Unknown Blue Hole of Santa Rosa
- Thread starter PBcatfish
- Start date
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The story of Mike and Shane is only barely close to reality. Mike has given a public, recorded account that is very accurate, so they could have accessed that easily. They do have a number of very accurate parts with details most people would not know, so it is surprising that they also have so much that is inaccurate.
I have not been to the Blue Hole in a few years. When I was there last, the grate covering the cave opening was in very bad shape. The problem was that when we were doing the exploration work, we greatly enlarged the opening by removing a lot of the loose rock. The grate covering it now is the one that was that was covering it before, so it is not big enough now, and the opening is still a lot of loose rock that is falling in. I had offered to create a team to fix it, but that discussion had only started when Covid closed the place down.
I have not been to the Blue Hole in a few years. When I was there last, the grate covering the cave opening was in very bad shape. The problem was that when we were doing the exploration work, we greatly enlarged the opening by removing a lot of the loose rock. The grate covering it now is the one that was that was covering it before, so it is not big enough now, and the opening is still a lot of loose rock that is falling in. I had offered to create a team to fix it, but that discussion had only started when Covid closed the place down.
The heading is that this is the most dangerous dive site in New Mexico. Well, if you were to get into the cave, that would be true. For just plain diving, there is a much more dangerous site only a couple miles away from there.
Bad News From Santa Rosa Blue Hole
I am hearing there has been an accident at Blue Hole. I don't know for sure what has happened so I won 't poste a name but apparently there has been a fatality. Anyone else hearing anything?
mcohen1021
Contributor
blast from the past, i dove there in 1990, and survived the vortex down current pulling me into the cave!
KevinNM
Contributor
What I found fascinating is how little the space under the grate resembled that given in the testimony of the police divers who retrieved the bodies of the divers way back when. It’s possible that that was closed off in a later collapse, but maybe it was all just narcosis?
When we started working, it was indeed that narrow. I was wearing doubles, and I could barely fit through it. I had to go straight down, scraping the sides as I went, and then arch my back when I got to the change in slope. One of our team's jobs was expanding that opening.
We had three teams working. Shane and Mike were the only ones who went past the restriction at about 140 feet (one of the mistakes in the video) to do the deep exploration. We had two others (whom I will not name without their permission) working on that restriction, and the rest of us worked to open the passage from the opening at 85 feet to the 140 foot restriction.
Even after we moved a lot of rocks from the upper area, it was still a tight fit. The afternoon before the fatal dive, Mike talked about how they were always dislodging rocks on their initial ascent, so I went in alone on the last dive of the day to try to remedy it. I had to be alone because I intended to make a serious mess of things. I had a specific time plan so that if I did not come out on schedule, someone would go in after me. I started by carefully moving loose rocks at about the 100 foot mark, and when I got close to my scheduled time, I began to work my way upward, shoving my arms into the loose clay and rocks all the way to the elbows, pulling out as much as I could, and throwing it behind me. I kept my eyes up at the halo of light in the siltout. I knew I was out of the cave and into the Blue Hole when my arms no longer went into that mess--that's how silty it was.
So the opening was greatly expanded over what it was, and my description should tell you that it is loose and unstable. I am sure a lot of it has collapsed since then.
We mucked things up pretty seriously every day. The flow from the cave was enough to clear it out in about 30 minutes.
We had three teams working. Shane and Mike were the only ones who went past the restriction at about 140 feet (one of the mistakes in the video) to do the deep exploration. We had two others (whom I will not name without their permission) working on that restriction, and the rest of us worked to open the passage from the opening at 85 feet to the 140 foot restriction.
Even after we moved a lot of rocks from the upper area, it was still a tight fit. The afternoon before the fatal dive, Mike talked about how they were always dislodging rocks on their initial ascent, so I went in alone on the last dive of the day to try to remedy it. I had to be alone because I intended to make a serious mess of things. I had a specific time plan so that if I did not come out on schedule, someone would go in after me. I started by carefully moving loose rocks at about the 100 foot mark, and when I got close to my scheduled time, I began to work my way upward, shoving my arms into the loose clay and rocks all the way to the elbows, pulling out as much as I could, and throwing it behind me. I kept my eyes up at the halo of light in the siltout. I knew I was out of the cave and into the Blue Hole when my arms no longer went into that mess--that's how silty it was.
So the opening was greatly expanded over what it was, and my description should tell you that it is loose and unstable. I am sure a lot of it has collapsed since then.
We mucked things up pretty seriously every day. The flow from the cave was enough to clear it out in about 30 minutes.
What a dumb video, purely created for theater. That's 17 minutes of my life I'll never get back. The only reason I read this post is because I was certified in the Blue Hole when I lived in Colorado. At least the pictures of the site topside are accurate.
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