RCGS FELLOWS LOCATE HUGE UNEXPLORED CAVE IN B.C.
A massive pit that was spotted in a remote high alpine valley in British Columbia’s Wells Gray Provincial Park earlier this year is the entrance to a previously unexplored cave of “national significance,” say two members of a Canadian team that helped conduct a preliminary exploration of the site in September 2018. The cave has a number of features that when combined indicate “a major new find in Western Canada, and promises a dramatic new chapter in the story of Canadian cave exploration,” say John Pollack, chair of the RCGS Expeditions Committee, and RCGS Fellow Chas Yonge in a document they co-wrote that summarizes the significance of the find. Pollack, who is an archeological surveyor, further explained the significance of the cave. “I’ve been in some of the biggest caves in the world, and this thing has an entrance that is truly immense, and not just by Canadian standards,” he said. “The opening is 100 metres long by 60 metres wide, and when you’re standing on the edge looking down into it, your line of sight is nearly 600 feet [183 metres]. You don’t get lines of sight of 600 feet in Canadian caves — it just doesn’t happen. The scale of this thing is just huge, and about as big as they come in Canada.” (In the image ABOVE, two members of the team are circled in red to give an idea of the size of the cave’s entrance.) Pollack said that the pit was spotted in April 2018 during a routine aerial caribou survey conducted by British Columbia’s Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, and that Bevan Ernst, a regional caribou biologist with the ministry, called it “Sarlaac Pit” (a reference to a subterranean creature that made a brief appearance in the film Return of the Jedi). Pollack added that the name Ernst gave the pit is unofficial and temporary. BC Parks is consulting with local First Nations to determine whether a traditional Indigenous name for the cave exists. The team that made preliminary exploration of the cave also included RCGS Fellow Catherine Hickson, helicopter pilot Ken Lancour, caver Lee Hollis and BC Parks area supervisor Tod Haughton. Read the full story at cangeo.ca/ma19/cave.