Lot & Dordogne June 2006
Team: Roland & Robin
After the last tour was not so the yellow of the egg from the weather, we decided without further ado in June to go again to the Lot, to come in the Ressel something further. The day after arrival we decided to make a familiarization TG in the Gouffre de Cabouy.
We did this TG with 2 x 80 cf EAN 32 and 3 Gavins (1 backup) and agreed on a turnaround time of 30 bar on the first stage. We scooted into the cave, passed several T's (surface, side passage) and took them in the direction of the Poumayssen, which we finally reached after about 25 min on the trigger, we left the exit to the Pouymassen on the left and scooted further into the cave and reached about 1000 m penetration.
The line situation in this cave may be mildly described as somewhat chaotic, if not hare-brained, multiple lines coming from everywhere, only to end up somewhere blind or lying around loose in the passage. It takes some cookies or linearrows to keep track here and to follow the origin line again on the way back. We liked best a rock block to which at least 8 lines led and the Linearrows pointed in 3 different directions. "Salle chaotique"
Basically this is not really a problem, because the passage profile is very manageable and represents a large tube and partly in the initial area reaches dimensions of a highway tunnel of about 12 x 10 m, in the further course the passage profile becomes somewhat narrower. Visibility was excellent and reached about 10-12 m, after 450m in the area of the line center to the traverse to the Pouymassen visibility was a good 15m. We scooted back while I made a short stick map of the line course and after a bit of splashing in the pool we emerged after 110 min and packed our equipment into the car to pay another visit to the St. George.
In the St.George we also took it easy and met here a larger horde of Brits, who were all with Sidemountequipment on the way. We decided to take only an 80 cf stage with EAN 32 and shoot at 125 bar on the stage. We did not use the backgas in the D12, it was only meant as safetygas. The visibility was with 4-5 m relatively modest, so that we turned around at the bottleneck at about 425 m, on the way back we had to go out the last 150 m on the line in Touch Contact, because visibility was maximum 30 cm and our nice English colleagues were so free to throw their stage depots into the clay banks and tared a little strange. We had then also the nose somehow full, because it was then at the pool something too much of the good and we made us briskly direction Carjac on the way, the next day we had planned full program at the Ressel.
The next day we slept in and did some shopping. Around noon we drove to the Ressel.
There was a lot of activity. Rick Stanton was with his men at the cave. He himself dove into the bivouac hall for a short time, a few dived solo and others from his circle of vapor gave him a hand on land. It was cool how he chugged along the Cele with his 2.50 m long Aquazepp from Olivier Isler and his Sidemount RB. It was a good 38 degrees in the shade and we dawdled a lot and assembled our equipment in peace.
The plan was to reach the side passage at 830 m and, if the gas would allow it, to scoot along the course of the main passage.
Roland planned this TG with his RB 80 with D 20 bailout bottles on the frame and an 80 cf trimix stage, I with the D 18 as back (safety) gas with 250 bar trimix 15/55 and a total of 3 x 80 cf trimix stages with 15/55. In addition, we each carried 3 deco gases in 80 cf stages with us (Oxygen, 50/25, 35/35). We agreed as a turnaround point when the second trimixstage at Robin reached 125 bar. We were both on a standard Gavin each and had another standard Gavin with us as a backup, which I pulled.
After chatting with Rick a bit more we changed and finally dove down, we scooted into the cave with the 50/25 and dropped the deco gases on the line one at a time and switched to the first trimix stage just before the shaft. Unfortunately, there is no place at 36 m where the 35/35 can be safely put down, so we put down the stage at the bottom of the shaft at 42 m. On the way back, we changed the gas in the shaft
free-floating in the shaft.
After the 36m gas was laid down, it went also already again on the trigger and we scootered side by side now in the deep part of the Ressel, the water was crystal clear and we had here now loosely 30 m+ x visibility, Roland acknowledged this often with Geil and Cool, which one can understand well on the RB under water. The plastic coated wire gave way to a very well laid white caveline and every 100 m linearrows with distance distances were attached.
After a few minutes on the trigger, we finally reached a T at about 830 m. On the right hand side the cave continues shallower and on the left hand side (Hasenmayer wire) the deeper side passage of the Ressel comes off. We placed a cookie and took the T on the left and scooted into the passage, shortly thereafter just before a small shaft that led back up a bit, I dropped my first Trimixstage on the line and switched to the second Trimixstage, the third full stage I clipped to the empty on the line. Roland supervised the whole action and after a short okay we went on grinning wide, we finally passed the shaft upwards and the passage profile became a bit narrower, so that we now scooted along the course of the passage one after the other.
After about 200 m, the new White Caveline ended on the right wall of the passage at a rock outcropping and next to it the stainless steel wire continued.Since I had about 50 bar left until the reversal pressure on the trimixstage we scooted a little further for a short while and finally decided to turn at about 1000 m and 57 m depth. On the way back, I picked up my discarded stages again, switched to the third trimix stage and we scooted back to the shaft.
We enjoyed every meter of the way back and initiated the deco once we arrived in the shaft, exchanged wetnotes and ate some carbohydrate gels Roland had brought with him.
In the middle of the night we finally emerged after 220 min and enjoyed the impressive summer thunderstorm.
In the following days we dived again a little over 1100 m into the Ressel towards the next T's, which connects the deep and the shallower main passage in the deep part again and had here also a very nice dive with excellent visibility of 30+ m. At the point of maximum penetration at about 60m, unfortunately Roland's Gavin failed due to a broken trigger rope. He stowed his Gavin in tow position while I pulled out the backup scooter for him.
In this sense,
Your Cavebase
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