Gargantua Cave August 30, 2014

I had wanted to visit these caves many times before.  My neighbor has gone many times and he invited me and my son to come along with his two kids and another friend.  I had heard horror stories of people getting stuck in the birth canal and I though I might be a little to big to fit as well.  I had an Uncle who got stuck for many hours in the cave so it was something I kind of worried about till I actually got through.  So my son and I left early saturday morning (like 3am) and drove up to the Crownest Pass area where this cave is located.  There are two general ways to access the cave.  Either the Alberta side or the B.C. side.  My neighbor prefers the B.C. side because once you exit the cave you come down the mountain instead of having to regain the ridge and then descend on the Alberta side.  A 4x4 is highly recommended on both sides with the eventual usage of a quad.  I had borrowed my father in law's quad and so we headed as far as we could with the 4x4 then took the quad as far as it would go as well.  It was a great hike.  We got a little rain on the way up and even had a little sleet fall on us.  Once in the caves we had a great time and everything went pretty smoothly.  There are 5 different rappels of varying heights in the cave and it was about 5 hours we were in the caves.  There were quite a few people in the cave that day and we were the last to get through.  We then descended and got back on the highway at about 11:00 pm.  By the time we got home it was like 2 am.  Almost a full 24 hours of being awake.  This was my first time in and then in 2015 I did the caves same route again.

Climbing up from B.C.

A little stream along the way

That stream was in that little thicket of trees in the middle

The exit is a little lower than the center of the picture

Carter perched on a little rock with vista below

Looking back toward Alberta

Looking back to B.C. where we came

Neighbors shot

Father and Son Cave shot

  

Group Cave Shot

Inside cave and ready to go

Carter on the first rappel (longest)

Climbing through the rubble

This is a newer cave so there isn't much for stalactites and stalagmites

Father and Son Picture

More little Stalactites

Getting near the end (the flash from the camera would reflect off particles in the air, so it was difficult to get nice pictures

Cave getting smaller

This is after the birth canal climbing through what I call the worm hole.  It is crawling on hands and knees through this little tunnel and as you can see from this picture it wasn't very big if Carter has not much room

Panorama at Cave Exit

Panorama on the High Point (Alberta/B.C. border)

My Google Track I split in two to conserve battery on my phone

Google Track going up hike

Stats going up:

Total distance: 3.42 km (2.1 mi)

Total time: 3:19:37

Moving time: 2:36:54

Average speed: 1.03 km/h (0.6 mi/h)

Average moving speed: 1.31 km/h (0.8 mi/h)

Max speed: 4.02 km/h (2.5 mi/h)

Average pace: 58:23 min/km (93:58 min/mi)

Average moving pace: 45:54 min/km (73:52 min/mi)

Fastest pace: 14:56 min/km (24:01 min/mi)

Max elevation: 2474 m (8115 ft)

Min elevation: 1687 m (5533 ft)

Elevation gain: 2497 m (8192 ft)

Max grade: 52 %

Min grade: -31 %

Recorded: 8/30/2014 9:10 AM

Google Track going down hike

Stats going down:

Total distance: 7.49 km (4.7 mi)

Total time: 3:36:22

Moving time: 3:02:26

Average speed: 2.08 km/h (1.3 mi/h)

Average moving speed: 2.46 km/h (1.5 mi/h)

Max speed: 18.32 km/h (11.4 mi/h)

Average pace: 28:53 min/km (46:29 min/mi)

Average moving pace: 24:21 min/km (39:12 min/mi)

Fastest pace: 3:16 min/km (5:16 min/mi)

Max elevation: 2281 m (7485 ft)

Min elevation: 1509 m (4950 ft)

Elevation gain: 2329 m (7640 ft)

Max grade: 8 %

Min grade: -59 %

Recorded: 8/30/2014 6:35 PM