Jochen Hasenmayer

Hasenmayer began his cave diving career in 1957 at the age of fifteen, exploring the Falkensteiner Höhle near Stuttgart.{{cite book|title=Above and Beyond|series=Library of Curious and Unusual Facts|author=((The Editors of Time-Life Books))|publisher=Time-Life Books|year=1992|location=Alexandria, Virginia|isbn=0-8094-7736-X|lccn=92-7151|pages=[https://archive.org/details/abovebeyond00time/page/34 34–35]|url=https://archive.org/details/abovebeyond00time/page/34}} Beginning in the 1960s, Hasenmayer explored many karst springs and caves in the Swabian Jura and elsewhere in Southern Germany, including the Wimsener Höhle, the Aachtopf and the Blautopf. He became famous in 1985 due to the discovery of the Mörikedom ("Mörike Cathedral", named after the German pastor and poet Eduard Mörike), the second big air-filled chamber in the Blauhöhle, about {{Convert|1250|m}} into the cave system.{{cite news|url=http://www.zeit.de/1996/10/Der_Mann_im_Blautopf/komplettansicht|title=Der Mann im Blautopf|trans-title=The man in the Blautopf|last=Schnabel|first=Ulrich|journal=Die Zeit|issue=10|date=1 March 1996|language=de|access-date=31 July 2013}}{{cite journal|url=http://www.focus.de/wissen/natur/geologie-auf-den-grund-gegangen_aid_158661.html|title=Geologie: Auf Den Grund Gegangen|trans-title=Geology: Gone to Ground|last=Hasenmayer|first=Jochen|journal=Focus|issue=13|date=25 March 1996|language=de|access-date=26 July 2013}}{{cite web|url=http://cave.lawo.de/jbohnert/history.htm|title=A short History of Cave Diving in Germany|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120323193910/http://cave.lawo.de/jbohnert/history.htm|archive-date=23 March 2012|access-date=26 July 2013}} Some of his terminuses (farthest point reached in a cave) have not been exceeded.

In the late 1970s, Hasenmayer was among the divers who searched for an underwater connection between Kingsdale Master Cave and Keld Head in the Yorkshire Dales. On 5 February 1978 Hasenmayer briefly became trapped in Keld Head. A British diver, Geoff Yeadon, shook Hasenmayer's hand through a gap in the cave, believing he was "shaking a dead man's hand", but Hasenmayer found his way out. The passage where the incident occurred became known as "Dead Man's Handshake".{{cite book|last1=Sale|first1=Richard|last2=Lewis|first2=Madeleine|others=Smithsonian Institution|title=Explorers: A Photographic History of Exploration|series=The Times Picture Collection|year=2005|publisher=HarperCollins|location=London, New York|isbn=978-0-06-081905-7|page=[https://archive.org/details/explorersaphotog0000sale/page/181 181]|url=https://archive.org/details/explorersaphotog0000sale/page/181}}{{cite book|title=Diving into Darkness: A True Story of Death and Survival|first=Phillip|last=Finch|isbn=978-0-312-38394-7|lccn=2008024271|location=New York|publisher=St. Martin's Press|year=2008|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780312383947/page/17 17]|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780312383947|url-access=registration}}

Hasenmayer spent decades developing the necessary diving equipment for his explorations. Well known as a safety fanatic, Hasenmayer has introduced unique practices perceived by some cave divers as safe, but which contradict the basic rules of normal diving.{{Citation needed|date=July 2013}}{{clarify|reason=what practices?|date=November 2017}} Hasenmayer was a pioneer in the use of trimix breathing gas mixtures (adding helium to oxygen and nitrogen).{{cite book|last=Chowdhury|first=Bernie|title=The Last Dive: A Father and Son's Fatal Descent into the Ocean's Depths|publisher=HarperCollins Publishers|location=New York, NY|year=2000|page=58|isbn=0-06-019462-6|lccn=00-033426|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2mCsj8Q68VYC&pg=PA58}}

Hasenmayer and American cave diver Sheck Exley became friends and rivals in the 1980s, each repeatedly attempting to break the depth records of the other. In 1981 Hasenmayer used mixed gas to reach a depth of {{Convert|476|ft}} in the Fountain of Vaucluse in France.{{cite book|last=Burgess|first=Robert Forrest|author-link=Robert Forrest Burgess|title=The Cave Divers|publisher=Aqua Quest Publications|location=Locust Valley, New York|year=1999|pages=320–321|isbn=1-881652-11-4|lccn=96-39661|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LbwrLGZDMHMC&pg=PA320}} Hasenmayer made the world's first {{Convert|200|m}} dive in the Fountain of Vaucluse on 9 September 1982, diving after dark because he had been denied a diving permit. His then-wife, Barbara, waited all night for him to surface.[https://books.google.com/books?id=RTgh4Hn3TNgC&pg=PA15 Finch], pp. 15-16. In 1983 Hasenmayer made a mixed-gas cave dive to {{Convert|656|ft}} at Vaucluse.{{cite book|title=Deep Diving: An Advanced Guide to Physiology, Procedures and Systems|last1=Gilliam|first1=Bret|author-link1=Bret Gilliam|last2=Crea|first2=John|last3=von Maier|first3=Robert|edition=2nd|publisher=Watersport Publishing|year=1995|location=San Diego, CA|isbn=0-922769-31-1|lccn=91-66440|page=84|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HVbjgdorRXAC&pg=PA84}}

Due to a faulty depth gauge, in 1989 Hasenmayer surfaced too quickly after a dive in the Wolfgangsee, a lake in Austria. His short decompression resulted in the bends, causing paralysis, but his colleagues immediately placed him in a waiting decompression chamber, and initially the paralysis was reversed. However, the emergency physicians at the hospital in Graz again decompressed Hasenmayer too quickly. Since that time he has been a paraplegic. Hasenmayer did not give up diving, but since 1996 has used a submersible, the Speleonaut, designed and built by Hasenmayer and his friend Konrad Gehringer, to explore the Blauhöhle.{{cite web|url=http://www.spiegel.de/sptv/themenabend/a-250794.html|title=Höhlentauchen: Manie oder Herausforderung?|trans-title=Cave Diving: Mania or Challenge?|year=2003|publisher=Spiegel Online|language=de|access-date=26 July 2013}}{{cite web|url=http://www.ccrcavediving.com/|title=CCR Rebreather Cave Diving - ProTec Dive Center Playa del Carmen & Tulum, Mexico|publisher=Mayatech|access-date=26 July 2013|archive-date=6 August 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130806174744/http://www.ccrcavediving.com/|url-status=dead}}

In 2001 Hasenmayer reached the Mörikedom chamber of the Blauhöhle in the Speleonaut. In 2004 he reached a point beyond the Mörikedom {{Convert|1800|m}} into the mountain. In the same year he discovered two more large chambers in the Blauhöhle: the Mittelschiff (or "nave") and the Äonendom. For the last several years the Blautopf cave system has been explored by the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Blautopf (Blautopf Study Group, or Consortium), a team of cave divers led by Hasenmayer.{{cite web|url=http://www.dradio.de/dlf/sendungen/wib/1674984/|last=Raabe|first=Kristin|title=Tiefenrausch - Manuskript zur Sendung|date=12 February 2012|publisher=Deutschlandradio|language=de|access-date=26 July 2013}} The most recent fatal accident in the Blautopf occurred in 2003, killing Bernd Aspacher, a member of Hasenmayer's team.{{cite news|url=http://www.schwaebische.de/home_artikel,-Blautopf-Taucher-kommt-ums-Leben-_arid,931232.html|title=Blautopf: Taucher kommt uns Leben|trans-title=Blautopf: Diver is killed|language=de|journal=Schwäbische Zeitung|date=29 September 2003|access-date=26 July 2013|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130726184904/http://www.schwaebische.de/home_artikel,-Blautopf-Taucher-kommt-ums-Leben-_arid,931232.html|archive-date=26 July 2013|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=http://www.showcaves.com/english/de/springs/Blautopf.html|title=Springs of Germany: Blautopf|date=27 December 2011|publisher=Jochen Duckeck|access-date=26 July 2013}}

Hasenmayer developed a controversial theory on the subject of karst formation in Southern Germany. According to this theory, the Blauhöhle was formed between 25 million and 100 million years ago, much earlier than is currently believed. Therefore, the Blauhöhle could not drain to the original Danube Valley, today the Blau, and must have drained much farther south. Since these caves are deep enough to contain large quantities of thermal water, this could lead to the recovery of geothermal energy which could be used to solve energy problems in Southern Germany. As an indication of the cave's age, Hasenmayer claimed that underwater stalactites at the back of the cave were several million years old, but scientific investigation of a drip stone yielded an age of well under 10,000 years.{{Citation needed|date=July 2013}} Hasenmayer's theory was published in 1986,{{cite book|title=Blaubeuren. Die Entwicklung einer Siedlung in Südwestdeutschland|trans-title=Blaubueren. The development of a settlement in Southwestern Germany|editor1-last=Decker-Hauff|editor1-first=Hansmartin|editor2-last=Eberl|editor2-first=Immo|publisher=Thorbecke|location=Sigmaringen|year=1986|pages=19–50|language=de|isbn=3-7995-4082-2}} but many scientists are sceptical of his claim.

Hasenmayer has been awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.{{cite journal|url=http://rehatreff.de/archiv/doc_download/5-jochen-hasenmayer-rehatreff-22007|last=Pohl|first=Werner|title=Die wahren Abenteuer finden nicht in den Beinen statt, sondern im Kopf|trans-title=True adventures will not be found in the legs, but in the head|journal=RehaTreff|issue=2|language=de|publisher=AWS Medienverlag|location=Ettlingen|year=2007|pages=27–30|format=PDF|access-date=26 July 2013}}{{Dead link|date=November 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

Hasenmayer met his life partner Gaby Barth at a clinic during his rehabilitation from his decompression accident. They live in Birkenfeld, near Pforzheim.{{Citation needed|date=July 2013}}

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{{Commons category|Jochen Hasenmayer}}

• {{cite web|url=https://soundcloud.com/murtomaa/hasenmayer|title=Jochen Hasenmayer - A story of a cave diving legend|author=Murtomaa|publisher=SoundCloud|access-date=26 July 2013}}

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Category:1941 births

Category:Living people

Category:Cave diving explorers

Category:German scientists with disabilities

Category:People from Pforzheim

Category:People with paraplegia

Category:Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany

Category:Speleologists

Category:Pioneering technical divers