WEBVTT 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So how many of you have been in a cave before? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Okay, a few of you. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 When you think of a cave, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 most of you think of a tunnel 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 going through solid rock. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In fact, that's how most caves are. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Around this half of the country, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 most caves are made of limestone. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Back where I'm from, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 most of our caves are made from lavarock 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 because we have a lot of volcanoes out there. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But the caves I want to share with you today 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 are made completely of ice, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 specifically glacier ice 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 as formed in the side of the tallest mountain 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in the state of Oregon 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 called Mount Hood. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Now, Mount Hood is only one hour's drive 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 from Portland, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the largest city in Oregon, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 with over two million people live. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Now, the most exciting thing 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 for a cave explorer 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 is to find a new cave 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and be the first human to ever go into it. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The second most exciting thing 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 for a cave explorer 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 is to be the first one to make a map of a cave. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Now, these days, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 with so many people hiking around, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it's pretty hard to find a new cave, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 so you can imagine how excited 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 we were to find three new caves 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 within site of Oregon's largest city 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and realize that they have never 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 been explored or mapped before. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It was kind of like being an astronaut 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 because we were getting to see things 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and go places 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that no one had ever seen or gone before. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So, what is a glacier? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Well, those of you that have ever seen 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 or touched snow, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you know that it's really light 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and it's just a bunch of tiny ice crystals clumped together 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and it's mostly air. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 If you squish a handful of snow 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to make a snowball, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it gets really small, hard, and dense. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Well, in a mountain like Hood 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 where it snows over twenty feet a year, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it crushes the air out of it 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and gradually forms it into hard, blue ice. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Now, each year more and more ice 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 stacks up on top of it 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and eventually gtts so heavy 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that it starts to slide down the mountain 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 under its own weight, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 forming a slow-moving river of ice. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 When an ice pack like that starts to move, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 we call it a glacier 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and we give it a name. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The name of the glacier these caves were formed 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 is the Sandy glacier. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Now, each year as new snow lands on the glacier, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it melts in the summer sun 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and it forms little rivers of water 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 on the flow along the ice 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and they start to melt 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and bore their way down to the glacier, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 forming big networks of caves, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 sometimes going all the way down 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to the underlying bedrock. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Now, the crazy thing about glacier caves 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 is that each year new tunnels form, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 different waterfalls pop up 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 or move around from place to place 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 inside the cave. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Warm water from the top of the ice 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 is boring its way down, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and warm air from below the mountain 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 actually rises up, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 gets into the cave, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and melts the ceilings back 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 taller and taller. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But the weirdest thing about glacier caves 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 is that the entire cave is moving 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 because it's formed inside a block of ice 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the size of a small city 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that's slowly sliding down the mountain. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Now, this is Brent McGregor, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 my cave exploration partner. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He and I have both been exploring caves a long time 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and we've been climbing mountains a long time, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but neither of us have ever really explored 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 a glacier cave before. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Back in 2011, Brent saw a YouTube video 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of a couple of hikers 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 who stumbled across the entrance 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to one of these caves. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 There was no GPS coordinates for it 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and all we knew was that it was somewhere 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 out on the sandy glacier. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So, in July of that year 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 we went out on the glacier 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and we found a big crack in the ice. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We had to build snow and ice anchors 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 so we could tie off ropes 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and repel down into the hole. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This is me looking into the entrance crevasse. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 At the end of this hole, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 we found a huge tunnel 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 going right up the mountain 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 underneath thousands of tons of glacier ice. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We followed this cave back 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 for about a half mile until it came to an end. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And then with the help of our survey tools, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 we made a three-dimensional map of the cave 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 on our way back out. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So, how do you map a cave? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Well, cave maps aren't like trail maps or road maps 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 because they have pits and holes 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 going to overlapping levels. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 To make a cave map, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you have to set up survey stations 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 every few feet inside the cave 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and you use a laser to measure the distance 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 between those stations. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And you use a compass and an inclinometer 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to measure the direction the cave is heading 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and measure the slope in the floor and the ceilings. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Now, those of you taking trigonometry, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that particular type of math 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 is very useful for making maps like this 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 because it allows you to measure 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 heights and distances 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 without actually having to go there. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In fact, the more I mapped and studied caves, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the more useful I found 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 all that math I originally hated in school to be. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So, when you're done surveying, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you take all this data, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you punch it into the computer, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and you find someone 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that can draw really well, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and you have them draft up a map 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that looks something like this. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And it will show you both a bird's eye view 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of the passage 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 as well as a profile view of the passage, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 kind of like an ant farm view. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We named this cave Snow Dragon Cave 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 because it looks like a big dragon 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 sleeping under the snow. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Now, later this summer 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 as more snow melted off the glacier, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 we found more caves 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and we realized they were all connected. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Not long after we mapped Snow Dragon, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Brent discovered this new cave 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 not very far away. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The inside of it was coated with ice 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 so we had to wear big spikes 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in our feet called crampons 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 so we could walk around without slipping. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This cave was amazing! 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The ice in the ceiling was glowing blue and green 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 because the sunlight from far above 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 was shining through the ice 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and lighting it all up. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Now, we couldn't understand why this cave 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 was so much cooler than Snow Dragon 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 until we got to the end 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and we found out why. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 There was a huge pit or shaft called a moulin 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 going a 150 feet straight up 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to the surface of the glacier. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Cold air from the top of the mountain 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 was flowing down this hole, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 blasting through the cave, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 freezing everything inside of it. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And we were so excited about finding this new pit, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 we actually came back in January the following year 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 so we could be the first ones to explore it. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It was so cold outside, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 we actually had to sleep inside the cave. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Here's our camp on the left side 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of this entrance room. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The next morning we climbed out of the cave 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and hiked all the way 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to the top of the glacier 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 where we finally rid and repelled this pit 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 for the very first time. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Brent named this cave Pure Imagination, I think, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 because the beautiful sights we saw in there 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 were beyond what we could have ever imagined. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So, besides really cool ice, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 what else is inside these caves? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Well, not too much lives in them 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 because they're so cold 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and the entrance is actually covered up with snow 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 for about eight months of the year, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but there are some really cool things in there. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 There's weird bacteria living in the water 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that actually eat and digest rocks 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to make their own food 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to live under this ice. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In fact, this past summer 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 scientists collected samples of water and ice 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 specifically to see if things called extremophiles, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 tiny lifeforms that have evolved 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to live in a completely hostile conditions, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 might be living under the ice, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 kind of like where they hope to find 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in the polar icecaps of Mars some day. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Another really cool thing 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 is that as seeds and birds land 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 on the surface of the glacier and die, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 they get buried in the snow 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and gradually become part of the glacier, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 sinking deeper and deeper into the ice. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 As these caves form 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and melt their way up into the ice, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 then these artifacts rain down from the ceiling 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and fall into the cave floor 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 where we end up finding them. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 For example, this is a notal first seed we found. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It's been frozen in ice 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 for over a hundred years 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and it's just now starting to sprout. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This mallard duck feather 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 was found over 1800 feet 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in the back of Sleep Dragon Cave. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This duck died on the surface of the glacier 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 long, long ago 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and its feathers have finally made it down 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 through a hundred feet of ice 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 before falling inside the cave. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And this beautiful quartz crystal 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 was also found in the back of Snow Dragon. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Even now Brent and I find it hard to believe 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that all these discoveries 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 were essentially in our own backyard, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 hidden away just waiting to be found. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Like I said earlier, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the idea of discovery 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in this busy world we live in 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 kind of seems like something 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you can only do in space travel now, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but that's not true. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Every year new caves get discovered 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that no one has ever been in before. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So, it's actually not too late 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 for one of you to become a discoverer yourself. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 You just have to be willing to look and go 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 where people don't often go 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and focus your eyes and your mind 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to recognize the discovery when you see it 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 because it might be in your own backyard. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Thank you very much.