Chrissy Richards and Jason Richards on the second trip to Wet Dream, completing survey.
On the remote northwest coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, millions of years of glacial action formed a classic U shaped valley, scraping away the Bonanza geologic group formed primarily of lavas, to expose the Quatsino limestone below. The high valley walls, surrounded by towering snow covered peaks and deep passes, and heavy temperate coastal rains create a very active mountain river. During dry periods, the entire river disappears underground into a boulder filled Quatsino limestone swallet, to resurge several kilometers downstream and nearly 100 meters lower in elevation. In 2012, a combined Canadian and US team undertook the first major diving expedition in what became known as Wet Dream Cave, documenting more than 1700 feet of passage reaching a depth of 136 feet.
In September 2013, Peter Norris (CAN), accompanied Jason Richards (USA), on his first dive in the system. In a single four hour, closed circuit exploration dive the two doubled the length of the cave, pushing the exploration and survey front to 3227 feet. Over the next week, a combined Canadian and US team explored and surveyed side passages to reach a total surveyed length of 3834 feet of underwater passage. The cave contains stunning limestone passage interspersed with beautiful black and red lava intrusions over a dizzying array of passage types, from typical round phreatic tube floored in washed river rock, to deeper and more dramatic joint and strike controlled fissure passages. Exploration will continue in 2014 as the snows melt and access once again becomes possible.
Brian Nadwidny's video of exploration in Wet Dream Cave in 2012.
John McCuaig's video of Wet Dream with Peter Norris.
