A Review on 'Beyond the Deep'

'Beyond the Deep' proved to be a great companion on a winter day when we could not leave our home due to the snow storm. My first book on Caving and cave diving was easy on me with the terms clearly defined in the glossary. I just wished they had real pictures along with the maps. The moment I read these words, I realized there is a great deal to this adventurous sport/ career – “while every climber knows which mountain is the world’s tallest, no one will know which cave is the deepest until cavers bottom them all”.

 

The book describes about this particular Expedition, their endeavors, Bill’s determination to use a new re-breather ,a result of his invention, the team’s doubts and fears are well described. It would have been nice to have included the detailed findings/results of the “black-box” from the re-breather that Ian was breathing on during his final hours in the book. Mentions of hallucinogenic mushrooms introduced by the Mazatec healer from Mexico to Gordon Wasson that lead him to write “Seeking the Magic Mushrooms” article, Basic Cave Diving : A Blueprint for survival by Sheck Exley sound interesting for future reads.

 

As with any adventurous sport like Mountain climbing, scuba diving beyond the suggested 130 meters depth, the book states ‘Caving/cave diving accidents result from a series of minor mistakes. Those cautionary tales at the beginning of each hapter of Sheck’s survival guide described how otherwise minor mistakes compounded to become fatal errors.’