BENEATH THE ISLAND

Tim English (r), Sara Caiger, Molly Blais, Myles Belobaba, Jesse Invik, Lori Nichols, Erin Bartlett, Peter Curtis, Kathleen Collins, Oscar Leishman, Amanda Cavanaugh, Nathan Comstock

The following is the account of 8 trips to Radil Cave between Sept 20 2020 – Sept 29 2023. There were high hopes that this cave would be continued this year but unfortunately no such luck. We would love some project cavers to join on with our efforts next year on this booming lead.

Back in 2020 while at home on our computers we found an interesting feature our lidar maps quite a ways south of the karst we have been working on mapping. A trip up with my friend Sara and we confirmed that this is a cave entrance in a very small patch of limestone. Unfortunately several boulders were blocking the way in.

A week or so later I made it back up to see if it goes with my friend Molly. We climbed in, moved the boulders out of the way, and worked our way down to another boulder choke that was easily dismantled. I squeezed through into a steep 45° sloping, slimy, smooth passage which I purposely slid down, about 50 m, before deciding this is a big project and we need more cavers and a return trip is in order. We named this cave Radil Cave (lidar backwards)

The following trip in the area we had finally convinced some other cavers to come to take a look with us. Before entering we decided to go check to see if it was even still a option. At first glance we spotted a impressive bull elk standing at the entrance. This reminded us of the trip report from the first report on the exploration of Upper Elk Cave where they had encountered a herd of elk at the location. The entrance had actually opened up a bit since first look and seemed pretty doable.

The next day we suited up and slid through the squeeze while running a disto. To our surprise at the bottom of the slide the passage opened up into the very large walking passage with endless amounts of mud. As we pushed on it only kept getting bigger. We were still following a active stream at this point that must be coming from the marsh at the entrance. We passed by some sort of den, a 2m x 2m pile of digested seeds and such. If it were somewhere else id say porcupine but unsure what it could be in this area . We keep following the stream to a absolutely massive room about 100m long 15 m wide and 15m tall. There was a huge mud wall about 4m high blocking our way onward mid room though. We tried and tried but could not make it up this wall. We decided to call it a day here.

The following day we could not resist a return trip. We crawled in early and started the survey back up at the wall where we left off. After lassoing some mud piles off the top we lowered the climb substantially . It then took about 45 min of digging in steps and climbing a 4 m vertical pitch of mud to get over. It took one final leap of faith to make it over as we had no clue what could be on the other side. To our relief we found it was more massive walking passage but at the 250 m mark there was a substantial rope drop that needed bolts and more ropes.

On the next visit we managed to intrigue Erin and Peter enough for them to join , which was a huge benefit. We quickly made our way down to the pitch that had stopped us on the last trip. Erin bolted the drop casually as if it were daily event for her.

Peter went down the drop first then yells back “Holy It’s Massive!” with excitement in his voice. He quickly disappeared out of sight like a kid in a candy shop. When he returned to confirm that it does in fact keep going.

The drop ended up being 30m but 20m of that is a steep, slippery mud slide leading to a 10m freehang.The room was roughly 20 m high 20 m wide and 50 m long made up of interesting red limestone with a strong slab of basalt for the ceiling, which was consistent throughout the entire cave. The floor was made up a deep clay like mud.That is very difficult to get any footing in and had many impressive mud stals and craters.

Erin and Peter pushed ahead rigging a small climb and another short rope drop to continue the exploration. Lori and I followed while continuing the survey.

Halfway through the room, I hear Lori yell for Help as she had been half swallowed by a bubbling mud hole we named The Stewpot. We managed to help her struggle out before she was completely swallowed.

We wrapped up survey for the day at the 300 m point and pushed our way on to catch up with peter and Erin. They informed us the cave is nowhere near done. Erin pushed a series of crawlways while we admired one of the biggest rooms in a cave I have ever seen. It looks like it will require another trip to rig and explore this beast of a cave.

The long hall out of the cave was just as challenging as we remembered.

Lori (r)

“Tim , Jesse  and Lori  retuned to Radil on September 17, 2023 to continue survey. Amanda and Nathan accompanied them.

All made our way through the low room with unstable ceiling through the narrow entrance to the long slide down to the first big room and onwards.  At the big muddy drop, Amanda and Nathan turned and exited while Jesse stayed at the top of the drop. Tim and Lori continued down the pitch.

Lori placed a tarp under part of the rope, then spent some time clearing mud and rocks from the bottom half of the drop in the hopes that the ascent would be easier. A rope was left to re-rig the next drop after the first large drop. Tim went to where exploration had stopped last time- a point where there was both a drop into a big room and another climbable small drop.  Tim and Lori explored the small drop which was a tunnel that split into two passages. One passage ended. The other passage came to a squeeze that Tim dug out a bit to find another large room. Due to time, Tim and Lori headed back.

Ascending the large drop was easier as we knew what we were in for, but removing mud seemingly did not help all that much. Tim and Lori rejoined Jesse and left the cave after approximately 4 hours underground.”

Peter (r) 

Radil Cave by Peter Curtis from the Winter 2023/2024 issue of The BC Caver

“What a cave..if mud was money, we’d all be rich. No other cave can beat this one for mud, muck, mire, and goo. Tim has visited it several times, we others have been there once or twice. Why keep returning; are we suckers for punishment? Maybe, but this cave is unique in many ways.
Tim has been doing the surveying, and so far the thing is around 400m long, and the big passage is still going. Today our plan, of course, is to survey and push. The entrance is small, and the following 50-60m aren’t much bigger. There are a few not-too-bad squeezes, but don’t touch the ceiling, or chunks of it will end up on the floor after ricocheting off you; yup, it’s a bit sketchy and fragmented. Not a good place to be during an earthquake. We hold our breaths. The passage takes a small stream, and angles down until it opens up into large walking passage, leading to the first drop. The stream is now out of sight, flowing below us in a hidden passage someplace. The mud is now making itself present, but nothing compared with what’s ahead. After dropping this 15 – 20m pitch, we’re now standing in a big room with a plethora of mud species. Everywhere. It’s quite thick on the floor, with beautiful mud formations made from water dripping from above. We wallow through it to a 5m upclimb; it’s either rock or mud…. it’s hard to tell. We manage to rig the upclimb, also the downclimb on the other side and carry on, through mud. Here the passage is still spacious and is generally more horizontal, but undulating up and down and over mud projections, mud slopes, and mud covered rocks. A huge chamber looms ahead, and we’re luckily find enough some clean rock to place bolts for a 10m rap into it’s bottom. It must be 25m or more in diameter. Covering the floor is a thick deposit of 2-3 meters of you guessed it… mud. Firm and dry, but extremely slippery, it’s a light grey, almost white in color, actually more like a clay. It has crevasses in it obviously from mud creep downslope; some of them more than 2m deep. A mud glacier. Bizarre. We scramble around on it, slip sliding on it’s slopes and make jokes about bringing ice axes and crampons next trip. The ceiling is an orange colored volcanic rock, and is as flat as the ceiling in your house, only angled at 20 deg. or so, and stretches out forever. It is the contact zone with the Ls, which has been dissolved away. This main passage shows no sign of water, but we know the stream is hidden below us. Erin disappears into a passage ahead, while Peter tries in vain to climb a slimy slope to glory above. Erin reports back, saying she got to the stream, but didn’t want to drop it without a rope. Meanwhile, Oscar and Kat are also stumbling around on the mud trying to look as nonchalant as possible.
Any movement in this cave is slow, on rope or otherwise, and by now we are thinking of splitting the scene. Of course the ropes are well greased, our jammers are slipping, and we have each gained 10 pounds in mud, so it’s not all sunshine and butterflies climbing out. Crawling back up the entrance series is also tedious work. Let’s just say the small passage with awkward corners certainly makes for “sporting” caving. The older team members won’t be running any marathons tomorrow. Our trip was about 6 hr. Can’t wait to get back to it….”

I want to thank everyone involved with this massive project for the immense work you put into extending this unique and beautiful cave.