Lost buddies at Cow

A couple weekends ago I reported on a dive that went awry at Cow. It was suggested I post it to the IRAP section, so here it is.

T, D, and myself planned to swim to the EOL at upstream Cow. We had all been in the system numerous times, but had yet to go to the EOL. We planned to enter the upstream system on back gas, switch to a 45% O2 stage once through the initial restrictions for travel to Not my Fault. There we would drop the travel gas descend in on back gas proceeding to the EOL. Exit would be the same plan reversed. Nice plan I suppose. Someday I am going to try it again.

As we entered, I was in the lead, D was number 2 and T was in the rear. After finding the proper alignment I made it through the initial restrictions and proceeded to the sign with perhaps my smoothest entry into the system to date. I was feeling really positive at this point. As I waited for D, there was a bit of a delay, but eventually, I was able to see the next light coming into view.

I am not certain who looked more surprised, myself looking at T, the #3 diver, or the T looking at me? Where the F did D, the #2 diver, go? How could he have vanished?

The two part answer is pretty simple. After going through the first restriction, you we typically make an immediate descent to proceed into the system. Apparently, there is a smaller passage that D went into instead of dropping down. He was in this other passage, out of sight, as T entered. And went past D without seeing any sign of T. At this point, you might be tempted to ask, “Why didn’t they just follow your line?” I know I asked myself just that. The simple truth being that a bad habit had developed of not running a line in “some familiar systems”.

Seems to be a theme had been developing this weekend with bad/non-existent line habits. I want to say right now, I am looking forward to all the line practice I can get. How much fun would Cow be to come out of blind with no line? The ass kicking line has already started behind me, if anyone else wants to get in it, feel free. It’s a growth opportunity and reinforcement is probably good fertilizer.

Continuing on, I held position while T went back to look for D. He was soon able to see him through a small hole about the time D was realizing he had veered off coarse. In short order, D backtracked and we reformed in the desired order. With the three of us were finally situated, we continued with the dive. As I approached the pull line, I stopped turned towards #2, shined my light on the rope and circled it with an OK. I received the requisite response and continued up the pull line. After a bit, I realized there was no light activity behind me, I turned and saw nothing but black. I was already a little on edge after our stunning entry into the system and retraced the pull rope back to the split with the mainline to see if there was a problem.

When I got to the split, nobody in sight up the main line, towards the pull rope, or towards the exit. To begin with, I was uncertain why they had not followed me. I will say again, we have all been in this system before, and the general thinking heading in was, ”This is going to be a mainline dive. Simple navigation. We have always used the pull rope, no reason to change now.” Yet here I was, left to wonder if they had simply entered following the mainline instead of the pull rope or had there been a need to exit.

Lost buddy drill ring a bell here?

I rationalized, if they had continued into the system, they were OK. They would soon encounter pull rope and realize they had deviated from the plan. On the other hand, if they had gone to the exit, there maybe a significant issue and perhaps I could assist. I choose to exit the system. Finding their O2 bottles in the basin and no sign of them, I concluded they had continued their dive up the mainline, as opposed to the pull rope, going in as a two man team. I also decided my dive was done and exited.

I would welcome hearing what others would have done upon turning around, returning to the junction of the mainline and the pull rope and finding nobody there. Keeping in mind there is a very limited number of options they could have taken.

T and D surfaced a short while later. They had obviously cut the dive short as well when I was nowhere to be found. Turns out they followed the mainline as opposed to using the pull rope as I had. Upon exiting, T indicated he had never been so glad to see my O2 bottle out of the water, rightfully believing that meant I had exited successfully.

The three of us talked this over afterward, and speaking for myself, I am glad to have had this opportunity to put into practice some of the lessons taken away from this experience.

First, you already indicated your first mistake of not running a primary line. Glad you learned from that. While this may be common practice in some systems, it is obvious from what happened to you this shouldn't be done where it is easy to veer off the intended path.

A question - How often do you communicate with your buddies? I have a 15 second rule. If I don't see my buddy's light at least every 15 seconds, I'm going to shield my light and look for it. Usually, I see it more often than that. Since you regularly dive together and you've been in this system before, all of you may have become somewhat complacent about buddy awareness. This is something you may want to consider.

Another question - Did you leave a marker on the line before exiting the system? This is common practice. First, it should indicate to your buddies that you left the system. It also leaves a marker for search or recovery teams should they have to go into the system. Fortunately, it didn't turn out that way for you guys, but if your buddies had seen a marker, it could have made them feel better during the exit.

Glad you made it out alright. Thanks for posting this!

It is a good scenario to discuss. Cow has some traits that make it easier than average to lose contact with team members.

I agree an "I've left the cave" cookie would have made sense, perhpas where the line split from the pull rope.

I also agree that it is just a basic SA issue to notice lights from your buddies. With a 2 person team it is pretty obvious, if I am leading a three person team, I periodically look back to ensure I have 2 lights following me. It is hopefully redundant as the number 2 person should also be aware of the 3rd person's light on the cave with peripheral vision and if they lose sight of it they should stop and if the lead does not immediately notiice, flash an atrention signal and then have the lead "hold" until 3 catches up. If the lead is on his/her game, he or she will adjust the pace to keep moving at best speed, but without losing anyone. Thsi is even more important in dark walled systems like cow where the light gets "eaten" - you may need to close the normal interval up slightly compared to what you'd use in other systems.

Being goal driven to reach end of the line also does not help as it tends to encourage making as much speed as possible and will increase the potential for a separation. If you have issues with going too fast and losing people, consider putting the slow guy on the team in the lead going in, then besure you don't leave him in the dust on the way out - but it should not be an issue as you are not feeling driven to make extra speed to make extra penetration distance.

I often note divers who are so far ahead / behind teamates, that they are 1) probably not going to be of any use in a true emergency and 2) far more likely to get separated. In a narrow, winding system it is easy to get out of sight of team mates, so some care is needed.

In Cow, there are a few locations where it is posible to lose a buddy if you are not paying attention - the 2 restricitions at the entrance is one, but there is plenty of room to wait and get oriented for the rest of the dive past the second restriction. The split from the mainline to the pull rope is another as is "not my fault", and it makes sense to check after the first and wait for the other divers to get through "not my fault" before proceeding onward. Some of the jumps in Cow are also close to the line, so an inattentive diver could wander from the gold line to white line and get separated, so again these make natural points where you want to ensure the whole team stays on the dive plan.

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Cow has great ties offs in the cavern but it takes some care to keep the line snug and out of the way through the first restriction. It works best if the first line in stays on the right side (inside of the curve) as you enter. If you keep it low, you leave more options for a second team to also run a line cleanly. On our last trip to Cow, the second team ran the line very badly (crossing from right to left leaving the line in the middle of the restriction where it did a superb job of snagging the exiting divers) and it was obvious they would benefit from more line practice. That is in my opinion the other downside of not running lines in familair systems - it leaves you out of practice for those times when you need to run a line and it can have an impact on more than just your team.