Well I know this isn't the first dive report from the missile silo but it was my first time there and I've been looking forward to this dive for a long time. The Titan 1 missiles were housed in a complex in Royal City back during the cold war. Being built below the water table, the silo's flooded with ground water when the pumps were shut down and has since been abandoned making a playground for divers. Getting to dive among the crib work see old elevators, railings and signs is an otherworldly experience. We got to dive silo 2, silo 3 and the equipment room(?) After getting up at 5:20am to make the trip over the mountains then spending much of the day in darkness i felt like I had completely missed the day!
Huge shutout to Bradmond for getting the trip organized!!! Anyways, the bottom of the silos are about 105ffw at the bottom and its completely dark. Like zero ambient light. Its an amazing experience getting to literally dive into Cold War history. The water viz was fantastic, 40-50ft maybe more but it was hard to tell, except for by the end of the dives the very fine silt got stirred up a little bit. The water was a chilly 52 degrees.
After the 2 1/2 dives we got to see the topside attractions which took us into more abandoned underground buildings. Its crazy to think that after all the time, money and energy spent to construct the complex it was only operational for 3 years. I'm not even huge history buff and I found the entire trip to be fascinating. The DM was really knowledgeable and pretty much left us free reign over the dive site.
Oh, and here's the video I put together. I could have easy made the video 15min long but I figure I would spare you all
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5x6Lwe9YOJM
10/10 would recommend.
Also fun to note, the military is doing some training for a month and the DM said he wanted them to open some places by removing doors(?) and that they're thinking about restricting the outflow from the silo which would raise the water level by a few feet. He said it would create a lot more overhead environment. So for you cave divers this may be a cool addition.
Titan 1 Silo
- theonly_JT
- Extreme Diving Machine
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Titan 1 Silo
"Whoa! Big ol' blue's one serious place, dude." - Crush the sea turtle
Re: Titan 1 Silo
Great video JT!! That is an interesting dive and the dry side tour is fun too.
Re: Titan 1 Silo
Sick,
I want to become a caver just to run the overheads on that dive. I imagine it's like diving into a movie set.
I want to become a caver just to run the overheads on that dive. I imagine it's like diving into a movie set.
Re: Titan 1 Silo
JT, that video was awesome. Ive never had a desire to dive the silo, but your video made it look quite appealing. Very very well done.
- theonly_JT
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Re: Titan 1 Silo
funny you say that, part of the dryside tour was used as a film setSteiger wrote:Sick,
I want to become a caver just to run the overheads on that dive. I imagine it's like diving into a movie set.
"Whoa! Big ol' blue's one serious place, dude." - Crush the sea turtle
- theonly_JT
- Extreme Diving Machine
- Posts: 421
- Joined: Tue Jul 19, 2016 10:24 am
Re: Titan 1 Silo
Thanks Gdog!!! I'm def more of a animal and life type person but this was just plain cool. Im not much of a history person but this was an epic history lesson. I would go again.
"Whoa! Big ol' blue's one serious place, dude." - Crush the sea turtle
Re: Titan 1 Silo
JT that video was awesome! I want to dive the solo now too!
Re: Titan 1 Silo
Your video skillz are getting very good JT, that was fun to watch
**Pinch it, don't stick your finger through. You're just pinching a bigger hole.
CAPTNJACK - 2012**
CAPTNJACK - 2012**