The British Caving Association

John Gunn writes, Sad news travels quickly so some of you may already have heard that Alexander Klimchouk passed away in Stepping Hill hospital overnight 11/12 May. Alexander was an Honorary Life Member of BCRA who made huge contributions to cave exploration and to karst science. As a caver he participated in many expeditions and was a leader of the ‘Call of the Abyss’ project which discovered the first cave with a depth over 2000m. As a scientist he made many innovative and important contributions, most recently in the field of hypogenic speleogenesis as those who heard his superb talk in the March BCRA Seminar will be aware. In January Alexander moved to England to take up an “Academics at Risk” post at Manchester University, working with Prof Cathy Hollis and a team studying hypogenic karst in the Peak District. In true Alexander style he almost immediately suggested to us that some of the features in the local Millstone Grit might be of hypogenic origin, something that no-one had previously considered! His last underground visits were to Treak Cliff Cavern and Peak Cavern in March when we enjoyed his usual lively discussion. Last Sunday Alexander and his wife Natalia were out in the White Peak with Tony Marsden and Gail Searby who shared the photograph attached to this post. Late on Wednesday evening Alexander emailed with ideas on present and potential new projects so his passing within 24 hours was a terrible shock. There will be many tributes over the coming weeks and months, including in Cave and Karst Science but now, both personally and on behalf of BCRA Council I extend my condolences and sympathy to Alexander’s family and thank them for permission to use the photograph. — with Gail