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Canadian team confirms presence of huge unexplored cave in British Columbia

canadiangeographic.ca

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Re: Canadian team confirms presence of huge unexplored cave in British Columbia

#81

Post by avar »

dmix wrote: post #74
avar wrote: post #31

It's on OpenStreetMap already https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/651633176 and someone's named it the "Sarlacc Pit" (Star Wars reference). Unclear if the OSM editor came up with it or if it's from somewhere else.

>Bevan Ernst, a regional caribou biologist with the ministry, called it “Sarlaac Pit” (a reference to a subterranean creature that made a brief appearance in the film Return of the Jedi). Pollack added that the name Ernst gave the pit is unofficial and temporary. BC Parks is consulting with local First Nations to determine whether a traditional Indigenous name for the cave exists.

Thanks. As ggsp pointed out I missed that when reading the article.

Curious that they're going to consult with First Nations about whether there's an existing name. "Yeah we knew about that giant hole, just never thought to mention it before".

Re: Canadian team confirms presence of huge unexplored cave in British Columbia

#83

Post by ams6110 »

cthalupa wrote: post #41
contingencies wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quite likely. I have no idea why this was downvoted. It's usually the case native populations had far greater knowledge than they are ever credited for. Perhaps they will find some evidence of humans inside.

It's quite possible that the indigenous population knew of the cave, but it's very unlikely they ever purposefully descended into it. There's not much reason to, and it would be a very difficult descent.

"Not much reason to, and very difficult" describes most of the history of human population expansion over the globe.

"To see what is there" has been reason enough most of the time.

Re: Canadian team confirms presence of huge unexplored cave in British Columbia

#84

Post by markstos »

avar wrote: post #31

It's on OpenStreetMap already https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/651633176 and someone's named it the "Sarlacc Pit" (Star Wars reference). Unclear if the OSM editor came up with it or if it's from somewhere else.

Google Maps has picked up the name "Saarlac Pit", spelled differently than OpenStreetMap, so apparently they have a second source for the name. It's about 40 miles from from the nearest road as the crow files, throughout mountainous terrain.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/52%C2%B030'59.9%22N+120%C2...

I can see how it escaped discovery.

Re: Canadian team confirms presence of huge unexplored cave in British Columbia

#85

Post by clubm8 »

assblaster wrote: post #46
avip wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BC is 950K km^2 with less than 5M people (drop Metro Vancouver and it's 2.5M). So 1.5 the size of France, the majority of which basically looks like Wells Gray (though Wells Gray has some extra beautiful spots). There are dozens of "Wells Gray like" parks, and most visitors don't hike up the mountains (and surely not off trails). So it's missable in theory. [EDIT]: also mentioned in another cover - explorers believe…

Are there any satellite imaging surveys or aerial surveys 50+ years ago that can confirm the assertion that the cave entrance has been covered with snow 100% of the time before 50 years ago?

>Are there any satellite imaging surveys or aerial surveys 50+ years ago that can confirm the assertion that the cave entrance has been covered with snow 100% of the time before 50 years ago?

You think people comb through satellite photos to look for cave entrances?

Re: Canadian team confirms presence of huge unexplored cave in British Columbia

#86

Post by clubm8 »

i_feel_great wrote: post #17
beefsack wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It boggles the mind that something that massive didn't get picked up sometime, especially in this age of broadly accessibly high quality satellite imagery.

Maybe the indigenous people knew about it

> Maybe the indigenous people knew about it

Or the military.

Re: Canadian team confirms presence of huge unexplored cave in British Columbia

#87

Post by assblaster »

clubm8 wrote: post #85
assblaster wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there any satellite imaging surveys or aerial surveys 50+ years ago that can confirm the assertion that the cave entrance has been covered with snow 100% of the time before 50 years ago?

>Are there any satellite imaging surveys or aerial surveys 50+ years ago that can confirm the assertion that the cave entrance has been covered with snow 100% of the time before 50 years ago? You think people comb through satellite photos to look for cave entrances?

I was only asking what the basis was for the assertion that the cave entrance has been persistently covered with snow year-round prior to 50 years ago.

Re: Canadian team confirms presence of huge unexplored cave in British Columbia

#88

Post by cmrdporcupine »

walrus01 wrote: post #27
Fnoord wrote: post #2

There's a river going there, how could this have been missed? Anyone got a map of this?

BC is huge . For this particular spot, it's a very long distance from the nearest road, even one passable by high clearance 4x4. Unless you had the valley it's in as a specific destination, would be easy to miss. It is also not accessible by float plane, so either a multi day hike or helicopter. If you look at where the population is concentrated in BC, the 10 largest cities, take a look at the total population of th…

No, this is actually quite close to a quite heavily traffic'd area -- Mt Robson and Jasper National Park are quite close. The town of Valemount not far. Hwy 16, the northern branch of the Transcanada Highway, the route between Edmonton (major city population ~1million and about 5 hours away) and most of B.C. is like 50km away. There is a major 4-season ski resort being built in Valemount over the next few years. Hiking, heli-sking, mountain biking, and snowmobiling are big sports in the area.

This is not some remote arctic outpost.

Re: Canadian team confirms presence of huge unexplored cave in British Columbia

#89

Post by celticninja »

avar wrote: post #81
dmix wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Bevan Ernst, a regional caribou biologist with the ministry, called it “Sarlaac Pit” (a reference to a subterranean creature that made a brief appearance in the film Return of the Jedi). Pollack added that the name Ernst gave the pit is unofficial and temporary. BC Parks is consulting with local First Nations to determine whether a traditional Indigenous name for the cave exists.

Thanks. As ggsp pointed out I missed that when reading the article. Curious that they're going to consult with First Nations about whether there's an existing name. "Yeah we knew about that giant hole, just never thought to mention it before".

It might be more, yeah we knew about it and didn't want it fucked up with graffiti and litter so we didn't tell you about it.

Or even, we have stories about it but the location was lost.

Re: Canadian team confirms presence of huge unexplored cave in British Columbia

#90

Post by aaron695 »

celticninja wrote: post #89
avar wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks. As ggsp pointed out I missed that when reading the article. Curious that they're going to consult with First Nations about whether there's an existing name. "Yeah we knew about that giant hole, just never thought to mention it before".

It might be more, yeah we knew about it and didn't want it fucked up with graffiti and litter so we didn't tell you about it. Or even, we have stories about it but the location was lost.

> didn't want it fucked up with graffiti and litter so we didn't tell you about it.

If only everyone else in the world was this selfish and kept things secret, what a better place it would be!

Why would people go all that way to it to graffiti and litter it?

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