Bisaro Anima, near Fernie, British Columbia, is believed to be Canada’s deepest cave. Unsurprisingly, that attracted Calgary explorers to map and study the cave.
At Mount Bisaro plateau just north of Fernie, the team was carrying on the work of the Alberta Speleogical Society. At the time, Jeremy Bruns was the first to rappel into the cave entrance. Then expedition leader Kathleen Graham set a record of 670 metres after scuba diving into a “sump” — which is described as a channel in the cave
The cave may be 1,000 metres in total. To date, 5.3 kilometres of its length have been measured.“I expect with the ongoing effort that this cave system could also become one of the longest in Canada,” Bruns said.
The Speleogical Society reports that the longest shaft in the cave is 105 metres — that’s about as deep as the height of 35 storeys of an office tower. Calgary’s Bow skyscraper is 57 storeys, or 236 metres. The CN Tower is 553 metres tall, but a building in Dubai tops them all at 828 metres.
The cavers had three underground camps for five to seven days in their first expedition. In the second, they spent their nights in a 520-metre-deep camp.
This cave has only one known entrance, whereas many deep caves have multiple accesses. Inside, the temperature was 2 degrees C.
Given the difficult conditions and the distance for help it is important to avoid injuries. Given its proximity to Mount Bisaro, the cave is named after Second World War Canadian soldier Torindo Bisaro, who is from Fernie.