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My friend Marcus Kalmar, an Austrian cave diver, asked me to write up a report on a recent exploration by his team which took place on Nov. 10/11th. Marcus, Michael Jodel, and Michael Jurkovic have been working a cave called Nestelberg Cave, near the town of Gamming. This cave is entered by permission of the Austrian government. The divers wore DMS 5mil. crushed neoprene dry suits and DUI CF-2000 to insulate against the 5-6C water, inflating with argon. First they pass through a restriction at 15m, then another at 46m, and a final one at 50m. Here they proceed, to a low, narrow tube with a very silty bottom, reducing visibility to zero. The cave ceiling becomes so low at this point that back-mounted doubles become impractical and only side-mount will allow further penetration. The total bottom time was 13 min., with an actual push time of 4 min. Their max depth at turn-around was 64m. The divers use independent, back-mounted tanks to carry the deepest mix. For the intermediate tanks, they mark both the tanks and regulators with the mix, and consistently use different brands of regulators on each gas, to enable them to distinguish the gas by feel when necessary. Deco was worked out using Pro-Planner and compared with Abyss, resulting in similar, reliable tables. Gasses used included 40%He trimix, air, 50/50 nitrox, and O2: the switch back to air was done at 35m, to the nitrox at 21m, and to O2 at 6m, never exceeding 1.6ppO2. The helium and oxygen was donated by AGA gas company. FFI, or to provide constructive, useful advice please contact Marcus Kalmar: mkalmar@AT*.au*.nc*.co* Christopher A. Brown The Technical Diving Video Library (TDVL) http://www.neuro.fsu.edu/dave/docent.htm (US & Canada): 1-800-373-7222 Outside US:904-942-7222 Fax:904-942-1240 Life is short -- this is not a rehearsal.
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