Arctomys Cave is a

cave A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as sea ...

in Trio Mountain above the Moose River Valley in

Mount Robson Provincial Park Mount Robson Provincial Park is a provincial park in the Canadian Rockies with an area of 2,249 km². The park is located entirely within British Columbia, bordering Jasper National Park in Alberta. The B.C. legislature created the park in 19 ...

in the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

. Arctomys Cave has 3496 metres of surveyed passages and has a maximum depth of .

Exploration

Arctomys Cave was discovered in 1911, and first reported in the ''

Canadian Alpine Journal The ''Canadian Alpine Journal'' is the yearly magazine of the Alpine Club of Canada. It serves as a worldwide journal of record for achievements in climbing, mountaineering, ski mountaineering, and exploration of mountains. The magazine is headqua ...

'' in 1912 by mountaineer A.O. Wheeler who, accompanied by

Conrad Kain Conrad Kain (10 August 1883, Nasswald – 2 February 1934, Cranbrook, British Columbia) was an Austrian mountain guide who guided extensively in Europe, Canada, and New Zealand, and was responsible for the first ascents of more than 60 routes in ...

Byron HarmonGeorge Kinney
an
'Curly' Phillips
had descended to a waterfall at a depth of about 80 metres, stating that: "Beyond that the going is wet and the exploration was not carried further, as there was no change in the character of the subterranean shaft." There is no record of subsequent visitation until 1971 - 1973 when cavers from the McMaster University Climbing and Caving Club, Guelph University Caving Club, Alberta Speleological Society and some visiting British cavers explored and surveyed the cave to its maximum depth of -522 metres. Passages above the entrance were surveyed by British and Canadian cavers in 1983 resulting in the current vertical range of 536 metres. Arctomys Cave was the deepest known cave in Canada for many years, until surpassed by Bisaro Anima in 2017 with its depth of .

Characteristics

Arctomys Cave is formed in the steeply-dipping Mural Formation limestone of the

Early Cambrian The Cambrian Period ( ; sometimes symbolized Ꞓ) was the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, and of the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cambrian lasted 53.4 million years from the end of the preceding Ediacaran Period 538.8 million years ago ( ...

Gog Group The Gog Group is a stratigraphic unit in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. It is present in the western main ranges of the Canadian Rockies in Alberta and British Columbia, and in the Cariboo Mountains and in the central Purcell Mountains in ...

. The top half of the cave (The Endless Climb) descends relatively steeply, but at a depth of about 400 metres the cave becomes more horizontal with several pools, and ends at a

sump A sump is a low space that collects often undesirable liquids such as water or chemicals. A sump can also be an infiltration basin used to manage surface runoff water and recharge underground aquifers. Sump can also refer to an area in a cave ...

. Despite its great depth, the cave includes only five pitches up to 15m deep. Although most of the cave is undecorated, the Straw Gallery has

flowstone Flowstones are sheetlike deposits of calcite or other carbonate minerals, formed where water flows down the walls or along the floors of a cave. They are typically found in "solution caves", in limestone, where they are the most common speleothe ...

and relatively long

soda straw A soda straw (or simply straw) is a speleothem in the form of a hollow mineral cylindrical tube. They are also known as tubular stalactites. Soda straws grow in places where water leaches slowly through cracks in rock, such as on the roofs of ca ...

Accident in 1991

Arctomys Cave is the site of Canada's most extensive cave rescue attempt. On October 17, 1991, Rick Blak, an experienced caver and park ranger at Mount Robson Provincial Park, was struck and killed by a falling boulder deep in the cave. 110 people were involved in the complex recovery of his body.

References

* ''Cave Exploration In Canada'' 1976 P. Thompson ed. page 112-120 * ''

The Canadian Caver ''The Canadian Caver'' is a semiannual publication that documents the activities of Canadian cavers exploring caves within Canada and overseas. ''The Canadian Caver'' was created by members of the McMaster University Climbing and Caving Club from ...

'' Nos 4/2, 5/2, 9/2, 16/1 * ''

'' Vol, 23 #2 Fall/Winter 1991 Caves of British Columbia Robson Valley Canadian Rockies Limestone caves Mount Robson Provincial Park {{BritishColumbia-geo-stub

Exploration

Characteristics

Accident in 1991

See also

References