Hole In The Wall Viz?

[ianr33]

Anyone been in Hole in The Wall lately?
How is the viz?

Thanks

[RN]

I'm trying to avoid it until the water temperature in the cavern gets at least into the mid-60s. Too cold right now to spend 20-30 minutes doing deco. I did hear visibility was about 20', though. Clears up off the main passage, as usual. I'll probably be there in a few weeks regardless of water temperature. Hoping it warms up soon so I can get back in there to finish up some stuff I was doing before it turned cold.

[ianr33]

Thanks Rob.
Going to be at the Millpond this coming weekend. Will probably give Hole a miss this time.

[Ben M]

HITW is back open for regular business I too had been staying out since late December because of the cold.

I did an easy swim upstream on Wednesday. Temperature of the pond and cavern water was in upper 60s. First 300 ft upstream the vis was about 20-30 ft and then it cleared to 70+ ft of vis all the way to the back of Alford's Room. I did not go into the Century Tunnel. One gauge was reporting 64 degrees and the other 66 degrees for bottom temps, so I'll call it 65 Very nice dive spent looking around in the domes and watching the salamanders. Good reminder of why this is my favorite cave on the Mill Pond.

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Thats great news

[Onebaddago]

I was there last Saturday and the Vis was horrible, I am glad to hear it has cleared up. I wish it would have cleared up while I was there though.

[Ben M]

I was there last Saturday and the Vis was horrible, I am glad to hear it has cleared up. I wish it would have cleared up while I was there though.

Were you upstream or downstream and how far did you go? As I stated this was only upstream and you had to go about 300 ft in before it cleared. The front was not good. I can't imagine it cleared that much that quickly.

[RN]

What do you mean by upper 60s? I'm good with low/mid 60s in the cave. It's the deco temperature that matters!

[Onebaddago]

We went in the upstream section to around 1400' when I checked my pressure and noticed a small steady stream of bubbles coming from my SPG so we turned the dive. There was a very noticable thermocline also, which seemed very odd. Vis was 10'-15' most of the way and at best it was 30', the plus is I got to do a very thorough visual inspection of the gold line.

[RN]

There's always a thermocline in Hole when conditions are like this.