Posted 2007-07-09. Tags: angry truck, canada, mines, srt.
Day 1
Upon arrival out at swanky accommodations we learned that check-in time is 5pm. Now I'm not super traveled but 5pm? That's ridiculous, most vacationers are paralytic by 5. The self contained condos which sleep between 6 and 8 are worth the wait though and a frisbee is just the tool for the job on a nice sunny day. Having packed our junk, loaded the fridges with a $1000 of costco delicacies we ventured into the mountains for a quick taste of mineage.
As discussed in part 6 the level nine portal is semi collapsed and would require a bit of digging to access. We scooted across the highline and hit the shovels for 5 hours. Thick rotted timbers and collapsed rocks support a thin crust of topsoil above the mine portal which would tumble down as we pulled timbers free. We gained 2.5m into the entrance without any injuries (though Anymouse jumped clear of a small rock fall) and by peering through the broken timbers we estimate there is another 3 meters to go. We never cleared the level 9 portal but it's definitely an achievable project for someone another summer. Rask's wife prepared 4 huge lasagnas for dinner which Dirge and Fyre cooked while we were away at level 9. We hit the hotubs till late soaking away our aches and pains. Fyre and Dirge stayed until 0230 when a grumpy security guard interrupted their poolfiltration and sent them packing.
Day 2
The sun rose bright and early promising a glorious day of mining. We car pooled to the mill site, piled many helmet sporting people into the Angry Truck and the rest of us began up the trail. At various times Angry truck was: On fire. Clutchless. Fuelless. On 3 wheels. Rolling backwards meters from the cliff driverless with 3 people trapped in the back. Despite these life affirming incidents we all made it to level 3 alive.
Level 3 was a little muddy and right inside were a bunch of large paw prints. Lacking any animal tracking proficiency we thought it more comforting not to guess their creator. Fyre rounded up the level 3 virgins and went wandering while a few of us rigged the rappel in the main shaft to level 4. Junix described their adventures in level 3 as such:
"We started lighting off flares in the especially massive ore chamber. Then came the rocket propelled 30 million candle power flare.
It bares mentioning I had never launched one of these before.
I thought I was being over cautious. I asked everyone to move back behind me as I took position at the far end of the ore cavern's longest dimension. I had a good 200+ meters of open air in front of me.
Everyone prepared their long exposures in hopes it would be worth it. They are expired flares.
The countdown began. I braced myself not sure what to expect.
I flipped the trigger, (having a trigger should have been a clue)
A blast of hot gas.
A bright tail spirals across the cavern at crazy speed.
The rocket effortlessly reached the far side of the cavern and impacted/ricocheted off the far wall and then fell in a hole hidden behind some rocks.
As it turns out a 15 second exposure is too long in a massive pitch black cavern.
We had red daylight.
The flare portion of the device had broken into two pieces and both were ignited. They burned for a full 45 seconds and we were all left speechless.
No worries though. I have one more of these mofos. There will be video."
The main shaft was rigged similarly to as described in part 6 and I dropped into the main shaft on a 100m of rope, a length estimated to reach level 5. Gas detector, check. Spare head lamp, check. Ascenders and spare hardware, check. After some discussion we decided this shaft was for shifting ore to the main haulage at level 7, not for shifting people. I passed the few rotted ladders at the top of the shaft but no more going down. Descending into the depths of the mountain was humbling in many ways. I felt so insignificant inside a mine so big. and even smaller inside a mountain thousands of years old. The men who worked this mine were of much hardier constitution than I could ever hope to be and worked in conditions more demanding than I'll ever experience. I considered the men who worked in this mine and how they would view our adventures. Thoughts filled my mind and the scuff of my feet against the rough walls filled my ears. Otherwise the mine was so very quiet.
With each small downward step I'd look over my shoulder into the black pit below. Rusty metal pipes and black timber clung to bolts in the shaft threatening to let go. Faint outlines of rotting timber became more defined as I dropped and shortly I came upon a mess of rotting timber beams. I couldn't tell if the beams had been deliberately thrown or simply over time collapsed inside the shaft. The bottom 50m of the rope was tangled amongst the beams. Slowly and deliberately I pulled it up, unknotted it and snuck into the top of the maze of wood. It was a little unstable, getting worse further down. The right hand wall of the shaft opened up into a small adjacent shaft which created a rocky saddle. I crawled across the saddle onto a little ledge above the shafts and peered up into level 4. A thin wire ladder with wooden treads snaked down 6m from level 4 to within arm's reach of the saddle. Some treads were broken and others just plain missing. It was obvious, we weren't getting into level 4 from here.
The mess of fallen timbers wedged into the main shaft at level 4 was our undoing. We'd been so gungho and optimistic about our chances of reaching the bottom of the shaft, but sitting on the rocky saddle at level 4 I realised this was an obstacle we didn't have the tools, skills or time to overcome. The timber pile was unstable and the risks of it collapsing down the shaft upon us too great. Even one of the fifty or so massive beams would break us into little pieces. We jugged back up the shaft, untangling rope from all the debris on the way and clambered dispirited back into level 3. In a way we'd brought it on ourselves so full of our own bravado and aspirations. If we wanted to get into the lower levels we'd have to rappel the smaller ore chutes and worker traverses one level at time.
The two groups met up outside the mine and began back to the condos. Laura caught a rock in the head while surfing down the scree slope but it wasn't anything the medics amongst us couldn't handle. Fyre and Kaos raced the scree all flailing arms and legs, looking like derailed rains careening down the slopes. We saw a bunch of wildlife on the trails (dear, bears, elk, moose) and our first day of real mining was rewarded with eating the cute animals we'd seen. Juicy elk steaks, corn and delicious pooper cake rounded out the day.
Day 3
The goal for day 3 was to rappel into the gloryhole and then venture down into level 2. Two drops of 40m were enough to get into the gloryhole and Vgabnd, Nel, Dirge, Kaos, Gremlin and myself had a few runs down. The top lip was comprised of very loose topsoil and rocks which rained down as the rope pressed to and fro against it. The rock wall is quite loose and a number of big rocks fell into the hole. One as big as a backpack dislodged above Vgabnd and I, narrowly missing Vgabnd and landing with a tremendous echo. Dirge the outdoor potty expert found a neat little crevasse in which to poop (fancy pooping in a gloryhole?!?!) and everyone ventured down a worker tunnel into level 2.
Level 2 (L2) is a very different style to L3. While L3 has a few ore chambers it seems to be primarily a haulage for the levels above it. L2 is a massive organic space made of interconnected ore chambers that break away in all directions creating caverns of interesting proportion and shape. If you were to cut up your intestines and stick them together at random, shrink yourself and go wandering you'd get a feel for what L2 is like. The spaces are even larger than L3. Massive chasms stretch above, spanned by thick angled columns of rock deliberately left by the workers to support the ceilings and sides. Our lights weren't powerful enough to probe the far reaches of the chambers, I'd love to think clinging to the rock, cloaked in the shadows something was watching us, curious who entered its domain.
We made our way further into L2, reaching a small ledge five feet above another landing and an ore chute. A poorly balanced ladder sat against the ledge with a faded rope hanging limply from the wall above it. A few of us descended the ladder partially using the rope and the surrounding rocks for support. Junix approached the ladder and yanked hard on the rope to test it's strength. The rope seemed fine and he stepped down onto the ladder. The rope snapped, the ladder leaned and Junix slipped sideways towards the ore chute. We grabbed him around the waist and he stopped short of the ore chute. We learned a valuable lesson about trusting anything found within the mine. This was the closest we came to a serious injury inside.
Further into L2 we reached another big series of orechambers and Junix magically produced a bunch of flares - rocket propelled and the usual handheld kind.
[Junix throwing a flare]
The third day really knocked us around, the truck was busted so we hiked both up and down the mountain. We all slouched into the hottubs and kicked back for the evening. I'm beginning to discern a pattern here.
Day 4
The previous days kicked our asses so hard I doubt we'd have enjoyed hiking up to the mine again so our last day turned into r&r riding the waterslides, playing frisbee, Fyre clothelining himself on the volleyball net and nursing our collective wounds in the hottubs. Vgabnd emerged from the change rooms quite shaken and described he'd just seen a man in the communal shower thoroughly washing (and rewashing) his junk, while chatting with two young boys. Crazy junk washing man.
Despite all the near misses we'd taken 13 people rappelling and mine exploring in a way we had never done before. For some the trip was about breaking new ground inside the mine and we'd done that with L2 and the main shaft. For others the trip meant exploring something new and getting out into the mountains with a bunch of like minded people. We conquered the top quarter of the mine and everyone had smiles on their faces. Even as their bodies wilted from the long days and rowdy nights.
The mine kicked our arses physically and mentally. It proved we can't always just push through things on sheer bravado. If we wanted the lowest levels the quick and dirty main shaft wouldn't be it. The way downward would be the little worker tunnels that join the levels. Most have no ladders, so we'd be bolting anchors into the tops of each one. It's certainly a project for another time, just not for me. I'm off to Europe shortly but with time the locals will get down there. It's a shame to leave it unfinished (and never find the Balrog) but no person can do everything and I feel it's time to move on.
Way back when I first decided to spend some time in Canada Siologen offered me his sage advice on how to spend my time. The most important line of his rambling paragraph went thus: "tho make the locals take ya to the mines in the rockies, youll fuckin squirt yerself". With a pitch like that what else could be done?
We had a vision for Minecon, run an urbexy event that aimed to break new ground instead of redoing locations that most people had done before. The focus would be discovery. Few people had spent considerable (if any) time in old mines and Calgary, with the rocky mountains so close, was a logical starting point. Enticed by the prospect of spaces direct from fantasy literature, explorers converged upon Calgary from Montreal, Vancouver, Seattle and even Australia.
Our ragtag bunch of misfits included the likes of:
- Anymouse (Calgary CAN): mine co-finder, sherpa, gps ninja
- Dave (Fort McMurray CAN): token father figure, funny man
- Dirge (Melbourne AUS): alcohol QA, vegetarian meat chef, gloryhole pooper
- dsankt (Brisbane AUS): phototaker, rope rigger, i'll go firsterer
- Fyre (Calgary CAN): mine co-finder, medic and perpetual motion machine
- Gremlin (Brisbane AUS): attention to detailer, spokeswoman, mine virgin
- Junix (Seattle USA): enthusiastic camo sherpa with a death wish
- Kaos (Calgary CAN): videotaker, gas detector de-calibrator
- Laura (Houston TXS): master fish chef, mine virgin
- nel (Montreal CAN): crazy enthusiastic veteran explorer
- Rask (Calgary CAN): resident gadget man
- Skaught (Calgary CAN): Angry Truck driver
- Vgabnd (Houston TXS): redbull quality assurance, gadget man, rigging tech
Training Day
Minecon began with a training day at the abandoned magnesium smelter. After a short life as a smelter the building produced super absorbents used in the manufacture of tampons and such. If you dig deep enough you can find bags of the stuff lying around. The power works, bathrooms are available and one building even has running water. Minecon required some SRT (single rope technique) proficiency for access into the gloryhole and the lower levels of the mine. We rigged three 20m drops and one 35m drop. Everyone learned how to tie figure 8s, rappel and ascend. The lecture style training proved less effective than actually showing people one on one, I found Dave's harness incorrectly secured, Nel without a safety line on her hand ascender and Junix with a grigri on backwards. Thankfully someone was checking up. All accidents were averted and training day ended with a bbq in the smelter building. Comment of the day by Dirge: "There's pickle juice on my buns". You can't even take this girl to a family bbq.
Day 1
Upon arrival out at swanky accommodations we learned that check-in time is 5pm. Now I'm not super traveled but 5pm? That's ridiculous, most vacationers are paralytic by 5. The self contained condos which sleep between 6 and 8 are worth the wait though and a frisbee is just the tool for the job on a nice sunny day. Having packed our junk, loaded the fridges with a $1000 of costco delicacies we ventured into the mountains for a quick taste of mineage.
As discussed in part 6 the level nine portal is semi collapsed and would require a bit of digging to access. We scooted across the highline and hit the shovels for 5 hours. Thick rotted timbers and collapsed rocks support a thin crust of topsoil above the mine portal which would tumble down as we pulled timbers free. We gained 2.5m into the entrance without any injuries (though Anymouse jumped clear of a small rock fall) and by peering through the broken timbers we estimate there is another 3 meters to go. We never cleared the level 9 portal but it's definitely an achievable project for someone another summer. Rask's wife prepared 4 huge lasagnas for dinner which Dirge and Fyre cooked while we were away at level 9. We hit the hotubs till late soaking away our aches and pains. Fyre and Dirge stayed until 0230 when a grumpy security guard interrupted their poolfiltration and sent them packing.
Day 2
The sun rose bright and early promising a glorious day of mining. We car pooled to the mill site, piled many helmet sporting people into the Angry Truck and the rest of us began up the trail. At various times Angry truck was: On fire. Clutchless. Fuelless. On 3 wheels. Rolling backwards meters from the cliff driverless with 3 people trapped in the back. Despite these life affirming incidents we all made it to level 3 alive.
Level 3 was a little muddy and right inside were a bunch of large paw prints. Lacking any animal tracking proficiency we thought it more comforting not to guess their creator. Fyre rounded up the level 3 virgins and went wandering while a few of us rigged the rappel in the main shaft to level 4. Junix described their adventures in level 3 as such:
"We started lighting off flares in the especially massive ore chamber. Then came the rocket propelled 30 million candle power flare.
It bares mentioning I had never launched one of these before.
I thought I was being over cautious. I asked everyone to move back behind me as I took position at the far end of the ore cavern's longest dimension. I had a good 200+ meters of open air in front of me.
Everyone prepared their long exposures in hopes it would be worth it. They are expired flares.
The countdown began. I braced myself not sure what to expect.
I flipped the trigger, (having a trigger should have been a clue)
A blast of hot gas.
A bright tail spirals across the cavern at crazy speed.
The rocket effortlessly reached the far side of the cavern and impacted/ricocheted off the far wall and then fell in a hole hidden behind some rocks.
As it turns out a 15 second exposure is too long in a massive pitch black cavern.
We had red daylight.
The flare portion of the device had broken into two pieces and both were ignited. They burned for a full 45 seconds and we were all left speechless.
No worries though. I have one more of these mofos. There will be video."
[photo: nel]
The main shaft was rigged similarly to as described in part 6 and I dropped into the main shaft on a 100m of rope, a length estimated to reach level 5. Gas detector, check. Spare head lamp, check. Ascenders and spare hardware, check. After some discussion we decided this shaft was for shifting ore to the main haulage at level 7, not for shifting people. I passed the few rotted ladders at the top of the shaft but no more going down. Descending into the depths of the mountain was humbling in many ways. I felt so insignificant inside a mine so big. and even smaller inside a mountain thousands of years old. The men who worked this mine were of much hardier constitution than I could ever hope to be and worked in conditions more demanding than I'll ever experience. I considered the men who worked in this mine and how they would view our adventures. Thoughts filled my mind and the scuff of my feet against the rough walls filled my ears. Otherwise the mine was so very quiet.
With each small downward step I'd look over my shoulder into the black pit below. Rusty metal pipes and black timber clung to bolts in the shaft threatening to let go. Faint outlines of rotting timber became more defined as I dropped and shortly I came upon a mess of rotting timber beams. I couldn't tell if the beams had been deliberately thrown or simply over time collapsed inside the shaft. The bottom 50m of the rope was tangled amongst the beams. Slowly and deliberately I pulled it up, unknotted it and snuck into the top of the maze of wood. It was a little unstable, getting worse further down. The right hand wall of the shaft opened up into a small adjacent shaft which created a rocky saddle. I crawled across the saddle onto a little ledge above the shafts and peered up into level 4. A thin wire ladder with wooden treads snaked down 6m from level 4 to within arm's reach of the saddle. Some treads were broken and others just plain missing. It was obvious, we weren't getting into level 4 from here.
The mess of fallen timbers wedged into the main shaft at level 4 was our undoing. We'd been so gungho and optimistic about our chances of reaching the bottom of the shaft, but sitting on the rocky saddle at level 4 I realised this was an obstacle we didn't have the tools, skills or time to overcome. The timber pile was unstable and the risks of it collapsing down the shaft upon us too great. Even one of the fifty or so massive beams would break us into little pieces. We jugged back up the shaft, untangling rope from all the debris on the way and clambered dispirited back into level 3. In a way we'd brought it on ourselves so full of our own bravado and aspirations. If we wanted to get into the lower levels we'd have to rappel the smaller ore chutes and worker traverses one level at time.
The two groups met up outside the mine and began back to the condos. Laura caught a rock in the head while surfing down the scree slope but it wasn't anything the medics amongst us couldn't handle. Fyre and Kaos raced the scree all flailing arms and legs, looking like derailed rains careening down the slopes. We saw a bunch of wildlife on the trails (dear, bears, elk, moose) and our first day of real mining was rewarded with eating the cute animals we'd seen. Juicy elk steaks, corn and delicious pooper cake rounded out the day.
[photo: Skaught]
Day 3
The goal for day 3 was to rappel into the gloryhole and then venture down into level 2. Two drops of 40m were enough to get into the gloryhole and Vgabnd, Nel, Dirge, Kaos, Gremlin and myself had a few runs down. The top lip was comprised of very loose topsoil and rocks which rained down as the rope pressed to and fro against it. The rock wall is quite loose and a number of big rocks fell into the hole. One as big as a backpack dislodged above Vgabnd and I, narrowly missing Vgabnd and landing with a tremendous echo. Dirge the outdoor potty expert found a neat little crevasse in which to poop (fancy pooping in a gloryhole?!?!) and everyone ventured down a worker tunnel into level 2.
We made our way further into L2, reaching a small ledge five feet above another landing and an ore chute. A poorly balanced ladder sat against the ledge with a faded rope hanging limply from the wall above it. A few of us descended the ladder partially using the rope and the surrounding rocks for support. Junix approached the ladder and yanked hard on the rope to test it's strength. The rope seemed fine and he stepped down onto the ladder. The rope snapped, the ladder leaned and Junix slipped sideways towards the ore chute. We grabbed him around the waist and he stopped short of the ore chute. We learned a valuable lesson about trusting anything found within the mine. This was the closest we came to a serious injury inside.
Further into L2 we reached another big series of orechambers and Junix magically produced a bunch of flares - rocket propelled and the usual handheld kind.
[Junix throwing a flare]
The third day really knocked us around, the truck was busted so we hiked both up and down the mountain. We all slouched into the hottubs and kicked back for the evening. I'm beginning to discern a pattern here.
Day 4
The previous days kicked our asses so hard I doubt we'd have enjoyed hiking up to the mine again so our last day turned into r&r riding the waterslides, playing frisbee, Fyre clothelining himself on the volleyball net and nursing our collective wounds in the hottubs. Vgabnd emerged from the change rooms quite shaken and described he'd just seen a man in the communal shower thoroughly washing (and rewashing) his junk, while chatting with two young boys. Crazy junk washing man.
Despite all the near misses we'd taken 13 people rappelling and mine exploring in a way we had never done before. For some the trip was about breaking new ground inside the mine and we'd done that with L2 and the main shaft. For others the trip meant exploring something new and getting out into the mountains with a bunch of like minded people. We conquered the top quarter of the mine and everyone had smiles on their faces. Even as their bodies wilted from the long days and rowdy nights.
The mine kicked our arses physically and mentally. It proved we can't always just push through things on sheer bravado. If we wanted the lowest levels the quick and dirty main shaft wouldn't be it. The way downward would be the little worker tunnels that join the levels. Most have no ladders, so we'd be bolting anchors into the tops of each one. It's certainly a project for another time, just not for me. I'm off to Europe shortly but with time the locals will get down there. It's a shame to leave it unfinished (and never find the Balrog) but no person can do everything and I feel it's time to move on.
Way back when I first decided to spend some time in Canada Siologen offered me his sage advice on how to spend my time. The most important line of his rambling paragraph went thus: "tho make the locals take ya to the mines in the rockies, youll fuckin squirt yerself". With a pitch like that what else could be done?
17 Comment(s)
This great ending feels like a beginning or sorts. Top Job!
2007-07-11 11:56:07 #1
Air33
Props to you guys. That was one mind blowing ue.
2007-07-11 18:02:23 #2
Peabody
Through all of this, I feel as though we have just scratched the surface. I am doing a major rebuild on the suspension and drivetrain on the angry truck and then we are gonna get back out there!
2007-07-11 18:15:44 #3
Skaught
A chapter closes but the adventure continues!
2007-07-11 20:27:45 #4
Lt. Sniper
Great Job Ds.!
Pride.
2007-07-11 22:10:50 #5
Cam
and what a finale it is!
2007-07-12 03:25:02 #6
FB008
MEGA KUDOS mate! That sounds like the coolest adventure ever!!! You're having the most pimpin time in the history of pimpin!!! And for an encore? I guess we'll just have to wait eh? p.s. say g'day to Swalesie for me
2007-07-12 19:43:24 #7
Dr FiL Good
my favourite photo is the one of the little grass rat :)
i feel like such a dirty little injured piker bitch!! :P
2007-07-13 01:13:17 #8
curly
Dr FiL - I ditched that skanky no good melbournite a few days ago and I feel better already! Curly that little critter was more skilled than he appears. We tried to capture him to no avail.
2007-07-13 20:26:26 #9
dsankt
WHOOO, You guys all rock, serious kudos to the lot of you, makes the trips we do over here look like a teedybears picnic
2007-07-14 09:24:15 #10
Wormster
Yeah thats cool as. It makes me feel all tingly and excited and all sorts of other mixed emotions. I did the flour mill in Brissy the other day and it was awesome! Good to get back into it!
2007-07-16 05:16:19 #11
magga
Great story, sounds like a lot of fun. Some interesting pics as well.
2007-07-18 01:28:48 #12
Sgt Marshall
catcha in europe mofo - call my number - it will tell you the new number and codeword
I
2007-07-18 10:33:53 #13
India
That sounds like some sweet stuff. Very cool.
2007-07-26 01:22:01 #14
Vision
Aww crap! I shoulda gone, the airfare would have been worth the price of the ride alone!
2007-08-29 12:56:00 #15
jannx aka jannx
Wow..I love to re-read that crazy adventure..it's like re-living it ! I had such a great time,surrounded by crazy great people in a crazy great astonishing place !
2007-10-15 20:13:48 #16
nel58
We are going to be hitting the mines again hardcore this year. Anyone who is interested in coming is more than welcome. I have bought a new 4x4 to replace the angry truck and we are just waiting for the snow to melt.
2008-05-13 17:29:51 #17
Skaught