Growing up in the former Soviet Union, Professor of Geography Olga Medvedkov routinely felt the fear around her associated with any challenge to mainstream thinking. The daughter of physician parents, she witnessed her mother’s and father’s reluctance to question the regime, knowing full well that other relatives had died earlier in Stalin’s purges.

For the uninitiated, such experiences sound crazy or even down right scary. But for Carey and the cavers with her, discovering that connection was a very big deal – it meant they had found a cave system. It was also a huge thrill, she recalls, and the highlight of her experiences as a “WUSS.”