Lips & Keyhole Bypass

Hey All,

I'm wondering if I was looking in the wrong spot (story of my life)...

My last dive at Ginnie, we were playing around looking for shortcuts, bypasses, etc... In between the lips and the keyhole, on the left (as you're going in) is a tunnel with a line that goes in 2 different directions at a 90 degree angle. Going one way (towards the exit) takes you back to the lips (where you go up thru the hole on the edge of the ceiling and out thru the lips) but it was the other one direction that confused me.

The other direction (heading deeper into the cave) looked like it should be a way around the keyhole, but the line went about 20 feet or so from it's tie off and went under a rock ledge that would have been impossible to get through. What is the deal with that?

Was there a collapse there or something? Was that the biggest line trap in the world and I just missed the passageway? Does anyone even know the area I'm talking about?

Thanks!
Rick

The answers are yes. That area is not suitable for backmount. Very tight, sometimes very crumbly. Forget airshare. It's like an extended restriction in the middle of the tunnel. Before and after is okay. You have to make a nearly 90 degree turn to pass the apparent line trap. I personally couldn't do it in BM. It was scaryish the 1st, 2nd & 3rd time in SM. I was with a buddy and I hoped neither one of us would want to get out quickly. I was cool on the 4th trip. Some areas even further leftward trending and deeper into the cave, the rock is practically rotten. Pieces the size of your head will come off in your hand. Oops. :oops: I did that twice and decided it wasnt' worth the return. I don't mind tight, silty & short periods of zero viz but LARGE areas of rotten rock makes me claustrophic.

Angie

Thanks Angie!
Glad I didn't try to push on further...

:D

Angie... you must be married! All the good women are taken! :)

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Originally Posted by rick68fl

I'm wondering if I was looking in the wrong spot (story of my life)...

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haha, I think thats true for alot of us... how do you think all the sweet cave passage is found? :-D

You may be looking into one end of the "fuzzy bunny tunnel". I did it no-mount, and it was quite the squeeze. Dwain (formerly of Salvo, now with Oxycheq if I'm not mistaken) did it and took a CO2 hit that had him blind for part of the way out.

The passage is like a pile of rocks with a line run thru the middle of it. It's not backmount, not sidemount, just no mount. And there's not enough room to drag a second cylinder thru, so set up your bottle with an "H" valve for your push thru if ya go. I'll never tell anyone not to go where I've been, but I'm not going thru there again.

Mark

That's exactly what it looked like - with the line running under one big, huge rock with probably 8 inches to try to squeeze through. Couldn't see any other possible route to get through.

No way I'm even trying to get my fat a$$ in there...

Rick

Lips and Keyhole bypass are not suitable for backmounts? Since when?

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Originally Posted by caverkevin

Lips and Keyhole bypass are not suitable for backmounts? Since when?

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Depends on which parts/route you are talking about.

You can do it in backmount just fine (the lips and keyhole bypass). You have to swim straight under the rock, then raise up your torso and make a 90 deg. turn, pulling you legs in turn. If a 6'6" guy in double 121's can do it, anyone can do it.

The fuzzy bunny tunnel, on the other hand, is a no-mount tunnel (and from the line you're talking about, it's not the fuzzy bunny tunnel).