The Great Travis Traverse

[tlessard]

I hope this doesn't sound like a silly question but I am just a rec diver, DM Candidate, and have no experience with mixed gases, etc... so if we start off the platform at WP how much of the line can we see before we bust 130' and have to turn back... I have been following this thread with great interest and great envy in the abilities and skills all of you guys have... Your thoughts are greatly appreciated as we are planning a trip this weekend 9/22...

Thanks

Well Chuck,

The correct answer to that is: none of it...the tie-in doesn't start until 160ffw, which is quite a ways out of your current training level. You would never even be able to see the tie-in from 130ffw based on it's location. Go get your DSAT Tech/Deco Procedures/etc and pay it a visit after completion...

Trey

 

[tlessard]

This one is most likely more realistic with the true channel completely filled, the straight shot accross goes into what looks to be a deep valley on the other side, so if the route were to head south slightly it would avoid the valley and head closer to land, not father away.

Looks like the deep part of the channel would be ~400 feet or so, with an angled crossing to the south pushing 500 feet.

The majority of the crossing would be up the bank on the other side but that'd be a haul for sure.

Looks like a staight line crossing would be pushing 3000 feet not including the lay of the land.

Your dots on this are a little far north...the actual tie-in is south of platfrom 3, so it's closer to a straight shot to the line you've drawn on the opposite bank. See where the park service road is covered with water? P3 is slightly south of that, and the tie-in probabaly another 50ft further. 270 degrees would easily put you on point I think, no?

Kick-*** overlaying of the topo with the Google map, BTW! Very nice, USA #1...

Trey

 

[LVX]

Well Chuck,
Go get your DSAT Tech/Deco Procedures/etc and pay it a visit after completion...

Trey

Don't forget taking a trimix course as well.. Just my opinion mind you...

 

[tlessard]

This is closer to accurate for P3 (blue dot) and the tie-in (green dots). Old line notated in red with blk dots at posts...new line notated in black with yellow posts @ 100ft intervals (actual will be 50ft). What do you think? In the name of keeping it simple...

 

[FIXXERVI6]

This is closer to accurate for P3 (blue dot) and the tie-in (green dots). Old line notated in red with blk dots at posts...new line notated in black with yellow posts @ 100ft intervals (actual will be 50ft). What do you think? In the name of keeping it simple...

heh, funny that you updated it like that, I was talking to one of the guys planning the dive with me and he mentioned we shouold do it just as you have posted for the shortest route across the channel, when we hit the other side take a turn slightly south and start up that bank to get shallow as fast as possible.

The current plan is the line will be marked every 10 feet with knots, every place a screw goes its marked with a color, same for an arrow this way when he is laying line in the wonderful conditions and he see the color red pop out of the reel he can expect me tugging on the line sinking a screw etc

Planned for 3 divers, lead laying line watching compass, number 2 setting anchors, number 3 setting navigation. (yea I know straight shot but trying to break up the workload)

 

[tlessard]

Planned for 3 divers, lead laying line watching compass, number 2 setting anchors, number 3 setting navigation. (yea I know straight shot but trying to break up the workload)

Makes perfect sense to me...

 

[FIXXERVI6]

I hope this doesn't sound like a silly question but I am just a rec diver, DM Candidate, and have no experience with mixed gases, etc... so if we start off the platform at WP how much of the line can we see before we bust 130' and have to turn back... I have been following this thread with great interest and great envy in the abilities and skills all of you guys have... Your thoughts are greatly appreciated as we are planning a trip this weekend 9/22...

Thanks

All line is pretty deep and any line I lay will be as deep as I can get it. I was going to lay some line once before up shallower and I was told by a swamp diver big shot that if he came accross any of my line he was going to pull it out (which is funny because there is tons and tons of line all over WP and he hasn't pulled that out... slacker).

The amount of effort it takes to lay the line down there, not to mention cost of stakes, gas, arrows, line etc (not that its that much, but its enough I don't want to see it trashed) I'd rather keep it out of reach of divers that would want to pull it out, or divers that could get caught up in it and have to cut it etc.

It would be nice to have it come all the way up to a platform or soemthing but with all of the diver traffic you could bet your lucky stars that 1. people will get tangled in it and the line will be cut even if you run it on the bottom 2. if the line police see it and decide they are going to take action the line is gone anyway 3. there will be divers that will follow it without regard to safety, I think most divers would follow it to their maximum safe limit and just turn back but everyone knows there are those out there that would go OH line where does it go, zip zip without looking at guages and there you are. Its crappy as divers like that kind of spoil things for everyone else.

Reason 3 is why I do not like to talk publicly about some things, if I hand't come accross the line and was burning to know who put it out there, I wouldnt' have posted, if I just decided to run line on my own, I wouldn't have posted as now people know its out there and will go looking for it.

Not to knock anyone or sound cocky but thats the last thing I'd want is for curious people that shouldn't be down there to get down there and end up ripping up the line or worse, conditions down there are horrible with drunk boaters on the surface.

 

[tlessard]

Please, please, please don't go there if you are not qualified to do so. One needs to understand mandatory decompression and the correct gas/gases and redundancy required to get a diver out safely. A recreational diver would probably have 10 minutes of deco obligation just to reach the start of the line in 10 minutes of dive time (and I doubt they'd be able to do that). Unfamiliarity with the conditions and the depth in said conditions will cook a divers gas up uber fast, not to mention all of the potential entanglement hazzards and potential silt-out conditions that exist down there.

I can't comment intelligently about it, because I just don't know too much about it, but an unqualified diver died at WP 2 seasons ago diving to these mentioned depths. Please do not become a statistic. Look at the public profiles of the folks that are doing these dives...we're all very experienced and we all have lots of training. Wanna do these dives? Get the experience and get the training...

 

[FIXXERVI6]

Please, please, please don't go there if you are not qualified to do so. One needs to understand mandatory decompression and the correct gas/gases and redundancy required to get a diver out safely. A recreational diver would probably have 10 minutes of deco obligation just to reach the start of the line in 10 minutes of dive time (and I doubt they'd be able to do that). Unfamiliarity with the conditions and the depth in said conditions will cook a divers gas up uber fast, not to mention all of the potential entanglement hazzards and potential silt-out conditions that exist down there.

I can't comment intelligently about it, because I just don't know too much about it, but an unqualified diver died at WP 2 seasons ago diving to these mentioned depths. Please do not become a statistic. Look at the public profiles of the folks that are doing these dives...we're all very experienced and we all have lots of training. Wanna do these dives? Get the experience and get the training...

With a sac of .7 which is not uncommon, some new divers sac's are even hire a single aluminum 80 will be drained to 500 psi in approx 15 minutes at that depth, that doesn't include getting there.

 

[ianr33]

The bottom line is that looking for this line on the bottom could well be a one way trip with open water gear and training.