Subterranean (2023)

[bunniefuu]

[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 w*r I

and World w*r II theme.

The mountain was named

for Private Torindo Bisaro,

who was Fernie's first w*r 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 sh*t 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 f*cking 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 sh*t.

I know.

-It's going straight.

-I know.

It's going straight into

a f*cking 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 f*ck!

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 f*cking believe it, man.

Welcome to the Resonance

entrance to the Arch Cave!

It's f*cking 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 f*ck.

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 f*cking 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 f*cking there, okay?

Dude, f*cking...

Jay! f*cking 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] f*ck, 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 k*ll 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 d*ck

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 sh*t.

Moan, groan

Whinging away

Bitching and griping

the whole bleeding day

This is where I'm going to get

a f*cking 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 f*cking 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 f*cking 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 f*cked 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 sh*t

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 sh*t, 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]

f*ck.

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 f*ck up" zone,

and I just f*cked up.

f*ck.

[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 f*ck, that's heavy.

Want me to lift that?

-I told you it was heavy.

-It's f*cking 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.

f*ck.

[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.

f*cking sh*t.

-You are?

-I'm not. Yeah.

-Yeah.

[John] Kind of f*cked, 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 sh*t! 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 f*ck

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.

sh*t.

f*ck.

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 f*ck 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...