Travel

Tom Pollack (in red circle) in the great cave of the Xe Bang Fai River in Laos

Jim Chester and John Pollack love caves. At the Western Canada Explorers Club conference on Saltspring Island, both had a chance to dazzle the audience with their exploits.

Chester, who was also in charge of coffee at the conference, is a rural mail carrier in Eureka, Montana. From this town of 488 mountain men and 529 full-bore women on the Canadian border, he is able to reach the ice caves and whitewater rivers that challenge his spirit.

His talk, entitled, "Deep, dark secrets in a wild place," explained how he and several weekend speleologists braved the alpine cave known as Virgil the Turtle's Great House. Because it is home to a raging stream, they had to enter in the winter when the water was frozen. First, by Jeep, then by pack mule, and finally, by foot, the explorers trod through the snow up 8,185 foot-high Turtlehead Mountain.

At the entrance to the cave, about 3/4 of the way to the summit, they donned their climbing gear and climbed down into the cave. This second deepest cave in the continental US has only two vertical drops in its 1,586 foot descent. Like mountain climbers going the wrong way, they made their way down icy columns and through huge rooms of limestone boulders.

Jim Chester, rugged mountain man and caver extraordinaire

Once at the bottom, they had to climb back up to the entrance. The challenge, said Chester, was not for the faint of heart. They had pushed their limits in the quest of discovery.

(The deepest cave in the US is the lava tube Kazumura Cave in Hawaii at 3,614 feet. The deepest cave in the continental US is Lachuguilla Cave in New Mexico at 1,604 feet.)

John Pollack's caving experience came while he was mapping for the US Army and the British Columbia Forest Service. Now retired, Pollack has taken on the challenge of mapping the kilometer-long cave on the Xe Bang Fai river in Laos. This river which flows from the Vietnam highlands into the Mekong River is the proposed site of a controversial hydroelectric dam to supply power to Northeast Thailand with funding from World Bank and Asian Development Bank funding. The dam will flood the cave, so time is of the essense.

Tom Pollack, explorer of Canada's deepest and longest caves

The floodplain contains cemeteries, ancient Buddhist temples, a royal hunting lodge, and historic limestone kilns. UN reports indicate possible evidence of prehistoric human occupation in the caves along the river.

Pollack said the trip to the upper Xe Bang Fai valley was as beautiful as it was difficult. Imposing limestone mountains lined the Vietnam border sheltering the few villages in which they stopped. Once at the river, they inflated their rafts, loaded their supplies, and floated into darkness. Inside they found huge room with large pools of virtually still water connected by whitewater rapids.

At the conclusion of the trip, it was determined that a full-fledged mapping expedition was needed. Pollack is organizing a return to Laos in 2007.

(Next week: Spirit bears and sponge reefs of Inland Passage)

Jim Chester (in red circle) in Virgil the Turtle's Great House Cave in Montana