No one dives there, man!

[phillip1]

In a cave we are exploring here the line got burried by a collapse, the whole cave looks like it will collapse but to actuall have a al collapse is not cool. i was in a collapse but in a dry cave, moving rocks around and a whole section just fell, really scary and i got off with only a messed up knee, super lucky.
i get rocks sometimes as big as volley balls fall down in new systems i am exploring and it is really not cool at all, but it has never kept me from going back, i swim a bit faster under certain sections though.
I think i felt a small earthquake while in la jeringa last year, i was waiting for Mat to get back down from the air pocket and the ceilling and walls started to shake a lot, at first i thought it was the bubbles it might have been, but it was everywere and then it was gone as fast as it came. Nothing collapsed though i was a bit more "aware" of the ceiling for the rest of the dive though.
A geologist once told me that it was extremely unlikely that a cave would collapse as there have been millions of years of natural stabilization but i am not too sure about that.
There is a cave in the DR right next to were there was an 8.0 earthquake about sixty years ago and the cave decorations are all intact so it would take a lot for a big collapse, I think/hope.
i always wonder what the chances are, boulders the size of houses just hanging there, waiting to fall.

[Expat caver]

We have a team of cavers that travel up to Germany and dive the old slate mines of WW2.

http://scapehander.de/grubec/grube1/film/film.htm"]

There you get peaces of slate coming down that are the sizes of large dinner plates.

There are 2 different mines to dive in, one is pretty good and vis is always good and not a lot of percolation and not much silt.

The other is very different, lots percolation and very silty on OC. Breathers have it a bit better. http://scapehander.de/grubec/grube2/film2/film.htm

It is amazing to see some of the artifacts that have not been seen for more 60 years. When the mines flooded the Germans just left everything in the mines down to there hats and boots.

[DA Aquamaster]

Really? I am not sure who you asked... we do Waterhole, Cisteen and Crypt at least once each year, sometimes more. They are fun and if your technique is good only very minor silting occurs. The Wishbone is a favorite of ours, yet I hear no one talking about it... but then on, better if people don't like the liittle places we like. They stay in better shape that way...

Enjoy your dives in Peacock, dive safe,


Celia

I had the same reaction to the OP's comments. Waterhole is one of the prettiest passages in Peacock and from the marks on the bottom, especially around the (really minor) duck under just past the side mount tunnel, it unfortunately gets some obviously unskilled traffic in it.

We do it pretty much every trip and while it can get mungy and some of that may fluff along the bottom even with excellent technique a silt out is just not going to happen unless the divers have poor trim, poor fin techniques or just plain screw up. In our first explorations around the area we backmounted are way fairly far into the two prongs of the Peanut side of the side mount tunnels and still did not silt the cave. In contrast to waterhole, those passages are far less used, more prone to percolation and are heavily silted.

We have noted there is now a large rock on the line near waterhole itself that was not there on our first couple trips to waterhole, so falls do obviously occur. However, to be fair they can happen anywhere. For example, I had a foot ball sized rock fall on me mid passage half way up the Hill 400 line at Ginnie, so apparently percolation was just enough to finally unseat it. However even that was really a non event as it just clanged on my left tank and rolled off. (It makes you wonder though if rising nitrate levels and other changes in water chemistry will have an effect on cave stability over time.)

We have also surfaced as Cisteen and noted that the section from the T to the basin itself does not see much traffic as it is also very silty but again nothing that will result in a silt out if good technique is used. I have found the largest challenge when surfacing in some of the little used sinks is just finding the existing dark colored line among all the tree branches.

I do agree that the T to Cisteen is a bit odd, and would make more sense if the main lines connected at the wall rather than having one join the other a foot or so from the wall with the tee to Cisteen itself attaching a foot or so later.

All that aside, I am otherwise more than happy to perpetuate the myth that "no one dives there" and will happliy add "rocks are gonna fall on you", " a silt out is inevitable" and a "general if you go there you are gonna die" if it will keep people out who don't have the skills to go there without silting it out or leaving hand prints, knee prints or fin marks in the floors.

[DogDiver]

Thought it might be a fun traverse going from Cisteen to Orange Grove. Was at Cisteen a few weeks ago and the exit looked clear of limbs and debries. Anyone entered the Cisteen lately?

[FW]

Thought it might be a fun traverse going from Cisteen to Orange Grove. Was at Cisteen a few weeks ago and the exit looked clear of limbs and debries. Anyone entered the Cisteen lately?

I "think" Cisteen is considered an "emergency only" exit, like Olsen, and Pothole.

[jj1987]

I "think" Cisteen is considered an "emergency only" exit, like Olsen, and Pothole.

Well, if you plan the traverse right, it can be an emergency

[the dude]

That Crypt is one scary place. I dove it once with Mark Fyvie and we got rained with pretty large rocks that were seemingly displaced by just our gas. It freaked us out and we got the hell out of there. I've never been back.

This is one of the posts that i read when i searched the crypt after our dives. We didn't have any problems on either of the dives (cisteen crypt water hole) which is why I thought it was strange that our friend reacted that way. I agree that with the proper technique these dives are awsome and I'm definatly going back. Seems like i'll continue to dive the seldom traveled sections of the maps. That's where the fun starts, indeed!

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Just wait until you leave the park benches behind.

[FW]

Well, if you plan the traverse right, it can be an emergency

Did you mean, "Well, if you plan the traverse WRONG, it can be an emergency"?

[Sludge]

Just wait until you leave the park benches behind.

WHAT? There are springs that don't have benches and picnic tables?