Caves. Training at ESA

After rehabilitation and medical commission that cleared me for special training, I was offered to take a survival course in caves — in Italy, on Sardinia Island. To say I was amazed would be an understatement. Could we really fall straight from space into caves? What was the point? But when I arrived to the location, I was delighted to learn that these were actually team-building exercises.

Here are some excerpts from my diary.

...we climbed up the ropes, then down, then up again... then we swam across underground lakes. At those moments, I recalled scenes from modern science fiction movies I knew so well: "This movie seems to be shot here, and that one seems to be shot there…" It was breathtaking!

September 8, 2014

...Today we went into a cave, for the first time in my life. It was beautifully named SaOche, "Voice" in English. They say it warns the cavers about an upcoming danger. During heavy rains, the rapidly rising water level creates a characteristic sound.

I had never experienced such positive emotions before. Well, perhaps only when I flew low-altitude aerobatics with Andrey Viktorovich I was so full of the same feeling of delight, unable to keep my emotions to myself and shouting with exaltation.

SaOche is a beautiful cave with a system of underground lakes. We were swimming there in rubber diving suits, enjoyed the beauty of this new world which I was just opening for myself and had no idea about the day before...

Tomorrow we will talk about stress-inducing situations in which Loredana would like to put us.

All of a sudden I realized that there are two types of stress. One is sudden and strong, the other is not so strong but long-lasting! These are two different kinds of load. We successfully train the resistance to the first type of stress when we jump with parachutes and perform flights. The second manifests itself in such situations as being in caves, not for a few seconds or minutes but for days and weeks. (Later on, I found out that in fact, I discovered nothing new about stress. The first type is called acute, the second is named chronic.)

September 9, 2014

...So, in the course of survival-in-the-cave trainings one’s resistance to the second type of stress is trained perfectly. I mean that this helps to create such conditions that don’t seem to stress you out within short periods, say an hour, or two, or even a day. But within a week the total accumulated impact of all external factors is much greater than the stress that you can experience jumping with a parachute, even with 40-second opening delay.

So, today we received our luggage, by evening my leg seemed to be in perfect shape again, the first symptoms of the flu (caused by drinking cold water) were got rid of with the remainder of the mouthwash (I used it to rinse my throat), I got to know the people better and our communication became more comfortable. Life is getting better. :)

We trained our main actions in the cave, edged our way through narrow tunnels... and saw another beauty of the caves that captivated me as much as yesterday's swimming in the underground lake! After that I established two major safety rules for myself:

1. Before making any abrupt movement in a narrow space, you should look carefully where your head or your back will be, in order not to get them hurt against, say, hanging stones;
2. No matter how captivating and breathtaking the entrance into a new gallery is, you should not rush forward but look back and REMEMBER the way back!!!..

September 10, 2014

The Sos Jocos cave day... …let’s continue our talk! Today was a perfect day!

I really like that even though we work every day from 7:30 am to 10 pm and thus only one hour is left for the Internet and cleaning up... long story short, very short time for sleep, nevertheless every day I get new and only positive impressions and emotions!!!! And I am grateful to the Lord for letting me meet such wonderful people as Scott and Loredana.

So, today was a great day. We spent it in the cave called Sos Jocos, which means «Games». Can you guess why? Our task was the following. In groups (ours included Scott, Antonio and me) we should follow the instructor and make our own way through all the cave cracks after him. At the end of the day, if you wished, you could try to move through the narrowest pass on your own. It was so narrow that you could easily get stuck in... I was happy for two reasons. First, because both Antonio and Scott unanimously agreed to jointly overcome this obstacle (it seemed that in the other group not all the members were unanimous about it). Second, I ticked myself off a little leading the way through this narrow tunnel (it wouldn’t have been so interesting if I had followed somebody).

So, this cave is called "Games" because there are many tunnels moving in different directions. Our instructor, Francesco, deliberately moved a bit faster, so that we wouldn’t be able to remember the way back, and on the way back we really lost our path twice. First time we were not ashamed, because the instructors stopped us as they did not want us to go along a rather slippery balcony, so it was for safety reasons. Though when we were walking along it, it was obvious that we were taking the right direction. But the second time the situation was so ridiculous that we were ashamed of it: we got out of a relatively narrow tunnel into a fairly large gallery, several narrow tunnels led out in different directions. Nobody could recall where we should go next. We started moving through one, then another, and we did not notice a huge opening of a tunnel just on our right (do not forget that in caves, helmet lanterns are the only source of light)... Besides, at the end of the path Loredana gave me another hint... I was thankful to her but at the same time a bit upset because she had to do it.

As a result, Scott and I decided to draw “maps” indicating the number of tunnels, ones we picked up and ones we are going to chose on our way back in case we’re going to explore new caves in the future.

After reaching the surface we had approximately a 20-minute rest in a small open-air cafe indulging in a small glass of beer and pleasant relaxing music. I was enjoying the atmosphere. Yet I was even happier about the fact that there was no tension in our team even though the trial of the day was not easy.

It is a joy to understand that you can do it. And it is even nicer to understand that we can do it together! Speaking about psychology. Today I realized that I would get on well with Scott, Mathias and Sergei. Scott and Mathias feel the same about me, for Sergei at least it is not difficult... Luka is a good guy, he can easily be the heart and soul of the company, he instantly grasps your ideas, even before you can say a word (he is obviously an excellent pilot)... ...Well, well, my mind seems to be tricky… I have never treated this seriously. Thank you, Loredana.

Good night, everybody.

September 11, 2014

So, good evening, everyone!

Tomorrow evening we are going to the cave for six days. Today has been a hectic day, everybody was learning the basics of mountaineering. I think everyone has learned it well enough, though this volume of vital information and skills requires more than one day for studying and practicing. As Francesco said, it takes novice cavers a week to get trained! Mathias surprises me in a positive way. He is a scientist, an engineer by education, he has a broad intellectual scope and certain leadership qualities. His emphasized tact and smoothness in no way betrayed his excellent abilities for active physical activity in non-standard conditions. But it turned out otherwise! At the same time, we easily understand each other. I am sure that we are going to feel easy and comfortable together.

It's so weird for me to write down thoughts like this and even think about it. Maybe this is another proof that I'm maturing late.

All in all, everything is in its place now, everything is prepared and quite clear. To tell you the truth, I couldn’t have come up with a better idea. We are all well prepared, and this should not be a test for me — I certainly won’t be counting the days there — but an amazing journey surrounded by great people!

In two minutes, lights and hot water will be turned off — I have to rush to take a shower!

***

Afterword. To the instructors — speleologists and skydivers

Looking back on this whole experience of speleological training, I see a deep parallel with parachute training. In the caves, as well as at parachute training, we were surrounded by people who not only do their job, but live the sky, live speleology.

They are super professionals in their field, who have long since stopped thinking about how much they get for their work — and perhaps have never thought about it at all. They simply do the work of their lives, live by it. And obviously, since their life's work is risky for all of them, they all have bright souls. You just feel it when you're around them, looking into their eyes, talking to them.

Kindness, openness, warmth, calmness, self-confidence, inner strength, a great sense of humor — such a set of personal qualities that you involuntarily feel respect and want to be like them. And being above and beyond the ordinary reality, in a charming, extraordinary, Other World, in the company of such amazing "other" people was a magical gift of fate for me! I will always be grateful to them for opening up new worlds for me, being there, helping me become better.