"Mount Everest" of scuba diving

[Gilldiver]

Climb K2, then you can thump your chest. It's next door to Everest and kills a lot more.


K2 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

K2 is the second-highest mountain on Earth after Mount Everest. With a peak elevation of 8,611 metres (28,251 ft), K2 is part of the Karakoram Range, and is located on the border[2] between the Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County of Xinjiang, China and Gilgit, in Gilgit-Baltistan of Pakistan.[3]

K2 is known as the Savage Mountain due to the difficulty of ascent and the 2nd highest fatality rate among the 'eight thousanders' for those who climb it. For every four people who have reached the summit, one has died trying.[4] Unlike Annapurna, the mountain with the highest fatality rate, K2 has never been climbed in winter.

 

[Blackwood]

A number of wrecks were recently discovered at circa 430' in the Baltic Sea. Given its notoriously ornery conditions, some of them may be like the K2 of wreck diving.

Maybe the Yolanda in the Red Sea is akin to Everest. It's really deep (180m plus), but reachable even to open circuit divers, and in a more cooperative location.

Either way, I'll never see any of them.

 

[Rainer]

SueJac.

 

[Captain Brian]

The Gunilda in Rossport, Ontario

 

[coglesby]

The SueJac?

Suejac

 

[Rainer]

Epic.

The apotheosis of wreck diving.

Only the strongest dare. Only the bravest survive.

SueJac.

The SueJac?

Suejac

 

[coglesby]

Epic.

The apotheosis of wreck diving.

Only the strongest dare. Only the bravest survive.

SueJac.

Awesome!

 

[AndyNZ]

Everest used to be a tremendously challenging climb, too. Since it has become a cliche, however, people have been flocking there by the hundreds. There are now other, lesser known "Everests" that are even more remote and even more difficult. Everest itself has become a tourist destination, much like the Andria Doria in a way. Still challenging, but not nearly what it used to be.

Totally. What you'd really want to look for is the K2 of diving.... K2 is a mountaineer's mountain, such a beautiful shape. It also has a much higher level of commitment required, and the risks involved are much higher.

Everest isn't quickly becoming just a pile of rubble though...

No, but it is the worlds highest rubbish dump. I was there about fifteen years ago, both Base Camp and Advanced Base Camp are strewn with discarded oxygen cylinders and other non-degredable crap just dumped everywhere.

It won't have got any better......

 

[Kevrumbo]

Strong current; 5min & 50bar consumed to pull yourself on the downline/grappling hook to 48m depth; murky & variable visibility at the bottom; wreck heavily damaged by aerial bombs, sunk-in-action & capsized to port (spatial orientation & entanglement hazards upon penetration: decks are now overheads --and overheads now are decks, engines/boilers/shaft-gearing/heavy machinery all precariously hanging on the ceiling). . .

Helium/Oxygen gas supply logistics & dive support challenges; belligerent subsistence fishermen at divesite; post 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami coastal infrastructure damage; post Sri Lankan Civil War political instability.

i.e.) All a typical HMS Hermes Expedition. . .

 

[laurin]

A number of wrecks were recently discovered at circa 430' in the Baltic Sea. Given its notoriously ornery conditions, some of them may be like the K2 of wreck diving.

I agree, but I'm afraid that if some of the wrecks got an "Everest" status that would make them more attractive to the divers who are more interested in "diving the Everest" than the actual wreck and preserving it. I guess that would apply to any wreck. Doing any dives for bragging rights or to prove something is a bit dumb, and this kind of Everest discussion doesn't really help.

Most of my diving is in the Baltic, and as far as visibility, temperature and bottom composition (clay, mud, silt silt silt) are considered they do make most Atlantic diving look like a walk in the park... Of course the depth alone is a major challenge for diving those new discoveries. There are already several known, undived, intact wrecks at those depths: The Mystery Snow Brig

However, being an inland sea the tidal flows aren't much of a concern, and strong flows are relatively rare; there are some wrecks with almost constant flow, but I've almost never had to do deco off the line. We get our share of bad weather, but less of the big rolling wave and more of the short and choppy type. Weather can change quickly. There are a lot more challenging places from this point of view elsewhere, though...

The wrecks are almost completely preserved through centuries because of the low salinity and lack of wood-eating worms - and we'd like to see them preserved in the future. Any of the souvenir-looting that seems to be a point of pride for the girlie NE US wreck divers is out-of-bounds here.

Baltic wreck diving is fun; you never get to see the whole wreck at a time due to the visibility so it feels like exploration on every dive , most wrecks have lots of details left and there's probably more wrecks to be found than are currently being actively dived... I wouldn't name any single Baltic wreck an "Everest", but the whole Baltic is to wreck diving what Yucatan is to cave diving.

A couple of shots from Baltic wrecks I've visited:

//LN