Bonne Terre Mine Trip report

[JamesK]

You guys are making it hard for me to not want to do this trip. Even with their asinine rules as ridiculous fees, I still find my self wanting to try.

 

[nagel]

You need to do the trip for yourself and then you can make your own opinion about BTM. As I stated earlier it wasn't for me, but that was no fault of the owner or DM's. For some reason, the dives I did did not feel right. I've dove in cenotes and very low viz situations, but this wasn't for me. Maybe it was a bad day for me.

I don't discourage anybody from trying any dive they are qualified to do. I hear a lot of talk about the owners and their policies and some saying they wish the place would close or get new ownership. Hey, it's a dive location in the Midwest....we are lucky to have places to dive and not every place is everybody's favorite.

Snagel

 

[tracydr]

Most of the certifications are from students of West End Diving, however there are many shops that bring their students to the mine (especially in the winter)
The reason they ask for cert and drivers license is the local emergency medical crews not only want the information on your C card, they want the information on your drivers license.

That's silly. I call 911 all the time. I've been asked a lot of things but never information that requires the drivers license, other than name and age. They can't ask that and give the license back?

 

[jewelofnile69]

We just listened to Rich Synowic (Divers Inc) podcast on his trip to Bonne Terre mine like last weekend. Great report. It's like his 10th time down there and he said it never gets old. He said that the rules, while they can sometimes be a pain, are there to protect the divers and the dive operation and he said to remember this: it's this guy's hole so he gets to make the rules. If it was your hole, you get to make the rules. Looking forward to our trip when we go (unfortunately it's likely going to be delayed a week or two because of my wonderfully joyful father-in-law whom I love oh so very much).

 

[Welling]

A little confused by this. A pretty small number of divers certify there compared to all of Missouri. Many of us certify in quarries and lakes. Only those who go to that specific shop certify there. And St. Louis alone has several shops.

Plus the costs for certification, IMO are a little high. Take a look at their website.

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

Does the mine have enough light for good pictures?

 

[nagel]

They say they have a lot of light, it is still a fairly dark cavern on top of the water. Under the water, no lights and can get a little dark.

 

[M-diver]

Here is an example of an image you can get in the cavern zone. I have pictures taken in the cave zone as well but then you can only depend on the light that you bring with you.

Here it is a combination of an ambient light from the dry area above and a single strobe on my setup. Keep in mind that cameras are not allowed on couple of first trails but you can take it with you on next dives. Check with them regarding the latest policy they have in place.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[bada3003]

Does the mine have enough light for good pictures?

No, these are mostly surface lights. You need your own to get quality pictures. Not allowed on trail 1, but ok thereafter.

 

[altaskier]

I made my second trip to BTM last weekend. I went with a friend that had never been there before, so I repeated the beginner trails and except for dive 1 they were interesting to revisit (and in some cases we took slightly different routes, I think). Our dive guide preferred us to not bring our own lights, and for wide-angle, long-distance shots no light will do it anyway so I shot all my photos on f2.2, 1/25 sec, ISO 1600, manual focus (Canon S95). Photos from 2012, 2014.

Yes, they have rules, but given the situation I find them quite understandable. I enjoy the unique location, and will be back.