Closing Plura?

[gianaameri]

Mark Dougherty's comments on the article support your hypothesis, that's the way I understand the situation also.

There is another article on the same paper, speculating that there is a possibility that the Plurdalen cave will be sealed as a tomb for the deceased. The local authorities haven't any decisions on the matter. Not sure if there is any foundation to that speculation, or if it's just coming from the reporter.

Well, that is where the local cave group and associations should be vocal about keeping the cave open for all future generations.

It would be against the public interest if it were closed.

Equally though access should be regulated through the Norwegian Speleological Society.

 

[Storker]

There is another article on the same paper, speculating that there is a possibility that the Plurdalen cave will be sealed as a tomb for the deceased. The local authorities haven't any decisions on the matter. Not sure if there is any foundation to that speculation, or if it's just coming from the reporter.

It would be against the public interest if it were closed.

It would also be against our lawful right to roam ("allemannsretten") - PDF information brochure. Restrictions to non-motorized activities in Norwegian nature - whether on publicly or privately owned land - must be covered by law (like the ban on base jumping in Trollveggen between 1986 and 2000), so they can't have a permanent ban before the Parliament passes a law restricting access to the Plura cave system. I'd hazard a guess that passing such a law could be a lengthy affair...

Equally though access should be regulated through the Norwegian Speleological Society.

I believe that giving a non-governmental (i.e. private) organization the power to regulate access to public or private property they don't own themselves would be even more difficult to pull off up here. AFAIK, we have absolutely no tradition for that kind of regulations.

Quite another thing is if the landowner chooses to restrict access to the road up to Plura by motorized vehicles, he would be in his full rights to do that (I assume it's a private road and not a public one).

 

[JFishgood]

Personally, I agree with Storker's facts. Restricting access would be, in my opinion, the quivalent of banning climbs to Mount Everest.

Takes a truck load of character to climb past Green Boots on the Everest, as it would take to squeeze past the poor soul stuck in the restriction, I would assume though. But the former is done every year by dozens of people. Although, the climb is pretty much a walk in the park compared to this type of dive. Far less capable people are able to climb there...

One thing that puzzles me, is how does a diver get so stuck there, that he can't be released at all? I can understand that it couldn't be done by the buddy when situation was at hand, but now even a well prepared professional rescue diver can't do it even in planned circumstances.

 

[mc6809e]

One thing that puzzles me, is how does a diver get so stuck there, that he can't be released at all?

Ever have your fingers stuck in a Chinese finger trap?

Dive instructors should carry them around with them. Anyone thinking about cave diving can do their first simulated cave dive by placing their fingers in both ends.

It may not be the perfect analog of a cave, but it gets the point across.

 

[Storker]

The recovery divers came from the Steinugleflåget side of the restriction, while the dead diver had come from the Plura side. So, the recovery divers couldn't pull the body back where the diver came from, they had to try to pull him through the restriction he was stuck in.

I've done my share of speculation about why they chose to do it that way, in the body recovery thread. And no matter our Monday morning quarterbacking, that was the way perhaps the most competent recovery divers in this part of the world chose to do it.