The Challenge:
19
people on a caving expedition for 10 days in rainy semi-alpine terrain - is it
possible to Leave No Trace?
A few
months ago, over the summer holidays actually, I was part of a caving
expedition up on Mt Owen. Except that it wasn't summery (although what is
summery in the mountains is generally different from elsewhere). We had rain
every day, with hail, snow and high winds also added in for good measure. In
such challenging conditions, did we manage to leave no trace? Yes we created
impacts, it's not possible not to, but I think we did pretty well. Let’s look
at how we did according to some of the LNT principles....
Plan Ahead and Prepare:
Knowing
how bad the weather can be in the mountains over summer, we all applied the
principle of Plan Ahead and Prepare (PAAP) and brought in enough gear to
sustain us over this time. We had the advantage of a helicopter flight up for
the gear, but most people walked in. Again this is part of
PAAP - rescues cause the biggest impacts. The caving expedition organiser was
therefore reducing the likelihood of a rescue by ensuring everyone on the
expedition was fit and self-reliant. Proving that you could walk the 4-6 hour,
8km, 1000m elevation gain access route meant you could handle the caving and also
that you could walk out again - it would never do to rely on a helicopter
flight out only to find the chopper couldn't fly in bad weather.
PAAP
does teach that groups should limit their numbers, and I definitely see the
benefit of this, however in our case a larger group (larger within reason -
expedition numbers are still capped at 20, precisely for reasons of limiting
impact) proved an advantage in some ways as it meant it was feasible to pay for
a helicopter to bring in extra gear. We had chosen to camp above rather than
underground and the chopper allowed us to bring in more flys and tarps to put
over communal cooking, dining, gear storage and toilet areas, keeping the
ground underneath somewhat drier, preventing the formation of mud pits. The cooking
and dining areas were also carefully selected to take advantage of a large bivvy
rock with a rock floor underneath. In addition, the helicopter also meant
buckets could be flown in, limiting the number of trips to the lake to collect
water and hence the creation of muddy informal tracks. I do want to acknowledge
here that whilst the helicopter minimised our impact locally, it contributed to
our global footprint, an issue we all must struggle with.
Looking
down on the cooking area under the rock bivvy on the shores of the lake
Tent
sites under the trees
Camp and Travel on Durable Ground:
The few
faint tracks created by the cavers are nowhere near as obvious as the main
highways created by the deer through the basins before these animals were
culled back in the 1970s - 80s. Cavers have been coming to Mt Owen for years
and have noticed the vegetation recover since both deer and goats were removed
from the area.
Cavers
have a route they use to access their base camp. There is a big rock step part
way up the route, which for a while had a ladder installed against it. Word of
this route got out amongst the tramping community and was a popular way to
access the tops. This was until the old ladder was due for replacement and DOC
stepped in to prevent a new installation. A more difficult handline now
replaces the ladder. Cavers have noticed this has reduced the number of
trampers walking up this way and hence the number of impacts to the area. For
instance, despite a DOC sign warning against it, trampers had been observed
swimming in the lake.
Cavers
are quite good at minimum impact travel - around camp, if the tracks get muddy
it doesn't matter. Everyone is wearing gumboots so they will walk straight
through the middle of the puddles rather than around them.
A karst
landscape also provides lots of opportunities to travel on durable ground,
marble being a material that takes a while to wear away. The informal routes to
get to the cave are deliberately routed to follow the pavement where possible,
rather than cross sensitive vegetation areas.
An impact
that I should admit to came about because of the rain. It rained a lot. Then it
rained some more. Suitable tent sites were not plentiful and a few of those
chosen were low lying and in danger of being flooded out. We made the decision
to dig trenches around the tents. This did not sit that well with me but we
felt it was necessary at the time. These tent areas were well remediated at the
end of the expedition. Perhaps next year we won't have this problem as with the
trend to increasingly bad weather over the new year, the cavers are intending
to move the time of year in which the expedition is held.
Minimise the Impacts of Fire:
All
cooking was done over gas cookers on rock slabs. The occasional fire lit to
heat water and save on gas was small and well contained in a thermette.
Dispose of Waste Properly:
The
caving expedition was based beside a small lake, which was the only source of
drinking water (all streams in this area flow underground). The cavers are very
protective of this lake and will not allow anyone on the expedition to swim in
it. There is a DOC sign in place warning against swimming in and damaging the
lake which acknowledges the system of protection set up by cavers.
Cavers
also took care to ensure the communal toilet area was placed well outside the
drainage to the lake. I took on the task of digging the toilet hole. I had
originally thought of digging trenches, as most bacteria to break down the
waste are in the top layer of the soil. However I encountered so many big tree
roots at this level it was becoming impractical. I elected instead to dig a
hole straight down, in a relatively root free area. As I got deeper there were
less roots to disturb. I couldn't quite bring myself to damage the trees by
removing large roots (which I would have need a hand saw to remove anyway, an
article that no one had with them), so I chose to increase the breakdown time
for the waste. This type of toilet is what the expedition has been digging over
the years, however they have noticed upon inspection of the old holes that the
waste is breaking down really well in the top layers of soil, but really not so
well underneath. Next year we are considering either having everyone dig their
own hole whenever they need to go (which could create quite a minefield over 10
days and is less pleasant in the rain without a shelter set up) or maybe
somehow bringing in some good soil bacteria to mix into the old holes to help
break down their contents. Another option is to carry all waste out, which
would be a hardship with the amount of gear we already have. Flying the waste
out is not possible as the helicopter back flight can take up to 3 months (gear
not needed urgently is stored in a fadge until the pilot is on his way past for
another reason).
For the
same issues with walking or flying out, we also buried some food scraps. I felt
bad about this but the scraps were buried in shallow holes (for better
breakdown) and at least did not include meat. The cavers only run this expedition
once a year (other smaller caving trips throughout the year tend to camp
underground and observe pack in, pack out ethics), by which time everything
breaks down. In this way I suppose the helicopter increased our impact as it
allowed us to bring in lots of fresh vegetables, which created waste. Bokashi
buckets for the fermentation and breakdown of food waste in this way have been
considered, though it was felt DOC might see this as the introduction of
foreign organisms into a national park. Perhaps this is an option that is worth
investigating further.
I feel
a little uncomfortable about admitting to some of our struggles and our
less-than-perfect attempts at leaving no trace. But Leave No Trace is not about
leaving absolutely no trace; it is about minimising our impacts and dong the
best we can. I could have just written about all the amazing leave no trace we
had done, and hidden the rest of it (I feel there is a danger in revealing
impacts that did happen, in that it might condone them), but I wanted to be
honest. I wanted to talk about where we found it hard to leave not trace, and
what we did to deal with that.
We cavers
are often seen as second-class citizens of the outdoors world (anyone who
willing spends time in small dark spaces far underground has to be pretty
weird, the theory goes). Yet here I would like to defend cavers – they have
done an amazing job of preserving an area in which they recreate and highly
value - therefore they can’t be all bad!
And as
for cavers following Leave No Trace principles underground as opposed to an the
above ground base camp, that is a story for another time....
Pip Rees is a keen caver and Leave No Trace board member
No comments:
Post a Comment