The lake Divje jezero near Slovenian town of Idrija is well known among
extreme cave divers. There were several attempts to dive as deep as
possible into the sump and three people have already lost their lives.
Until now the record of -136 meters belongs to the late Tomo Vrhovec,
Oliver Isler with 122 meters has came very close. But Italian Luigi
Casati with the assistance of his life long diving companion, well known
Swiss Jean-Jaques Bolanz descended even deeper. In 25 minutes he got
as deep as -160m on aprox 450m length into the sump. He used underwater
scooter and many stage diving tanks, filled with air and trimix (breathing
mixture of helium, oxygen and nitrogen). He had to spent 8 more hours
decompressing the dissolved gases in his blood on the way back. Last
3 and half hours he spent in an underwater cage (bell) - filled with
air and with telephone connection... all submerged in a cave. The main
problem, as Luigi was explaining after, was poor visibility and extreme
cold.
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One can survive in 6 degrees Celsius water over such a long period of
time only in a decompression bell with battery powered heating systems
under the dry diving suit.
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