As a pastor I am amazed that some of my best communions with God are when I am in the underworld!
If you enjoyed Beyond the Deep I recommend the somewhat derivative Blind Descent, which gives a lot of interesting detail about Krubera. Also Bill Steele's Huautla: Thirty Years in One of the World's Deepest Caves.
Land of Enchantment -- not so great for cave diving, but mighty scenic!
I sure wish that Bill Stone's f/u book came in electronic. I can't stand reading print anymore because I have to dig glasses up.
Found this article from Outside magazine I thought folks would enjoy:
http://www.nec-espeleo.org/documento..._the_Abyss.pdf
I wanted to ask, is there any reason to believe that Rolf Adams could have died from pulmonary edema? It seems like the description in James Tabor's book Blind Descent describes somebody with pulmonary edema almost "textbook style" but every reference I've found on his death lists panic as the most likely cause.
the author gave a slightly different account of Ian's death, I noticed in Blind Descent. James Tabor comments on Ian "turning off a switch" to conserve oxygen when he gets up into the airbell and is dragging his rebreather to the next area where he dives, and then forgetting to turn it back on as a possible cause of blackout,which is later discounted from examining his gear. But, this author also doesn't mention how Ian had been ill prior to his last dive, which to me, places a great deal of credence to the hypoglycemia theory as a cause of death.
I know nothing about rebreathers and since the book and tried to explain this in lay persons terms, I'm not really sure about the "on" switch for the oxygen.
Squirrel Girl, or anybody else, I'd love to understand more of the details of these events.
I'm re-reading these books and I'm amazed at some of the details I'm noticing on a second reading.
Tracy
US Army Maj (ret)
I got a chance to meet this guy and he's a moron. When he says switch, think valve.
As much as Bill and Barb's book over-embellished, I think that they probably played the actual details of Ian's death pretty close to the vest.
In the end, I think it's pretty cool that the reel that Ian laid when he found the way onward (and ultimately died) ended up in the hands of his son.
-Jon
The fourth photo from the top in the linked article is classic - vertical caving in green Wellies. Truly the boot for every purpose!![]()
Bookmarks