EKPP Update

Overview

On the first weekend of April (March 31. - April 2.) EKPP pushed the limit
of the Gourneyrou cave for the second time.

The scout team, Brus and Ralph signaled on Thursday morning good conditions
and 15 divers and surface supporters started their trip to the valley of
the rivers Vis in the Hérault mountain range near Nîmes in southern France.

Day 1 (March 31st) - Setup

After the cable car was assembled, two sets of doubles where lowered and
Ralph and Jörg did a quick dive to check the visibility. The check showed
excellent visibility even though the water level was up to the cave
entrance, 5 meters higher than during the last project. As soon as the
check dives surfaced the habitat was lowered and handed to them. Jörg
and Ralph installed the habitat and all necessary equipment like
decompression bottles, break gas, weights and belts.

A second team consisting of Brus and Wido brought the second set of
scooters and the deep gases further into the cave.

Day 2 (April 1st) - Push Dive and dismantling

The alarm rang at 6 am and after the breakfast Reinhard and Michael slowly
dressed up in first daylight. Jörg, JP and Ralph got in the water in order
to film the two push divers during their ascent. As soon as the two push
divers disappeared into the cave the rest of the team had a little break.

The first duty was a check dive into the cave two hours after Reinhard and
Michael left. This dive as well as the next dive did not have any result.
It was JP and Michael who found the two push divers at around 12:30. Michael
signaled an OK and asked for some tea. While the two push divers slowly
where decompressing their way up the support divers took away their stage
bottles, scooters and the reel out of the cave. A quick glance on
the reel proved that some additional meters of line were now laying in the
cave.

At 14:00 it was Hervé's and Ralph's task to help Micha and Reinhard out of
their rebreathers and into the habitat. Taking the rebreather with them the
two supporters surfaced and informed the cook of the day about the menu
order. The cook of the day was Hilde from Belgium and she served a perfect
meal for the push diver. So while both push divers enjoyed their meals the
rest of the team started pulling equipment up. JP drove the car and the
cable car only stopped when Micha and Reinhard surfaced. After a short chat
about the dive Hervé and Jörg removed all bottles and sank the habitat.
Stefan, Ralph and Thorsten brought the habitat out of the cave.

Around 22:00 the team had everything back and sorted on the side of
the road. After a long day and a quick bath in the river it was BBQ time
in order to replace the calories lost during the day. Under a perfectly
clear starry sky everybody then went to bed early, as the next morning
everybody would head home early.

Participants in alphabetic order

Hervé Deschamps (F)
Hilde Bogaerts (B)
Jörg Schwertfeger (D)
JP Breser (NL)
Julian Hoekstra (NL)
Michael Brusdeilins (D)
Michael Reffgen (D)
Michael Waldbrenner (D)
Ralph Wilhelm (D)
Reinhard Buchaly (D)
Roland Kring (D)
Stefan Gaar (D)
Torsten Sommerlatt (D)
Udo Schönemann (D)
Wido Langenheen (D)

Reproduced by permission from http://www.ekpp.de see this site for more information on teh work of the EKPP