave system because nobody was able to bring the gear that far and dive through.
We will definitely return and push forward.
Mission was supported by:
IANTD Georgia
დაივინგის აკადემია / Diving Academy
Orcatorch Georgia
Meanwhile I want to thank Adventure Tourism School, Valeri Barbakadze, Gigo Oniani, Beto Mikadze, Vakho Chikhradze for giving me opportunity to participate in extreme speleo guide course and be a part of a magnificent ambition team of cave explorers.
I also want to thank Amiran Jamrishvili, one of the pioneers of georgian cave diving who inspired me to fulfill this endeavour.
This exploration would be impossible without great team which helped delivering loads of diving gear and tendering me during final phase. Thank you, Valeri Barbakadze, Giorgi Burjanadze, Beto Mikadze, Mari Tsulaia, Alisa Sanakoeva, Lado Mumladze.