Diving incident at Eagles Nest Sink

[Dsix36]

No.

CCR and bailout were on the back end (deeper into the cave).

Not quite right:
11. Diver 2's CCR, a 95 bailout, and two scooters were located on Monday morning just outside the restriction to Revelation Space in the Room of Dreams.

 

[Dan]

Safety tanks get clipped to the line which is what you're following during zero is. A strobe isn't the appropriate tool for finding your scuba tanks in a cave.

That's even better. So, why can't they find the safety tanks?
Per Charlie Roberson's statement #8. "A full AL80 safety was located just on the exit side of the Pit restriction in 270 ffw but was not easily seen on the way out." Would this mean that it didn't get clipped to the line?

 

[catone]

I doubt they were "on the line" on their way back. They were probably close to the ceiling in an attempt to stay as shallow as possible. If not easily seen by the recovery team, likely even harder to see when the whole focus was to get out asap. I am not familiar with EN but looking at available maps, the cave seems quite large, with what I would estimate 20-30 ft ceilings, if not even more.

 

[PfcAJ]

That's even better. So, why can't they find the safety tanks?
Per Charlie Roberson's statement #8. "A full AL80 safety was located just on the exit side of the Pit restriction in 270 ffw but was not easily seen on the way out." Would this mean that it didn't get clipped to the line?

We'll never know why the didn't use that safety for sure.

Safety placement is a skill and it's not always obvious where good safety placement is.

In my OPINION the place where they had that safety wasn't a good spot. It was just past the narrowest bit of the Pit Restriction where the line kind of does a juke to the left (when viewed when exiting). The way out is more straight but the line is there there to keep it out of your gear but still within reach. Also at that restriction there's a depth change from like 285 to 260 or so, then the cave keeps going shallower up to 220-230 from there. I have no reason to believe they were on the line at this point and probably swam right past it in haste. Somewhere around this time seems to be when the lighthead came unplugged since we found it on the floor at like 240' but I can't be sure.

Here's a screenshot of me in the Pit Restriction from about a year and a half ago:

The placement of the safety is one of the big things for me to take away from this. Having safeties is great, but they have to be in a spot where they're not easy to miss and there's enough space to switch to it.

 

[cerich]

I can say that safety placement is something that is easy to be "that looks like a good spot" on the way in versus "is that in right spot when on the way out with problems". The cave can look quite different depending on your direction of travel, what sometimes seems open and visible from one direction can be completely hidden from another. If exploring a new area doing a placement takes time and thought that maybe sometimes isn't getting that thought and time. I know that I have come back to pick up stages that I thought were well placed and saying "where is it?" or "that wasn't as good a spot as I thought". Thankfully that has happened to me when there was no issues..had there been it could have been bad. I give placement more respect now than just finding a spot that won't damage the cave or be likely to be silty

 

[Basking Ridge Diver]

Having safeties is great, but they have to be in a spot where they're not easy to miss and there's enough space to switch to it.

From a non technical standpoint - are there more than one set of teams in a cave going to the same/approximate location - where stages may be placed by multiple teams in the same general location? Does this cause any issues with placement where you may need to pick a sub optimal location for safety's?
Or does this not occur?

 

[redacted]

Are dropped bottles not connected to the main line?

 

[tbone1004]

it would be rather uncommon in this particular cave, but it is not uncommon in some of the more popular caves. In fact in many of them there are "stage rocks" where while it may not coincide exactly with your gas planning *it is usually + 200ft of "normal" drop point*, there are particular areas of the cave where it is better/safer to drop these bottles. In this case you would have your team drop your bottles on one of the extremes of this area, and then subsequent teams would try to keep their bottles in a "batch" but a bit separated from yours. Your stage bottles will all have marks on them that designate them as yours which while not ideal in a true 0 viz situation, you try to put said bottles in an area that is difficult to silt out. Some of us put touch markers on them as well that indicate them as yours.
These are all supposed to be clipped off to the main line in the event of a 0 viz situation. Depending on the cave, some people *myself included* will leave their O2 bottles off of the line. In caves like JB where it is near impossible to silt out in the cavern *it would basically require a massive cave in to silt out the cavern*, it is much better to put the O2 bottles way off to the side of the cavern near the wall while your line may not go near that drop location. In caves like P1, the gold lines see heavy traffic and it is often easier to put the bottles elsewhere for decompression. This changes if you are diving at night, in caves that silt out easily *like Twin or Hole in the Wall*, but is not a practice that you see for stage bottles or any bottles that are dropped inside of the cave itself

 

[Dan]

Not quite right:
11. Diver 2's CCR, a 95 bailout, and two scooters were located on Monday morning just outside the restriction to Revelation Space in the Room of Dreams.

I think you guys are referring to the same place. I'm confused myself when reading Charlie Robertson Statement of Facts. I don't see where the Revelation Space or outside restriction to the Revelation Space in the Room of Dreams, or the exit side of the Pit restriction in 270 ffw. So, I take a stab on guessing the locations of the divers, scooters, diver2 CCR, AL80 safety tanks, 95 bailout tanks, etc., based on Charlie's statements, as shown in the picture, above. Feel free to correct me.

 

[PfcAJ]

From a non technical standpoint - are there more than one set of teams in a cave going to the same/approximate location - where stages may be placed by multiple teams in the same general location? Does this cause any issues with placement where you may need to pick a sub optimal location for safety's?
Or does this not occur?

I think it's important to designate between safety bottles, stage bottles, and deco bottles. While they might look the same they have different functions.

I wouldn't say that it's uncommon to have different teams bottles at the same general location. Stage Bottle Rock at ginnie for instance might have gear from a few dive teams. Personally, I try to avoid this but I also don't get bent out of shape if that's the way it's gotta be on that particular day. All my stuff has my name on it so it's no big deal except for the clutter of all the stuff laying around at pickup time.

All bottles need to be clipped off to the line