Ice Diving

[Omicron]

Typically something like this...

Cut a triangular hole in the ice, and shove the plug of ice under the ice (for later retrieval) - a heck of a lot easier than cutting up the ice into chunks and pulling them out.  You can just prod it underwater with a shovel or two.

Shovel 3 lines of snow off the ice, away from the triangular hole.  Put arrow lines coming off the big line, pointing towards the hole.  Occasionally shovel circles around the hole for more light.

For ropes - 1 safety line, which is twice as long as the regular diving lines.  To secure the lines, we screw titanium ice screws into the ice, and tie locking carabiners into the ends of the ropes using a bowline knot backed up with an overhand knot.  The carabiners lock into the ice screws.

Same thing for the diver - bowline backed w/ an overhand, with a locking carabiner.  The carabiner is attached to the divers BC if it's got the right d-rings, otherwise they wear a webbed harness that we can clip the biner to.  We put a small loop in the rope so the diver can hang onto it and use the tug signals.

We put our ropes on those garden hose reels - makes deploying/stowing the rope a snap.

**NOTE**  This part of my post is where I'm supposed to warn you to not do what I'm going to write about...so don't try it, and don't blame me if you do.

However...for the past year or two, I'm pretty much of the opinion "screw the ropes".  Give me a couple of ice screws for line tie offs and I'll just take my primary reel.  I'm self sufficient, I'm not relying on some overeager linetender that is pulling me backwards/sideways....i rely on my reels to get back from thousands of feet into a cave...ice isn't a challenge compared to that.