BC Cave Divers?

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Amphibious

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I'm a Fish!
Looking for Information on Cave diving in British Columbia. I'm taking my Cavern/Intro to Cave course next fall and would like to know what's in my area (Prince George). Hunting for new ones at the moment - working out logistics on some sites to explore for possible new cave/caverns.

if anyone interested in doing some limited exploration....

Willer
 
There are caves all over the area. The problem is that they are all very advanced cave dives. Cold water, no viz, etc... I would advise you to get very adept at dealing with poor conditions prior to much cave diving there. Also, it's mostly sumps, so you have to use alternative methods. Duncan Price is a UK sidemount diver. He dives similar conditions to what you are likely to see there. I entered some caves just north of you on POW island and Revillagigedo islands. They were very nasty. Even the worst viz in Florida caves is far better than the best that you are likely to see.
All that aside, the cave diving is great if you don't mind diving Braille!
Cheers and safe diving.
 
Dang! And when I read this thread title, I thought someone was trolling about wearing a jacket style BC to cave dive...
 
sorry bud - not another weekend warrior in a Jacket. :whack:

I'll looking to FIND caves - not dive them yet. Not till I've got a fair bit of training under my belt.

NorthernWestern British Columbia has a great deal of Karstic topography, but almost no Cave divers. I'm here for at least 5 more years with a double Major (one is Geomorphology - got me interested in the cave side of things...)

I'm not your typical numbnuts getting in over his head. I've got 8yrs of diving on 3 continents. Spent 16yrs in Saudi Arabia, been to the red sea 6 times...Over 300 dives in the book ( I hate logging, never do), almost 100 of those were solo and 18 sidemounting. I've been in Blackwater, Coldwater, dove in lots rapids (and one eddy in my Favorite Class IV).....

so yeah. I want to get in a cave, BAD, but I'll wait till I have the training. no harm in doing some research while I wait...

Willer
 
LOL, My wife and I were given an introduction to Kentucky caves and sumps a couple of months ago. There is lots of work to do there. There are many unmapped caves with significant portions under water. I'm afraid though that it will be a while before we're much help to the guys doing the work. It is an education though.

We carried our gear down what I will call a mountain. We swam our gear accross Lake Cumberland then used ropes to get our gear up what I will call another mountain. There at the base of a cliff was the puddle that we were told was where we were diving. There was about 400 ft of line already in there and the plan was to add some line and then survey on the way out. We came to a spot where the line disapeared into a crack. There was a way around but it was small and silty so we turned. We stoped to check out a lead and as soon as I touched a rock to tie off (not that there is much to tie to) it instantly silted the place out. Keep in mind that the vis was good for a Kentucky sump otherwise it wouldn't have mattered. At this point it was more than clear that we weren't in Florida or even Missouri. We decided that we had learned enough about Kentucky sump diving for the day and left. We'll go back but the rest of the story made it clear that we need to learn more about caving in addition to cave diving.
 
I'm reading this one with interest. Yes there are caves in your neck of the woods, some great ones, typical of Canadian Rockies caves. Mostly tight, cold and hard core! I'm aware of very few cave dives, in the true sense of the word, in Western Canada.

Like Divesherpa has stated, you'll only find muddy sumps and not cave dives. Most of the ones I know about (and I've done a few of them myself) have only been done as a means to push the known cave system. I've been caving in the Rockies for over 20 years and diving even longer (you do the math) and I've never known anyone who wanted to cave diving in the Rockies. Our caving community has several trained cave divers, but we do our cave diving much further south. The sumps, well ...... like I said, they're cold, muddy and tight!
 
Exactly what I expected.....

Exactly What I'm Looking for!

really interests me!

Willer
 
Collin, been to Fang yet? Flooded after you get in to a certain point, MOE placed die into the water in there many years back and found it in the Fraser within hours suggesting that the karst topography of the Fang region possibly has an underground connection to a spot on the Fraser. BTW, my Bsc is in Geomorph, Kevin Hall is my supervisor... Small world man!
 
Fang? nope - never even heard of it, but I'm new here anyways.......

See we should get together for that pint! Talk shop et all....

Kegger this friday, the station's putting one on, more then welcome to join in....

Willer
 
Well Mexman, since you were one of the first to explore and map in Fang, what do you think of the diving prospects??

Now, since you're in the area, what about CTTE, you only have an entrance pitch of 300+ m. Hmmm that's hard core.

I think the best potential is in the Crowsnest pass.

If your in Calgary on the 1st or 3rd Wednesday and you want to talk caving, drop by the Hop and Brew Pub after 9:00.

Safe caving and diving

Dennis
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/
http://cavediveflorida.com/Rum_House.htm

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