Ground travel to altitude after a single dive

[mainedvr]

So my wife and I are going to Vegas and the morning before while the kids are in school we were considering doing a dive to less than 60'. From what I can tell our trip will take us to around 4000' ASL I do not see anything much more than that. I did some research on the DAN website and found some interesting articles. Seems that most of the studies done are in the 2K-8k' range and for short flights island hopping after a dive. But, barring any extenuating circumstances like health issues or already being bent, looks like its not an issue.

Any input is appreciated as to issues you may think are there, never took an altitude diving class or anything and while I understand the no fly time's this is something (driving and hitting some elevation ) that could and probably is overlooked at times maybe quite often. I almost did not think about it at first as we discussed doing the dive that day.

Living in an area that I could easily do some dives in the morning and be at the ski resort or high desert in the afternoon well it needs to be part of our dive plan or at least a consideration. Here is a scenario....my son goes snowboarding with some friends, has an accident, that morning my wife and I are boat diving doing two or three dives in the 60-100 range, When we recive the call we pack up the car with our other three kids and head up to 6k feet or more to get our son and his newly casted arm or leg. OOPPS were bent (maybe).

Thanks

 

[KevinNM]

It is common practice here to dive at a site that requires a couple of thousand foot climb on the way home. Typically people don't leave for 1-2 hours after they finish diving and while I have heard rumors that people have gotten hit at the high point between, it was a couple of decades ago. It certainly doesn't happen often. But 6000 feet is a significant climb, I certainly wouldn't feel confident jumping out of the water and driving up 6000 feet.

You might think about meeting them at the hospital, which will probably be a lot lower elevation than the ski patrol center.

DAN says for flying: What is Decompression: Flying after Diving — Medical Dive Article — DAN | Divers Alert Network

• For a single no-decompression dive, a minimum preflight surface interval of 12 hours is suggested.
  
  
• For multiple dives per day or multiple days of diving, a minimum preflight surface interval of 18 hours is suggested.
  
  
• For dives requiring decompression stops, there is little evidence on which to base a recommendation and a preflight surface interval substantially longer than 18 hours appears prudent.

 

[mainedvr]

It is common practice here to dive at a site that requires a couple of thousand foot climb on the way home. Typically people don't leave for 1-2 hours after they finish diving and while I have heard rumors that people have gotten hit at the high point between, it was a couple of decades ago. It certainly doesn't happen often. But 6000 feet is a significant climb, I certainly wouldn't feel confident jumping out of the water and driving up 6000 feet.

You might think about meeting them at the hospital, which will probably be a lot lower elevation than the ski patrol center.

DAN says for flying: What is Decompression: Flying after Diving — Medical Dive Article — DAN | Divers Alert Network

• For a single no-decompression dive, a minimum preflight surface interval of 12 hours is suggested.
  
  
• For multiple dives per day or multiple days of diving, a minimum preflight surface interval of 18 hours is suggested.
  
  
• For dives requiring decompression stops, there is little evidence on which to base a recommendation and a preflight surface interval substantially longer than 18 hours appears prudent.

Yeah that was how the scenario would play out for me I would make sure he was ok then give it sometime till we head up.

I read on the DAN site regarding our Vegas trip that its not uncommon for divers to do low level flights 2k-2500 feet after diving to get back to the island they are staying at. And that vehicle travel up to several thousand feet is not uncommon and normally is not an issue. (my words paraphrasing from what I read).

So our drive to Vegas would be about 4 hours after we got out of the water, doing a single dive on 32% to less than 60' probably more around 40-45'. For maybe 50-60 minutes. We would hit an elevation of approx 4000 feet another hour and a half after that so that is 5 hours out of the water. I think vegas is around 2500' ASL now if you go up in the space needle its another 1000' So we should not ever be about 4500 or so. Would you do this dive?

I am not asking permission but would like some "what would you do" input. I see no issue with it just think its an interesting subject, that some new divers may not consider and could especially around here be a real scenario. Actually I was talking to someone at the dive shop an instructor that had been teaching all week and she had lots of up and down with the classes. Anyhow she went to a fireworks show or something at about 1500' ASL and she ended up being bent.

 

[diversteve]

Mountain Pass on I-15 seems like the highest point you'll have to contend with.

Google bolds...

It is situated on Interstate 15 in the southeast mountainous desert region of the state approximately 15 miles (24 km) from the Nevada border at an elevation of 4,730 feet (1,440 m) - the highest point along I-15 between California and Nevada.