Subterranean (2023) Movie Script
[]
[gravel crunching]
[struggling]
[Franck Tuot] As soon as you
enter those caves,
it's a fridge that is on
a pretty low temperature.
You're counting your time
underground, basically,
because depending what you do,
you can't stay too, too long.
If you don't move,
you're going to freeze.
Most of people,
they are like, Oh, my God,
like, a cave, this is so creepy,
because you have never
experienced something like that.
[Derek Ford] What are the most
attractive features of caves?
Oh, of course the mystery.
Where does it go?
What's inside it?
Is there a treasure trove?
Scientific interest?
The adventure.
Most cavers got into the game
because of the adventure.
They wanted
to frighten themselves a bit,
especially when the walls
close in
and it's in the dark,
and you may lose your light.
Can I do it?
Am I brave enough?
What's down there?
What's around the next bend?
[Katie Graham] There's something
really magical
about being the first person
to ever put a footprint
into the ground,
or not knowing what's at
the bottom of that waterfall.
There's just something
that just grabs my curiosity.
[Bruce Kirkby]
There's clearly something
deep in the human psyche
about trying to see
what's around the next corner
to try and explore,
see what has never
been seen before.
It's like
this enticing possibility
that you will be the first one.
You'll find something new.
[wind whistling]
[helicopter whirring]
[Katie] I am born and raised
in Calgary,
near the mountains,
with a decent job
and access
to so much backcountry
that has not been explored.
My free time is almost 100%
like a full-time job is caving.
Hey, welcome to Bisaro.
[Katie] Bisaro Anima
is a cave near Fernie.
We found the cave in 2012...
All right.
...and the unique things
are the big drops
at the very beginning.
[Jeremy] It's super exciting
when you find a cave
and you're fairly confident
that it's the first time
anybody has explored it.
You're wondering if
is this the big cave
that we've been looking for?
Ten years later,
I can tell you
that this is a big one.
[Katie]
The person who finds the cave
gets to name the cave.
[Jeremy] We settled on the name
Bisaro Anima,
which has sort of taken on
a World War I
and World War II theme.
The mountain was named
for Private Torindo Bisaro,
who was Fernie's first war hero,
and Anima is Italian
for inner soul, spirit,
so it's kind of a name
that describes how we're
sort of searching
the inner soul of the mountain.
Everybody who's involved
is a volunteer.
They're volunteering
their money and their vacation
to come and participate
in the projects.
[Katie] When we went in 2017,
we knew we had
a really deep cave,
and then we came to water,
and we absolutely
were not expecting that.
We're kind of like, holy crap.
Like, what now?
After that trip,
we punch in the data
and realize
we were 0.5 metres short
of the deepest cave in Canada.
We were sitting at the pub
just like, Oh, my God,
now we just have to go back
and get a half a metre.
[laughing]
[]
[Franck] If you like
the wilderness around
and you like the quiet place,
we have the mountain
behind our house,
and the ocean in front,
and, yeah, it just gives us
access to a quite a backyard.
It's a beautiful forest,
but what is really
interesting for us
is what's under the roots.
It's just an infinite
playground for caves,
and we are only just
a few enjoying it, really.
We saw in the volcanic rock,
so all that rock,
we call it shit rock,
we don't like it,
because when you see that,
it probably means there is
no caves around,
but pretty soon,
we should we should start
to see some limestone.
All right, so,
limestone, limestone.
There it is.
When the rock is grey,
and then you start
to see the cracks,
and then sometimes
even you can see a hole,
and, I mean, could be
a cave entrance that exists.
Sometimes right along the road,
there is a cave entrance,
so that's what we are...
we are looking for,
and always chasing.
Dinah, won't you blow?
Dinah
Won't you blow?
Dinah, won't you
blow your horn?
Someone's in the kitchen
with Dinah
Someone's
in the kitchen, I know
Someone's in the kitchen
with Dinah
Strumming on the old banjo
Stick together. Stick together.
All right.
[thump]
Hoo!
Two or three seconds.
-20 metres, 30 metres?
-Yeah.
Rope free!
[calling]
[Franck] We've been looking for
the longest cave in Canada
for a while now.
We are trying
to break the record.
I guess I didn't know
when I started caving
why I would like caving.
I mean, I was attracted
by the potential
in terms of exploration,
and that was... that was
the main driver.
My wife, Anouk, and I,
when we came from France
13 years ago,
it was for work,
and I'd never been in a cave.
[Anouk] The way Franck
discovered caving
was we were just
going for hikes.
We found a few spots
that were saying,
Oh, it's a cave.
And then you try to ask people
if they know about that place,
and no one tells you.
[Franck] And they're like,
yeah, sure, there is caves.
Yeah, go.
Go find them if you can.
Oh, yeah. It's just here.
A small path.
They probably knew
we would fail to find them.
[Anouk]
So then you look closer,
and you finally finding
the entrance of the cave.
[Franck] This definitely piqued
the interest about caves.
As Franck is someone
very passionate,
he wanted to go
deeper and further,
and I think I was not
really ready for that.
Franck, I met him working
in the bush together,
Franck, I met him working
in the bush together,
doing layout.
He found a couple pits
in his block,
checked it out, and just it was
amazing, beautiful caves.
We had bike helmets on,
put little headlamps on,
and we'd go underground.
[Franck]
We finish work at 4:00 p.m.
and we take the car and just go
chasing those caves
all the time.
It was kind of the joke of,
yeah, we are
the bike helmet crew.
We were just new guys
who know nothing about it.
[Franck] So then we try
to talk to some people,
and "If you want to know
more about caves,
well, you should try
to talk to Peter."
[Conor]
We heard of him from town
that he was the local caver.
He's been caving
since the '70s.
They came knocking on my door,
actually,
and asking about caves.
[Conor] He said,
"Oh, you guys are cavers?"
It's like, "Oh, well,
yeah, we're kind of."
I thought, well,
if they're interested,
I'll take them down
to a couple of smaller caves
and see how they do.
[Franck] This will be
the exploration movie.
[Peter] We first went
into horizontal caves
where Franck and Conor
would climb around like monkeys.
[Franck] My hand is shaking.
Going in.
[Peter] Obviously, they wanted
to surge ahead
and see what's ahead.
[Conor] He taught us
just about the cave systems
up here
and how to cave.
[Peter] They got the hang of it
pretty quickly,
and then they bought
vertical gear,
they bought caving suits,
they bought caving gear,
and Bob's your uncle.
[Franck] Yeah, maybe halfway
down, halfway down,
you pull yourself
to the rebelay,
and you clip your cow's tail
just around...
around the beaten rope.
Yeah, maybe something
that works.
[Conor] Franck and I started
at the same time,
and he really took to it,
and he's just skyrocketed
with skill level.
[Peter] He's an excellent caver.
He organizes trips.
[Anouk] He was part
of the team, finally.
He was very happy about it.
[Peter] He's probably
the most driven caver
in our little group
on the north island here.
He's crazy for it.
[Franck] We always seek
to find new places,
so like we know
we want to go on Mars
or we want to go
back on the Moon,
and that's the appeal to me,
it's just to be the first
in that place.
[exhaling]
[calling] Hoo!
It's a tube. It's opening up.
Think we have to...
We have to dig
the fucking bank. So...
[Franck] It's a sport where
you don't have to be
like an astronaut
or any type
of special person
to discover new places.
[Franck] Oh, whoa, whoa...
[laughing]
[John] What's it doing?
What is it?
What does it look like?
[Franck] Anybody could
essentially do it,
and it's way more accessible
than going on the Moon.
In a world that is so mapped,
where, you know, Google Earth,
you can look at anything,
at any time,
anywhere on the planet,
really, the last frontiers
beyond space
and the deepest ocean
are caves.
It's hard for people to grasp
how little we understand
about what's there.
[Franck] Quickly after we got
accepted in the group,
we started to focus our efforts
on the ARGO system.
It's composed
of several caves,
and mainly we talk about
Glory 'Ole, Resonance, and Arch.
[Dennis] In the 40 years
that the exploration's
been going on
in the ARGO area,
the thought was always there
that it was always
a connected system.
In the last ten-plus years,
things have grown
closer and closer together
and becoming
more and more hopeful
that that real connection
will be there.
[Franck] The closest points
between Arch and Resonance,
there was a passage
that we've seen on one side,
we've seen on the other side.
It was so obvious
that on the other cave,
the tube was the same.
[Franck] I think
we could dig that shit.
I know.
-It's going straight.
-I know.
It's going straight into
a fucking tube over there.
That was a first step
into the longest cave in Canada.
There's two yardsticks
that cavers generally look at
when they're comparing caves,
and one is the depth,
and the other is the length,
and so the depth
is pretty simple.
That is the vertical distance
between the mouth
and the bottom of the cave.
The longest cave is a bit more
complicated
because popular conception
is that the cave
is kind of like a subway tunnel.
It's just this one line going
straight into the mountain,
but it's really more like
a set of roots.
It spreads out and there's
multiple passageways,
and the length of a cave
is the sum of all those fingers
and tendrils,
and if cavers
are able to connect
two adjoining cave systems,
it represents this massive
increase in length.
[Franck] Okay, I'm digging.
[Franck] It's a tube
filled with sediment,
and three years ago,
we start to dig in there.
Just another day at the office.
It's a tight office, though.
Why? Why are we doing this?
Unpaid forced work,
completely stupid.
If we had to call
how many hours,
it's... it's insane.
It's thousands of hours
between so many peoples
involved in that dig
over so many days.
Okay, bag is full.
[Conor] It reminded me of the
movie The Great Escape, almost.
Like, you're just digging
your way out of jail
with drag bags
and shovels and hoes
and moving spoils
like they were
going out of style.
-Bag!
-Okay.
-Bag!
-Okay.
[house music pumping]
[Conor] Franck's from Europe.
He loves the electronic music
and everything,
so whenever we dug,
to, you know, ease boredom,
we just pound electro music.
So every time you're doing it,
it's just... [imitates bass]
[laughing]
It's a classic Saturday.
[music pounding]
Okay.
It seems to be
a very slight, slight draft,
but...
We saw the connection
coming at one point.
We couldn't see each other,
but we start to hear each other.
[calling] Whoo! Whoo! Whoo!
That's good looking.
[Conor]
We had a smell connection,
because Rob was on the one side,
Franck and I were digging
on the other,
and there was
a meatball sub from Subway,
and you could just
smell that meatball
coming through the passages,
so then, of course,
we knew it... it connected.
Is that you, Peter?
That's Peter.
Holy fuck!
When you could see the hands
of the person on the other side
and start to see their shovels
and lights...
We got company, Dave!
Is this Arch Cave?
Not anymore!
This is a continuation
of Arch Cave.
I don't fucking believe it, man.
Welcome to the Resonance
entrance to the Arch Cave!
It's fucking hilarious.
[Franck] Well, that's it.
Like, we're are connected,
and this is one cave now.
Drinking at 3:00
in the afternoon, Franck.
Jesus fuck.
I mean, nine on a bottle,
I'm sure we'll be fine.
[Franck] So that was a big
milestone in the project,
because we just merged
two large caves into one,
and that became
the 17-plus-kilometre-long cave.
[cork popping]
-Whoo!
-That sounded good.
That sounded like the second
longest cave in Canada!
[Dennis] That many people
sitting in a little chamber
and just revelling in the joy
of making
such a fantastic connection.
I mean, we're not number one
at this point,
but number two in Canada
is nothing to sneeze at.
[Franck] And now we need
to connect Glory 'Ole,
which is the ultimate cave
in the system
that is still separate
from a human connection yet,
but Glory 'Ole,
once it's connected,
that's when we're going to have
the longest cave in Canada.
[]
[Andrea] Katie was always
a bit of a free spirit.
She was adventurous
and self reliant.
We would often find her
on the top of the garage
or walking the tightrope
on the top
of the six-foot fence.
She'd climb anything.
Katie's always
been really focused.
She used to get up
early in the morning,
she'd have her own breakfast.
she'd warm the car up
in the winter,
make her dad's coffee and toast,
and then get him
to drive her to school.
To go in those
dark, wet places
just seems very foreign,
but it's something
of the adventure
that just attracts her to it.
It's a true passion with her.
I don't try and understand it.
I just have to accept it, so...
That made me so uncomfortable.
Until I realized
you knew what you were doing.
[laughing]
I thought this was going
to become a rescue.
One of the most fun parts
about caving with Katie
is there's always
a fun side to it.
[screaming with laughter]
[Adam] Even when it's serious,
even when it's difficult,
even when it's scary,
Katie just brings
this fun side to it,
whether it's, you know,
sliding down the mountain
on a poop emoji.
[laughing]
It's still alive!
He didn't pop!
We can do it again!
You know, making puppets
out of... dead rats.
Winter is coming.
You know nothing, Jon Snow.
...or, you know,
she's always, you know,
on an expedition,
she's always got a little flask
of something fun
to keep spirits up, right,
so she definitely brings that
to the adventure.
[Katie] Rodents of unusual size?
I don't think they exist.
Raah!
[laughter]
Oh, Katie.
Okay.
[]
So the Bisaro project's
been going for a long time now,
and just in
the last couple of years,
they reached this low point
that included the sump,
and it came out that it was
a pretty complex operation.
[Bruce]
Many caves contain sumps,
which basically,
if you think of a pipe
that is folded in a U-shape,
water accumulates
in the bottom.
The only way through
is that they have
to put on scuba gear,
and in a very dangerous
operation,
find their way underwater
to the other side.
[Katie] My fixation
has been the sump.
It's kind of the problem
that I need to solve.
We needed 0.5 metres,
but below the water,
it looked really deep.
I'm really hoping
on the other side
is it goes down
and then it starts to come up,
and then we'll get back
into air passage.
[Adam] It's a deep sump,
it's very deep in the cave,
and no one else
has been training
for that kind of exploration.
All kinds of things
can go wrong.
Anything as simple
as equipment failure
to an actual emergency,
especially when you operate
in as remote a place
as Bisaro is.
And I said,
"If you need backup,
I'm willing to help you train.
I'm willing
to go into the cave
and be backup diver,"
whatever she needs
to help accomplish this goal.
Diving in caves
is enormously dangerous.
If you suffer
an equipment failure,
you are in very big trouble,
because there is
no air to breathe.
Therefore, practice,
strict rules,
a clear plan are all required.
[Katie] I'm trying to practice
laying the silt screws,
tying dive line onto it,
just all the things
that replicate the dive
as much as possible.
The other big problem
is finding your way out,
because often
there's lots of silt,
and so you're laying
this lifeline
and attaching it to rocks
as you go,
and if you lose that,
you're in a really
horrendous situation,
because if you can't
make contact
with that lifeline again,
essentially you have no way
out of that water,
and your oxygen
is going to run out.
[Jeremy]
She's put a lot of effort
into preparing
for this push.
She's done
a whole bunch of training,
she's bought
a whole bunch of gear,
and it's super exciting
for the rest of us
to support this effort.
[]
[Bruce] Deep caving is any cave
that you're pushing
so far down into
that you end up spending
a night or multiple nights.
In the subterranean world,
this involves
a huge amount of effort.
I can swap out
for that fifth tank.
As long as I only
breathe down one,
I'm not going to go any over.
[Katie] If it takes you
eight hours to get to work site
and then eight hours
to get back,
you can never
accomplish anything,
so we started camping
in the cave
so we can stay over a week.
Robin, Adam, Katie, and Matt
going and meeting...
[Katie] We've got multiple camps
throughout the cave,
and you need to know, like,
this bag needs to go
to this camp,
this bag needs
to go to that camp.
Each of those camps can only
accommodate a few people.
You're trying to balance
so many things
because it's very remote.
You need to bring everything
that you need to eat,
everything you might need
for exploration.
There's the inventory that
we have already in the cave,
and then what we need to bring.
So this is one breakfast
and one dinner,
another breakfast...
[Jeremy] The name of the game
with cave food
is to make it calorie dense,
so we make our own dried food.
So, Colin, you're labeling
two more for camp two.
Okay.
Does that look like a cookie?
-Uh...
-[chuckling]
It maybe looks like
what happens after the cookie?
After you eat it?
So who all is on
second week?
[planning conversations
continue]
[]
Yeah. In two hours,
we'll have all this surveyed.
[Franck] You think so?
You think in two hours
we'll survey all that?
Oh, yeah.
So I think...
I think I went down, Franck,
but there's something up...
up-trending here too.
[Franck] It's all about
the depth of the cave
and the length of the cave.
To measure that,
to get those numbers,
well, we need to survey them,
so that's when we are doing
the mapping.
You splay from here. Yep.
Just splay, but I don't have
to set up like a leg here first.
No, no, no. Yeah, yeah.
Start your splay from H-21.
There, you're on.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, I got it.
[Bruce] I think mapping
is a unique aspect to caving
because on the surface,
you know,
when we're climbing a mountain,
we know what's there.
We can already see the summit.
We know
what the route looks like...
[John] Yeah.
[Bruce] ...but in caves, no one
just kind of sprints down it
in this desire
to see how far it goes,
but they methodically map.
[Franck] So if there is
a good station at that junction,
that would be good.
[Erin] Okay. We'll try it.
[Bruce] One common misconception
is that we could maybe
just use sonar
or somehow remotely explore
these subterranean passageways,
and the truth is,
none of that works underground.
You can't penetrate
this rock with sonar
and find these open-air spaces.
You physically
have to go there.
It's the only way.
[Dennis] I ended up
being the daddy of the data.
The job of putting out
the 3D models,
it's a key part of the
connections that we've made
in the last couple of years,
and I'm sure it'll be a key
into what happens in the future.
Back in about 2016,
no one could figure out
where in the cave they were
from looking at the maps.
That was the spark for me
that said, I need to
do something about this.
[Franck] Dennis has been
spending hours now
to put that 3D model together.
[Dennis]
Slowly, the 40 years of data
is becoming one working 3D map
so that you can see
where you are in the cave
and have a working atlas.
[Bruce] The ability to put
all this data into a computer
and form these models
is really beneficial to cavers
because you have
a really accurate sense
of how close you are
to actually pushing
those two pieces together.
[]
[Franck] The first option
to connect
is the upper connection.
Either we try to connect
from Resonance
or we try to connect
from the Glory 'Ole side.
[Dennis] The challenge
on the Glory 'Ole side
is an absolutely stupendous pit
that needs to be climbed
from the bottom up.
[Franck] Hopefully we can reach
some passage
that eventually will head
towards Resonance.
[dog barking]
Roo roo roo roo roo!
Come here.
The rock duo.
[Peter] At ease, private.
Just looking at the 3D map
figuring out where you guys
are going to pop up.
-Oh, yeah?
-You're getting close.
John is in the sleeping bag
still, or?
Yeah. [laughing]
John, wake up!
The guy for the bolt climb
is John.
He has his drill,
and he's the guy that can bolt
the fastest of all.
[Peter]
Okay. Good luck, you guys.
[Franck] Connection Day.
-Yeah. You never know.
-[chuckling]
[John] Just about the beginning
of every caving trip,
Franck, he says,
"Come on, let's go.
It's Connection Day,"
or he'll text me and he's like,
you know, "You coming up
caving this weekend?"
and then he'll
text back right away,
"Connection Day."
[]
[John] The issue is
when the water is high,
and it's deep,
like at the vedos...
-Yeah.
-It's very deep, though.
[conversation continues]
Look, look,
look at the volume up there!
Like, it's just...
oh, this is nuts.
[Franck] Oh, it's
getting dark in here.
[John] Know what they say about
guys with bright lights, eh?
-[Franck laughs]
-No, it's true.
-Rope free!
-Okay!
[John] Which way?
You want me to go this way?
[Franck] Yeah. Kind of fun.
[John]
Well, you point to the left,
but you tell me to go
to the fucking right.
[John]
This is my favourite part.
[Franck] "My favourite part."
[laughing]
I guess I know why we don't
come here that often.
[John] To get to the climb,
there's a crawl
just after
one of the larger rooms
up towards the entrance.
It does have
the potential to flood.
If the waters
did get high enough,
that probably would go
right to the ceiling,
and would prevent anyone
from going in or out.
It would be not a fun time
for sure.
I was involved
in the Cascade Rescue
a few years back.
Some cavers had gone caving
when the water levels
were already high.
They got to the bottom
of the cave,
and on their way back,
they got stuck behind an area
that was called
"Double Trouble,"
so the entire stream
was passing through there,
to the point where
they couldn't get through.
[rescuer] Keep coming.
Come on, dude.
Speed up! Towards me!
Make a move! Come on.
Okay! Keep breathing!
Good!
You're fucking there, okay?
Dude, fucking...
Jay! Fucking look at me. Okay?
You made it, all right?
Gotta be really desperate
to try to get through
something like that.
So getting stuck
behind a flooded passage
is something
you wouldn't want to do.
That's why
just after the crawl,
we do have a rescue cache
just in case that was to happen.
[Franck] Get that one.
What is this, food?
[Dennis]
There is a bit of equipment.
There's some sleeping bags
and a little bit of food,
but I mean, I don't think
I'd want to spend
a lot of time in there myself.
[John]
We're trying to do one thing.
We're trying to connect,
and we just do what it takes,
and if it's
a 50-metre bolt climb...
[motor whirring]
...you just do it.
On rope.
[Franck] Fuck, it's beautiful
rock up there.
Aah...
[John] Ready?
[Franck] Yeah, I would...
yeah, I would go like "brrrr"
and then stay
on the nice wall there.
No? Okay. Well, it's...
let's get to work, I guess.
[drilling]
[Franck] Where is the dust?
-[John] You see it now?
-[Franck] I see it.
[John] That's cave dust.
Keeps you going.
[John] I love bolt climbing
because it is challenging.
It's hard.
I drill my hole.
I make my placement.
I hook on to it.
Yeah.
I yell down.
-Okay, going up.
I move myself up.
Drill a hole, clip in,
drill a hole, clip in.
[clipping]
[clipping]
Ooh.
That was a stretch.
That was a good one, buddy.
I can see in front of me
a little hole.
It's definitely
a horizontal passage,
which is awesome,
because I've been doing
nothing but vertical rock climb
for three weekends,
so finally it's like,
wow, we got something here.
-All right. I'm on rope.
-Okay.
[John] If it turns
the way that we're all hoping,
then it should lead us
right to Resonance.
[Franck] Hey, John...
[John] Can I get
some more slack?
[Franck] No, no, no, no.
You stay here.
[John] Oh, come on.
[Franck]
You stay. Stay here, John.
[John] Slack.
[Franck] Come here!
Come back here! [laughing]
[John] Whenever we're going
into passage...
[Franck] Keep him on the leash!
He's got to keep me back,
because he's right.
If I see open passage,
virgin passage,
I am like, gone.
[Franck]
Where are you going, John?
[John] I just can't help myself.
[John] I need more slack.
[Franck]
You see something there?
[John] And it goes down
around the corner.
I don't know what it's doing,
and it goes up right here.
[John] Crawling through,
I got to the other side,
and the passage just opened up.
It was huge.
[Franck] It's just too much.
Aah!
[John] Well, let's go up.
[Franck] But we have
to go in this area.
Right here.
-Yeah.
And right now,
the passage is going there.
Well, but it could be
going that way
once we get up high.
[Franck] So it could.
It could turn. Yeah.
It probably turns.
[laughter]
100% chance.
There's a 10% chance it'll turn.
Usually it does
what we think, eh?
We seem to have
a lot of failures,
but we seem to enjoy it,
so they don't really feel
so much like failures.
I guess we're still caving.
We're still
accomplishing something.
We're just not
making a connection.
Yeah, we'll have to come back.
I guess it wasn't
Connection Day after all.
[John] It was close.
Tomorrow, maybe.
Tomorrow may be Connection Day.
[Franck] I think, yeah,
it's some sort
of an addiction, I guess,
because we look at that map
and it's like, damn.
There has to be another way.
They always talk about
the longest cave in Canada.
That's the main goal.
It's just like...
but I think it's what
drives them a bit crazy
about it.
It's when everything
started to change for me
is when he's starting to cave
more, like, full days,
12, 14, 16 hours.
It was not fun to me anymore.
We had kids, and I starting
to worry a lot.
[Peter] Caving is probably
the slowest sport in the world.
You know, it takes hours
to go hundreds of metres.
Quite often, you get back
late at night
or early the next morning,
and I was joking about it,
telling him,
"You'll be divorced
before you know it, Franck.
Your caving career
will kill your married life."
[Anouk] So I always tell him,
don't tell me
what time you're coming home,
because I know it's going to be
later than you said.
[Franck] With the family,
it's an issue, I will say.
That's my fault,
because I should be a little bit
more able to gauge all that
and try to find
the right balance.
If we connect,
that will be
something definitely
that will slow me down
after that,
because I have to be there also,
both for her
and for the kids,
we have young kids,
and their dad
is working all week,
and then he's caving
on the weekend,
and it's like, well, I mean,
at one point we have
to find the balance again.
[Anouk reads] ...safe at home
with his father and mother.
[Franck] It's a tough balance
when you have all those caves
in the backyard.
[Anouk]
...turn into a butterfly.
[Franck] But like Peter said,
they are here,
and they will never move,
so, yeah, I should maybe
listen to him a little bit more.
...all of us will go there,
so we probably want
to look at everything,
but, I mean, the main...
the main thing is...
[Peter] They wanted
to go to the GLORP
because there could be
a possible connection
to Glory 'Ole Cave,
which is what
we're trying to connect.
[Franck] If you look at a map,
we try to connect
those two caves,
but we are always trying
from Glory 'Ole...
Because from the other side,
we have to go through
the GLORP,
and, like, we don't want
to go through the GLORP.
[Peter] You know what
the GLORP stands for?
Anybody ever tell you?
G.L.O.R.P. stands for gooey...
lubricated...
ooey rectal passage.
[laughing]
It's been 17 years
no one has been
through the GLORP,
and there is only foggy memories
of what the GLORP is.
That's my writing.
So that's my...
I did the notes. Huh!
There's my own...
I haven't even seen...
I haven't seen these
for 20 years.
I think I have a picture
of somebody going through
the squeeze in the GLORP.
This is what you look like
when you go...
when we used to go through,
you'd come out like that.
[laughing]
[John] Peter is submerged in mud
up to his shoulders,
and Peter is a smiley guy,
and even he wasn't smiling.
I don't like real tight spaces,
never mind
when they're full of mud,
but Peter's painted
a pretty good picture,
and it doesn't sound like
it's going to be a good time.
We were just sliding down
100 miles an hour,
I was goofing, and it was
flash right at the bottom.
Now it's just
a big mess of mud.
It's probably
still that way, too.
Oh, yeah.
When we ask Peter
about what's
on the other side of the GLORP,
there is a photo of what
they call the Wedding Cake.
That's only the thing.
Like, if you go on
the other side of the GLORP,
you're going to see
the Wedding Cake, so...
Well, we can't wait to see
the wedding cake, then.
That's it.
It's happening tomorrow.
I know we are ready to go.
Let's see what they find.
[John]
Beginning of Resonance Cave
is actually one of
my favourite entrances.
[Conor]
Why it's called Resonance
is it reverberates sound...
Woo! Woo! Woo!
[Conor]
...and it's kind of a tradition
when you're going in there,
you kind of sing or something.
Yo-ba
Whoo-hoo!
[playing harmonica]
[Peter] I took my harmonicas
into Resonance Cave
because of the acoustics,
they are phenomenal,
and we goofed around.
It all started
with Adrian Duncan,
and he decided that we should
make a band
and we all should be cavers,
so Adrian would write songs,
I'd learn my harmonica bit,
and they're about
various subjects about caving.
Dangerous Dick
and the Duckbusters.
A duck is a pool of water
in a cave
where you have to pretty well
go through it,
but there's still air space,
so duckbusters
are people who do that.
We bust the duck.
[playing harmonica]
Whoo!
[Franck] I wasn't there
at the time the band was formed,
but he turned
all that awful moments
into something very funny
and very sarcastic,
and the songs are here
to translate all kind of mood
and stuff you go through
while you are caving.
Down, down, down
in the underground
If you hear a sound
don't turn around
There's lots
of scary beasties
All around the pots
But the caver
is the strangest of the lot
Yeah.
You have
the duct tape with you?
Yeah, I got it here.
[John] Someone bought
some expendable white suits.
[Franck] We are going
in area 51 next.
[John] We could wear these
so that when we got
to the other side,
we could take them off
and we could try
to keep the cave cleaner.
Kind of look
like the Ghostbusters.
Is this the Vomit Comet?
Well, it's the bottom of it.
Yeah. It's going to be...
it's going to be an ugly one.
[]
[Conor] So the Vomit Comet,
basically it's the drainage
of the GLORP,
so it's all just mud and slick
and slippery.
[Franck] Getting a little bit
more interesting
by the metres here.
[Conor]
Cavers going ahead of you,
they kind of disturb
the water and the mud,
and the sound of it, too,
like when you're going
up the Vomit Comet,
it literally sounds
like a toilet flushing.
[Franck]
Yeah. This is crazy shit.
Moan, groan
Whinging away
Bitching and griping
the whole bleeding day
This is where I'm going to get
a fucking soaker.
My socks are going to get wet.
You're already grumpy.
...caver's complaint
Why did the good lord
make water so wet?
Getting soaked to the skin
makes it hard to forget
That if caving was meant to be
our favourite thing
We'd be born wearing drysuits
instead of our skin
Ahh, good times!
Moan, groan
[Erin] It's times like this
I question why
I want to spend
my fucking Saturdays like this.
...caver's complaint
[Franck] That's the tube that
is going to the GLORP, yeah.
Once we arrive at the GLORP,
it looks fantastic.
We realized basically
you are just crawling
into a digestive tube,
and you have diarrhea.
It's getting deep here, guys.
[Erin] Oh, this wasn't
deep already?
-[Franck] No.
-[Erin] Oh.
[Franck] No. Definitely not.
So roll out your grumbles
no need for restraint
Let's hear the rest
of your caver's complaint
Why do the crawlways
get choked up with mud
Go just a few metres
and you're covered with crud
And that's when your drybag
develops a leak
So when you eat lunch
there'll be mud on your teeth
Moaning and groaning
and whining all day
If it weren't for the gripes
there'd be nothing to say
I've heard enough bitching
to last for some time
Stick your caver's complaints
where the sun doesn't shine
It's a boy! It's a boy!
Aw. That's fucking awful.
[Franck] I don't know if it was
an enjoyable moment,
but definitely
looking at each other
and we were like,
okay, this is ridiculous.
[Conor] You're going through
stream ways,
and it's quite beautiful.
Not a lot of people have seen
that side of Resonance.
Is that the Wedding Cake?
[Franck] We reached that room
where there's the Wedding Cake,
and the Wedding Cake
is just there sitting,
and it takes a bit of time
to realize
on which angle it's sitting
and try to see that picture
that everybody saw,
and because
that's the only picture
we have from that side.
The famous Wedding Cake
is right here in front of us.
It's creamy, eh?
Creamy moonmilk flowstone.
[Franck] The main objective
was to explore,
or reexplore, at least,
the known passage.
It's pretty wet here.
Like, slippery.
[John] We went straight to where
we felt the lead was.
[Franck] Is there something,
John, or?
[John] It just plugs here.
[John]
When we got to the bottom,
Franck and I quickly discovered
that definitely it was plugged.
It wasn't going to be
our connection.
[Franck] This is
so fucked up, though.
[John] Yeah. I felt like
there was a draft in here.
[Franck] Because this is, like,
Glory 'Ole is, like...
It's like this way.
Like, right there.
There is nothing obvious,
nothing that tells us
the connection
is imminent on that side,
so at that point,
we just decide
to turn around.
[John] God damn this cave.
Why doesn't it just
give us a connection?
Just do it. Oh well.
[wind whistling]
[helicopter blades whirring]
[Katie]
We finally assembled the team,
people that are strong,
talented in multiple things,
so just really excited
to go back and do it right.
I wanted to dive that sump
and get the deepest cave
in Canada.
[Adam] My goal was to help Katie
achieve her goals,
and I wanted her to do it
as safely as possible.
One of the risks that
we run into in exploration
is when you put a lot of effort
into an expedition,
you can feel obligated to push,
and I felt that Katie
was getting on the verge
of pushing harder
than she should,
and I wanted to give her
some backup.
you can only really take
one bag with you.
I can take three. I don't care.
Do you guys
want me to take three?
I don't know. How many is there?
There is nine here. No. Seven.
Two, four, six, seven.
Why don't I leave this one
and bring the tank?
-Awesome.
-Are there two tanks there?
[Katie] After six hours
with more than 40 pounds,
people start
to get pretty drained.
You're asking people
to haul your delicate dive gear.
It's heavy, it's awkward,
and it's got to be moved
through kilometres of passage.
The bag is just like
the worst burden of your life.
There's always double the bags
that you thought there would be,
and you're like, Where
did all these bags come from?
[asking a question]
Yeah, 'cause it's just like
a little bit of this nonsense,
and then we get up
into Double Barrel.
Pulling...
Give 'er.
Ugh, it's so nasty.
Oh, gross.
It's like scooping it up.
I see it
as a liquid clay bath.
It lets you wallow
in your misery.
[Katie] My hobbies
would suggest that, yes,
I like the suffering
of type-two fun.
I like this reward that comes
at the end of the struggle,
so most things I do are sort of
some version of suffering.
Whoo!
[laughter]
[Jeremy] If you're thinking
that camping in a cave
is like camping out
in the wilderness,
you'd be pretty off
for what it's like in Bisaro.
That one's...
yeah, that one's not so wet.
[Katie] Camping
in a refrigerator
on a bed of boulders.
It's not
the most luxurious camp.
Get the old dinner coat on.
Hey?
It's lobster night, isn't it?
[gas hissing]
This looks deluxe, huh?
I don't even know
what's in here.
Look at that.
[Katie] Everybody just wants
to get in their bed,
because that's the only time
you're really warm.
Setting up
the penthouse suite here,
setting up a hammock.
[Jeremy] In Bisaro,
we do leave our sleeping bags
and our sleep sets
in the cave permanently.
This is because it's so
challenging to get them there
in the first place,
so it's always a bit
of a question mark
when you get to camp,
if your sleeping bag's
gonna be a little bit
wet or stinky,
but you can usually dry it out
by sleeping in it.
There's literally no way
to dry anything down here
except for your own body heat,
which means that if you want
your clothes to dry,
you literally have
to wear them to bed wet,
so there's really
no avoiding the wet.
I am literally sitting
or laying in a swimsuit.
[Katie] You're in
the underground drainage
of a past ice age.
It's a hard place
to spend a week.
[Adam] Camping underground
comes with the complexities
of going to the bathroom
underground.
Because of the temperature
of the cave,
we can't leave anything behind,
because it stays there
permanently,
it's a refrigerator,
so everything
that we take underground,
even the poop, has to come back
out of the cave with us.
[Katie] It's one of those things
people don't really
want to talk about,
but crapping in a Ziploc bag
and hauling it out
is a talent
and something special.
[Adam]
So you go to the bathroom,
your waste goes into a bag,
and that bag
goes into a container
and that container
goes into your backpack
and that backpack
comes out of the cave,
so the whole process overall
is not pleasant, but necessary.
So how was it?
The Ziploc bag
unfolded on me halfway
through, mid-flight,
and we had a little...
hang fire.
It was managed with my
12 sheets of toilet paper.
[chuckling]
On that note, let's go caving.
Yeah, that's kind of
the way.
[Adam] Probably
the next big challenge
is called the Heil Squeeze,
which is quite a tight spot.
I think I might have been
supposed to go that way.
Okay.
We have a lot of equipment
to haul with us
down through the cave,
and everything's got to go
through that one tight squeeze.
Oh, I can't wait for that.
Sometimes it means
unpacking our bags
to pass the pieces through
one at a time,
and then repacking
on the other side.
[straining]
Kick the shit
out of that one.
Give me one second here.
Do you want to come back out,
or what do you want to do?
Um...
Do you want
to try to go through?
-Good job.
-I got it.
-Yeah. Good job.
-Thank you.
Crushed that one.
[Adam] When you're
exploring downwards,
there's this part of you
that is always thinking,
Oh, I have to go back up.
I have to make it back to camp.
If something goes wrong,
it's going to be really hard
to get back up to the surface.
Whenever you're under pressure,
when you put yourself
under pressure
to chase after your objective,
there's always the risk
that you're going
a little too hard.
I'm soaking wet.
And we're moving really slow.
[Katie]
On day two of the expedition,
we were already
kind of like behind schedule,
and you could
just see in their faces,
like, they were exhausted,
like, they had already
been punched in the gut.
Holy shit, like,
how do I get this
back on track?
So, okay, I need,
I need to pick it up.
I need to pick it up here
and move.
Start moving bags.
[falling]
[Katie crying out]
[gasping]
Fuck.
Aah...
[gasping]
I don't know.
Oh.
Yeah.
[gasping]
Yeah.
[Katie] In a deep cave,
you don't just call a rescue.
We are the rescue.
There's nobody else
that's coming.
I'm so deep
in the "don't fuck up" zone,
and I just fucked up.
Fuck.
[Bruce] As you progress deeper
and deeper into the cave,
you are really becoming
highly isolated.
You often hear analogies
about it's like going
to very high altitude
in the Himalayas,
and I would say a rescue
from deep in a cave
is more difficult than
a rescue at high altitude,
and really, your survival
at that point
is dependent on the support
of the small team
that's with you right then.
[groaning]
[Katie] I just rolled it,
and it kind of...
kind of felt like it...
something was beside something
that wasn't supposed to be.
I think you should get to 1.5
and get into a sleeping bag
before you go hypothermic.
Okay, so you guys good to work
with Katie back to 1.5?
Yeah.
[Katie] I'm in pain,
but it's manageable
if I don't step on it,
so I realize I'm going to have
to crawl out of the cave,
so it's going to take
a long time,
and I need to not be
more of a burden
than I already am.
Oh, my god.
Uhh...
[Adam] It's impressive
to think of Katie
getting out of the cave
on her own.
It's hard to convey
how difficult that would be
with two legs, let alone one.
How was your journey?
[Katie] I don't know.
It's already going down
a bit today?
-Nice work.
-Whoo!
[Adam] So, over the course
of three days,
Katie was able to make her way
out of the cave.
How's the ankle?
Um... it's okay.
[laughter]
Whoo!
Oh, man.
[laughter]
From the way she was able
to move on the ankle,
we just assumed it was
a sprain or a strain.
[Katie]
We flew off the mountain,
and then we go to the pub
and have a burger,
and then
we went to the hospital,
and they did an X-ray,
and they said to come back
tomorrow morning for surgery
because it was broken
and needed
a bunch of plates and pins.
[Adam] I think she earned extra
kudos from the team members
knowing that she got out
on her own steam
to discover more...
I do understand
from just the little bit
I've been able to do
is you see a path
and you don't know what is next.
You always want to go further,
and so it's very exciting.
I could tell him
not to go caving anymore,
and he would probably do it,
because I think he cares,
but then I know
he would be unhappy,
so I choose to let him
do what he wants,
so he can be happy.
It's really easy to say,
why on earth
are cavers doing this?
Does it have any meaning?
[Bruce] One thing about humans
is that we can have
all our needs met,
we're clothed
and housed and fed,
and normally,
most other species at that point
are satisfied,
but we now at that point
go and burrow down
into the earth
or climb mountains
or, you know, zip through space
to other planets,
because there's something
deep inside us
about wanting to know
what's around the next corner.
We're a curious species.
We want to do more
than survive and reproduce.
We want to keep ourselves
interested and excited.
[Bruce] What we see in cavers,
this curiosity,
this willingness to suffer,
this interest
in pushing the limits
is the kind of factor in humans
that has allowed us to kind of
advance our society
and our technical understanding
and our geographical
understanding
to live as we do.
[speaking in French]
[Franck] I try to cave, like,
what I think is reasonable,
which is one weekend out of two.
It's one of the rare sports
at least that I've done
where we just keep
talking about it
when we are outside the cave,
and if I found a new cave,
so right away,
I'm, like, damn, I need
to go there this weekend,
and it's like, well,
I can't go with the kids.
Up, up, up.
[speaking in French]
Yeah, it's a tough balance.
So I say, well,
once it's connected,
maybe I'll just slack down,
but I guess the connection
is something tough to get.
[speaking in French]
We are about to leave
from Port McNeill
in a couple months,
and uh, to maybe, uh,
reestablish some sort
of a balance with the family
is to sail back to France,
so we are just in the process
of buying a boat, a sailboat.
We plan to leave
next spring, basically.
I think hopefully
we can turn that
into like very valuable time
with the family
and some sort of a reconnection.
I mean, I can't get away
from the boat
and go caving on the weekends,
so unfortunately,
it will come to that
where I probably have
to cut it right off.
We'll have to find
a quick connection,
something that can be done
in a couple trips.
Time is running out,
but I know
I'm getting close now,
because we found something new.
[John] Franck was at the bottom
of Resonance cave,
and down at the sump,
he found little orange
particles of rope.
When he came out of cave,
he contacted me,
and it's like
"Where would this come from?"
And I was thinking,
well, the only place
we used orange rope in a while
was Glory 'Ole.
[Peter] Now, winter came along,
the water levels came way up,
and the water just rushes
through those caves,
demolishing any ropes
in the way,
and lo and behold,
we found
bits of this orange rope
in the bottom of Arch Cave,
and in the bottom
of Resonance Cave.
[John] So basically found it
in all the sumps
at the bottom
of the ARGO system.
It proves that the water
at least connects somewhere,
because we found the orange rope
in all three caves.
[Franck] Maybe we can connect
those caves
from the bottom this time.
For the longest time
on the Arch map,
there was a tiny portion
of the survey
with a little label said
"sump, dived for one kilometre."
Peter knew that one kilometre
was a mistake,
and it was actually
a hundred metres...
so we really start to look
for information
about that dive,
because if some people dove
in Arch before,
we need to know
what they were looking for
and what they found.
A bit of digging was done
to understand who was involved,
because all I heard from Peter
was, "Oh, it's a bunch
of French guys."
Eventually,
after spending time
to go through
all the Canadian Cavers,
we found
in one of the old versions
a report from the dive,
and the person involved
was Daniel Caron.
[Peter]
Franck thought "Actually,
why don't we
contact Daniel Caron
and talk to him about the dive?"
He replies, and I'm like,
"Okay, wow, look, he's here."
The main thing
that he remembered
is they turned around
because he run out of line,
of dive line,
so the thing
actually keeps going.
Maybe we can connect
those pieces from the bottom
this time.
Okay, so we need to send
someone back there.
Here's my bed,
and then the dog sleeps there.
[Franck] If we want to get
that dive connection,
we'll need a lot of people
and a strong diver,
because the dive itself,
it's a technical dive,
it's dangerous,
but there is a cave diver
in the U.S.
that was available
to do that dive.
We can rally a whole bunch
of people from the island,
and they will come.
You need strong people,
you need people that knows
what they are doing on ropes,
that knows the caves,
and we talk about heavy bags
of equipment to carry
and get the diver
set to do his dive.
[Franck] Basically the trip
consists of bringing seven bags
that's all the equipment
the diver needs on that dive,
down to the bottom of Arch Cave.
[Peter] And see if we can
connect the bottom of Arch Cave
with the bottom
of Glory 'Ole Cave.
Yeah.
You're like,
oh, you just walk in it.
Holy fuck, that's heavy.
Want me to lift that?
-I told you it was heavy.
-It's fucking ridiculous.
All right.
There's two D rings back here.
The front one wiggles...
Yeah.
...and the back one does not.
It goes on the back one,
the pink.
The pink bolt, snap. Yep.
-Attachment.
[Franck] I'm just clipping pipes
and bottles to his harness
and it's just like,
pssh, pssh, pssh.
Just push?
Yeah, they should
push together and click.
Okay.
"Okay, take that clip,
take that strap,"
and I'm trying to do my best,
but really, I don't know
what I'm doing.
To be honest, it was a bit
of a scary moment,
because that guy
is about to go...
Okay, it worked.
...where absolutely
no one can follow him.
If anything happens,
he's on his own.
See you at 3:30 p.m.
3:30? Okay. Good luck.
This is crazy. This is crazy.
Yeah. This is crazy.
Fuck.
[Franck] The only thing we see
is the diveline moving,
and we know basically
okay, he is alive.
The line is moving.
I probably got halfway
through my sandwich,
and he was there.
So...
I made it
to the end of Daniel's line,
25 metres past where he went,
but then I gotta
wiggle through something
that's like half this height.
It's not possible
to go up it in dive gear,
so I surveyed my way back.
Good job, buddy.
[Franck] I'm glad I'm staying
here for the rest of my life
so I can explore that system.
Fucking shit.
-You are?
-I'm not. Yeah.
-Yeah.
[John] Kind of fucked, really,
you're leaving one of
the largest caves in Canada,
and it's, like,
basically all yours.
[Franck] I know.
Well, don't even start me
on that, John.
[John] I know.
In terms of connection,
it's basically like a failure...
But there is one other option.
There is another sump
in the cave in Resonance,
and for us,
it hasn't been even an option
to think about
bringing a diver there
because it's too complicated.
If we can't bring a diver,
well, we can bring a drone,
and luckily, the film crew,
they had a drone
available for that.
Excited?
Yeah.
[laughing]
Robot connection.
The machines are taking over.
Now it's our ultimate push,
basically.
It's like, okay, if...
if it's too hard
to bring the human,
well, we'll bring the robot.
I'm the optimistic in the group,
so I'm 95% sure.
-95?
-Oh, yeah. Yeah.
[sighing]
I think we're all good.
Let's just...
let's just go, that's it.
[Franck] So another crew will be
waiting on the other side.
Myself and Erin went in
on the Glory 'Ole side,
and we waited there
for this drone to come to us.
Here, droney.
Here, drone, drone,
drone, drone, drone.
[Franck] Okay,
you're at 20 metres now.
Yeah, the cable is going.
Oh, my God, you're
covering distance here.
[Franck] The theoretical
distance between the two sumps
was about 60 metres.
Okay, that's 55.
And you shouldn't be
super, super far now.
I mean, it's 55, I'm almost
getting to 60, and...
Does that sound like...
little propellers underwater?
Whoa!
Whoa. Whoa!
-Hoo-hoo-hoo!
-Look at that!
Holy shit! No way!
Oh, no, no, no!
No, no, no, no.
No, it's just air.
It's a bubble of air,
and it's the light
from the drone.
-Jesus.
-A false alarm.
Okay, look at this.
The cable
just doesn't want to follow.
No?
It's just too much drag
on the cable, on the tether.
We are probably
not too, too far.
It's really hard.
I mean, I don't know what to do.
Pulling hard on the cable,
at some point,
it's just going to break it.
I did my best, guys.
-Okay.
-I think this is it.
So we're just
a few metres, potentially, away?
-Probably. Probably.
-[chuckling]
[sighing]
Caving is a bunch
of disappointments...
until you reach your goal.
Well, it's, uh...
Aw, man.
Well...
lots more work to do.
Lots more work.
[Katie] I was out
for about four weeks.
When the skin healed,
then I was kind of back
moving and doing stuff.
The conclusion
of that expedition
was that I had an objective
not achieved,
so then I was just like
kind of hyper focused
on getting back to it
and kind of
getting this thing done.
[Andrea] I don't always know
exactly what happens
on the expeditions.
She tends to wean me
slowly to the truth.
Oftentimes I'll know
about what happened,
but I don't know
until I read articles
the whole truth.
Whoo!
[laughter]
How was it
getting out of the cave?
[Katie] It was actually...
oh, it's totally fine.
Which is not surprising at all.
[Katie] Well, just, like, making
such a big deal out of it.
Like, it turns out you don't,
like, walk very much anyway.
"It's fine. I'm just going
to need a few screws."
[Andrea] I don't like it
when she breaks her legs
or gets trapped in caves, but...
I can't stop her.
[]
[Katie]
I wanted to dive that sump.
We needed 0.5 metres,
so we pulled it together
and went down,
I think at Thanksgiving.
it took us two days
to get to the bottom.
I'm standing
in a dripping waterfall,
trying to rig ropes,
wearing my wet suit,
all so I can go for a swim
at the bottom of the cave
on Thanksgiving.
What the fuck
is wrong with my life?
So I start to kind of
prep the gear,
and one of the tanks
was totally empty.
We're just like, Oh, my God.
Shit.
Fuck.
It's... only has a third left,
so it's, like, it's not empty,
but it's not very...
not very useful.
The effort it takes
to haul a scuba tank
three kilometres of crawling
and get all the way
to the bottom
and realize
that it's not useful,
it's totally empty.
But you're like, we're in there,
you got one shot,
so we gotta do
as much as I can.
[Jeremy]
If she does dive through
and end up on the other side,
we don't really know
what we're going to find.
It's a new level of the cave.
It could be small.
It could be huge.
[Katie] So, yes.
[Jeremy] But that's only
a small part of the story.
It's not entirely just about
being the first person
to be somewhere.
There's way more to it
than that.
Exploration is fundamentally
a personal journey.
There's the process,
the effort, the people,
and the sense of hardship
and relief when it's all over.
It all adds up to this, like,
incredible, intoxicating mix
that you get addicted to.
It can't end like this.
[laughing]
Uh...
[blowing]
Hey, Katie.
Let's get the fuck out of here.
All right.
[Katie] I was so fixated
on getting that "deepest cave
in Canada" marker.
I achieved that,
but I was devastated
that the tank was empty
and I couldn't really
do a complete dive,
so I've been dreaming
of that tube,
taking all this water.
That is the limit
of what I know, right?
What I've seen.
And then you're like,
what happens beyond that?
[Bruce] With caving,
you inevitably end
by reaching a dead end.
There isn't that moment
of standing on the summit
and taking the view.
You basically go on deeper
and deeper and deeper
into the earth
and reach the dead end,
and you're going
to crawl back out.
[Franck] I wish I could be
part of the connection.
I'm going away,
and, and that's...
that's part of, like,
what life is.
[children laughing]
And maybe someone else
will do that connection.
I'll just have to
make my peace with that,
that I won't be part
of the connection,
and that's fine too.
Whoo-hoo!
Whoo-hoo!
[John]
It's hard to find somebody
[John]
It's hard to find somebody
that will spend
18 hours with you
that will spend
18 hours with you
getting cold and muddy,
getting cold and muddy,
getting out of a cave
at 4:00 in the morning
getting out of a cave
at 4:00 in the morning
and being happy about it,
and can't wait to ask me
and being happy about it,
and can't wait to ask me
"When are you going
to come back?"
"When are you going
to come back?"
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. It's going to be hard
finding somebody to do that.
Down, down, down
in the underground
Down, down, down
in the underground
If you hear a sound
don't turn around
If you hear a sound
don't turn around
There's lots
of scary beasties
But the caver
is the strangest of the lot
If you ever spend
your Halloween a-caving
You'll find the Balrog
ballroom deeper down
The skeletons
rattle their broken bones...
[gravel crunching]
[struggling]
[Franck Tuot] As soon as you
enter those caves,
it's a fridge that is on
a pretty low temperature.
You're counting your time
underground, basically,
because depending what you do,
you can't stay too, too long.
If you don't move,
you're going to freeze.
Most of people,
they are like, Oh, my God,
like, a cave, this is so creepy,
because you have never
experienced something like that.
[Derek Ford] What are the most
attractive features of caves?
Oh, of course the mystery.
Where does it go?
What's inside it?
Is there a treasure trove?
Scientific interest?
The adventure.
Most cavers got into the game
because of the adventure.
They wanted
to frighten themselves a bit,
especially when the walls
close in
and it's in the dark,
and you may lose your light.
Can I do it?
Am I brave enough?
What's down there?
What's around the next bend?
[Katie Graham] There's something
really magical
about being the first person
to ever put a footprint
into the ground,
or not knowing what's at
the bottom of that waterfall.
There's just something
that just grabs my curiosity.
[Bruce Kirkby]
There's clearly something
deep in the human psyche
about trying to see
what's around the next corner
to try and explore,
see what has never
been seen before.
It's like
this enticing possibility
that you will be the first one.
You'll find something new.
[wind whistling]
[helicopter whirring]
[Katie] I am born and raised
in Calgary,
near the mountains,
with a decent job
and access
to so much backcountry
that has not been explored.
My free time is almost 100%
like a full-time job is caving.
Hey, welcome to Bisaro.
[Katie] Bisaro Anima
is a cave near Fernie.
We found the cave in 2012...
All right.
...and the unique things
are the big drops
at the very beginning.
[Jeremy] It's super exciting
when you find a cave
and you're fairly confident
that it's the first time
anybody has explored it.
You're wondering if
is this the big cave
that we've been looking for?
Ten years later,
I can tell you
that this is a big one.
[Katie]
The person who finds the cave
gets to name the cave.
[Jeremy] We settled on the name
Bisaro Anima,
which has sort of taken on
a World War I
and World War II theme.
The mountain was named
for Private Torindo Bisaro,
who was Fernie's first war hero,
and Anima is Italian
for inner soul, spirit,
so it's kind of a name
that describes how we're
sort of searching
the inner soul of the mountain.
Everybody who's involved
is a volunteer.
They're volunteering
their money and their vacation
to come and participate
in the projects.
[Katie] When we went in 2017,
we knew we had
a really deep cave,
and then we came to water,
and we absolutely
were not expecting that.
We're kind of like, holy crap.
Like, what now?
After that trip,
we punch in the data
and realize
we were 0.5 metres short
of the deepest cave in Canada.
We were sitting at the pub
just like, Oh, my God,
now we just have to go back
and get a half a metre.
[laughing]
[]
[Franck] If you like
the wilderness around
and you like the quiet place,
we have the mountain
behind our house,
and the ocean in front,
and, yeah, it just gives us
access to a quite a backyard.
It's a beautiful forest,
but what is really
interesting for us
is what's under the roots.
It's just an infinite
playground for caves,
and we are only just
a few enjoying it, really.
We saw in the volcanic rock,
so all that rock,
we call it shit rock,
we don't like it,
because when you see that,
it probably means there is
no caves around,
but pretty soon,
we should we should start
to see some limestone.
All right, so,
limestone, limestone.
There it is.
When the rock is grey,
and then you start
to see the cracks,
and then sometimes
even you can see a hole,
and, I mean, could be
a cave entrance that exists.
Sometimes right along the road,
there is a cave entrance,
so that's what we are...
we are looking for,
and always chasing.
Dinah, won't you blow?
Dinah
Won't you blow?
Dinah, won't you
blow your horn?
Someone's in the kitchen
with Dinah
Someone's
in the kitchen, I know
Someone's in the kitchen
with Dinah
Strumming on the old banjo
Stick together. Stick together.
All right.
[thump]
Hoo!
Two or three seconds.
-20 metres, 30 metres?
-Yeah.
Rope free!
[calling]
[Franck] We've been looking for
the longest cave in Canada
for a while now.
We are trying
to break the record.
I guess I didn't know
when I started caving
why I would like caving.
I mean, I was attracted
by the potential
in terms of exploration,
and that was... that was
the main driver.
My wife, Anouk, and I,
when we came from France
13 years ago,
it was for work,
and I'd never been in a cave.
[Anouk] The way Franck
discovered caving
was we were just
going for hikes.
We found a few spots
that were saying,
Oh, it's a cave.
And then you try to ask people
if they know about that place,
and no one tells you.
[Franck] And they're like,
yeah, sure, there is caves.
Yeah, go.
Go find them if you can.
Oh, yeah. It's just here.
A small path.
They probably knew
we would fail to find them.
[Anouk]
So then you look closer,
and you finally finding
the entrance of the cave.
[Franck] This definitely piqued
the interest about caves.
As Franck is someone
very passionate,
he wanted to go
deeper and further,
and I think I was not
really ready for that.
Franck, I met him working
in the bush together,
Franck, I met him working
in the bush together,
doing layout.
He found a couple pits
in his block,
checked it out, and just it was
amazing, beautiful caves.
We had bike helmets on,
put little headlamps on,
and we'd go underground.
[Franck]
We finish work at 4:00 p.m.
and we take the car and just go
chasing those caves
all the time.
It was kind of the joke of,
yeah, we are
the bike helmet crew.
We were just new guys
who know nothing about it.
[Franck] So then we try
to talk to some people,
and "If you want to know
more about caves,
well, you should try
to talk to Peter."
[Conor]
We heard of him from town
that he was the local caver.
He's been caving
since the '70s.
They came knocking on my door,
actually,
and asking about caves.
[Conor] He said,
"Oh, you guys are cavers?"
It's like, "Oh, well,
yeah, we're kind of."
I thought, well,
if they're interested,
I'll take them down
to a couple of smaller caves
and see how they do.
[Franck] This will be
the exploration movie.
[Peter] We first went
into horizontal caves
where Franck and Conor
would climb around like monkeys.
[Franck] My hand is shaking.
Going in.
[Peter] Obviously, they wanted
to surge ahead
and see what's ahead.
[Conor] He taught us
just about the cave systems
up here
and how to cave.
[Peter] They got the hang of it
pretty quickly,
and then they bought
vertical gear,
they bought caving suits,
they bought caving gear,
and Bob's your uncle.
[Franck] Yeah, maybe halfway
down, halfway down,
you pull yourself
to the rebelay,
and you clip your cow's tail
just around...
around the beaten rope.
Yeah, maybe something
that works.
[Conor] Franck and I started
at the same time,
and he really took to it,
and he's just skyrocketed
with skill level.
[Peter] He's an excellent caver.
He organizes trips.
[Anouk] He was part
of the team, finally.
He was very happy about it.
[Peter] He's probably
the most driven caver
in our little group
on the north island here.
He's crazy for it.
[Franck] We always seek
to find new places,
so like we know
we want to go on Mars
or we want to go
back on the Moon,
and that's the appeal to me,
it's just to be the first
in that place.
[exhaling]
[calling] Hoo!
It's a tube. It's opening up.
Think we have to...
We have to dig
the fucking bank. So...
[Franck] It's a sport where
you don't have to be
like an astronaut
or any type
of special person
to discover new places.
[Franck] Oh, whoa, whoa...
[laughing]
[John] What's it doing?
What is it?
What does it look like?
[Franck] Anybody could
essentially do it,
and it's way more accessible
than going on the Moon.
In a world that is so mapped,
where, you know, Google Earth,
you can look at anything,
at any time,
anywhere on the planet,
really, the last frontiers
beyond space
and the deepest ocean
are caves.
It's hard for people to grasp
how little we understand
about what's there.
[Franck] Quickly after we got
accepted in the group,
we started to focus our efforts
on the ARGO system.
It's composed
of several caves,
and mainly we talk about
Glory 'Ole, Resonance, and Arch.
[Dennis] In the 40 years
that the exploration's
been going on
in the ARGO area,
the thought was always there
that it was always
a connected system.
In the last ten-plus years,
things have grown
closer and closer together
and becoming
more and more hopeful
that that real connection
will be there.
[Franck] The closest points
between Arch and Resonance,
there was a passage
that we've seen on one side,
we've seen on the other side.
It was so obvious
that on the other cave,
the tube was the same.
[Franck] I think
we could dig that shit.
I know.
-It's going straight.
-I know.
It's going straight into
a fucking tube over there.
That was a first step
into the longest cave in Canada.
There's two yardsticks
that cavers generally look at
when they're comparing caves,
and one is the depth,
and the other is the length,
and so the depth
is pretty simple.
That is the vertical distance
between the mouth
and the bottom of the cave.
The longest cave is a bit more
complicated
because popular conception
is that the cave
is kind of like a subway tunnel.
It's just this one line going
straight into the mountain,
but it's really more like
a set of roots.
It spreads out and there's
multiple passageways,
and the length of a cave
is the sum of all those fingers
and tendrils,
and if cavers
are able to connect
two adjoining cave systems,
it represents this massive
increase in length.
[Franck] Okay, I'm digging.
[Franck] It's a tube
filled with sediment,
and three years ago,
we start to dig in there.
Just another day at the office.
It's a tight office, though.
Why? Why are we doing this?
Unpaid forced work,
completely stupid.
If we had to call
how many hours,
it's... it's insane.
It's thousands of hours
between so many peoples
involved in that dig
over so many days.
Okay, bag is full.
[Conor] It reminded me of the
movie The Great Escape, almost.
Like, you're just digging
your way out of jail
with drag bags
and shovels and hoes
and moving spoils
like they were
going out of style.
-Bag!
-Okay.
-Bag!
-Okay.
[house music pumping]
[Conor] Franck's from Europe.
He loves the electronic music
and everything,
so whenever we dug,
to, you know, ease boredom,
we just pound electro music.
So every time you're doing it,
it's just... [imitates bass]
[laughing]
It's a classic Saturday.
[music pounding]
Okay.
It seems to be
a very slight, slight draft,
but...
We saw the connection
coming at one point.
We couldn't see each other,
but we start to hear each other.
[calling] Whoo! Whoo! Whoo!
That's good looking.
[Conor]
We had a smell connection,
because Rob was on the one side,
Franck and I were digging
on the other,
and there was
a meatball sub from Subway,
and you could just
smell that meatball
coming through the passages,
so then, of course,
we knew it... it connected.
Is that you, Peter?
That's Peter.
Holy fuck!
When you could see the hands
of the person on the other side
and start to see their shovels
and lights...
We got company, Dave!
Is this Arch Cave?
Not anymore!
This is a continuation
of Arch Cave.
I don't fucking believe it, man.
Welcome to the Resonance
entrance to the Arch Cave!
It's fucking hilarious.
[Franck] Well, that's it.
Like, we're are connected,
and this is one cave now.
Drinking at 3:00
in the afternoon, Franck.
Jesus fuck.
I mean, nine on a bottle,
I'm sure we'll be fine.
[Franck] So that was a big
milestone in the project,
because we just merged
two large caves into one,
and that became
the 17-plus-kilometre-long cave.
[cork popping]
-Whoo!
-That sounded good.
That sounded like the second
longest cave in Canada!
[Dennis] That many people
sitting in a little chamber
and just revelling in the joy
of making
such a fantastic connection.
I mean, we're not number one
at this point,
but number two in Canada
is nothing to sneeze at.
[Franck] And now we need
to connect Glory 'Ole,
which is the ultimate cave
in the system
that is still separate
from a human connection yet,
but Glory 'Ole,
once it's connected,
that's when we're going to have
the longest cave in Canada.
[]
[Andrea] Katie was always
a bit of a free spirit.
She was adventurous
and self reliant.
We would often find her
on the top of the garage
or walking the tightrope
on the top
of the six-foot fence.
She'd climb anything.
Katie's always
been really focused.
She used to get up
early in the morning,
she'd have her own breakfast.
she'd warm the car up
in the winter,
make her dad's coffee and toast,
and then get him
to drive her to school.
To go in those
dark, wet places
just seems very foreign,
but it's something
of the adventure
that just attracts her to it.
It's a true passion with her.
I don't try and understand it.
I just have to accept it, so...
That made me so uncomfortable.
Until I realized
you knew what you were doing.
[laughing]
I thought this was going
to become a rescue.
One of the most fun parts
about caving with Katie
is there's always
a fun side to it.
[screaming with laughter]
[Adam] Even when it's serious,
even when it's difficult,
even when it's scary,
Katie just brings
this fun side to it,
whether it's, you know,
sliding down the mountain
on a poop emoji.
[laughing]
It's still alive!
He didn't pop!
We can do it again!
You know, making puppets
out of... dead rats.
Winter is coming.
You know nothing, Jon Snow.
...or, you know,
she's always, you know,
on an expedition,
she's always got a little flask
of something fun
to keep spirits up, right,
so she definitely brings that
to the adventure.
[Katie] Rodents of unusual size?
I don't think they exist.
Raah!
[laughter]
Oh, Katie.
Okay.
[]
So the Bisaro project's
been going for a long time now,
and just in
the last couple of years,
they reached this low point
that included the sump,
and it came out that it was
a pretty complex operation.
[Bruce]
Many caves contain sumps,
which basically,
if you think of a pipe
that is folded in a U-shape,
water accumulates
in the bottom.
The only way through
is that they have
to put on scuba gear,
and in a very dangerous
operation,
find their way underwater
to the other side.
[Katie] My fixation
has been the sump.
It's kind of the problem
that I need to solve.
We needed 0.5 metres,
but below the water,
it looked really deep.
I'm really hoping
on the other side
is it goes down
and then it starts to come up,
and then we'll get back
into air passage.
[Adam] It's a deep sump,
it's very deep in the cave,
and no one else
has been training
for that kind of exploration.
All kinds of things
can go wrong.
Anything as simple
as equipment failure
to an actual emergency,
especially when you operate
in as remote a place
as Bisaro is.
And I said,
"If you need backup,
I'm willing to help you train.
I'm willing
to go into the cave
and be backup diver,"
whatever she needs
to help accomplish this goal.
Diving in caves
is enormously dangerous.
If you suffer
an equipment failure,
you are in very big trouble,
because there is
no air to breathe.
Therefore, practice,
strict rules,
a clear plan are all required.
[Katie] I'm trying to practice
laying the silt screws,
tying dive line onto it,
just all the things
that replicate the dive
as much as possible.
The other big problem
is finding your way out,
because often
there's lots of silt,
and so you're laying
this lifeline
and attaching it to rocks
as you go,
and if you lose that,
you're in a really
horrendous situation,
because if you can't
make contact
with that lifeline again,
essentially you have no way
out of that water,
and your oxygen
is going to run out.
[Jeremy]
She's put a lot of effort
into preparing
for this push.
She's done
a whole bunch of training,
she's bought
a whole bunch of gear,
and it's super exciting
for the rest of us
to support this effort.
[]
[Bruce] Deep caving is any cave
that you're pushing
so far down into
that you end up spending
a night or multiple nights.
In the subterranean world,
this involves
a huge amount of effort.
I can swap out
for that fifth tank.
As long as I only
breathe down one,
I'm not going to go any over.
[Katie] If it takes you
eight hours to get to work site
and then eight hours
to get back,
you can never
accomplish anything,
so we started camping
in the cave
so we can stay over a week.
Robin, Adam, Katie, and Matt
going and meeting...
[Katie] We've got multiple camps
throughout the cave,
and you need to know, like,
this bag needs to go
to this camp,
this bag needs
to go to that camp.
Each of those camps can only
accommodate a few people.
You're trying to balance
so many things
because it's very remote.
You need to bring everything
that you need to eat,
everything you might need
for exploration.
There's the inventory that
we have already in the cave,
and then what we need to bring.
So this is one breakfast
and one dinner,
another breakfast...
[Jeremy] The name of the game
with cave food
is to make it calorie dense,
so we make our own dried food.
So, Colin, you're labeling
two more for camp two.
Okay.
Does that look like a cookie?
-Uh...
-[chuckling]
It maybe looks like
what happens after the cookie?
After you eat it?
So who all is on
second week?
[planning conversations
continue]
[]
Yeah. In two hours,
we'll have all this surveyed.
[Franck] You think so?
You think in two hours
we'll survey all that?
Oh, yeah.
So I think...
I think I went down, Franck,
but there's something up...
up-trending here too.
[Franck] It's all about
the depth of the cave
and the length of the cave.
To measure that,
to get those numbers,
well, we need to survey them,
so that's when we are doing
the mapping.
You splay from here. Yep.
Just splay, but I don't have
to set up like a leg here first.
No, no, no. Yeah, yeah.
Start your splay from H-21.
There, you're on.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, I got it.
[Bruce] I think mapping
is a unique aspect to caving
because on the surface,
you know,
when we're climbing a mountain,
we know what's there.
We can already see the summit.
We know
what the route looks like...
[John] Yeah.
[Bruce] ...but in caves, no one
just kind of sprints down it
in this desire
to see how far it goes,
but they methodically map.
[Franck] So if there is
a good station at that junction,
that would be good.
[Erin] Okay. We'll try it.
[Bruce] One common misconception
is that we could maybe
just use sonar
or somehow remotely explore
these subterranean passageways,
and the truth is,
none of that works underground.
You can't penetrate
this rock with sonar
and find these open-air spaces.
You physically
have to go there.
It's the only way.
[Dennis] I ended up
being the daddy of the data.
The job of putting out
the 3D models,
it's a key part of the
connections that we've made
in the last couple of years,
and I'm sure it'll be a key
into what happens in the future.
Back in about 2016,
no one could figure out
where in the cave they were
from looking at the maps.
That was the spark for me
that said, I need to
do something about this.
[Franck] Dennis has been
spending hours now
to put that 3D model together.
[Dennis]
Slowly, the 40 years of data
is becoming one working 3D map
so that you can see
where you are in the cave
and have a working atlas.
[Bruce] The ability to put
all this data into a computer
and form these models
is really beneficial to cavers
because you have
a really accurate sense
of how close you are
to actually pushing
those two pieces together.
[]
[Franck] The first option
to connect
is the upper connection.
Either we try to connect
from Resonance
or we try to connect
from the Glory 'Ole side.
[Dennis] The challenge
on the Glory 'Ole side
is an absolutely stupendous pit
that needs to be climbed
from the bottom up.
[Franck] Hopefully we can reach
some passage
that eventually will head
towards Resonance.
[dog barking]
Roo roo roo roo roo!
Come here.
The rock duo.
[Peter] At ease, private.
Just looking at the 3D map
figuring out where you guys
are going to pop up.
-Oh, yeah?
-You're getting close.
John is in the sleeping bag
still, or?
Yeah. [laughing]
John, wake up!
The guy for the bolt climb
is John.
He has his drill,
and he's the guy that can bolt
the fastest of all.
[Peter]
Okay. Good luck, you guys.
[Franck] Connection Day.
-Yeah. You never know.
-[chuckling]
[John] Just about the beginning
of every caving trip,
Franck, he says,
"Come on, let's go.
It's Connection Day,"
or he'll text me and he's like,
you know, "You coming up
caving this weekend?"
and then he'll
text back right away,
"Connection Day."
[]
[John] The issue is
when the water is high,
and it's deep,
like at the vedos...
-Yeah.
-It's very deep, though.
[conversation continues]
Look, look,
look at the volume up there!
Like, it's just...
oh, this is nuts.
[Franck] Oh, it's
getting dark in here.
[John] Know what they say about
guys with bright lights, eh?
-[Franck laughs]
-No, it's true.
-Rope free!
-Okay!
[John] Which way?
You want me to go this way?
[Franck] Yeah. Kind of fun.
[John]
Well, you point to the left,
but you tell me to go
to the fucking right.
[John]
This is my favourite part.
[Franck] "My favourite part."
[laughing]
I guess I know why we don't
come here that often.
[John] To get to the climb,
there's a crawl
just after
one of the larger rooms
up towards the entrance.
It does have
the potential to flood.
If the waters
did get high enough,
that probably would go
right to the ceiling,
and would prevent anyone
from going in or out.
It would be not a fun time
for sure.
I was involved
in the Cascade Rescue
a few years back.
Some cavers had gone caving
when the water levels
were already high.
They got to the bottom
of the cave,
and on their way back,
they got stuck behind an area
that was called
"Double Trouble,"
so the entire stream
was passing through there,
to the point where
they couldn't get through.
[rescuer] Keep coming.
Come on, dude.
Speed up! Towards me!
Make a move! Come on.
Okay! Keep breathing!
Good!
You're fucking there, okay?
Dude, fucking...
Jay! Fucking look at me. Okay?
You made it, all right?
Gotta be really desperate
to try to get through
something like that.
So getting stuck
behind a flooded passage
is something
you wouldn't want to do.
That's why
just after the crawl,
we do have a rescue cache
just in case that was to happen.
[Franck] Get that one.
What is this, food?
[Dennis]
There is a bit of equipment.
There's some sleeping bags
and a little bit of food,
but I mean, I don't think
I'd want to spend
a lot of time in there myself.
[John]
We're trying to do one thing.
We're trying to connect,
and we just do what it takes,
and if it's
a 50-metre bolt climb...
[motor whirring]
...you just do it.
On rope.
[Franck] Fuck, it's beautiful
rock up there.
Aah...
[John] Ready?
[Franck] Yeah, I would...
yeah, I would go like "brrrr"
and then stay
on the nice wall there.
No? Okay. Well, it's...
let's get to work, I guess.
[drilling]
[Franck] Where is the dust?
-[John] You see it now?
-[Franck] I see it.
[John] That's cave dust.
Keeps you going.
[John] I love bolt climbing
because it is challenging.
It's hard.
I drill my hole.
I make my placement.
I hook on to it.
Yeah.
I yell down.
-Okay, going up.
I move myself up.
Drill a hole, clip in,
drill a hole, clip in.
[clipping]
[clipping]
Ooh.
That was a stretch.
That was a good one, buddy.
I can see in front of me
a little hole.
It's definitely
a horizontal passage,
which is awesome,
because I've been doing
nothing but vertical rock climb
for three weekends,
so finally it's like,
wow, we got something here.
-All right. I'm on rope.
-Okay.
[John] If it turns
the way that we're all hoping,
then it should lead us
right to Resonance.
[Franck] Hey, John...
[John] Can I get
some more slack?
[Franck] No, no, no, no.
You stay here.
[John] Oh, come on.
[Franck]
You stay. Stay here, John.
[John] Slack.
[Franck] Come here!
Come back here! [laughing]
[John] Whenever we're going
into passage...
[Franck] Keep him on the leash!
He's got to keep me back,
because he's right.
If I see open passage,
virgin passage,
I am like, gone.
[Franck]
Where are you going, John?
[John] I just can't help myself.
[John] I need more slack.
[Franck]
You see something there?
[John] And it goes down
around the corner.
I don't know what it's doing,
and it goes up right here.
[John] Crawling through,
I got to the other side,
and the passage just opened up.
It was huge.
[Franck] It's just too much.
Aah!
[John] Well, let's go up.
[Franck] But we have
to go in this area.
Right here.
-Yeah.
And right now,
the passage is going there.
Well, but it could be
going that way
once we get up high.
[Franck] So it could.
It could turn. Yeah.
It probably turns.
[laughter]
100% chance.
There's a 10% chance it'll turn.
Usually it does
what we think, eh?
We seem to have
a lot of failures,
but we seem to enjoy it,
so they don't really feel
so much like failures.
I guess we're still caving.
We're still
accomplishing something.
We're just not
making a connection.
Yeah, we'll have to come back.
I guess it wasn't
Connection Day after all.
[John] It was close.
Tomorrow, maybe.
Tomorrow may be Connection Day.
[Franck] I think, yeah,
it's some sort
of an addiction, I guess,
because we look at that map
and it's like, damn.
There has to be another way.
They always talk about
the longest cave in Canada.
That's the main goal.
It's just like...
but I think it's what
drives them a bit crazy
about it.
It's when everything
started to change for me
is when he's starting to cave
more, like, full days,
12, 14, 16 hours.
It was not fun to me anymore.
We had kids, and I starting
to worry a lot.
[Peter] Caving is probably
the slowest sport in the world.
You know, it takes hours
to go hundreds of metres.
Quite often, you get back
late at night
or early the next morning,
and I was joking about it,
telling him,
"You'll be divorced
before you know it, Franck.
Your caving career
will kill your married life."
[Anouk] So I always tell him,
don't tell me
what time you're coming home,
because I know it's going to be
later than you said.
[Franck] With the family,
it's an issue, I will say.
That's my fault,
because I should be a little bit
more able to gauge all that
and try to find
the right balance.
If we connect,
that will be
something definitely
that will slow me down
after that,
because I have to be there also,
both for her
and for the kids,
we have young kids,
and their dad
is working all week,
and then he's caving
on the weekend,
and it's like, well, I mean,
at one point we have
to find the balance again.
[Anouk reads] ...safe at home
with his father and mother.
[Franck] It's a tough balance
when you have all those caves
in the backyard.
[Anouk]
...turn into a butterfly.
[Franck] But like Peter said,
they are here,
and they will never move,
so, yeah, I should maybe
listen to him a little bit more.
...all of us will go there,
so we probably want
to look at everything,
but, I mean, the main...
the main thing is...
[Peter] They wanted
to go to the GLORP
because there could be
a possible connection
to Glory 'Ole Cave,
which is what
we're trying to connect.
[Franck] If you look at a map,
we try to connect
those two caves,
but we are always trying
from Glory 'Ole...
Because from the other side,
we have to go through
the GLORP,
and, like, we don't want
to go through the GLORP.
[Peter] You know what
the GLORP stands for?
Anybody ever tell you?
G.L.O.R.P. stands for gooey...
lubricated...
ooey rectal passage.
[laughing]
It's been 17 years
no one has been
through the GLORP,
and there is only foggy memories
of what the GLORP is.
That's my writing.
So that's my...
I did the notes. Huh!
There's my own...
I haven't even seen...
I haven't seen these
for 20 years.
I think I have a picture
of somebody going through
the squeeze in the GLORP.
This is what you look like
when you go...
when we used to go through,
you'd come out like that.
[laughing]
[John] Peter is submerged in mud
up to his shoulders,
and Peter is a smiley guy,
and even he wasn't smiling.
I don't like real tight spaces,
never mind
when they're full of mud,
but Peter's painted
a pretty good picture,
and it doesn't sound like
it's going to be a good time.
We were just sliding down
100 miles an hour,
I was goofing, and it was
flash right at the bottom.
Now it's just
a big mess of mud.
It's probably
still that way, too.
Oh, yeah.
When we ask Peter
about what's
on the other side of the GLORP,
there is a photo of what
they call the Wedding Cake.
That's only the thing.
Like, if you go on
the other side of the GLORP,
you're going to see
the Wedding Cake, so...
Well, we can't wait to see
the wedding cake, then.
That's it.
It's happening tomorrow.
I know we are ready to go.
Let's see what they find.
[John]
Beginning of Resonance Cave
is actually one of
my favourite entrances.
[Conor]
Why it's called Resonance
is it reverberates sound...
Woo! Woo! Woo!
[Conor]
...and it's kind of a tradition
when you're going in there,
you kind of sing or something.
Yo-ba
Whoo-hoo!
[playing harmonica]
[Peter] I took my harmonicas
into Resonance Cave
because of the acoustics,
they are phenomenal,
and we goofed around.
It all started
with Adrian Duncan,
and he decided that we should
make a band
and we all should be cavers,
so Adrian would write songs,
I'd learn my harmonica bit,
and they're about
various subjects about caving.
Dangerous Dick
and the Duckbusters.
A duck is a pool of water
in a cave
where you have to pretty well
go through it,
but there's still air space,
so duckbusters
are people who do that.
We bust the duck.
[playing harmonica]
Whoo!
[Franck] I wasn't there
at the time the band was formed,
but he turned
all that awful moments
into something very funny
and very sarcastic,
and the songs are here
to translate all kind of mood
and stuff you go through
while you are caving.
Down, down, down
in the underground
If you hear a sound
don't turn around
There's lots
of scary beasties
All around the pots
But the caver
is the strangest of the lot
Yeah.
You have
the duct tape with you?
Yeah, I got it here.
[John] Someone bought
some expendable white suits.
[Franck] We are going
in area 51 next.
[John] We could wear these
so that when we got
to the other side,
we could take them off
and we could try
to keep the cave cleaner.
Kind of look
like the Ghostbusters.
Is this the Vomit Comet?
Well, it's the bottom of it.
Yeah. It's going to be...
it's going to be an ugly one.
[]
[Conor] So the Vomit Comet,
basically it's the drainage
of the GLORP,
so it's all just mud and slick
and slippery.
[Franck] Getting a little bit
more interesting
by the metres here.
[Conor]
Cavers going ahead of you,
they kind of disturb
the water and the mud,
and the sound of it, too,
like when you're going
up the Vomit Comet,
it literally sounds
like a toilet flushing.
[Franck]
Yeah. This is crazy shit.
Moan, groan
Whinging away
Bitching and griping
the whole bleeding day
This is where I'm going to get
a fucking soaker.
My socks are going to get wet.
You're already grumpy.
...caver's complaint
Why did the good lord
make water so wet?
Getting soaked to the skin
makes it hard to forget
That if caving was meant to be
our favourite thing
We'd be born wearing drysuits
instead of our skin
Ahh, good times!
Moan, groan
[Erin] It's times like this
I question why
I want to spend
my fucking Saturdays like this.
...caver's complaint
[Franck] That's the tube that
is going to the GLORP, yeah.
Once we arrive at the GLORP,
it looks fantastic.
We realized basically
you are just crawling
into a digestive tube,
and you have diarrhea.
It's getting deep here, guys.
[Erin] Oh, this wasn't
deep already?
-[Franck] No.
-[Erin] Oh.
[Franck] No. Definitely not.
So roll out your grumbles
no need for restraint
Let's hear the rest
of your caver's complaint
Why do the crawlways
get choked up with mud
Go just a few metres
and you're covered with crud
And that's when your drybag
develops a leak
So when you eat lunch
there'll be mud on your teeth
Moaning and groaning
and whining all day
If it weren't for the gripes
there'd be nothing to say
I've heard enough bitching
to last for some time
Stick your caver's complaints
where the sun doesn't shine
It's a boy! It's a boy!
Aw. That's fucking awful.
[Franck] I don't know if it was
an enjoyable moment,
but definitely
looking at each other
and we were like,
okay, this is ridiculous.
[Conor] You're going through
stream ways,
and it's quite beautiful.
Not a lot of people have seen
that side of Resonance.
Is that the Wedding Cake?
[Franck] We reached that room
where there's the Wedding Cake,
and the Wedding Cake
is just there sitting,
and it takes a bit of time
to realize
on which angle it's sitting
and try to see that picture
that everybody saw,
and because
that's the only picture
we have from that side.
The famous Wedding Cake
is right here in front of us.
It's creamy, eh?
Creamy moonmilk flowstone.
[Franck] The main objective
was to explore,
or reexplore, at least,
the known passage.
It's pretty wet here.
Like, slippery.
[John] We went straight to where
we felt the lead was.
[Franck] Is there something,
John, or?
[John] It just plugs here.
[John]
When we got to the bottom,
Franck and I quickly discovered
that definitely it was plugged.
It wasn't going to be
our connection.
[Franck] This is
so fucked up, though.
[John] Yeah. I felt like
there was a draft in here.
[Franck] Because this is, like,
Glory 'Ole is, like...
It's like this way.
Like, right there.
There is nothing obvious,
nothing that tells us
the connection
is imminent on that side,
so at that point,
we just decide
to turn around.
[John] God damn this cave.
Why doesn't it just
give us a connection?
Just do it. Oh well.
[wind whistling]
[helicopter blades whirring]
[Katie]
We finally assembled the team,
people that are strong,
talented in multiple things,
so just really excited
to go back and do it right.
I wanted to dive that sump
and get the deepest cave
in Canada.
[Adam] My goal was to help Katie
achieve her goals,
and I wanted her to do it
as safely as possible.
One of the risks that
we run into in exploration
is when you put a lot of effort
into an expedition,
you can feel obligated to push,
and I felt that Katie
was getting on the verge
of pushing harder
than she should,
and I wanted to give her
some backup.
you can only really take
one bag with you.
I can take three. I don't care.
Do you guys
want me to take three?
I don't know. How many is there?
There is nine here. No. Seven.
Two, four, six, seven.
Why don't I leave this one
and bring the tank?
-Awesome.
-Are there two tanks there?
[Katie] After six hours
with more than 40 pounds,
people start
to get pretty drained.
You're asking people
to haul your delicate dive gear.
It's heavy, it's awkward,
and it's got to be moved
through kilometres of passage.
The bag is just like
the worst burden of your life.
There's always double the bags
that you thought there would be,
and you're like, Where
did all these bags come from?
[asking a question]
Yeah, 'cause it's just like
a little bit of this nonsense,
and then we get up
into Double Barrel.
Pulling...
Give 'er.
Ugh, it's so nasty.
Oh, gross.
It's like scooping it up.
I see it
as a liquid clay bath.
It lets you wallow
in your misery.
[Katie] My hobbies
would suggest that, yes,
I like the suffering
of type-two fun.
I like this reward that comes
at the end of the struggle,
so most things I do are sort of
some version of suffering.
Whoo!
[laughter]
[Jeremy] If you're thinking
that camping in a cave
is like camping out
in the wilderness,
you'd be pretty off
for what it's like in Bisaro.
That one's...
yeah, that one's not so wet.
[Katie] Camping
in a refrigerator
on a bed of boulders.
It's not
the most luxurious camp.
Get the old dinner coat on.
Hey?
It's lobster night, isn't it?
[gas hissing]
This looks deluxe, huh?
I don't even know
what's in here.
Look at that.
[Katie] Everybody just wants
to get in their bed,
because that's the only time
you're really warm.
Setting up
the penthouse suite here,
setting up a hammock.
[Jeremy] In Bisaro,
we do leave our sleeping bags
and our sleep sets
in the cave permanently.
This is because it's so
challenging to get them there
in the first place,
so it's always a bit
of a question mark
when you get to camp,
if your sleeping bag's
gonna be a little bit
wet or stinky,
but you can usually dry it out
by sleeping in it.
There's literally no way
to dry anything down here
except for your own body heat,
which means that if you want
your clothes to dry,
you literally have
to wear them to bed wet,
so there's really
no avoiding the wet.
I am literally sitting
or laying in a swimsuit.
[Katie] You're in
the underground drainage
of a past ice age.
It's a hard place
to spend a week.
[Adam] Camping underground
comes with the complexities
of going to the bathroom
underground.
Because of the temperature
of the cave,
we can't leave anything behind,
because it stays there
permanently,
it's a refrigerator,
so everything
that we take underground,
even the poop, has to come back
out of the cave with us.
[Katie] It's one of those things
people don't really
want to talk about,
but crapping in a Ziploc bag
and hauling it out
is a talent
and something special.
[Adam]
So you go to the bathroom,
your waste goes into a bag,
and that bag
goes into a container
and that container
goes into your backpack
and that backpack
comes out of the cave,
so the whole process overall
is not pleasant, but necessary.
So how was it?
The Ziploc bag
unfolded on me halfway
through, mid-flight,
and we had a little...
hang fire.
It was managed with my
12 sheets of toilet paper.
[chuckling]
On that note, let's go caving.
Yeah, that's kind of
the way.
[Adam] Probably
the next big challenge
is called the Heil Squeeze,
which is quite a tight spot.
I think I might have been
supposed to go that way.
Okay.
We have a lot of equipment
to haul with us
down through the cave,
and everything's got to go
through that one tight squeeze.
Oh, I can't wait for that.
Sometimes it means
unpacking our bags
to pass the pieces through
one at a time,
and then repacking
on the other side.
[straining]
Kick the shit
out of that one.
Give me one second here.
Do you want to come back out,
or what do you want to do?
Um...
Do you want
to try to go through?
-Good job.
-I got it.
-Yeah. Good job.
-Thank you.
Crushed that one.
[Adam] When you're
exploring downwards,
there's this part of you
that is always thinking,
Oh, I have to go back up.
I have to make it back to camp.
If something goes wrong,
it's going to be really hard
to get back up to the surface.
Whenever you're under pressure,
when you put yourself
under pressure
to chase after your objective,
there's always the risk
that you're going
a little too hard.
I'm soaking wet.
And we're moving really slow.
[Katie]
On day two of the expedition,
we were already
kind of like behind schedule,
and you could
just see in their faces,
like, they were exhausted,
like, they had already
been punched in the gut.
Holy shit, like,
how do I get this
back on track?
So, okay, I need,
I need to pick it up.
I need to pick it up here
and move.
Start moving bags.
[falling]
[Katie crying out]
[gasping]
Fuck.
Aah...
[gasping]
I don't know.
Oh.
Yeah.
[gasping]
Yeah.
[Katie] In a deep cave,
you don't just call a rescue.
We are the rescue.
There's nobody else
that's coming.
I'm so deep
in the "don't fuck up" zone,
and I just fucked up.
Fuck.
[Bruce] As you progress deeper
and deeper into the cave,
you are really becoming
highly isolated.
You often hear analogies
about it's like going
to very high altitude
in the Himalayas,
and I would say a rescue
from deep in a cave
is more difficult than
a rescue at high altitude,
and really, your survival
at that point
is dependent on the support
of the small team
that's with you right then.
[groaning]
[Katie] I just rolled it,
and it kind of...
kind of felt like it...
something was beside something
that wasn't supposed to be.
I think you should get to 1.5
and get into a sleeping bag
before you go hypothermic.
Okay, so you guys good to work
with Katie back to 1.5?
Yeah.
[Katie] I'm in pain,
but it's manageable
if I don't step on it,
so I realize I'm going to have
to crawl out of the cave,
so it's going to take
a long time,
and I need to not be
more of a burden
than I already am.
Oh, my god.
Uhh...
[Adam] It's impressive
to think of Katie
getting out of the cave
on her own.
It's hard to convey
how difficult that would be
with two legs, let alone one.
How was your journey?
[Katie] I don't know.
It's already going down
a bit today?
-Nice work.
-Whoo!
[Adam] So, over the course
of three days,
Katie was able to make her way
out of the cave.
How's the ankle?
Um... it's okay.
[laughter]
Whoo!
Oh, man.
[laughter]
From the way she was able
to move on the ankle,
we just assumed it was
a sprain or a strain.
[Katie]
We flew off the mountain,
and then we go to the pub
and have a burger,
and then
we went to the hospital,
and they did an X-ray,
and they said to come back
tomorrow morning for surgery
because it was broken
and needed
a bunch of plates and pins.
[Adam] I think she earned extra
kudos from the team members
knowing that she got out
on her own steam
to discover more...
I do understand
from just the little bit
I've been able to do
is you see a path
and you don't know what is next.
You always want to go further,
and so it's very exciting.
I could tell him
not to go caving anymore,
and he would probably do it,
because I think he cares,
but then I know
he would be unhappy,
so I choose to let him
do what he wants,
so he can be happy.
It's really easy to say,
why on earth
are cavers doing this?
Does it have any meaning?
[Bruce] One thing about humans
is that we can have
all our needs met,
we're clothed
and housed and fed,
and normally,
most other species at that point
are satisfied,
but we now at that point
go and burrow down
into the earth
or climb mountains
or, you know, zip through space
to other planets,
because there's something
deep inside us
about wanting to know
what's around the next corner.
We're a curious species.
We want to do more
than survive and reproduce.
We want to keep ourselves
interested and excited.
[Bruce] What we see in cavers,
this curiosity,
this willingness to suffer,
this interest
in pushing the limits
is the kind of factor in humans
that has allowed us to kind of
advance our society
and our technical understanding
and our geographical
understanding
to live as we do.
[speaking in French]
[Franck] I try to cave, like,
what I think is reasonable,
which is one weekend out of two.
It's one of the rare sports
at least that I've done
where we just keep
talking about it
when we are outside the cave,
and if I found a new cave,
so right away,
I'm, like, damn, I need
to go there this weekend,
and it's like, well,
I can't go with the kids.
Up, up, up.
[speaking in French]
Yeah, it's a tough balance.
So I say, well,
once it's connected,
maybe I'll just slack down,
but I guess the connection
is something tough to get.
[speaking in French]
We are about to leave
from Port McNeill
in a couple months,
and uh, to maybe, uh,
reestablish some sort
of a balance with the family
is to sail back to France,
so we are just in the process
of buying a boat, a sailboat.
We plan to leave
next spring, basically.
I think hopefully
we can turn that
into like very valuable time
with the family
and some sort of a reconnection.
I mean, I can't get away
from the boat
and go caving on the weekends,
so unfortunately,
it will come to that
where I probably have
to cut it right off.
We'll have to find
a quick connection,
something that can be done
in a couple trips.
Time is running out,
but I know
I'm getting close now,
because we found something new.
[John] Franck was at the bottom
of Resonance cave,
and down at the sump,
he found little orange
particles of rope.
When he came out of cave,
he contacted me,
and it's like
"Where would this come from?"
And I was thinking,
well, the only place
we used orange rope in a while
was Glory 'Ole.
[Peter] Now, winter came along,
the water levels came way up,
and the water just rushes
through those caves,
demolishing any ropes
in the way,
and lo and behold,
we found
bits of this orange rope
in the bottom of Arch Cave,
and in the bottom
of Resonance Cave.
[John] So basically found it
in all the sumps
at the bottom
of the ARGO system.
It proves that the water
at least connects somewhere,
because we found the orange rope
in all three caves.
[Franck] Maybe we can connect
those caves
from the bottom this time.
For the longest time
on the Arch map,
there was a tiny portion
of the survey
with a little label said
"sump, dived for one kilometre."
Peter knew that one kilometre
was a mistake,
and it was actually
a hundred metres...
so we really start to look
for information
about that dive,
because if some people dove
in Arch before,
we need to know
what they were looking for
and what they found.
A bit of digging was done
to understand who was involved,
because all I heard from Peter
was, "Oh, it's a bunch
of French guys."
Eventually,
after spending time
to go through
all the Canadian Cavers,
we found
in one of the old versions
a report from the dive,
and the person involved
was Daniel Caron.
[Peter]
Franck thought "Actually,
why don't we
contact Daniel Caron
and talk to him about the dive?"
He replies, and I'm like,
"Okay, wow, look, he's here."
The main thing
that he remembered
is they turned around
because he run out of line,
of dive line,
so the thing
actually keeps going.
Maybe we can connect
those pieces from the bottom
this time.
Okay, so we need to send
someone back there.
Here's my bed,
and then the dog sleeps there.
[Franck] If we want to get
that dive connection,
we'll need a lot of people
and a strong diver,
because the dive itself,
it's a technical dive,
it's dangerous,
but there is a cave diver
in the U.S.
that was available
to do that dive.
We can rally a whole bunch
of people from the island,
and they will come.
You need strong people,
you need people that knows
what they are doing on ropes,
that knows the caves,
and we talk about heavy bags
of equipment to carry
and get the diver
set to do his dive.
[Franck] Basically the trip
consists of bringing seven bags
that's all the equipment
the diver needs on that dive,
down to the bottom of Arch Cave.
[Peter] And see if we can
connect the bottom of Arch Cave
with the bottom
of Glory 'Ole Cave.
Yeah.
You're like,
oh, you just walk in it.
Holy fuck, that's heavy.
Want me to lift that?
-I told you it was heavy.
-It's fucking ridiculous.
All right.
There's two D rings back here.
The front one wiggles...
Yeah.
...and the back one does not.
It goes on the back one,
the pink.
The pink bolt, snap. Yep.
-Attachment.
[Franck] I'm just clipping pipes
and bottles to his harness
and it's just like,
pssh, pssh, pssh.
Just push?
Yeah, they should
push together and click.
Okay.
"Okay, take that clip,
take that strap,"
and I'm trying to do my best,
but really, I don't know
what I'm doing.
To be honest, it was a bit
of a scary moment,
because that guy
is about to go...
Okay, it worked.
...where absolutely
no one can follow him.
If anything happens,
he's on his own.
See you at 3:30 p.m.
3:30? Okay. Good luck.
This is crazy. This is crazy.
Yeah. This is crazy.
Fuck.
[Franck] The only thing we see
is the diveline moving,
and we know basically
okay, he is alive.
The line is moving.
I probably got halfway
through my sandwich,
and he was there.
So...
I made it
to the end of Daniel's line,
25 metres past where he went,
but then I gotta
wiggle through something
that's like half this height.
It's not possible
to go up it in dive gear,
so I surveyed my way back.
Good job, buddy.
[Franck] I'm glad I'm staying
here for the rest of my life
so I can explore that system.
Fucking shit.
-You are?
-I'm not. Yeah.
-Yeah.
[John] Kind of fucked, really,
you're leaving one of
the largest caves in Canada,
and it's, like,
basically all yours.
[Franck] I know.
Well, don't even start me
on that, John.
[John] I know.
In terms of connection,
it's basically like a failure...
But there is one other option.
There is another sump
in the cave in Resonance,
and for us,
it hasn't been even an option
to think about
bringing a diver there
because it's too complicated.
If we can't bring a diver,
well, we can bring a drone,
and luckily, the film crew,
they had a drone
available for that.
Excited?
Yeah.
[laughing]
Robot connection.
The machines are taking over.
Now it's our ultimate push,
basically.
It's like, okay, if...
if it's too hard
to bring the human,
well, we'll bring the robot.
I'm the optimistic in the group,
so I'm 95% sure.
-95?
-Oh, yeah. Yeah.
[sighing]
I think we're all good.
Let's just...
let's just go, that's it.
[Franck] So another crew will be
waiting on the other side.
Myself and Erin went in
on the Glory 'Ole side,
and we waited there
for this drone to come to us.
Here, droney.
Here, drone, drone,
drone, drone, drone.
[Franck] Okay,
you're at 20 metres now.
Yeah, the cable is going.
Oh, my God, you're
covering distance here.
[Franck] The theoretical
distance between the two sumps
was about 60 metres.
Okay, that's 55.
And you shouldn't be
super, super far now.
I mean, it's 55, I'm almost
getting to 60, and...
Does that sound like...
little propellers underwater?
Whoa!
Whoa. Whoa!
-Hoo-hoo-hoo!
-Look at that!
Holy shit! No way!
Oh, no, no, no!
No, no, no, no.
No, it's just air.
It's a bubble of air,
and it's the light
from the drone.
-Jesus.
-A false alarm.
Okay, look at this.
The cable
just doesn't want to follow.
No?
It's just too much drag
on the cable, on the tether.
We are probably
not too, too far.
It's really hard.
I mean, I don't know what to do.
Pulling hard on the cable,
at some point,
it's just going to break it.
I did my best, guys.
-Okay.
-I think this is it.
So we're just
a few metres, potentially, away?
-Probably. Probably.
-[chuckling]
[sighing]
Caving is a bunch
of disappointments...
until you reach your goal.
Well, it's, uh...
Aw, man.
Well...
lots more work to do.
Lots more work.
[Katie] I was out
for about four weeks.
When the skin healed,
then I was kind of back
moving and doing stuff.
The conclusion
of that expedition
was that I had an objective
not achieved,
so then I was just like
kind of hyper focused
on getting back to it
and kind of
getting this thing done.
[Andrea] I don't always know
exactly what happens
on the expeditions.
She tends to wean me
slowly to the truth.
Oftentimes I'll know
about what happened,
but I don't know
until I read articles
the whole truth.
Whoo!
[laughter]
How was it
getting out of the cave?
[Katie] It was actually...
oh, it's totally fine.
Which is not surprising at all.
[Katie] Well, just, like, making
such a big deal out of it.
Like, it turns out you don't,
like, walk very much anyway.
"It's fine. I'm just going
to need a few screws."
[Andrea] I don't like it
when she breaks her legs
or gets trapped in caves, but...
I can't stop her.
[]
[Katie]
I wanted to dive that sump.
We needed 0.5 metres,
so we pulled it together
and went down,
I think at Thanksgiving.
it took us two days
to get to the bottom.
I'm standing
in a dripping waterfall,
trying to rig ropes,
wearing my wet suit,
all so I can go for a swim
at the bottom of the cave
on Thanksgiving.
What the fuck
is wrong with my life?
So I start to kind of
prep the gear,
and one of the tanks
was totally empty.
We're just like, Oh, my God.
Shit.
Fuck.
It's... only has a third left,
so it's, like, it's not empty,
but it's not very...
not very useful.
The effort it takes
to haul a scuba tank
three kilometres of crawling
and get all the way
to the bottom
and realize
that it's not useful,
it's totally empty.
But you're like, we're in there,
you got one shot,
so we gotta do
as much as I can.
[Jeremy]
If she does dive through
and end up on the other side,
we don't really know
what we're going to find.
It's a new level of the cave.
It could be small.
It could be huge.
[Katie] So, yes.
[Jeremy] But that's only
a small part of the story.
It's not entirely just about
being the first person
to be somewhere.
There's way more to it
than that.
Exploration is fundamentally
a personal journey.
There's the process,
the effort, the people,
and the sense of hardship
and relief when it's all over.
It all adds up to this, like,
incredible, intoxicating mix
that you get addicted to.
It can't end like this.
[laughing]
Uh...
[blowing]
Hey, Katie.
Let's get the fuck out of here.
All right.
[Katie] I was so fixated
on getting that "deepest cave
in Canada" marker.
I achieved that,
but I was devastated
that the tank was empty
and I couldn't really
do a complete dive,
so I've been dreaming
of that tube,
taking all this water.
That is the limit
of what I know, right?
What I've seen.
And then you're like,
what happens beyond that?
[Bruce] With caving,
you inevitably end
by reaching a dead end.
There isn't that moment
of standing on the summit
and taking the view.
You basically go on deeper
and deeper and deeper
into the earth
and reach the dead end,
and you're going
to crawl back out.
[Franck] I wish I could be
part of the connection.
I'm going away,
and, and that's...
that's part of, like,
what life is.
[children laughing]
And maybe someone else
will do that connection.
I'll just have to
make my peace with that,
that I won't be part
of the connection,
and that's fine too.
Whoo-hoo!
Whoo-hoo!
[John]
It's hard to find somebody
[John]
It's hard to find somebody
that will spend
18 hours with you
that will spend
18 hours with you
getting cold and muddy,
getting cold and muddy,
getting out of a cave
at 4:00 in the morning
getting out of a cave
at 4:00 in the morning
and being happy about it,
and can't wait to ask me
and being happy about it,
and can't wait to ask me
"When are you going
to come back?"
"When are you going
to come back?"
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. It's going to be hard
finding somebody to do that.
Down, down, down
in the underground
Down, down, down
in the underground
If you hear a sound
don't turn around
If you hear a sound
don't turn around
There's lots
of scary beasties
But the caver
is the strangest of the lot
If you ever spend
your Halloween a-caving
You'll find the Balrog
ballroom deeper down
The skeletons
rattle their broken bones...