I'm thinking about hiking in next weekend to these caves around Fang Mountain. Supposedly they're the third biggest caves in Canada. It's a trek though, involving climbing over a mountain and camping... Camping in cold weather enough I'll probably have to get my girlfriend to ship up my winter sleeping bag. Thoughts? Worth going?
Anything in the great outdoors is worth going. I visited some limestone caves here in Thailand last year. We had a 2 hour bamboo raft journey through the cave. It was amazing. There were some 4000 year old coffins inside. The highlight was at sunset when hundreds of thousands of bats streamed out of the mouth of the cave at the same time as thousands of birds were flying in to roost for the night. Awesome.
If you have the skills I don't see why not. It looks like an incredible experience from what I have seen on TV.
I am insanely jealous of you. You live in Thailand right? Or you were there for a long time. Visiting SE Asia is my dream. I saw Malaysia for 3 days once and that alone blew me away.
it does sound like a lot of fun, i'd definitely go given the opportunity. is there a difference between walking through a cave and spelunking?
It's a decision whether or not to pack up harness and ropes. They weigh lots. I do a lot of climbing, but I don't really know shit about cave safety. Apparently I exaggerated the cave. I just looked it up: "The park is situated in the Hart Ranges of the Canadian Rockies. This park protects one of the most remarkable caves, the nationally significant Fang Cave complex, which includes the ninth longest cave in Canada. Other caves include the Tooth Decave and Window on the West. The park also provides a scenic, easily accessible destination for backcountry recreation. It includes picturesque alpine bowls, three small alpine lakes, and distinctive limestone pinnacles and ridges. Two separate trails, the Fang Trail and Torpy Trail provide access to small alpine basins, with a connection over Fang Mountain. The Torpy Trail continues outside the park to Torpy Mountain."
i'm sure there's someone that works there or something that you could ask what should be brought. i would absolutely take the opportunity though. i've been in several caves before, but only small caves or guided tours through big ones, which pretty much ruins the fun of it. but i would still go back without hesitation if the opportunity came up.
I probably will go. I have a lot of spare time with the girlfriend a couple of hundred kilometres away. Backpacking is always a good time, anyway. We hiked into and camped at the base of Mt. Robson last weekend and it was pretty rad. It's where the photo in my sig is from.
After reading this, I can see absolutely no reason to go. I have visited many caves and complexes but have only been spelunking once. It feels quite scary going into places where you cannot walk back out of.
I probably would too. Where are you thinking of going next? I really can't wait to go on my next big trip but it will be a long time coming.
No idea really. At the moment it's a toss-up between China and Indonesia but I also wanna go back to India. I will be here until next April at least.
