Pavel Evgenjevič Demidov

The cave, discovered in 1966, was often visited by caving schools as it is difficult enough and deep enough, to the terminal siphon at −420 m. Demidov and 3 other caving school participants: Pëtr Ljubimov – Petja, Konstantin Zverev – Kostja and Roman Zverev managed to bypass the siphon and discovered a new branch of the cave on the other side.

Pavel Evgenjevič Demidov (also spelled Pavel Yevgenyevich Demidov; Павел Евгеньевич Демидов; 13 August 1971 – 23 August 2020) 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.

He was born in Moscow to Evgenij Pavlovič Demidov, a land improvement engineer, and to Elvira Ivanovna Mazeina, an electric assembly technician in missile production.

After the School No. 668 (1978–1988) in Moscow he graduated in navigation at Odesa State Maritime Academy (1988–1994).

The study included a year and a half at sea, sailing the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea on school's training and trading vessels.

As there was no suitable job in the Russian merchant fleet for him at the time, he returned to Moscow in 1994.

To get better acquainted with rope climbing he enlisted in the caving school of the Perovo caving club in Moscow in 2000.

Peščera Zabludših (Cave of the Lost) of Alek mountain range above Sochi, close to the Black Sea was the first cave he visited, in February 2000.

They made 5 more expeditions in 2000, 3 to the same cave, one to a cave in the Skalisty Range, North Caucasus – and one to Verëvkina cave which was discovered in 1968, rediscovered in 1982 and in 1986 explored to −440 m. The expedition in 2000 was the first to this cave after the 1992/93 war in Abkhazia, and also the first expedition using the single-rope technique.

As there are no suitable caves in central Russia caving excursions are always in form of expeditions which usually last from three weeks to one month.

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.

After 2001 Demidov and the team were also developing several caves on the Bzyb massif, adjacent to Arabika, such as Habju cave in 2001, Napra cave in 2001–2003, and Pantjuhinskaja cave in 2008.

In 2002 Demidov, Ljubimov and both Zverevs founded the Perovo-speleo team and the first cave where the team made a major contribution was Only Stones cave in August 2002, on Arabika massif, in the Dzou area.

The cave, discovered by Italians, is close to a lake, at 2,000 m above sea level, and has a tall entrance.

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.

After different jobs, including a 7-month stint aboard a Russian fishing boat in Fiji in 2004 as a representative of ship owner, Tuna Fishing Company, he settled in industrial rope access.

During school excursions to the mountains of Crimea, Western Caucasus and during yearly trips to the village Verhnjaja (Upper) Sysert in the southern Ural mountains, where his grandmother lived, Demidov developed an interest in nature and in mountain climbing.

At the time it was 200 m deep and they managed to deepen it to 360 m. During an expedition in August 2004 they discovered Vjatskaja cave, in the same area.

Only Stones ended with a large collapse while Vjatskaja continued, so they made several further expeditions into it, after several years it was 453 m deep.

They also participated in expeditions to caves of other caving clubs, to Krubera-Voronja on Arabika in 2005, to Snežnaja cave on Bzyb in 2016.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.