High altitude decompression diving

[bryankwatts]

There is an Altitude Diving class at Underwater Connection in Colorado Springs taught by Dan Lambrecht. While the class is fairly basic, it is generally taught as one on one instruction and you may be able to customize the class to exactly what you want.

 

[boulderjohn]

There is an Altitude Diving class at Underwater Connection in Colorado Springs taught by Dan Lambrecht. While the class is fairly basic, it is generally taught as one on one instruction and you may be able to customize the class to exactly what you want.

I believe I was told they use my diving at altitude article--at least that is who I think it was that told me that.

 

[boulderjohn]

My understanding is that the Shearwater will assume you're acclimated (without an actual prior dive that it's still tracking).

That is my understanding as well.

 

[bryankwatts]

I believe I was told they use my diving at altitude article--at least that is who I think it was that told me that.

Yes I can confirm that. I took the class and recognized your name from the great information you shared with me about diving the Blue Hole and then driving back to my home at 8600 feet.

 

[KevinNM]

Mountain climbing acclimation for high mountains is not a few hours, it’s days to weeks and involves climbing and descending, or climbing, remaining overnight and descending again. You apparently become acclimatized mostly by your body making more red blood cells.

A chart sourced to the CDC has this:

From sea level, here is the average amount of time it takes to become FULLY acclimatized to altitude:​

• • 6,000 ft (1829 m) — 3 Weeks
• • 8,000 ft (2438 m) — 4 Weeks
• • 10,000 ft (3048 m) — 5 Weeks
• • 12,000 ft (3658 m) — 6 Weeks
• • 14,000 ft (4267 m) — 7 Weeks

 

[lostsheep]

Mountain climbing acclimation for high mountains is not a few hours, it’s days to weeks and involves climbing and descending, or climbing, remaining overnight and descending again. You apparently become acclimatized mostly by your body making more red blood cells.

A chart sourced to the CDC has this:

From sea level, here is the average amount of time it takes to become FULLY acclimatized to altitude:​

• • 6,000 ft (1829 m) — 3 Weeks
• • 8,000 ft (2438 m) — 4 Weeks
• • 10,000 ft (3048 m) — 5 Weeks
• • 12,000 ft (3658 m) — 6 Weeks
• • 14,000 ft (4267 m) — 7 Weeks

Link?

 

[grantctobin]

Link?

High Elevation Travel & Altitude Illness | CDC Yellow Book 2024

Information about how to order the U.S. government publication about traveling titled "Health Information for International Travel" (also called the "Yellow Book"). Provided by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

wwwnc.cdc.gov

 

[J-Vo]

That is my understanding as well.

This is incorrect (for tissue loading). Having done a few deco dives at Jefferson Lake(11,000' driving from 5,500') your shearwater shows tissue loading on arrival. Interestingly driving from Denver over a pass to get there usually I have GF99 still at 0, but can see loading on the graph. While a buddy driving up from Colorado Springs with a direct ascent has seen GF99 as high as 30% on arrival.

I believe Shearwater tracks tissue loading based on ambient pressure continuously even when the device is turned off. I recommend you put the battery in before making an ascent to an altitude dive.

Given the navy warnings quoted by @boulderjohn we use extremely conservative GFs 35/45, and usually stay on O2 until our surf GF is very low or zero.

 

[boulderjohn]

This is incorrect (for tissue loading). Having done a few deco dives at Jefferson Lake(11,000' driving from 5,500') your shearwater shows tissue loading on arrival. Interestingly driving from Denver over a pass to get there usually I have GF99 still at 0, but can see loading on the graph. While a buddy driving up from Colorado Springs with a direct ascent has seen GF99 as high as 30% on arrival.

I believe Shearwater tracks tissue loading based on ambient pressure continuously even when the device is turned off. I recommend you put the battery in before making an ascent to an altitude dive.

Given the navy warnings quoted by @boulderjohn we use extremely conservative GFs 35/45, and usually stay on O2 until our surf GF is very low or zero.

That's good information.

Do you notice any difference in SAC rates on those dives?

 

[lostsheep]

High Elevation Travel & Altitude Illness | CDC Yellow Book 2024

Information about how to order the U.S. government publication about traveling titled "Health Information for International Travel" (also called the "Yellow Book"). Provided by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

wwwnc.cdc.gov

Thanks for the link and thanks @KevinNM for bringing it up.

This is incorrect (for tissue loading). Having done a few deco dives at Jefferson Lake(11,000' driving from 5,500') your shearwater shows tissue loading on arrival. Interestingly driving from Denver over a pass to get there usually I have GF99 still at 0, but can see loading on the graph. While a buddy driving up from Colorado Springs with a direct ascent has seen GF99 as high as 30% on arrival.

I believe Shearwater tracks tissue loading based on ambient pressure continuously even when the device is turned off. I recommend you put the battery in before making an ascent to an altitude dive.

Given the navy warnings quoted by @boulderjohn we use extremely conservative GFs 35/45, and usually stay on O2 until our surf GF is very low or zero.

I’ve searched the perdix manual and don’t see anything that explicitly answers the question about whether or not the shearwater is tracking off gassing from an ascent to elevation pre-diving. Shearwaters are tracking pressure while off per page 75 of the owners manual :