Dive report

[rjack321]

In an effort to post something other than how to tie bolt snaps , here's a brief report on our intial exploration into a flooded mine last weekend.

Product mined: copper
Last worked: ~1930
First dive: unknown, no evidence
Max depth: 91ft and still going
Water temp: ~42f

Our first foray, max depth 91ft, runtime 20mins, 120ft of line laid, basically a near vertical shaft 4ft tall x 8-10ft wide, timbers for sliding up ore on the 'floor', ladder on the west side, piping and pumps along the east edge.

Mine exploration dive 1

 

[cfenton]

Congrats on the first dive Richard.

So what's the plan for next dive(s)? The shaft is still heading deeper?

 

[rjack321]

Congrats on the first dive Richard.

So what's the plan for next dive(s)? The shaft is still heading deeper?

Yeah we stopped at 91ft on 32% in al80s, a limited foray. We are going back with 18/45 for ~200ft since it was still nearly straight down. We are also bringing more production quality video + lights now that we know it "goes".

While the rock seems solid but we're concerned the larger exhalations (and even just gear) could disturb the limited shoring or parts of the roof and increase our risks of collapse. So probably one more (trimix) dive and we'll probably move on to different adventures. Its a fairly major excursion just getting to the portal, then hoofing the gear through thigh deep water and some dry tunnel with timbers and rail tracks on the floor for 300ft before even diving.

 

[mts0628]

Awesome video rjack321. The wilderness shot makes me homesick like crazy but from what I understand last week was a scorcher and there was even humidity!

I can't wait for part II of the video.

 

[nadwidny]

Good stuff. I look forward to seeing what you guys find next month. It looks like there were a lot of artifacts left behind.

 

[rjack321]

Thanks. Yeah they left a few things behind in ~1930 when it started to flood. And there's some other more modern junk that's been thrown in since as well (e.g. 10ft of 4" PVC pipe)

One of our friends found a cross section of the mine in the historical record, we have already found that to be inaccurate (not deep enough).

 

[BDub]

We made another dive in the mine yesterday.

Matt did an amazing job of gathering some info on the mine, including maps. These proved helpful in planning the second dive. The maps are quite old, and the way they were drawn led us to believe the bottom of the mine would be in the 185 - 210' range, or the 120-130' range. We planned our dive for 210'

Turns out, the bottom of the mine is at ~115'. The bottom is blackest silt I've ever seen. I was leading and running line. The main tunnel is almost vertical, with horizontal passages running off of the main tunnel. However, at ~100', it drops completely vertical to 115' or so. This is why, on our last dive there, it looked like it continued to go a long way....because of the silt.

However, at the bottom there is a Y, with passages leading in opposite directions. The southern passage is 35-40' long, and the northern passage is ~15'.

We also found another passage on the ascent, at ~53' while on deco. This was a really cool passage as it had wooden crates in it, with the print still on them!

Video of dive 2 is here

 

[KMD]

Is there enough going mine that you are going to continue to explore?

It must be nice to know that for now you can continue to do it on nitrox.

 

[BDub]

Is there enough going mine that you are going to continue to explore?

It must be nice to know that for now you can continue to do it on nitrox.

There's not much left to explore, as far as we could tell.

We're going to make one more dive, if for nothing else, to get more video footage. We had some camera issues, which resulted in us not getting much footage of the passages, which were really cool.

However, Richard found a passage beyond a tight restriction we didn't see last time. Likewise, the maps we have only list 3 passages, and we've found 5, though I think the two passages on the bottom we're lumped together as one on the maps (the maps are very old, hand drawn maps).

 

[Peter Guy]

Not to be an absolute curmudgeon but since this IS the "DIR Practitioners Zone" forum, I wonder how "appropriate" it is for these dives to be discussed here since these dives are done outside of the diver's training per the rules of each.

These dives were pure cave exploration dives -- going where no man (or woman) had gone before. rjack's GUE Cave 2 cert, which specifically precludes doing exploration diving (at least that's my understanding), and bdub's TDI Full Cave (which I also have and I believe from the same instructor) also does not "encourage" exploration cave diving.

Yes, there are no Scuba Police -- but at least here, in the DIR Practitioner's Zone, should we not be proudly staying within the limits of our certs?

Or am I just poking sticks in anthills here?

(For the record, in case people don't know, I consider both rjack and bdub not only friends but kick-*ss divers who have both been very kind to me. I'm posting this because: a. To see if there is any entertainment value; and b. I'm honestly interested in how this forum is actually supposed to be run.)