Anderson Conditions

[IowaCaveDiver]

Dove anderson today... i'll post more details in a day or so, but 25-30 viz, kickin' flow (is that normal... never been there before) Great dive... go dive it if you never have.... but sidemount seems to be a must... lots of squeezes.

[Serota]

Thanks for the report. Yes, high flow is the norm there.

[IowaCaveDiver]

ok.. back home now... camped at Suwanne River State Park this weekend and was able to shoot down to Anderson to get a dive in while the family was busy doing other things. Note to boat divers: putting in at the park and going downstream is not a good idea. We did it a month or so ago for the first time and had no issues getting through the series of rapids (I call them rapids) with no issue in our 11' inflatable w/outboard... this time, not so easy. Going downstream I knew coming back was going to be an issue.. prop dragging over the rocks and motor going nuts. Coming back after the dive I made it through the first set alright but my 9.8 mercury couldn't get me through the deepest part of the rapids, the only part deep enough to try to get by... the prop kept hitting the rocks, the water through the boat side to side and finally gave up after nearly flipping the thing and all my gear. I ended up having to drag the boat full of gear over the shallowest of rapids, putting two nice tears in my inflatable's hull... by the time I got back to the boat dock I was carrying an extra 30 gallons of water with me. I think I can now say I have officially gotten my money's worth out of my rock boots after that battle.
Anyway, first time at anderson, and as previously posted, the flow was at its normal full force. challenging to make entry, as every rock I grabbed tumbled back at me... walking my heels on the ceiling was the only way to make progress and after dropping o2, securing my primary and making my way to the chiminy tube, I soon found myself at the bottom working my way through the narrow fisure crack... the only way I could make much progress here was to jamb my elbows at mysides and use what I will call the chicken wing manuever to inch myself further in. After this point things got a bit better and the dive became very fun. I'd come accross what looked like squirrel's nest on the line and break the debree free to discover line arrows and tie off points. The twigs, leaves and other debree would go flying past me as if I was standing in the middle of a tornado. The line was deeply buried in some places, but was in great condition and easy to recover. On exit I did a recalculation and took the jump to the other main tunnel indicated on the map... the line here was in very poor condition, buried deep several times in silt mounds and in such a brittle state I didn't try to dig/pull it out. I used jump reels in a couple places to gap the line, but turned soon due to air supply.
On exit I discovered a nice crown royal or other fancy desert liquor bottle and left it as a gift for the next diver right at the bottom of the chiminy. FYI... lots of bottles, broken glass and shreadded aluminum cans buried/sticking 1/2 out of the sand... watch your hands and suits. I could just imagine the locals having a "pitch your empties into the syphon" contest during the flooding. Overall very fun dive, solid visability even when stirring up debree, and the basin was slightly tannic but a strong surface boil present. Next time I'll drive the truck.

-Matt

[Diverlee]

Nice report. Anderson is my all time favorite. Just don't get there often.