How deep can i go? (in nothing but mud)

[mudxdresser]

A general rule is that the more watery the mud, the deeper the equilibrium point will be. And the more watery the mud is, the less effort to sink deeper and the safer it is to rise back out.

Keep in mind that mud can be deadly and the conditions that make it so are not always obvious in advance. In particular, watch out for any amount of sand in the mud, especially a sand layer. If the sand layer is at the top, the sand can sort of stick to you in a way that takes a while to get free of. If it is underlain by a liquid layer, the sand layer may separate into sort of an island with you in it and try to roll you over if there is a weight differential trapping you underneath upsidedown. Not common, but dangerous and I have encountered it myself a number of times.

There is also the more common situation of a sand layer under the mud. This is especially dangerous as it may flow around your ankles or legs and solidify trapping you. Do not for a minute thing that the normal wiggling motion you use to loosen up quicksand to float in it will have any effect on sand that has locked in this way. This is how many people are killed in coastal areas but such mud can be anywhere.

Folks who are looking to sink deep are most at risk for this type of problem as your focus is on sinking into the resistant sand layer and you lose sight of whether you can get back out. Always test underlying sand layers with only one foot part way in to make sure the sand does not lock when you attempt to pull out. Unfortunately, knowing whether the sand feels right or like it will lock is somewhat of a skill acquired by experience in surviving dangerous conditions.

And lastly, watch out for situations where you might could jump into mud and end up deeper than you possess motive force to get back to the surface in a short time. Note that it is easy to become disoriented as to up and down just an inch under the mud.

Doesn't sound like most of this applies to your mud, just thought I'd mention this all together for the general knowledge of all.

[gamwam]

@mudxdresser,. know what u mean about jumping in,.. ive done it many times without any problems,. in the watery stuff its fine,. you sink deep when entering you you float up by yourself without to much effort,.... ive almost come unstuck once or twice though,... when jumping into thick stuff,... which turned out to be more of a struggle to get back to the surface than i thaught,.. i almost ran out of air before i got my head above,.. learned my lesson for next time though lol

diving can be fun to,. ive done a ton of head first sinks,.. your limited to how deep you can go becasue of how long you can hold your ereath and the time it takes to get down deepr into the mud.. and if using a tube to breath the pressure on your chest also limits how far down you can dive,......i can usally make it to just the lower part of my legs sticking out of the mud head first before the pressure on my chest gets to the point that i cant raise my chest to suck air in,... so i know that totall submersion vertically head first wouldnt be possible without scuba gear,.. same problem can apply when diving in though,.. it takes a few moments to right your self under the mud and climb back up,.. so u need to make sure you can hold your breath for long enough to do that

gaz

[Nessie]

Eeeeow, Mudxdresser, Gamwam...you are both very very brave men...

Nessie doesn't dive in headfirst or do flying leaps and cannonballs...EVER.

She sinks. Slowly. And anybody who doesn't like it can sink it where the mud don't shine.

Nessie

[bart1997]

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[Billie Bonce]

But: I have something against the word "deadly". Has anyone ever heard or read anything regarding a fatal accident? (Except being cought by the incoming tide, while you are still stuck)

Do you mean fatal accidents in a bog, or fatal accidents that happened to those who went sinking intentionally?

Because in the first case the answer is definitely yes, in the second - I haven't heard any confirmed accident, but there was one suspicious disappearance of a member of this community.

[bart1997]

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[Billie Bonce]

Then please tell us! I have never read anything like "Breaking News: Hiker sinks out of sight in Terror Bog" although i do search for this kind of news quite often. If some other member of this board had found such kind of news anywhere, it would have been posted already.

I also haven't heard anything like this about hikers. It was about hunters, fishermen and (probably) mushroom and berry pickers.

In 2004 a man died in a bog near Feodosiya (Crimea, Ukraine). Some fishermen noticed a man who was apparently sucked down to his neck in the swamp. They called to emergency service (I suppose, they thought that the man was already dead - it's not our style to call to emergency service and do nothing themselves). The rescuers arrived on the site, took the boat from the fishermen, get to the man and pulled him out. The man suffered hypothermia and he died on the way to a hospital. It was in winter, so it was pretty cold there. I posted this information on Deep Sinking in 2005 (I believe). Now the news article is gone.

The second news story was about children, so I probably haven't posted it here. The children were successfully rescued, but at the end of the article there was a comment that "during the last ten years three people drowned in this bog". It was in 2009. North-west of Ukraine, Volyn region. Here is the link (in Ukrainian) http://gazeta.ua/post/296407

And one girl (also from Ukraine) had written in her blog that her father drowned in a bog when he was hunting. Can't find the link.

Actually, not so much...

[mudxdresser]

There has been at least one death and one presumed death of a mud fetishist deliberately sinking in the last decade or so, a couple of more before that with less certainty. The definite was somewhere in the Kansas City area I believe and, if I remember correctly, that person was known on the old snailmail mud network but not necessarily on the modern Internet mud network. No details known except that the person supposedly became trapped and died of exposure.

The presumed death is more recent. His handle was NotNormal and he was somewhat well known on the mud network until his disappearance on what is presumed to have been a one way mud outting somewhere in the Richmond, Virginia area. He was a VERY hard core breath control freak and some videos of him doing his thing were still out and about on the Internet last time I checked.

I've avoided joining the list by only the narrowist of margins, or is that luck?, a couple of times. Always remember to treat the mud environment with the respect it deserves.

[bart1997]

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[newQSFguy]

Right now I would be much more into in watching videos or helping film them, but the idea of trying it is interesting. Certainly will try and never be alone if I do, just in case. Would have to be anyway since there is no place in my location. I know there is out by the swamps near Giants stadium, but no one should ever put even a foot into that stuff.