PESH 2015 – diving Red Ball Canyon Part I

 Cave diving, Caving, Overseas  2 Responses »
May 022015
 
PESH 2015 - diving Red Ball Canyon Part I

After crossing the world twice and two weeks of hard work, I’m back from the wilds of the Mexican mountains. This trip report is long enough that I have split it in half. Stay tuned next week for part 2. The PESH 2015 expedition is now complete with the two main cave entrances used de-rigged and returned to their natural state. 2015 was the second annual expedition with trips planned each April until 2023. Over the course of 10 years the PESH team aims to expand the known depth of the Huautla System beyond a mile, and the surveyed horizontal passage to over 100kms. This year’s expedition cracked the 70km mark and with the total depth at 1545m, a mile can’t [read more…]

Preparing for Huautla

 Cave diving, Caving, Overseas  No Responses »
Apr 072015
 

Life has been a little bit quiet on the website of late, because life has been incredibly busy in the real world. Since our last successful exploration weekend in Elk River I’ve spoken at Oztek, done a couple of lovely ocean dives, a weekend in Gambier and packed three overstuffed bags for Mexico. I fly out of Melbourne next weekend for two weeks of caving, diving and exploration with the PESH (Proyecto Espeleologico Sistema Huautla) expedition. The PESH mission is to run ten annual expeditions to the Huautla System. This April is the second one and continues on with the aims of pushing the known cave past 100kms in length and one mile in depth. There are more than two dozen [read more…]

Diving the Lot – the Cregol

 Cave diving, Caving, Overseas, rEvo  1 Response »
Oct 172014
 
Diving the Lot - the Cregol

This was the best dive of the trip. You’ll have to excuse me for adding far too many photos to this post because I just can’t choose between them. Duncan and I headed off to the Cregol with our rebreathers while the rest of the team headed for Landenouse (which requires ropes to get in to). Unfortunately they ended up diving back at St Savaeur again due to divers at Landenouse, while Duncan and I had a brilliant day at the Cregol. The Cregol has an entrance restriction into the small and short first sump, followed by a large-ish dry chamber and a deep second sump. The second sump meant I was keen to take my rEvo in there, but [read more…]

Diving the Lot – Ressel 2

 Cave diving, Overseas, rEvo  No Responses »
Oct 142014
 
Diving the Lot - Ressel 2

Ressel 2 seems to be a good back up plan for divers in the Lot when the parking at the Ressel is full of minivans on your arrival. The dive is similar to the Ressel in that it starts in a river, stays shallow for the early parts and then jumps down a deep shaft. However the vis was not as good and the cave walls a bit darker – I can see why this is the number 2 cave in comparison. After swimming across the river upstream into the gentle current we found a rock or two to sit on and waited for Georg to find the entrance. On descent the murky but warm river water gave way to [read more…]

Diving the Lot – St Georges

 Cave diving, Overseas, rEvo  1 Response »
Oct 102014
 
Diving the Lot - St Georges

Fontain de St Georges was one of what I was expecting as a “typical” Lot cave – large tunnels with dark and slightly milky water. The vis was average at the beginning but cleared up as we progressed down the tunnel. From the large entrance pool it heads straight down to 30m depth before getting larger, clearer and gently sloping up. With Ken off to Tolouse to fetch Forrest and Tom packing up for his trip home to Germany, I only had three models in the water. This made handling the murky water in the larger tunnel easier, as I could get the divers closer to the camera without cutting anyone out. I particularly like the first shot here for [read more…]

Diving the Lot – St Saveur

 Cave diving, Overseas, rEvo  1 Response »
Oct 032014
 
Diving the Lot - St Saveur

St Saveur is a large, straight, dark tunnel that heads straight down into the depths. I knew beforehand that this would be a relatively short dive as within a couple of hundred metres the cave is down well past 60m. Georg also mentioned before we got in the water that the vis can be quite different above and below the 13m mark. The very large entrance pool was relatively clear so I was hoping for much clearer below. Unfortunately it was not to be, and we moved into the dirty water underneath. After an initial gravel slope there is a “restriction” which you can see in the first photo here. I got some nice shots of each diver passing through [read more…]

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