biffa
New member
Some pics from the recent trip to Castleguard. Clicking on them will take you to the full set on Flickr. Castelguard is in the Banff national park in the Canadian rockies. Martin Groves organised the trip so that he was able to dive the Boon's Blunder sump. Big thanks to Beast Products, 4th Element and the Welsh Sports Council for sponsorship :hug:
First thing is to get to Canada in the middle of the BA strike, buy some food for the week at the cave and then take over some expat cavers drive (cheers Chas) to pack the kit
and seven days worth of pure flavour
This turned out to be more of a challenge than it looked seeing as I'd had explosive D&V the night before and had to leave my shopping basket to be violently ill in the supermarket toilet mid shop. At least I was fortunate enough to get the bug before getting to the cave (5 or 6 others were less fortunate and blamed me!)
We then drove up the Icefields Parkway
and stayed the night at the Rampart Creek hostel. First light saw me feeling somewhat better and us at the Big Bend layby and crossing the river
to meet the snowmobiles that the national park had provided to take our sledges some of the way (to the base of the moraine in fact)
Up through the trees and we join the valley leading up to the Saskatchewan glacier
and looking back down the valley from the glacier
After about 5 miles from the Big Bend we reached the base of the moraine which is quite steep and is covered in deep soft snow. We decided to haul the sledges (most of us anyhow)
but soon had a reasonably efficient system for hoisting sledges up
We then set off across the Castleguard meadows
Nice weather and brilliant views
Until, about 9 hours after having left the car we arrived here, Castleguard Cave
We camped in the entrance (which is a resurgence in the summer)
The following underground shots were taken on some of the carries to the sump and a tourist trip. Martin with a Beast of a bag just leaving the ice crawls
Me in the Ice Crawl
Boon's sump (dive base)
Ice formations in Boon's Blunder
and
The passage between Boon's Junction and the first pool
Ian.p heading through the first pool in his only set of boots
More Ice formations between the Ice Crawls and Boon's Junction
After six days at the cave some of us left, with the rest following a day later. Again brilliant weather on the ski out
Myself and Jules weren't quite satisfied with the level of misery though, so decided to snow hole on the edge of the Saskatchewan glacier and ski up onto the Columbia ice field the next morning. Weather was really miserable on the ice field so no photos but this was home for the night (with the upper glacier/ice field visible behind)
First thing is to get to Canada in the middle of the BA strike, buy some food for the week at the cave and then take over some expat cavers drive (cheers Chas) to pack the kit
and seven days worth of pure flavour
This turned out to be more of a challenge than it looked seeing as I'd had explosive D&V the night before and had to leave my shopping basket to be violently ill in the supermarket toilet mid shop. At least I was fortunate enough to get the bug before getting to the cave (5 or 6 others were less fortunate and blamed me!)
We then drove up the Icefields Parkway
and stayed the night at the Rampart Creek hostel. First light saw me feeling somewhat better and us at the Big Bend layby and crossing the river
to meet the snowmobiles that the national park had provided to take our sledges some of the way (to the base of the moraine in fact)
Up through the trees and we join the valley leading up to the Saskatchewan glacier
and looking back down the valley from the glacier
After about 5 miles from the Big Bend we reached the base of the moraine which is quite steep and is covered in deep soft snow. We decided to haul the sledges (most of us anyhow)
but soon had a reasonably efficient system for hoisting sledges up
We then set off across the Castleguard meadows
Nice weather and brilliant views
Until, about 9 hours after having left the car we arrived here, Castleguard Cave
We camped in the entrance (which is a resurgence in the summer)
The following underground shots were taken on some of the carries to the sump and a tourist trip. Martin with a Beast of a bag just leaving the ice crawls
Me in the Ice Crawl
Boon's sump (dive base)
Ice formations in Boon's Blunder
and
The passage between Boon's Junction and the first pool
Ian.p heading through the first pool in his only set of boots
More Ice formations between the Ice Crawls and Boon's Junction
After six days at the cave some of us left, with the rest following a day later. Again brilliant weather on the ski out
Myself and Jules weren't quite satisfied with the level of misery though, so decided to snow hole on the edge of the Saskatchewan glacier and ski up onto the Columbia ice field the next morning. Weather was really miserable on the ice field so no photos but this was home for the night (with the upper glacier/ice field visible behind)
