Trip to the Crypt

[John L.]

We decided to do just one big dive on Sunday instead of two smaller dives. We used a single stage for the dive, and we dropped in the cavern at P1, and the water was very clear, better than it was two weeks ago. We clipped our O2 bottles to the main line in the cavern, and decended down the crack and we all met up at the warning sign. After everyone was OK, we went upstream against a moderate flow. After 20 minutes, we dropped our stages at the back to back arrows at 700 feet (Nicholson jump), and went to backgas heading towards Olsen. After going thru the keyhole and the eye, my favorite places in P1, I tied off my reel at the end of the line and gapped across Olsen sink,(40 minutes) and tied off to the line. After checking air, and eachother, we continued upstream. I set the reel on the first jump to the right (Cisteen line) at 46 minutes, and we followed it thru some beautiful passage. You can tell there has not been much traffic in that part of the cave. The jump to the Crypt was marked with a large, and smaller dorf markers (red) as the line started turning right. After setting the reel, we went thru some low silty areas, and everything was covered with dark brown silt, including the line. After going thru the last restriction, we ascended up into the crypt. It was dark and spooky, with huge bolders and breakdown. All the rocks were covered in the dark brown silt, making the room look erie. There was a plastic skeletan tied to a string floating in the middle of the room. We were at 62 minutes, and we all hit thirds at that point, and we headed out the way we came, pulling our reels, and enjoying the benefit of the flow on the way out. We picked up our stages, and proceeded to the cavern, where we re-calulated our thirds. We had 17 minutes of deco, so we went up the peanut line slowly to the breakdown room and turned again to return to the cavern. We had whittled our deco down to 11 minutes, and we broke out the O2 for four minutes. Maximum depth 77 feet, 149 minutes. Great dive!

[Dan Thoms]

Sounds like a great dive..The crypt spooky? What was your thoughts when you first looked down into it? I would have liked to dive with you,...but that's all right leave me on land i understand.

[John L.]

Sounds like a great dive..The crypt spooky? What was your thoughts when you first looked down into it? I would have liked to dive with you,...but that's all right leave me on land i understand.

Hey Dan,
It was a very cool dive. You actually look up into it. You go thru a low restriction, and when you come out, you have to ascend up into the crypt. It was awesome, and freaky at the same time. We did pass a line going down a shaft to the lower crypt, which we just passed over. It didn't look too inviting.
John

[Sid]

Sounds like a great dive..The crypt spooky? What was your thoughts when you first looked down into it? I would have liked to dive with you,...but that's all right leave me on land i understand.

Hey Dan,
It was a very cool dive. You actually look up into it. You go thru a low restriction, and when you come out, you have to ascend up into the crypt. It was awesome, and freaky at the same time. We did pass a line going down a shaft to the lower crypt, which we just passed over. It didn't look too inviting.
John

Lower crypt bad, unstable things will fall from ceiling, if you dont't silt it the falling boulders will. Man nothiong like black German bread toasted to perfection and some big nasty sardines, K sais they got lots of calcium cause the bones you know, btw the crypt is my favorite in P, took me 3 attempts to find it well cause im kind of slow. Sid and Vincent Vega sitting with Jules and an Australian

[Angie Reim]

Hey Dan,
It was a very cool dive. You actually look up into it. You go thru a low restriction, and when you come out, you have to ascend up into the crypt. It was awesome, and freaky at the same time. We did pass a line going down a shaft to the lower crypt, which we just passed over. It didn't look too inviting.
John

Yes. Very cool dive. I wasn't creeped out at all...until.....while looking closely at Slim (the skeleton) a catfish jumped out at me. SAC rate went to I swear about 2.5! MY buddy was like "Oh let's go see what's down here in the lower level. " I wouldn't budge. I'd had enough.

I still can't imagine where that fish came from or what it had been feeding upon. Oh yes....good times.....

[John L.]

One thing thats cool it the last restriction going in has a limestone bottom like the tube in peanut with no silt that you can pull yourself along from the floor.

[MikeH]

Lower crypt bad, unstable things will fall from ceiling, if you dont't silt it the falling boulders will.

Yea, the lower crypt has been unstable in the past....I have not been there in a long time, so I can't say how it's been lately. There is evidence of the instability(at least there was a couple years ago) in the way the lines are run down there. Last time I was there, there were 3 lines.....two of which ended in breakdown. I remember the first time I went down there....and found the line I was on ended at a wall of rocks....but kept going, not tied off on the rocks. It took a minute for my slow brain to figger out what I was looking at....so I went to the other line, and pressed on a little further. It seemed stable at the time...but when I was back there a couple months later the second line was covered in rocks.

I'd like to take a trip back there sometime in the not too distant future, and check out the condition of the lower.. Many rumors about the lower Crypt exist, mostly pointing toward the fact(?) that it is similar to Hendley's Castle in PIII, whereas it goes down to the 180-200' range.

Mike

[Jordan]

Yes. Very cool dive. I wasn't creeped out at all...until.....while looking closely at Slim (the skeleton) a catfish jumped out at me. SAC rate went to I swear about 2.5! MY buddy was like "Oh let's go see what's down here in the lower level. " I wouldn't budge. I'd had enough.

I still can't imagine where that fish came from or what it had been feeding upon. Oh yes....good times.....

Good story. haha - you had enough, huh? It's funny how you can see them thar big ole catfish way back. They girk me every so often while solo diving.

If ya go to the Crypt with 32% instead of air and come straight back out you can do it without getting any deco. (Nitek) I forgot people still used air.

[CaptainSpeleo]

I haven't made an AIR dive since 1996 - 1997. Those l-o-n-g decos are no fun.

The lower section of "The Crypt" is definitely very silty and unstable and not worth going into.

[SLIM]

Yes. Very cool dive. I wasn't creeped out at all...until.....while looking closely at Slim (the skeleton) a catfish jumped out at me. SAC rate went to I swear about 2.5! MY buddy was like "Oh let's go see what's down here in the lower level. " I wouldn't budge. I'd had enough.

I still can't imagine where that fish came from or what it had been feeding upon. Oh yes....good times.....

Wow, did not know I was there in the Crypt all the time. Guess I will have to go and check me out next time down in December.

Angie, how did you know that it was me in there?



SLIM