Diving Report: Fall River Reservoir

[J-Vo]

I decided to do things a little differently this July 4th and hauled a couple tanks up to Fall River Reservoir for some exploration. Having done some Paddle Boarding here last year, the water clarity had me thinking about diving it ever since.

It requires a 4x4 to get near and a short steep hike to get to the water. As the lake is at 10,700' this means some good fitness is required.

Surface water temperature was just over 50 degrees and it dipped down to 40 below 20-25'. Good lights are required below as well. I would recommend experienced cold dark water divers only for this dive. This was the most interesting dive I have made in Colorado so far.

I took some very poor video, so only posting stills I could salvage. Missing from the images is the significant terrain features created by lots of boulders and terraced bottom.

Lot's of cool tree stumps are lurking in the depths:

Hard to make out, but this appears to be a layer of dissolved organic matter starting at around 60':

Found a large patch of old plant growth in the depths:

Carrying tanks up the hill, and wrapping up the dive:

 

[boulderjohn]

Looks like fun! I would want my undergarments for nippier water, for sure.

There is a good argument for breathing nitrox, if only while carrying your gear to the water line! I have dived above 10,000 feet only a few times, but when I did, just getting to the water was the biggest ordeal.

The United States Navy diving manual has a whopping one paragraph on diving above 10,000 feet. It is in bold type. That type is bright red. It says, in essence, don't do it without permission of the proper Naval authorities because of problems related to acclimatization. That would not stop me in this case, but I would certainly be cautious.

 

[J-Vo]

For sure, extra layers where required. I got it about right though as only my hands where cold, but not incapacitated.

Ya, a good rich Nitrox would have made me feel better. I did confirm my Perdix was reading gas loading from the ascent to altitude and set it to GF 50/60. I also made sure to ascend really slowly.

At 60' I only had about 9 minutes of NDL time.