POLLATOOMARY INCIDENT Part I

We arrived to Bellaburke around 2pm, briefly chatted to the landlord and had a look at the resurgence. The water levels were low but the visibility was nil, the entrance pond filled with brown murky water. A plan to bring Megalodon rebreather and to have a couple of goes through the -33m squeeze by taking off and putting the unit back on ( for a practice before a push below -103m) was immediately dismissed.

The old nylon line from 2008 was completely fucked and not wanting to go home with nothing done I decided to put a fresh 4mm polypropylene line down to the squeeze and perhaps a little bit beyond, -40m ish. With a single tunnel – a small shaft with a couple of squeezes going vertically down to -45m, what could possibly go wrong, right? ;))

Once in the water the vis turned out to be between 10 -15 cm while undisturbed. We put the vertical line down to -14m in an open shaft at which point the first constriction was encountered so I turned around and escorted my buddy to the surface. Then I dived again with three cylinders: 2x Alu80 (210 B and 150 B) and steel 12l (210B).

I passed the first constriction and approached the second one at around -21m. To my surprise the only way on that I could feel was kind of horizontal and quite tight, nothing like I remembered from 2008. But I was pretty sure there had been only one way on so I continued until I reached a lip of another shaft. This seemed more familiar and since I couldn't feel any sensible belay point at the top of the shaft (though no line traps either) I continued with a vertical ascent. Around -28 things got tight again (as expected) so I belayed the line to a piece of protruding rock (I remember having looked at that belay for a split second with a sort of a doubt as the rock was at a funny angle in the relation to the line and then ignoring it - Will do - I thought – I'll keep the tension and fix it bomb proof at the bottom). I staged one of the Alu80 and started wriggling down fins first. After reaching -32m no more progress could be achieved and after a very thorough examination by touch it turned out that the way down was blocked by head size, irregular shape boulders and sand. It didn't make any sense at all – it was a resurgence and I knew from the previous years that there was a good bit of a vertical shaft below that ( around 15m) so I couldn't imagine how that blockage could be created other than from a collapse above, an option that I dismissed immediately without any reflection.

Having nothing better to do on that Sunday afternoon anyway I started removing the rocks from the constriction but after reaching 20 min bottom time and no progress at the dig I made the decision to turn the dive. The place didn't seem to be the way on I remembered from 2008 but what was it then? Some other parallel shaft? I reeled back to my Alu 80 staged at -30m, re-pressurised it, checked the content and clipped it in. I took out a knife, cut off the guide line 30cm after the final belay and started securing the remaining line on my reel.

I was half way through the process when suddenly I saw a glimpse of the loose end of my guideline floating up in front of my eyes and disappearing into the darkness above! What the..?! Shit – that dodgy belay's gone! You fuckin' eejit, I told you! I threw my free hand towards it immediately but the water, just like in a bad dream when you try to run away from someone or something but you can't because the air seems to be thick like gelatine, slowed down my movement and I missed it by inches...it was gone... Fuuuuck!!!! Right then the line was probably no more than a meter above me but floating away further into the darkness with each second. I had to ACT; there was no much time for STOP and THINK. I got caught off guard but I knew I could fix it in no time if I acted quickly. I got off my knees and sprung into the darkness above. With one hand holding the unsecured reel with a metre of loose line or so and with the other sharking water above my head in search of the lost guideline I was briskly moving up the shaft. At around -22m, still finding no line I removed my 5mm gloves and threw them away, I couldn't afford not to feel the line when I came across it. I got a short flashback from Hell in November 2007...certainly not the first pair of gloves that I had to ditch to save my life... By the time the visibility dropped from already atrocious 10cm to practically zero. I could have closed my eyes as well and it wouldn't have made much difference. I kept them open though ;-)

I stopped for a while somewhere in mid water to calm down my breathing which became too heavy. The gas I had was buying me time, and I needed time to sort out that shit I got myself into. I needed to calm down.

I got things under the control and I moved up scanning the walls and the water above me with my hands like a blind man who lost his stick. But the damn line wasn't anywhere there! Soon the shaft above me got smaller and from what I could feel it started closing down...terrible feeling...I took a big breath and my reg took some water in, I choked, coughing violently and grasping for more air...Calm down! Calm down! For fuck sake... Stop acting like an amateur and CALM DOWN!

As if it wasn't enough suddenly I was left with a chunk of the ceiling in my hand! I held my breath terrified when some more pieces of rock fell on my helmet and my shoulders...in a split second I understood the situation: not only the roof was closing down above me with no way on but it wasn't solid, it was just a boulder choke! Feck ! Do I have to always get the best bits?!? At least that explained the boulder choke at the bottom of the shaft...

It finally occurred to me that my luck just ran out and now I was acting against myself. I missed the opportunity to sort it out with one bold move, my gimmick didn't work and now I had to pull back and apply a proper emergency procedure before it gets any worse: I needed to go back to the bottom of the shaft and start a proper lost line search.

With my heart in my throat I slowly began to descend breathing as little as possible in the given situation; it certainly gave me another incentive to calm down and keep my breathing down, God only knew what the expanding bubbles of my exhaled air could do to that boulder choke in the ceiling and although there was very little I could do about it I understood it would be a whole lot better for me to never find it out.

I moved down the shaft, I had to go back to the place where I'd first lost the line to fix my emergency rescue reel somewhere around and to start a systematic search for the lost line or the exit from there with a solid point of reference that you can always come back to, otherwise you can wander further into the unknown while the safety could be just metres away. Obviously I should have done it straight away in the moment when I'd lost the line but at the time I believed I could sort it out my way...besides, there was a single vertical passage there so what could possibly go wrong, AGAIN? (sarcasm emoticon here). But in a cave and especially in poor visibility nothing is as it seems and it's always stupid to assume otherwise: my progress to the point of the lost line at -30m was suddenly stopped at -27m where I simply reached ...a bottom! HOW THE FUCK IS THAT POSSI... Fuck, there must be yet another shaft...kurwa mać... I tried to picture the situation in my head and there must have been some kind of fork junction half way between the unstable roof at -17m and the blocked shaft at -32 that split the tunnel in two. So I went up again, feeling the walls with bare hands, trying to find the line until I got -17 m and the unstable roof again. I don't know why but I was equally if not even more shaken when the ceiling closed down above me again, as if I expected some miraculous little hole opened up in the meantime that would take me to safety. And still there was no sign of the line. It was like in a nightmare: I KNEW it must have been somewhere there yet it wasn't...

I worked my way down again but this time I focused on not missing the presumed forked junction which apparently was there coz I eventually reached the spot where I’d lost the line at -30m. By the time I reached the bottom of the shaft I was in a bad shape. I mean not physically but mentally... I wasn't thinking clearly, the shock of reaching the dead end twice took its toll and that's when the first crisis came: I realised I would die there.

So... It's Pollatoomary... I always wondered which cave it was gonna be ... now I've got my answer... and I must say I didn't see that coming, I mean not here, not like this... I wanted to go deep here with Megalodon and I knew that things could go wrong below -100m but to perish on a recce dive, to lose the line, get lost and run out of air...no, I didn't see that coming...

… and those who never liked you but never had the courage to show it...only to talk behind your back...Now they’re gonna have their feast: 'I told you he's gonna kill himself one day, fuckin' cowboy' ... Fuckin' cowards! Leave it now Artur, it doesn't matter anymore... you need to prepare yourself, get ready to take it with dignity...

For some reason the scene from Angels with Dirty Faces came to my mind, when James Cagney scowls like a dog and begs for mercy while being led to the electric chair... I watched it for the first time when I was nine and I was heartbroken for him. All he had been left with was to die with dignity but then that bloody priest, his childhood friend begged him to destroy his image and to pretend to be a coward for the sake of those kids who looked up to him. My task seemed to be infinitely easier, I didn't have to pretend to be a coward, I had not to be one. But wasn't I? I didn't know the answer.

It's not that it got me completely by surprise, you sort of have to realise your mortality in a more profound way when you do this sort of thing... I mean in order to protect it coz you're more vulnerable, more exposed... Sure you can be killed by a car while coming back from a day in the office or walking your doggy but it's usually NOT your primary concern...here it’s different. I'm not paranoid about it, I never tried to put myself in a mode that “the cave was after me” ...well, maybe I should have... But boy, I always hoped it would come quick, put me to sleep first, gently... if I only had my Meg(alodon) now...there would be so many better ways to go...

But she was coming in such an unhasty yet inevitable manner at my very full consciousness, and I knew it would be violent...

Read Part II :

http://arturconrad.blogspot.com/2011/06/pollatoomary-incident-part-ii.html