Altitude Diving - Stay at even higher altitude?

[broncobowsher]

If you are diving recreationally, you do not need to worry about this, it’s not pertinent at all. There are ample threads on here about completing normoxic (>200 FSW) dives and ascending to elevation soon after without issue. Most recreational divers don’t understand the basics and perpetuate old wives tales.

You don’t need to drag your feet heading home, as you won’t be loading your tissue compartments to the degree that it will matter. Be careful asking the internet for advice…

You can also talk with Boulderjohn about people who have dived in the Blue Hole NM and then drove up a mountain and did get bent.

One of my regular dives is San Diego and leaving town involves going over a mountain pass. Forget the exact elevation, 4000-5000'. After the dives, before the drive, it's a good time to sit down and grab some food anyway. Adds a buffer (not a buffet).

It is a touch of conservatism. There is a shop in town that if you book one of there trips to San Diego they require you to spend the night in San Diego or take a multi-hour detour up through LA before turning toward AZ to avoid that mountain pass. That is being a little too conservative for my taking. Besides, what's wrong with a good meal after a dive?

 

[SetheryJ]

You can also talk with Boulderjohn about people who have dived in the Blue Hole NM and then drove up a mountain and did get bent.

One of my regular dives is San Diego and leaving town involves going over a mountain pass. Forget the exact elevation, 4000-5000'. After the dives, before the drive, it's a good time to sit down and grab some food anyway. Adds a buffer (not a buffet).

It is a touch of conservatism. There is a shop in town that if you book one of there trips to San Diego they require you to spend the night in San Diego or take a multi-hour detour up through LA before turning toward AZ to avoid that mountain pass. That is being a little too conservative for my taking. Besides, what's wrong with a good meal after a dive?

I know Santa Rosa well and dive in rock lake regularly. I’ve done numerous dives in the normoxic range and gone over Raton Pass while watching tissue saturation on my computers without any issue.

The fact of the matter, is by the time you get out of the water and put your gear away and get on the road you’ve already burned an hour. Add on the fact that raton is well over an hour away puts you at 2+ hours before you ascend the pass. My surface GF has never gone north of 50% of M value on the shearwater on my rebreather and I’ve never gone north of 48% loading across middle tissue compartments on my Garmin.

Being “conservative” just for the sake of it, without knowing what and why you are doing it is foolish. Just because some guy got bent after diving in blue hole doesn’t mean anything. You need to account for variables before submitting that story as supporting evidence to your theory.

 

[Still Kicking]

......Adds a buffer (not a buffet).

Damn, you had me at buffet....

 

[inquis]

There's some good info in the Ascent from Santa Rosa thread. The first hurdle is an 1800 ft elevation gain reached an hour after leaving town. I usually take at least an hour to pack up, and my tissues usually remain below ambient pressure during the drive. (Shearwater computers conveniently update their surfGF metric for ambient every few minutes.)

Ascent To Altitude From Santa Rosa

Divers traveling north to Colorado from Santa Rosa, which is a high percentage of the people who dive there, know they have to ascend to altitude, and they have to make a decision about how and when to do that. I think everyone knows that if we go by the rules about flying after diving, we can't...

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