Why is low viz in a cave so much more unnerving?

[CaveMD]

I have many dive friends that love the low vis ambience of Peacock's P3 and consider it among their favorite dives.

P3 is one of my favorites as well.

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk 2

[LiteHedded]

it's more unnerving because navigating your way out of the cave becomes more difficult when you lose the vis.
it's not rocket surgery IMO

[lamont]

I've never been unnerved by lower viz in a cave (yet). I have turned dives when it started getting a little siltier mostly because I don't have any anxiety over it and I'm new enough that I think I probably should have anxiety over it.

I got startled by some fairly strong percolation once right after full cave when we were jumping off into the wrong place and I went 6 feet or so off our jump line to peer down a hole and turned around and the viz was starting to get reduced from all the silt we were knocking off the ceiling. That taught me to be a bit more conscious of position relative to the jump line and bit less casual. That was more an "oh ####, the instructors weren't kidding when they said we'd knock down silt with our bubbles, oops..." moment than any heart-racing anxiety though...

[rjack]

Low or no vis alone doesn't bother me. Low vis with drygloves bothers me. I can't see the line anymore (or barely) and I can't feel the line worth a damn as well.

[FW]

Low or no vis alone doesn't bother me. Low vis with drygloves bothers me. I can't see the line anymore (or barely) and I can't feel the line worth a damn as well.

When it gets that cold, I use larger line, so if you have to grab it to feel it, there is less chance of breaking it. Not to mention larger line is easier to feel through gloves.

[CaveMD]

When it gets that cold, I use larger line, so if you have to grab it to feel it, there is less chance of breaking it. Not to mention larger line is easier to feel through gloves.

I believe in some canadian caves they use 1/2 rope and large stainless steel arrows?

[rjack]

When it gets that cold, I use larger line, so if you have to grab it to feel it, there is less chance of breaking it. Not to mention larger line is easier to feel through gloves.

What size are you using? I have tons of #18 and I'm not so concerned about it breaking - but you just can't feel it between the glove and the liner.

[CaveMD]

I believe in some canadian caves they use 1/2 rope and large stainless steel arrows?

here is one example I was thinking of

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vou36-X42Go

[rjack]

here is one example I was thinking of

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vou36-X42Go

Yes I know the system Steve is diving there. One of the reasons for the rope is the flow. It has the benefit of being fairly shallow IIRC.

The problem is we can't really justify carrying hundreds of meters of rope in a no/low flow cave. Our reel would be too heavy to carry.

[Squirrel Girl]

Those videos all have tons of visibility. Here's a picture I took when FW asked me to drag my camera along to a low-vis passage. Duh, Forrest, crappy picture that you can't see anything in, because it's crappy vis!



I've been making a concerted effort to get "used" to low vis. I've gotten much better. My fear has been that I'll lose the line and won't be able to find it again.