Vancouver Island cave

[nadwidny]

It would be interesting to get flow meters in there like they have done elsewhere.

 

[Nwcid]

Looking at the remote area how does something like this even become found?

From the little bit of cave stuff I have seen it looks ok but don't think it is for me, at least not for a long time. This video is very cool and interesting to me.

 

[nadwidny]

Looking at the remote area how does something like this even become found?

By a lot of tramping through bush by dedicated volunteers over a long period of time. I can't say enough about the efforts of the VICEG people that found this cave. The part that I was involved in (the diving and filming bit) was by far the easy part.

Kudos also to Peter Norris and RJack for the initial exploration. Although RJack should have listened to Peter about how to compose the first email to the rest of the team about the discovery of Wet Dream and the proposed change of venue for the 2012 expedition.

 

[Nwcid]

By a lot of tramping through bush by dedicated volunteers over a long period of time. I can't say enough about the efforts of the VICEG people that found this cave. The part that I was involved in (the diving and filming bit) was by far the easy part.

I understand the hard work part. I guess the question is more like did you expect to find a cave? Was it simply luck that one was there? Are there signs or clues that you would expect to find a cave? For me I dont see a large stream/small river and think "hey there could be a huge cave system under there somewhere".

 

[rjack321]

I understand the hard work part. I guess the question is more like did you expect to find a cave? Was it simply luck that one was there? Are there signs or clues that you would expect to find a cave? For me I dont see a large stream/small river and think "hey there could be a huge cave system under there somewhere".

Via locals and the rumor mill. The swallet was known about off and on for years. One of the fairly nearby locals came walking by (fishing) while we were diving and he'd known about the resurgence since he was a little boy, and he was in his late 50s. Larry and Joan, who are in their 70s and live in Port Hardy, were the first cavers we know of who decided to look for the resurgence and see if it was divable.

I was just at the VICEG general meeting this past weekend and apparently someone actually got into the swallet during a very dry year with minimal snowpack too. He went down about 30m back in the 1980s. You couldn't even see the swallet under the river in June. And it wasn't divable in August or September 2012 either.

There's a ton of karst on the north island. The Quatsino limestone is about 225 million years old and was part of the continental shelf of the former continent of Pangaea. Hence there are about 1500 caves on the island, most either intermittently flooded or with winter streams running through them. So cavers just go out looking and were generous enough to share this find with us diver folk.

It would be interesting to get flow meters in there like they have done elsewhere.

Yeah unfortunately I think they would need to overwinter. I'm not sure there'd be any way to access them 9-10 months out of the year.