Diving In The Icebox

[Methos]

I've been asked to help out some scuba divers with getting their gear to and/or from their dive site. It's a 2.5 mile trip one-way, or five miles round trip. The problem is, the route to and location of the dive site. It's located 2.5 miles in the Devil's Icebox Cave System.

Many consider my hobby of caving as an extreme sport, though I don't, but cave diving? You realize how dangerous that is? Consider this:

• If there is a problem you can't just surface for air, you either have to return to where you went in, or locate an air pocket.
• Often times the passage gets "clouded" due to rising sediment stirred up by the divers, meaning visibility becomes nil. This is the reason rope is taken in, so the divers can use it to find their way out.
• The water tempature stays around fifty degrees, so hypothermia is an issue, even when wearing heating (thermal) packs.

Here's the map of the cave system. The entrance is in the top-left corner and we'll be going beyond what the map shows in the bottom-right corner.

I'm not for sure if I could ever scuba dive in a cave. I've watching videos of dives into springs and/or caves, but actually doing it? I'm not sure if I could.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

I've been asked to help out some scuba divers with getting their gear to and/or from their dive site. It's a 2.5 mile trip one-way, or five miles round trip. The problem is, the route to and location of the dive site. It's located 2.5 miles in the Devil's Icebox Cave System.

Many consider my hobby of caving as an extreme sport, though I don't, but cave diving? You realize how dangerous that is? Consider this:

• If there is a problem you can't just surface for air, you either have to return to where you went in, or locate an air pocket.
• Often times the passage gets "clouded" due to rising sediment stirred up by the divers, meaning visibility becomes nil. This is the reason rope is taken in, so the divers can use it to find their way out.
• The water tempature stays around fifty degrees, so hypothermia is an issue, even when wearing heating (thermal) packs.

Here's the map of the cave system. The entrance is in the top-left corner and we'll be going beyond what the map shows in the bottom-right corner.

I'm not for sure if I could ever scuba dive in a cave. I've watching videos of dives into springs and/or caves, but actually doing it? I'm not sure if I could.

Is that map from the top-down, or is it from the side?

Personally, I don't think I could dive in normal water, let alone a cave.

 

[skadistic]

It always looks like fun. But I wouldn't be doing it myself.

 

[Methos]

Is that map from the top-down, or is it from the side?

The map is if you were looking at it from above. The map itself is only the passage that is allowed for the public to access via the wild tour. If my memory serves me correctly, I believe the "known" part of the cave is approx. seven miles.