A new movie that just won an award at the Banff Mountain Film Festival shows the incredible sights and dangers that cavers encounter.
A Calgary born-and-raised woman who has explored the deepest cave in Canada, going places no human has ever been, is featured in the film.
Climbing through holes that are just big enough for a body to get through is a terrifying predicament for some.
When it comes to cave exploring, being small, fearless and curious are ideal traits and Katie Graham has them all.
“I was the smaller one in the group so I could fit into places that they couldn’t and that meant I was the first ever to get into the place,” Graham laughed.
Graham was part of team that was the first to reach the deepest caves in Canada near Fernie, B.C., an astonishing 670 meters deep.
It’s a story told in the new documentary Subterranean.
“You don’t know what you’re looking for or if it will be beautiful or if it will be terrible until you find it,” said Graham.
The movie captures all the grueling conditions Graham has endured including rock falls, cold temperatures and a broken leg suffered while sliding down a scree slope into the unknown in a cave.
“You’re crawling through a tunnel and the ceiling is dropping backpack sized rocks on your back while you’re crawling and then you have to try to shake it off,” Graham said.
It was a tight squeeze for camera, too. Lighting is tricky in a place where the only light to guide your way is from headlamp.
“Sometimes you back out and you try to take a minute and calm yourself down and if you can get yourself calm, you can loosen your rib cage and then you have another try at it,” Graham said.
The part-time adventurer is determined to return to the Bisaro Anima cave near Fernie next fall.
It’s an effort that will require scuba diving over 600 metres below ground.
“The risk keeps adding up and the logistics keep adding up,” Graham said.
Subterranean won the Banff Mountain Film Competition’s Best Adventure and Exploration Film on Sunday.
“Typically, we celebrate snow-capped peaks and jagged granite edges, but this film takes us on a very different adventure – one maybe less celebrated but equally daring,” said jury member Sarah Steele. “From complete darkness aside from one’s headlamp, the physical discomfort of going hundreds of feet down through tight passages, endless mud, not to mention the difficulty of hauling camera equipment around – everything about this undertaking embodies the spirit of adventure.
“Subterranean takes us where few films have gone before – into the belly of the earth, and in this case, into Banff’s very own backyard.”
The film features another team on Vancouver Island that is attempting to link two tunnel systems to create the longest known cave in Canada
The film’s director is Francois-Xavier De Ruydt and Jenny Rustemeyer is the producer.
Knowledge Network hosted the broadcast premiere of Subterranean on November 7.