Frontispiece: The amusing silhouette and namesake of the Big Friendly Giant entrance (best appreciated after 6+ days in the cave). All in-cave photos by Neil Silverwood.Stormy Pot is a new system found on Mt Arthur in early 2011 by some of the keener cavers in New Zealand. Over several trips they pushed the cave to great lengths and depths. When they plotted up their surveys at the end of the trip they found the cave to be within hundreds of meters of connecting to New Zealand's deepest through-trip, Nettlebed Cave. Such a connection would be the first >1km deep throughtrip in New Zealand (taking 3 days to traverse) and would represent one of the great milestones in New Zealand caving. It would be the Mt Cook of New Zealand caving. So with that potential how could I resist not being excited for this trip for months!?
I guess the caveats would be that it would be one of the hardest caves I have been in, very wet in places and an even 4 degrees Celsius. I would be carrying heavy packs with gear for rigging, camp and caving. I tried desperately to get in better shape before the trip as I knew the quality of the cavers I would have to be able to keep up with. It was with high hopes that I packed for the trip.
An all day marathon drive across the South Island through a gauntlet of construction zones, slow semi-trucks, and even slower camper vans led to my arrival in Nelson at 7:30pm. These are cavers after all so naturally I met up with them for planning at a local pub. Luckily we did not need to drop gear off at the chopper until the next day at 10am which gave me a chance to relax and not worry about packing until the morning.
Day 0: The weather looks cloudy and foggy and we are really hoping it lifts so the helicopter can get into Mt Arthur with our gear. The team drops off our cave gear at the helipad. We laid out the survey sketches in the hanger and formulated plans to check leads. The pilot said no worries to the weather so we all hopped into the cars and drove up the hill to the Flora Saddle carpark...where it was raining lightly. We procrastinated for a solid half hour in the shelter hoping for a miraculous improvement in the weather before walking up the hill to the Mt Arthur Hut. The weather was still miserable and most of the group was happy to hang out at the hut. All the food and many peoples sleeping bags and tents were on the helicopter so many people were in limbo over whether to stay the night at the hut or walk back down the hill. To try to do something productive with the day Bruce and I ran around the tussock getting accurate GPS coordinates of entrances so the cave survey could properly be tied together instead of just guesswork. At this point it was obvious the weather was not going to improve today and there would be no helicopter. When we got back to the hut a family of 7 (including crying baby) had arrived and the cavers unanimously declared mutiny for a warm bed or floor down the hill in Motueka.
We had a meeting and broke up into teams of 3-4 and organized our caving gear, camp gear, clothes, food, ropes, etc. for a week underground. Between my sleeping bag, down jacket, camp clothes and thermrest (and my share of the food) my 2 packs were already filling up. Sadly there was no way I was going to fit a camera in my pack, but thankfully Neil took his and got many good shots. I frantically packed, somehow seeming to take a lot longer than everyone around me. I remember a touch of reluctance and intimidation as I dropped into the Big Friendly Giant entrance and the last trace of sunlight vanished overhead. What was I getting myself into I asked myself.
We went down about 400m of rope in the entrance series, often with only a few horizontal steps between. The 70m Intimidator pitch was particularly sobering. Gravity was aiding all the movement of the heavy packs but I dreaded the huge amount of work climbing back out of the cave was going to be. With every drop I added a bit more fatigue to my perception of the hellish trip back out of this cave. What joy it would be to find a connection to Nettlebed and walk downhill out of the cave. One of my packs was particularly awkward- almost as tall as me and top-heavy which made it a nightmare threading through tight spots and added much effort to the descent. Once down the entrance series things flattened out for a bit as we followed a rifty stream passage downward to an imposing obstacle, The Gates of Troy, a narrow squeeze which still remains the only way on to the rest of the cave. It was not so narrow that I had to take my vertical gear off, but was quite an obstacle to fit some of our gear through.
Beyond we enter the Quartz River which continues to drop steadily over downclimbs and pitches to the impressive Summer's End, an thundering 10m waterfall. Some clever rigging meant it could be descended all but dry. A short traverse just above the lip of the next dramatically thundering waterfall gives access to a steep dry canyon (You Can Call Me Doctor Delicious) with several more pitches. After a time the route starts heading uphill to camp, with another traverse and short pitches and climbs to reach the Chocolate Room Camp- a welcome sight!
I was tired but not nearly as spent as I thought I would be. Still the dread of the exhausting exit from the cave at the end of the trip weighed down on me and I truly felt the distance to the surface world. After a freeze-dried dinner I settled into bed but slept very poorly. I had not quite figured out the right technique for maintaining my warmth with feeling claustrophobic. My body was doing strange things. At one point I woke up hyperventilating. All up I think I got only about 3 hours of sleep that night, which is a really poor way to start a weeklong caving trip. I remembered it was almost the last place I wanted to be.
Day 2: Needless to say my enthusiasm was low when morning was declared and everyone got up for a porridge breakfast and began packing for the day. I also was feeling rather unwell. I sucked it up though, put on my freezing wetsuit, and headed out for the day. The most exciting bit of the commute was a somewhat sketchy rift we needed to downclimb about 12m- fun but also a bit scary. I was happy when we later put in a rope to eliminate that possibility of error. Thankfully I warmed up by the time I reached the River of Clowns, a fantastic bedrock river passage with several sporty swims and beautiful sculpted passages. The river goes for almost a kilometer to an enormous collapse chamber perhaps a hundred meters called Black Dwarf. We stopped for a snack on the saddle of the enormous rockpile and enjoyed the view of inky darkness. At this point Nettlebed should be only a hundred meters or so to the south so we scoured the south wall for leads. We found a good one with a strong draft and I began on the surveying team while the exploration team powered on ahead. We surveyed past several obstacles, all the while chilled by the cool draft that told us this passage was headed to a lot more cave.
After lunch and a hot cup of tea, I took over the exploration team, hoping to warm up a bit, as the surveyors followed. We worked our way downward through stunningly coral-lined passage to a short drop into a room with several passages branching off. Eventually we found the one with the draft again. I carefully worked my way through the delicately white passage but I still felt like I was going to conservation officer hell. We came to a former sump with strange bubbly calcite formations, then followed a very strong draft down a narrowing passage to a rather abrupt and fresh looking rockfall. Beyond we could see a chamber and surely I thought we were meters away from Nettlebed! I could feel it! We moved quite a few rocks, careful to avoid touching the particularly precarious looking boulder that would squish us flat and certainly "hole-in-one" the way on. Eventually I managed to do a spiral squeeze through the rockfall and two of us explored the small chamber and the several leads branching off. The most obvious lead was a 10m pitch down into a canyon, and I was pretty convinced it would take us to Nettlebed. It was getting late so we called it a day and headed back to camp. The route back is supremely enjoyable after a long day of caving. I got some pretty horrible and almost debilitating abrasions from wearing a wetsuit all day but luckily managed to come up with a cure the following days. I was in high spirits at the end of the day and excited to see what lurked beyond tomorrow. I slept very well despite the efforts of the snorers.
Day 3: We returned to our great leads of the previous day. Apparently the canyon choked in both directions with no draft and similarly the high leads did not have a draft. We scoured the walls of the chamber but could not find the draft again! The chamber is formed right on a major fault- perhaps the fault separating Stormy Pot from Nettlebed. We were so close! Since we could not find the draft anywhere else, it must filter through the rockfall in the floor. What a bummer! We turned back and surveyed a few bizarrely rollercoaster-like passages until we had enough. With our stunning lead gone, we de-rigged all the rope in this area and brought it back to Black Dwarf so other teams could use it elsewhere.
Day 4: Two of us explored and surveyed a promising canyon above the River of Clowns. Again we were following directional coral and a strong draft. Several passages branched off and we surveyed along the most obvious passage, eventually tying into a known station. It was a surprisingly complex area, very much controlled by the abundant faults. We left several promising leads with good draft. Elsewhere another team had completed an impressive climb into a large passage which unfortunately ended in rockfall after 150m. The cave was beginning to show its stubborn side!
Day 5: Most people had long days the previous day and so had chose to
have a short day not too far from camp. I decided to have a camp day. I
took an extended nap, which was great because I caught up on sleep for
the first time in the cave. To keep warm I helped on some of the camp
projects- improving the kitchen and improving a precarious part of the
walkway. After some deliberation, I decided I would head out of the cave
tomorrow with the two others headed out. Sure I could stay in 8 days like some of the others, but at the time 6 really felt about right! This day was a good mental and physical rest for the hard day's effort that tomorrow would bring.
The Chocolate Room Camp is surprisingly pleasant and a great mental refuge from the rest of the cave. To get to it you must climb a couple meters up into a sandy-floored passage about 3m wide and 20m long. A walkway extends along one wall with room for sleeping perpendicular to the opposite wall. The kitchen is at the back of the passage and features a long table for food and a great semi-circular bench for cooking. Just beyond is a small crawl leading to the rest of the cave. Thankfully this can be blocked with one small pack which cuts out the draft and warms up the camp a couple degrees which makes a huge difference. Water is about 50m away and requires either crawling or climbing and so could be more convenient. It is easy to go through a lot of water at camp between all of us. The toilet area is similarly inconvenient and requires a couple downclimbs and ducks under low roofs to get to- an unpleasant mid-night walk when semi-conscious. Of course all trash and solid waste is carefully packed and carried out of the cave. After a couple days in the camp our breaths condensed on the ceiling and drips began to develop, including a notable one very close to my head when I slept.
The kitchen at the Chocolate Room Camp
Day 6: The three of us heading out woke for an early start. I decided to leave my sleeping bag in camp- the added bulk and weight was going to kill me on the way out and I hoped it was not too long before the connection was found and I could do a throughtrip. We headed up at a comfortable pace at first, helping each other with our packs, some much heavier than the ones I was carrying. Helping made a huge difference and we made steady progress. The guided pitch at Summer's End was pretty entertaining to go up. More pack passing and we were through the Gates of Troy. Shortly after would be the abundant pitches at the entrance series so to avoid a bottleneck I kept moving up the pitches at a steady pace, occasionally stopping for a few minutes to be sure I could hear the other two in the distance. The ropes were endless! By the time you got off one you could already see the next one you had to go up! Up, up, up. Sweat, sweat, sweat. The Intimidator pitch was particularly endless and my arms were rather pumped by the time I got to the top. My shoulders and waist were becoming sore from the weight of the packs tethered off of my harness. Once up the Intimidator pitch I saw a single blade of tussock grass. What an inspiring sight! Up another pitch I saw a leaf. Up another pitch the random pile of snow that found its way into the cave. Looking up I could see the faint glow of daylight which powered me on. The last sight was the one of the Big Friendly Giant, just before I emerged back into the land of the living. I promptly stripped down to underwear and laid flat on the karst pavement in the warm sun with a slight breeze blowing across my skin. What a trip! While we did not make the sought after connection to Nettlebed or Windrift, we still surveyed many kilometers of cave and accomplished much. I still have high hopes of a Stormy Pot-Nettlebed connection and the epic throughtrip which would result. I would love to go back.
There is nothing like emerging to a warm summer's day!
Thanks to Troy, Bruce, Chris, Neil, the Kierans, Heidi, Aaron, Grant, Lindsay, Gavin, Claire, Hamish, John, Michael, Sarah, Ian, Judith, young couple from Wairarapa, Jane, Rick and Francesca.
