CycleCat
Contributor
My wife and I finished our OW cert dives at New Mexico's Blue Hole in Santa Rosa last weekend. Everyone was careful to spend sufficient time packing gear away after the last dive to put us into dive group C (almost B) before leaving to head home. From Blue Hole (@4600 ft) everyone returning to ABQ had to pass a high point of 7000 ft at Clines Corners before dropping back down to 5000-ish ft at ABQ.
We don't live in Albuquerque. We live in the mountains near Taos, NM, at 7600 ft. We took the long route home through Santa Fe and had a gradual climb to our home elevation that took 3.5 hours. We would have a much shorter drive (2.25 hours) going a more direct route through Las Vegas, NM, but it requires us to drive over a 9500 ft pass 30 minutes before dropping back down to our home elevation at 7600'.
Is there a calculator that tells you how high is your elevation limit for a given time after diving at altitude? I know a lot of people would just say wait 24 hours but that turns an overnight trip for us into a 3-day weekend and severely reduces our diving opportunities. I'll take the long way home if I need to but if I can do the fast route safely it would be nice to know.
We don't live in Albuquerque. We live in the mountains near Taos, NM, at 7600 ft. We took the long route home through Santa Fe and had a gradual climb to our home elevation that took 3.5 hours. We would have a much shorter drive (2.25 hours) going a more direct route through Las Vegas, NM, but it requires us to drive over a 9500 ft pass 30 minutes before dropping back down to our home elevation at 7600'.
Is there a calculator that tells you how high is your elevation limit for a given time after diving at altitude? I know a lot of people would just say wait 24 hours but that turns an overnight trip for us into a 3-day weekend and severely reduces our diving opportunities. I'll take the long way home if I need to but if I can do the fast route safely it would be nice to know.