altitude diving

[knotical]

Two-part article on altitude diving at these URLs.
altitude part 1
altitude part 2

And a third on: nitrox at altitude

 

[boulderjohn]

Two-part article on altitude diving at these URLs.
altitude part 1
altitude part 2

And a third on: nitrox at altitude

Thanks for these. When I first started diving, I had the foolish notion that I would never dive at altitude because I would limit my diving to the beautiful clear waters of the tropics. Well, one domino sure does knock over another, does it not?

 

[boulderjohn]

One of the interesting things about Rocky Mountain area diving is the need to consider DRIVING after diving as well as flying. If you live in Colorado and dive in either the Blue Hole (New Mexico) or Homestead Crater (Utah) and then drive right home, you have to think about what mountains you will cross. Going over Raton Pass in southern Colorado is about the same as a taking a commercial airline, and both Berthoud Pass and Eisenhower tunnel in Colorado are significantly worse. The one advantage is that you ascend more slowly than with an airplane, so I would think you should have a slightly more rapid offgassing as you ascend because of the increased pressure differential.

I have never read anything about that, though. Does anyone know anything about that?

 

[knotical]

One of the interesting things about Rocky Mountain area diving is the need to consider DRIVING after diving as well as flying. If you live in Colorado and dive in either the Blue Hole (New Mexico) or Homestead Crater (Utah) and then drive right home, you have to think about what mountains you will cross. Going over Raton Pass in southern Colorado is about the same as a taking a commercial airline, and both Berthoud Pass and Eisenhower tunnel in Colorado are significantly worse. The one advantage is that you ascend more slowly than with an airplane, so I would think you should have a slightly more rapid offgassing as you ascend because of the increased pressure differential.

I have never read anything about that, though. Does anyone know anything about that?

I'm preparing another post as we speak (or type).

 

[Divedoggie]

From all info that I have tried to find, there havn't been any good scientific studies. We are kind of guinea pigs out there. I just dive as conservatively as possible, ascend super slowly and extend safety stops a few minutes. I also plan on staying the night after the dive(blue hole) because the drive home takes me over Monarch Pass. Driving east following dives at homestead actually loses altitude, however, when we dove there, we spent the night. :06:

One of the interesting things about Rocky Mountain area diving is the need to consider DRIVING after diving as well as flying. If you live in Colorado and dive in either the Blue Hole (New Mexico) or Homestead Crater (Utah) and then drive right home, you have to think about what mountains you will cross. Going over Raton Pass in southern Colorado is about the same as a taking a commercial airline, and both Berthoud Pass and Eisenhower tunnel in Colorado are significantly worse. The one advantage is that you ascend more slowly than with an airplane, so I would think you should have a slightly more rapid offgassing as you ascend because of the increased pressure differential.

I have never read anything about that, though. Does anyone know anything about that?

 

[ABQdiver]

Good job with the post guys.

John, what is your typical protocol for driving home after diving somewhere like Blue Hole?

Since our trip back to Albuquerque doesn't have quite the altitude change as yours, the Clines Corners area is about 7200' from the Blue Hole 4800' we always hang around until we area C group divers before starting the trip back.

 

[boulderjohn]

Good job with the post guys.

John, what is your typical protocol for driving home after diving somewhere like Blue Hole?

Since our trip back to Albuquerque doesn't have quite the altitude change as yours, the Clines Corners area is about 7200' from the Blue Hole 4800' we always hang around until we area C group divers before starting the trip back.

I have only done the hole once, frankly. We dove in the morning and then packed up our camp. We hung around the picnic area and had a nice, leisurely picnic lunch before heading back. We had thus outgassed for a number of hours before reaching Raton Pass.

 

[O2BBubbleFree]

One of the interesting things about Rocky Mountain area diving is the need to consider DRIVING after diving...

And don't forget that you have to take into account driving BEFORE diving. When I was living in Sacramento, CA, and diving in Lake Tahoe, NV we had to cross a 7000' pass before dropping down to the lake. This then had to be accounted for in the dive planning. I didn't see this mentioned in the article, but I read it pretty fast...

For those of you in the bleachers, please realize that there are a lot of extra considerations when diving at altutude, so please get the necessary education. And I mean 'education,' not 'certification.' My altitude instructor was full of dangerous advice, and I wouldn't have known it if I hadn't done some reading/research on my own.