ADAM HAYDOCK

THE EXPLORATION DIVE IN BOATBOX CAVE, UTAH

July 15, 2021

Photo by Alex Chagovetz

We wake up to a lightly smoked atmosphere which made for a very beautiful sunrise.

the crew was starting to get up early and getting ready for a gear haul to Boat box cave. We have around15 people helping out with the effort and I am so glad that we had that help. That was

the perfect number to haul all of this gear out to boat box cave. We head out in two teams so rigging can get started ASAP.

Photo by Matt Paulson

I am with team two and we hike out into the beautiful Utah high elevation karst plateau.

Boat box cave is at around 9500 feet of elevation. This is the highest cave dive I have performed and the highest in elevation I have ever been with regard to diving in general. Matt Paulson, Jamie Goodwin, John Horton, Alex and others were setting up the rope access into the cave.

Photo by Matt Paulson

Not only do I want to empower the team to develop themselves into stronger cavers and practice the skill sets that they want to develop, I also need to relax before the dive.

Photo by Matt Paulson

Cave Diving at 9500 feet of elevation when I have been living in 2500 feet of elevation in Vegas, in cold water, tight narrow passage, sleep deprivation Embolizing from a dive could come easier and a lot faster than one might think.

Photo by Matt Paulson

Now my initial idea of how this cave should be rigged was with some sort of high line and haul system. I also favored high help for the gear line and a traditional rap down into the cave

Photo by Matt Paulson

Once inside the cave, we would need a line to hang gear in the water including tanks and a line to haul and rap/ascend with.

Photo by Alex Chagovetz

The team did really well with setting up the cave on their own with little supervision oversight. Once the cave was primed, we had john sit in his alpaca raft in the water to assist the divers in any way possible.

Photo by Matt Paulson

John was a huge help and I am so glad that we had him in the raft. He was wearing a dry suit that was quite insulated which provided him with warmth and protection. I went down the 40 ft pit into a slopping muddy room. This is where will get my dry suit and gear prepared for the dive.

Photo by Alex Chagovetz

This was also my first mistake. It was slippery muddy and the quarters were close. I had my undergarments sent down there so I figured that it will be fine to get set up ( which it was but not ideal). Astro prepared at the surface.

Photo by Matt Paulson

We had a haul line to lower and haul gear out of the pit. We also had a haul line prepared for the second drop, a primary rap line, and a line to hang gear at the waterline. We positioned the ropes to ensure safety and efficiency of people and equipment.

Photo by Matt Paulson

Once I was ready, I rapped down the second and final, 50ft pitch right into the water. Rocks continued to roll down from the surface and from the first room into the water. All while we were preparing for the dive.

Photo by Alex Chagovetz

John was out of the way. Immediately I could feel the cold creeping through all of the layers and starting to chill my body. The gear was just underwater and John was in his boat.

Photo by Matt Paulson

I forgot my gloves so they were sent down along with a 5lb weight. Those wet gloves were difficult to get on but thankfully john had higher positioning. I could not forgo the gloves due to the extreme cold water.

Photo by Matt Paulson

I finally get those gloves on. I told Astro to wait up at the top so I can swim around to look for going passage. If this was just a pool of water than I doesn't necessarily have to come down unless he wants to go for a swim in here. This new plan would save time, effort, and more rock fall. I look underwater as I swim under johns boat and I could see large rocks at the bottom. I continue to swim over to the other side of the water and notice a fissure crack going up into the mountain. I look underwater again and there is bottom. I dive down and can see the bottom with the walls coming upas I swam back towards and under the boat. No passage that I can see.

Photo by Matt Paulson

There is nothing going anywhere. I do see some cracks where water could be coming in and I see that the walls are saturated with water, though not dripping. I am starting to realize that water is slowly seeping in from above and through cracks. The limestone has a cream colored look almost like some kind of calcite. It looks like conglomerate stone for limestone with very hard and thick veins of, maybe calcite? I swim back under the boat and to the remaining gear and see some debris at the bottom. Some of which appears to be a boat or a pile of plastic material. I did not investigate due to the cold 35 degree water that my computer was reading. Yet I felt like I could see everything from a depth of 15 feet.

Photo by Matt Paulson

I called off the dive because this body of water doesn't have any flow and is just a pool of water 35 feet deep. I begin to ascend out slowly and made my way back to the first room, than back to the surface.

Photo by Matt Paulson

Astro decided not to go into the water and we went ahead and we hauled up gear and de-rigged the cave. I want to thank the Timpanogos Grotto, Matt Paulson, John Horton, Chase Nelson, Amy Nelson, Danielle Urich, Alex Chagovetz, David Royer, Jamie Goodwin, Bryce Fehlig, Mark Zelenock, and so many others that contributed to make this project a success. I also want to thank my dive buddy Astro Rosaire for being prepared and executing his first cave dive project.