Sand Slide at Peacock III

[adam_Hughes]

Hello,

I was doing a tech class this past weekend at Peacock 3, and our dive plan called for a trip to Hendley's Castle. On our way, we passed an area called the "sand slide", and I was very surprised with how tight it was. This was my first time in P3, so I didn't think anything of it.

After the dive, my instructor (Reggie Ross) and his intern (Scott Davenport) immediately began discussing this area of the cave, and both agreed that the sand slide had grown substantially larger. Large enough for them to stop for a few minutes on the way back and examine the area over it.

I am just curious to know if anyone else has been there recently, and if they had a similar encounter with the "Sand Slide"?

Thanks
- Adam H.

[Kelly Jessop]

Hello,

I was doing a tech class this past weekend at Peacock 3, and our dive plan called for a trip to Hendley's Castle. On our way, we passed an area called the "sand slide", and I was very surprised with how tight it was. This was my first time in P3, so I didn't think anything of it.

After the dive, my instructor (Reggie Ross) and his intern (Scott Davenport) immediately began discussing this area of the cave, and both agreed that the sand slide had grown substantially larger. Large enough for them to stop for a few minutes on the way back and examine the area over it.

I am just curious to know if anyone else has been there recently, and if they had a similar encounter with the "Sand Slide"?

Thanks
- Adam H.

A sand slide can be considered like an inactive volcano,that will eventually wake up and spew lava. That particular sand slide had completely choked the path ut during original exploration. I talked to Ron Hendley,and he described to me his passing this area onto what we refer as Hendley's Castle. Fortunately,if this ever closed off there is an alternative way around,but you pass another sand slide. There have been times in the past when sand slides have become very active. The half hitch at Madison over a decade ago was a major shift that blew out the cave for awhile,also there is one in Lafayette Blue that is unstable,and it dumped a pile of crap onto of me,and blew out the cave. I tend to avoid lingering in areas that are known to be unstable,and avoid having several people there at the same time.

[Kelly Jessop]

I just remembered one river cave we used to dive a lot,when we were coming out the line disappeared into a mound of sand and blocked the exit. Took about 10-15min of digging to open a hole since it wasn't a huge mound,and we slipped through. After that,we started carrying a trenching tool and leaving in on the other side.

[curtschu]

I dove it a couple of months ago after not being there for several years a found it just about the same.

[RN]

Last time I was in P3 I did notice the sand slide has grown. It's still large enough for backmount divers to pass, but barely. The restriction was not that small before the last flood. It may choke off after the next flood. Like Kelly said, there is an alternate route but there is also a sand slide there. I haven't been the alternate route in a while and don't know the condition of that one.

[adam_Hughes]

Thanks guys,

That's wild. I'm very new to cave diving, and I'm still getting use to the idea that the topography can change like that.

Being with my instructor, I tried so hard not to create silt on the way in, but i was unsuccessful. Afterward, my instructor (back mount) and his intern (side mount) both said the had to poke their fingers in the sand to get through.

This was the only time during the class when I didn't get reamed out for kicking stuff up.

[grottojonez]

I was there about 3 weeks ago and it was a tight squeeze on a rEvo. I'd never been there before and as part of the dive plan (this was a trimix class) we discussed this restriction but was a lot tighter than what was discussed. At any rate, we made it past without too much trouble (and a good amount of reduced visability.) We talked about it after the dive and the people who dive P III more regularly said it was a lot tighter since the last flood. Given that P III is a syphon, couldn't it just be a build up of sediment and sand from the flood and not necessarily a "sand slide"? Couldn't this also be something like the Peanut restriction, where if no one has been through it in a while, it gets tighter but as people squeeze through it stays relatively passable in a roto-rooter sort of way?

Also we heard from another team that the detour around the mainline restriction was even worse.

-Dennis

[aquadog196]

A couple weeks ago our team also found the sand slide at 850' in P3 to be tight. We were all back-mount... it was do-able but a suck it in squeeze and none of us shall we say fat. The alternative main line out was also tight. We referred to areas as "belly crawling" that went on for several feet.

[Greenwood_60]

How's the vis in P3 lately?

[adam_Hughes]

60+ on thursday & friday. Evidently that's good for P3?