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[rjack321]

Richard,
I wouldn't jump to conclusions of unmotivated divers up here. I know we've never met but...

By "whole lot" I meant more than 5 or 6...

...this actually sounds quite interesting to me. I don't have any experience with anything like this, but I'm easily persuaded. I've been in contact with Peter from the VICEG, & told him that I'd like to have an opportunity to do some stuff like this, and to share my contact info with anyone needing or wanting help with this kind of exploration.

If it ends in a gravel strainer, oh well...would you guys have found "Wet Dream" without at least trying? Personally I'd love to be even a small part of discovering something like that.

Bentley

Sounds great. We're going up in mid-May over your long weekend. Send me your email and I'll get you in the loop

 

[PfcAJ]

Dives like this aren't my cup of tea, but I'd give a long hard think about hauling some o2 along. Deep, cold, and far away from help. O2 can fix a lot, esp if you get delayed or some nonsense happens in the water.

 

[rjack321]

Dives like this aren't my cup of tea, but I'd give a long hard think about hauling some o2 along. Deep, cold, and far away from help. O2 can fix a lot, esp if you get delayed or some nonsense happens in the water.

Or I can keep it to no or very minimal deco. In the past I've spent a ton of energy and never even found anything divable. In one passage, Limeyx and I got about chest deep before we realized that was the end...

 

[rjack321]

I brought hp100s of 21/35, 13cf of O2, and a 6cf suit bottle (which was a shed load of weight for my guys to help shlep down and back up 5 rope pitches). Sadly the sump was not divable. There was a fairly substantive stream going in with 18" visibility. I wasn't going to dive a siphon with that kind of vis. The white stuff in front of me on the far wall is foam, the limestone is mostly dark grey with white veins.

 

[TSandM]

Oh, man, Richard, I feel for all of you! That's a heck of a long way to go and a lot of work to do, to be blown out. Better luck next time!

 

[PfcAJ]

That's a bummer man. Coming home w/ full reels stings after putting in a bunch of work, I feel your pain. Hopefully next time you'll hit the jackpot!

"Today's the day!" - Mel Fisher

 

[rjack321]

I'm trying to get them to take pics of sumps and other water filled caves they find so that I can have a better idea of what exactly dry cavers consider "divable". So far its often really small (no mount razor sharp limestone in a drysuit with 44F water anyone?) or a siphon with a waterfall gushing in at 5+cfs. I did find another do-able sump on this trip - funny thing is; they didn't think to mention it beforehand.
Sadly I had broken a rear shock on the road up there which had been decommissioned (the dig trenches across them when they are done logging to keep the water from making a gulley) and my rear bumper and hitch dragged a lot. So I decided to save it for another trip.