Madison curiosity

[bernieflyer]

Last time i was in cave country we dove madison several times (great dives). We went to the far end of the rotorooter tunnel and looked at the entrance to the Zumgood tunnel on our way back but this was a tricky tight squeeze. Has it always been like this? Should it be done sidemount? Or is there some trick?
There was also lots of silt crashing around us from that big huge table rock above as we tried to squeeze in so we gave up....What's it like in there? Worth the effort?
Thanks already....

[Kelly Jessop]

Fairly tight,probably best done on sidemount

[Ward Beecher]

You can do it in backmount, but you will have to corkscrew in (and out). You will block the main water flow on your way in and subsequently mess the visiblity in the area as the water goes out through other areas. My partner and I had a line drill for 300' when we went. Sidemount was alot easier as Kelly said. The line goes in the direction of the Courtyard, but does not connect. Bruic said he knew where it "would" connect and one time created silt in the area and it was coming out the passage. Definitely not one of the prettier passages.

Ward Beecher

[ARY]

We did Zumgood w/tomauburn in backmount. You can go far enough. It zig-zags all the time and it is very low in some places. Line continues through the mud pile where you can probably make it digging but only in sm unfolded into nm mode. I'm very gratefull to Tom for being my buddy all the long way back to the mainline. His fins stayed calm and confident through the total blackout and numbers of linetraps. The siltout was so thick and black that we couldn't even see that cozy brown glow.

Important note. The Z line starts few feet away from the mainline and it tied off some small (few inches in diameter) rock. I was so happy to know that we put jump reel there and we wrapped it as it should be wrapped because there is a very good chance that you'll break the line while exiting due to entanglement or in a line trap or pulling it from the tie-off point.

If you are not sure how your buddy is prepared for "flying on instruments" i would recommend it doing in solo sidemount, you don't want the first exiting diver being in panic there.