Wormhole

[mr_v]

Has anyone done it recently? Based on videos, it looks like it is doable in BM. Any tips?

[AlexL]

i'd avoid the jump left to the west passage, it's a low silty mess. its doable in BM, but there's a rock on rock restriction near the north end that requires a bit of Tetris to get through. bring a long jump for the north exit, it's cut back pretty far.

[mr_v]

Gotcha, so from Hill 400:


- Right jump to Wormhole
- Stay right (East), as going counterclockwise
- Right at the 3rd T to go North (not sure if the first two are jumps)

[rddvet]

It's been many years since I've dove the wormhole, so take my comment with a grain of salt. Not trying to be a wet noodle, but we were all required to be taught cave conservation as part of our curriculum. One of my early instructor's comments was if you've heard somewhere is a sm tunnel but "maybe"you can squeeze through in bm, come back another day in the proper configuration so you don't beat the cave to sh-t. There's a reason there are a few sm tunnels that are now backmountable.

Again, it's been 10 years probably since I've been in the wormhole, but back then I wouldn't have wanted to do it in anything but sm so I wasn't scraping up the cave. Maybe it's been beaten up enough to be easily bm now.

[AlexL]

Maybe it's been beaten up enough to be easily bm now.

yeah, like everything in the front of Ginnie, its beat to hell. By 'tetris' i mean you gotta rotate a bit sideways to do it cleanly in BM. Front half of wormhole is more vertical crack, and you'd have a bottle in front if doing it in SM. Pros and Cons.

Many time I've been in there and got to the rock on rock and just turned around because it's not worth futzing with. Saves going back and cleaning up the circuit afterwards as well.

[mr_v]

Thank you for the replies. That is exactly the information I needed. On my map Wormhole is marked with "X" which means "restriction." Sidemounted restrictions are "XX." Not sure if my map is up-to-date.

[rddvet]

Thank you for the replies. That is exactly the information I needed. On my map Wormhole is marked with "X" which means "restriction." Sidemounted restrictions are "XX." Not sure if my map is up-to-date.

I get it. I was playing devil?s advocate. I have always been told wormhole was really a sm tunnel by everyone I know. I actually dont know anyone who?s done it in bm

I remember it from back in the day on sm. To me it was definitely a sm preferable dive. But with wear and tear things open up


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[Brent]

Here's some more thoughts on doing this dive. First of all, yes, it is doable in BM. Now having said that, proper trim, buoyancy control, and so on is vitally important in this area. If you're a newly certified FC diver with only 30-40 dives after cert, then go practice somewhere else. I helped lay some of the line in the Wormhole back in 1992 and believe me, the passage was a LOT smaller in those days. Even then we did it in backmount. As you probably know from looking at a map, this is a " loop" dive. By that I mean you start and finish on the Hill 400 line. One thing to keep in mind is that there is a couple of T's on the Wormhole line. Unfortunately divers tend to change lines so be very cautious on your first dive there. In my opinion, it's probably best to do this dive with someone who has been there several times.

[rddvet]

Here's some more thoughts on doing this dive. First of all, yes, it is doable in BM. Now having said that, proper trim, buoyancy control, and so on is vitally important in this area. If you're a newly certified FC diver with only 30-40 dives after cert, then go practice somewhere else. I helped lay some of the line in the Wormhole back in 1992 and believe me, the passage was a LOT smaller in those days. Even then we did it in backmount. As you probably know from looking at a map, this is a " loop" dive. By that I mean you start and finish on the Hill 400 line. One thing to keep in mind is that there is a couple of T's on the Wormhole line. Unfortunately divers tend to change lines so be very cautious on your first dive there. In my opinion, it's probably best to do this dive with someone who has been there several times.

Good info. It definitely looks bigger now than even 10 years ago when I look at peoples videos.
Funny enough most of the people who told me highly recommended in sm were older divers who were diving it in the mid to late 90s. So seems to somewhat fit with the size you saw in the 90s. I was never told absolutely not doable in bm. Just sm was basically always the recommendation.


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[Brent]

Good info. It definitely looks bigger now than even 10 years ago when I look at peoples videos.
Funny enough most of the people who told me highly recommended in sm were older divers who were diving it in the mid to late 90s. So seems to somewhat fit with the size you saw in the 90s. I was never told absolutely not doable in bm. Just sm was basically always the recommendation.


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Back in the day, that was probably good info to pass along to new divers. As you and AlexL have both mentioned, over time the popular passages grow in size due to the number of divers going there. The Catacombs are a good example of this. I never would have imagined, back in the day, that they would look like they do today. Now having said that, the Catacombs are somewhat forgiving, the Wormhole is "not"