Diving in Glacier National Park July 2009

[DetectorGuy]

I am planning a 2 week camping trip starting in Glacier National Park in Montana and ending in Banff National Park, Alberta Canada in July 2009. I am planning on bringing 4 tanks and a dry suit. I think it will be cool (literally) to hit those mountain lakes and take photos of trout and see what the visibility is really like there. Lake McDonald and Flathead Lake look turquoise blue from the surface. I heard that this is from glacial silt that is suspended in the water. I doubt these lakes get dove very often. Has anyone here ever dove at 5000 feet above sea level? Where can I get an elevation dive table to back up the computers? Any advice about what I should be researching while I wait for July to get here would be appreciated.

[arcFlash]

V-planner can do that. The trial version should give you the data or my computer shows mountains at alt so read you manual again. I turned mine on in a plane and it gave /showed 3 peaks so I assume my bottom time was adjusted.

[freedivernd]

when I was in new zealand those aqua blue glacial lakes had about 0 vis.

[DetectorGuy]

I am not sure about my Suunto Vyper computer but my Tusa IQ700 does compensate for altitude. I just wanted a table to back up those two and advice about what not to do while diving/traveling/outrunning bears at these different elevations. Lake McDonald is about at 3400 feet and I would like to dive there. I Guess there are shovels and hand tools that the workers threw in when they were working on the park in the 1930's. Avalanche lake is about 5000 feet I think. If I go from there over Logans pass at 6600 feet above sea level, would I need to threat the difference in elevation like "no fly time"?

[arcFlash]

Put your dive computer in a glass of water and tape it to the dash of your car. Drive until it says deco.

Seriously, I'd call DAN and ask them. They also take email.

[DetectorGuy]

Since I posted this thread I read an article written by DAN about diving at altitude and flying/driving to a higher altitude after diving. They said that a typical commercial Jet pressurizes the cabin to an altitude of 2,000' - 8,000' even if the actual altitude of the jet is 30,000'. The no fly time after any dive would also relate very much in the same way of driving to an elevation of 2,000' higher than the dive site. The one tank at recreational limits would require a minimum of 12 hours "no fly time". Repetitive dives at recreational limits would require at a minimum 18 hours of "no fly time". Any deco dive (whether planned or not) would require 24 to 48 hours of "no fly time". The rules about "no fly time" were conveluted in my mind until reading this. Through the basic open water certification we all learned that one should not drive to a higher elevation after diving (or fly for that matter), it never dawned on me that 2,000' was that invisible threshold that the "no fly time" was based on. The article was an eye opener.

[grumpie]

Good afternoon john, I have some RGBM tables for sea level to 2,000. 2,000-6,000. 6,000-10,000. if you want you can use them or make copies of them on 8 1/2 x 11.
grumpie.....

[DetectorGuy]

Thanks Grumpie, If I can, I will borrow the tables from you and make a copy and get them back to you. Maybe when I pick up those two tanks I will get them.

[MERCDIVER]

just something that comes to mind-- is that will canada let you bring your tanks into there country. might be worth checking this out. if they do, i'm very jelouse ;D

[drbmac]

I went out to Glacier a few years ago and we crossed over to the Canadian side and there is an old paddle wheeler that you can dive on.