Driving to altitude after diving at altitude

[CycleCat]

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.

 

[boulderjohn]

I wrote a detailed description the issues of driving from the Blue Hole to altitude, specifically Denver. That is not precisely the same, but it may help. You can find it here.

I have also written an article on ascending to altitude after diving, which you can find here.

The problem is that there has been no specific scientific study about driving to altitude. There are many factors to consider, and my articles identify them, but you are really on your own to consider them and make your decisions. When you read my article (or others I have written on altitude), you will see how hard I tried to avoid making definitive statements. That is because there is insufficient research to support definitive statements. When I wrote those articles, I tried to enlist the help of some of the top researchers in the world, but they all declined for that reason. They could not have their names attached to a document without clear a clear research basis.

 

[CycleCat]

Good article and resources! Thanks!

So playing it safe by shifting to the outside ends on altitude, I could say Santa Rosa is at 4000' (actually 4600) and my highest pass is 10,000' (actually 9500'), that's a difference of 6000'. According to that NOAA table I can be a "D" diver and still require no additional SI to drive that pass.

 

[BackAfter30]

Good article and resources! Thanks!

So playing it safe by shifting to the outside ends on altitude, I could say Santa Rosa is at 4000' (actually 4600) and my highest pass is 10,000' (actually 9500'), that's a difference of 6000'. According to that NOAA table I can be a "D" diver and still require no additional SI to drive that pass.

Remember that "D" diver is per the Navy tables, and NOT PADI/SSI/anyone else. All tables are different. And, of course, what your computer tells you is something else again. When we dive BH, on departure day we do a light morning and about 3 or 4 hours of SI doing packing, lunching, log booking, hanging out, etc. until we head out on the profile John details in his article.

 

[shurite7]

As BoulderJohn has pointed out, there is no specific study or data regarding driving to higher elevations that will answer your questions. Up here in MT, some of us read as much as we could Find and made our own decisions when it came to driving over passes.

I recommend reading as much material as you can find. For example, the Bolivian and Hindi military have published some rather interesting articles about diving and acclimation at high elevations. Sadly, there isn’t a whole lot of material out there, but there is some.

 

[ginti]

As BoulderJohn has pointed out, there is no specific study or data regarding driving to higher elevations that will answer your questions. Up here in MT, some of us read as much as we could Find and made our own decisions when it came to driving over passes.

I recommend reading as much material as you can find. For example, the Bolivian and Hindi military have published some rather interesting articles about diving and acclimation at high elevations. Sadly, there isn’t a whole lot of material out there, but there is some.

Hi! I couldn't iagine that Hindi and Bolivian military had interesting material... Is it in english? Can you give us some links?

 

[Edward3c]

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.

BSAC sell altitude tables providing dive tables from sea leaver to 3,000m, they include how to adjust surface codes accordingly. BSAC has surface codes A to G (G is after mandatory deco).

For example, moving from 4,600ft (1,400m), which is level 3, to 7,000ft (2,130m), which is level 4, then back to 5,000ft (1,520m), level 3. Starting with a surface code at level 3 of B which at level 4 remains B and stays at B when returning to level 3.

If you’d been moving from, or to, sea level the results would have been different; starting with B at level 3 going to a D at level 1 then remaining D when returning to level 3.

 

[CycleCat]

Remember that "D" diver is per the Navy tables, and NOT PADI/SSI/anyone else. All tables are different. And, of course, what your computer tells you is something else again. When we dive BH, on departure day we do a light morning and about 3 or 4 hours of SI doing packing, lunching, log booking, hanging out, etc. until we head out on the profile John details in his article.

And I wouldn't push it like that. We were told we needed to be C diver to safely leave. We did just as you said and had a light day on departure day with one dive and then began our SI while still doing surface exercises for another 30-45 minutes in the water. After that everyone got out of their wet gear, into dry clothes, filled out log books, ate lunch, loaded gear into vehicles, said goodbyes, etc. We were long into C, borderline B, before turning the ignition in my truck. We stopped to top off the tank before leaving town too.

If we took the route home through Vegas it would take us another 2 hours of gradual climbing before we got to that 9500' pass. We could even stop in town for groceries since we were diving on grocery-shopping day the day before. I could be borderline A-B by the time I get to that pass.

 

[tursiops]

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.

What table are you using to call yourself, for example, a C?

 

[CycleCat]

What table are you using to call yourself, for example, a C?

The SSI table in my logbook. We dove to 50ft (altitude adjusted to 60ft) for 20 minutes. Resurfaced as a D diver. An hour & 10 minutes later I've moved to C and 2:40 since surfacing I'm a B.