Bisaro but Beautiful - September 20-22nd 2013

Team members: Chas Yonge, Colin Massey, Katie Graham, and Nicholaus Vieira

A return to push the first dry passage found beyond the sump before the winter snows occurred due to me not being able to afford the helicopter trip to explore a new exiting cave in the Fernie area that club members have been working on. So with a few other members we returned to the area to push the dry passage, resurvey the main cave to give us tie in points for our continued exploration and to recce the upper Karst area above the cave, with hopes of finding a dry upper entrance to the system.

Chas on some of the limestone pavement in the upper karst area.

We arrived late in the evening with only one incident of some Fernie hoodlums driving by and steeling my case of beer I had just bought, in the liquor store parking lot! Thanks a lot, steeling beer from a homeless guy..  Anyway back to the adventures! We spent the night socialising around a fire where Colin happened to mention that a hiker was mauled by a Grizzly in the area a week back, great I was going to sleep well (I was the only one not sleeping in a vehicle).

Camp down at the parking area.

Early the next morning we packed the kit to the cave, after breakfast. On arriving to the sump, beyond the massive entrance, we were greeted with a surprise that was not expected. The sump which is traditionally crystal clear, was mud brown, visibility was down to a few centimetres. What the ????

Choked sink holes draining the upper karst indicating a significant drainage system (cave system).

So not expecting this Katie and I opted not to dive but to join Chas and Colin in the recci of the upper Karst area up to Trinity Mountain. We spent the day scouring the area examining the numerous pits, and other karst features. Unfortunately from all of the pits etc that we looked at only 2-20m long caves were found. Everything else either pinched out or was choked with debris. We made our way back to camp by night fall. With a warm fire we ate our dinner and had a few drinks before heading to our sleeping bags for the night.

More blind entrances. Either too tight or choked with debris (mud and rocks).

Early the next morning we were up at the sumps, Katie and I were to dive the sump, and push the dry passages, Chas and Colin were to re-survey the cave so we could "tye in" with the new surveyed passages in the sump and beyond. We entered the mud water through the second sump, with myself going first. I found the dive line and tied in with my line, and continued through the murk until I had found the surface. At which point I waited in the water spreading myself across the passage for Katie. A few tugs on the line, then nothing, a minute past, a few more tugs, then nothing...     Finally a few more tugs then again, nothing. By this time it had been awhile, so I put my reg back in my mouth and returned through the sump, sweeping as I went. When I surfaced Katie was on the bank. She had some buoyancy issues, and decided to come back out. We called the dive, dekitted and packed our kit just in time as Chas and Colin finished the survey, discovering 2 dry leads! With full bags we returned to the vehicles and drove home. A somewhat successful trip.

The entrance of one of the 20m long caves discovered (truncated). Old calcite deposits were located inside of them.

More information collected, leads added to the list, and plenty of reasons to go back.

The "new" map of the dry cave as of September 2013.