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Spelunking
A couple of weeks ago ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
corivax mentioned a lava tube (Ape Cave) on Mt. St. Helens that could be explored. After a bit of planning and a few delays, we went down with shadowblue, xmurf and adularia.
It is, in fact, a tube. The longest in this hemisphere, even. The height and width vary, but this is pretty representative. It tends to be taller than it is wide, because the flow of lava slowly ate into the existing bedrock. There were several different flows, leaving a pronounced figure-eight shape in many places.
The cave is divided into two section. The lower section is 3/4 of a mile and pretty much a flat walking surface. It was neat, but ended up just being a very dark, underground hike. At the end it squeezes into nothing and disappears.
The upper section is 1.5 miles long and is very different. Here the roof had largely collapsed in many places, leaving large piles of wet, slippery boulders to climb over.
At one point we knew the cave narrowed into a frozen 'lavafall'. We kept wondering if every little constriction was it, until we came to it. Then there wasn't any doubt.
Climbing it was a real effort. Up until that point it had all been a fun little jaunt, but having to make a not-completely-safe little freeclimb made everything kind of click into place -- this was actual spelunking. Even though it was a very public and wellknown cave, this was real.
The piles of boulders often got tall enough that you were brushing the ceiling of the cave. I now understand why helmets are recommended even without a falling rock hazard.
There was another major blockage, this one from a rather large boulder in a constricted area.
Beyond that the cave split into a couple different, very narrow passages due to a major cavein. A group went on ahead to scout things out while the rest of us made it over the boulder. We had a pair of FRS radios with us, which was nice. It was rather creepy being the last one over the boulder, knowing just how isolated I was. The thought of how to deal with an emergency was never far from my mind -- even just a sprained ankle would have been a fairly serious issue, and certainly could have happened easily enough.
The exit! It's hard to believe this is an official attraction. Someday someone is going to get seriously hurt and it will be closed off. I'm glad we went through while it was open.
The ladder leads up into a natural opening, where we were greeted by some amazingly bright stars. We just sat there for 10 minutes or so, enjoying the setting. It was a very hard trek, and we were all pretty tired. (And had 4 hours of driving ahead of us.) It was a real sense of accomplishment and adventure, and most of us are looking to do some more caving now. Luckily Vancouver Island, having a completely different geological history than the rest of the area, is riddled with limestone caves. I had already been thinking I should do some more climbing, and this adds a much more interesting context for that. Plus, lots of very sexy equipment to be collected.
And, if you'll indulge me with a small bit of complete egotism, here is one of the best pictures of me ever, on the exit ladder:
corivax mentioned a lava tube (Ape Cave) on Mt. St. Helens that could be explored. After a bit of planning and a few delays, we went down with shadowblue, xmurf and adularia.It is, in fact, a tube. The longest in this hemisphere, even. The height and width vary, but this is pretty representative. It tends to be taller than it is wide, because the flow of lava slowly ate into the existing bedrock. There were several different flows, leaving a pronounced figure-eight shape in many places.
The cave is divided into two section. The lower section is 3/4 of a mile and pretty much a flat walking surface. It was neat, but ended up just being a very dark, underground hike. At the end it squeezes into nothing and disappears.
The upper section is 1.5 miles long and is very different. Here the roof had largely collapsed in many places, leaving large piles of wet, slippery boulders to climb over.
At one point we knew the cave narrowed into a frozen 'lavafall'. We kept wondering if every little constriction was it, until we came to it. Then there wasn't any doubt.
Climbing it was a real effort. Up until that point it had all been a fun little jaunt, but having to make a not-completely-safe little freeclimb made everything kind of click into place -- this was actual spelunking. Even though it was a very public and wellknown cave, this was real.
The piles of boulders often got tall enough that you were brushing the ceiling of the cave. I now understand why helmets are recommended even without a falling rock hazard.
There was another major blockage, this one from a rather large boulder in a constricted area.
Beyond that the cave split into a couple different, very narrow passages due to a major cavein. A group went on ahead to scout things out while the rest of us made it over the boulder. We had a pair of FRS radios with us, which was nice. It was rather creepy being the last one over the boulder, knowing just how isolated I was. The thought of how to deal with an emergency was never far from my mind -- even just a sprained ankle would have been a fairly serious issue, and certainly could have happened easily enough.
The exit! It's hard to believe this is an official attraction. Someday someone is going to get seriously hurt and it will be closed off. I'm glad we went through while it was open.
The ladder leads up into a natural opening, where we were greeted by some amazingly bright stars. We just sat there for 10 minutes or so, enjoying the setting. It was a very hard trek, and we were all pretty tired. (And had 4 hours of driving ahead of us.) It was a real sense of accomplishment and adventure, and most of us are looking to do some more caving now. Luckily Vancouver Island, having a completely different geological history than the rest of the area, is riddled with limestone caves. I had already been thinking I should do some more climbing, and this adds a much more interesting context for that. Plus, lots of very sexy equipment to be collected.
And, if you'll indulge me with a small bit of complete egotism, here is one of the best pictures of me ever, on the exit ladder:
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