PBS's Nova last nite

[Colin]

Anyone else see the Nova special on last night about diving under the glaciers near Mont Blanc, France? Very interesting, challenging and dangerous for the divers. They talked briefly about using argon in their drysuits, along with regulator free-flows (one diver even spoke of getting ice crystals shot down his throat from his Poseidon reg). Zinc oxide was used on all exposed face skin, and even with that the team leader got his lips frostbitten. They had to rappel down about 60 feet into a crevasse and then don the scuba gear to do the dive to about 80 feet.
They were looking for evidence of hidden lakes formed by melting water inside the glacier that can unexpectedly cause the side of the glacier to burst open, flooding the surrounding valley. Visibility was limited due to the partially frozen water crystals, so the divers were literally suspended in water just on the verge of freezing solid.

Not exactly your average dive.

I can just imagine the call to DAN.

[FreediveWI]

Didn't see it, but it sounds good.

one diver even spoke of getting ice crystals shot down his throat from his Poseidon reg

I can personally attest to this happening- that's why got rid of mine a long time ago and switched to Apeks.

Jon

[dfreeman]

This was a really good special and some wild diving. They indicated that visibility was limited by the suspended ice crystals in the water. That is cold. They also said they were at high altitude. I thought they said 11,000 feet but I am not sure of this.

It is worth seeing this dive.

I kind of like the ice crystals down the throat. Lets me know it is time to slow down.

They were using Cyklon's on Nova program.

Doug

[Omicron]

Heh...can you just imagine a "flash freeze" all of a sudden. Some poor diver stuck in the middle of a big ice cube...hehe.

[Chris H]

I haven't seen that happen with water, but I've had a supersaturated solution instantly crystalize on me while in a flask (not the drinkin kind, the chemistry kind). It is really cool when that happens. Some of the crystals formed are beautiful!

[Omicron]

That's kinda what I was thinking of - fond memories of my chem classes

[dfreeman]

I was thinking the same thing. Thankfully water will not do this under the conditions they were diving at.

Otherwise it would be nasty,

Doug