Lot & Dordogne August 2006

Team: Roland & Robin

At the beginning of this tour we arranged with Ralph Wilhelm for a TG in the Gouffre de Cabouy. Roland and Ralph planned with their RB 2000 and RB 80 respectively, each with D20 bailout cylinders and used as drivegas 80 cf stages each with 50/25 for the shallower passages and a 35/35 for the initial part of the cave at max. 30 m and in the rear part of the pouy masses at approx. 20 m.

Robin planned the TG with double 12 with 250 bar EAN 32and 3 x 80 cf. The back pack was not to be used during the dive, we used only stages as primary gas source. Ralph carried two Magnum Gavins, Robin 2 Standard Gavins and Roland one Standard Gavin on this TG. So there were 2 back up scooters available in our 3 man team.

Roland and Ralph set up their rebreathers and we agreed on when Robin would reach 125 bar on the 2 stage or when the oneway scooter burtime of 60 min would be reached.

We scooted then also briskly into the cave and had relatively good visibility in the area of the Cabouy around 8 m in the further process to/down the Pouymassen about 10-12m. We stayed on the trigger for about an hour and passed all line branches in the direction of the pouy masses, only faked the traverse, looked up briefly and followed the course of the passage further into the poumayssen. We reached about 1700m penetration on this dive. At the turnaround point, my gas limit was not yet reached, but the scooter burn time was just at its limit.

On the way back, we then started a joint line cleanup action and cut completely superfluous lines and disposed of completely nonsensical arrows. About 300 m from the exit Roland's scooter slowed down visibly and finally stopped, he got the backupscooter pushed over by Robin and we scooted relaxed out of the cave. It turned out later that we probably had a power failure overnight and the scooter was not fully charged.

After 150 min the dive was finished and we chatted a bit at the pool. Ralph then made his way to Marcilac sur Cele to the campsite because he was giving a cave course the next day and his students were already waiting for him at the campsite. We packed up our stuff, chatted with Manu and Peter who were also diving in the Cabouy and met Thorsten and Stefan G. who were also there.

We had planned to dive the deep circuit in the Ressel, of course it was necessary to dive the deep T at 1150 m from both sides (deep and shallow route) to get an exact information about needed time, conditions and needed amount of gas. We had already explored the shallow route except for a few missing meters 1050-1100 m and knew how it looks like here.

So our first step was to follow the passage profile in the deep part to the right again and to reach the T at 1160 m from this side.

We planned the TG like on the last tour : Roland on the RB 80 with D20 and a trimixstage 17/55 + 3 deco gases and Robin OC with D18 with 3 trimixstages 17/55 and also 3 deco gases (Oxygen, 50/25, 35/35). We used 3 standard gavins.

We dived on the 50/25 and scooted into the cave, after we had dropped the deco gases at the usual places in the cave it was: Fire free! and we scooted into the deep part of the Ressel, the visibility was about 15 m, so it was completely sufficient for our project. We passed the T at 830 m to the right, placed a cookie and followed the further course and finally reached the end of the newly laid white mainline, shortly before Robin dropped the first trimixstage and put a full one to the empty stage on the line and changed to the second trimixstage.

We connected a spool here and jumped to the other side of the passage on the Hasenmayer wire and followed the further course of the passage and finally reached the T at 1160 m at about 60 m depth. We placed a cookie, recorded gas consumption and time, and got somewhat oriented. Since the reverse pressure on Robin's second trimix stage had not yet been reached, we decided to pass the T to the left and scoot further into the cave.

After a short time the reverse pressure was reached and we scooted back, resumed our spool on the way back and finished the TG after an uneventful deco after about 200 min.

Ralph was also at the Ressel with his course participants and offered us to borrow a Magnumscooter for the next day, so that we would have 2 backupscooters with us, since we had planned to dive the deep side passage in the Ressel the next day.

After we picked up the Magnum Gavin from Ralph at the campsite the next day we drove to the Ressel. We were the only ones at the cave this time. Today we planned to dive the deep side passage in the Ressel to have a look at everything and to prepare the circuit. Since the depth profile of the deep side passage is on average about 8-10 m deeper, Robin planned to do the TG with 4 trimixstages 15/55, Roland used
one trimixstage with 17/55 on the rebreather.

With the 4 bottommixstages, 2 were for penetration and 2 for the way back. So Robin dived with 4 x 80 cf trimix 15/55, D 18 with 250 bar 15/55 and 3 deco gases. Roland carried a Trimixstage 17/55 as well as 3 deco gases for the TG.

Since Roland only had to use one trimixstage (thanks to the RB 80), he transported one of Robin's trimixstages so that a more or less equal load distribution could be established and a more rapid progress could be implemented.

In addition, we each used a standard Gavin as well as a back-up scooter each (Magnum and standard Gavin).

We dove back down on the 50/25 and scooted into the r Ressel and placed the deco gases in the usual places.

No sooner had we clipped the 35/35 to the line at the bottom of the shaft and wanted to losscooter the trigger of Robin's Standard Gavin did not release and the wire rope of the trigger sagged, this was in no way fixable in the water as the scooter was still drivable (not really comfortable, but functional) and not really broken down, we exchanged wetnotes and decided to continue the TG with lower penetration and only use three trimixstages for penetration, so it was actually clear to us that we would not quite reach the T from the deep side passage.

Robin swapped the scooter and stowed the scooter with the "trigger problem" in tow position as a backup. The whole action with the discussion and writing of course cost us gas accordingly. We scootered again to the T at 830 m and passed this left hand into the deep passage. Here we find exclusively Hasenmeyer wire and various other lines!!! After about 150m, the profile of the cave drops in a curved shaft (snail-like) from the 50m region to about 65m depth, and continues at this depth.

We turned at the "1200" marker (the side passage is about 150 m longer than the main passage, which is mostly straight), without reaching the T. We had an overview map laminated in the wetnotes. Since we had an overview map laminated in the wetnotes, we knew exactly where we were and decided not to complete the circuit, since we did not know the further course in real and trusted the map conditionally. So we turned around and scooted the deep passage back and finished the dive after an uneventful dive.
the dive after an uneventful deco after about 250 minutes and had reached a maximum depth of about 67m.

In this sense,

Your Cavebase