Projects > Gourneyrou 2005 (June)

Push Dive

Latest update: August 2, 2005

By Michael Waldbrenner

Gourneyrou is the wrong name! This cave should be called "Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde Cave". But let’s start at 6 in the morning on the 18th of June 2005, when Andrea Marassich came to our tent and told us it is time to get up. Still tired from the day before I crawled out of the tent and had a coffee and the typical carbohydrate-breakfast. We walked to the cave at around 8 in the morning.

Due to the small entrance area it was the first time we had to get in the water one after the other, so I made myself ready while Reinhard waited. I crawled down the rocks since the water level was very low and Arno and Brus helped me in the rebreather. We were diving mono RB80, since the cave was only explored to a little more than 1100 m and so we could carry enough bailout gas. Reinhard got in the water and after around 20 minutes were ready to start the dive. I checked my Suunto Vyper Gauge and it was 09:02 in the morning when we descended.

"What kind of small cave is this" was my first thought, since I have never dived it before and so we swam down to 21 m, where our gear was deposited. There the cave already opened up and also twisted a bit.

It took us 6 minutes to grab the 100 m stage, the 36 m stage (these were our dive gases) the 54 m deco tank and another 36 m deco tank to bring to the appropriate depths.

Also our 4 Gavin scooters were parked here. One aluminum NiMH and one Magnum scooter each.

Since the bottom time was only planned short (for around 2 hours), we agreed to let the heating tube sit at 21 m.

21 minutes into the dive we found a good spot at 40 m, where we dropped the 36m deco gas and continued.

2 minutes later we reached a spot at 60 m where we dropped the 54 m tanks. We chose to place them a bit deeper, because there was a better drop place. Visibility was now more than 15 m and no noticeable flow. In minute 28 we reached the 80 m line and after 85 m the cave went up again and we switched to the 36 m gas at 36 m and then reached 17 m 44 minutes into the dive. The cave is like roller coaster-ride and I heard my sinuses squeaking and my right ears needed some time to equalize.

Already 5 minutes later we had to switch back to the deep stage as the cave dropped again.

We hit 88 m after 63 minutes and then it went up again like in an elevator. At 83 minutes we reached 29 m meters and reached the end of the line. I took out the reel and tied into the line and off we went. We scootered and the cave dropped again. Now it went to 93 m and there we tied off at 101 minutes into the dive having laid 280 m of new line. We discussed about surveying on the way out, but due to the fact that there was no previous survey-data and our ears had already problems equalizing we turned around and scootered back. On the way back we tried out a new deco procedure for the ups and downs and reached our first gas at 154 minutes.

At 167 minutes we reached the 36 m gas and at 184 minutes, we switched to our 21 m gas. We used standard gases, so nothing fancy here. At 18 m we were first visited by Ralph and Alessandro and we exchanged a quick ok and we also drank some fruit juice. Deco was uneventful and so we reached the habitat at 330 minutes into the dive. We got some tea on the way to the habitat and now we waited for the food. First we had some very good Swiss chocolate and then we had pasta with tomato and mozzarella sauce. Very good. As a side dish some hot naan bread and some more drinks. The usual breaks on trimix were done in a 12:8 ratio.

Around 30 minutes later we had lamb chops

Around 30 minutes later we had lamb chops prepared by Arno a real "chef de la cuisine". They were really delicious. After 2 hours in the habitat, we waited for the exit team. The habitat was in 6 m of depth due to the low water level and lack of another flat point to float it against.

We exited the habitat at 470 minutes and at 476 we surfaced again. We stayed in the small pool for around 15 minutes, then crawled slowly upwards and waited at the cave entrance for another 20 minutes while the team hauled gear up. Then we slowly walked up hill to the base camp where we drank plenty of water and sat down for half an hour. Then we decided to go back and help the others, which we did. It was a big working day for all involved. We then all jumped into the ice cold river for refreshment late at night and then enjoyed sitting around and chatting until one o’clock in the morning.

We all knew that we would only sleep 4 hours and so we went into our sleeping bags and I dreamed of the Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde cave, not being sure if it was more Jeckyl or more Hyde...