How the story started

Back in mid November, I go to the club, like every wednesday, and find Ilias talking about helicopters, avalanches and snow in the Caucasus. It all seemed like a perfect re-telling of the mission to Voronya that had made it the deepest in the world, a few years back. It turns out that we had had contact from a Russian team planning to go on down in early 2005. The message from Denis Provalov has been reproduced on the SELAS forum.

From that day on, the three boys going on the mission: Kostas Adamopoulos, Nikos Mitsakis and Ilias Kazais began the preparations for the mission. It was exciting for a relative beginner like myself to be present during the planning and preparations of such a mission.