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As the information has already been posted, I'm sorry to do it again. Sheck
Exley died in a deep cave dive, attempting to reach the bottom of a pit
estimated at about 1025 feet. Jim Bowden, a close personal friend, and Sheck
were attempting the dive together and had been doing practice dives for several
months. Jim last saw Sheck at about 900 feet when they passed each other.
Sheck was still descending. Sheck's bubbles stopped after 18 minutes.
Several possibilities as to what happened exist, but a recovery effort
will probably not be attempted. Exley's wife, Mary Ellen Eckhoff, was a
member of the expedition team, and dove to a ledge at 279 feet which could
block bubbles from comming to the surface. There were none. Jim stopped his
descent at 925 feet, and spent 8.5 hours decompressing. He had a
DCS hit, and proceeded with in water decompression. Other members of the
expedition include Dr. Ann Kristovich (women's deep cave record to 554 ft.),
Karen Hohle, and Marcus Gary. The primary theories on Sheck's death include
loss of air supply at depth, and HPNS tremors. Unfortunately, we will probably
never know for sure.
My heart and prayers go out to his family. Please send yours too.
Carl W. Meilahn
NAUI # 14470
cmeilahn@cc*.cc*.ut*.ed*
cmeilahn@cs*.ut*.ed*
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