The People:
Erron and Kyle
Shaun and Tracy
Atti, James, Vlad and Scott
The Place:
Rat's Nest Cave near Canmore, Ab
People arrived through the night on Friday (Vlad being the latest to arrive at 3 a.m.) at our camp sites at Tunnel Mountain.
The next morning we had to meet up with our guides at the Canmore IGA by 10:30 a.m. I woke up before everyone else and went for a walk while everyone roled out of their tents. 
After everyone got up we went to McD's for breakfast and then went to try and find wool socks for Erron, but being still early in the morning nothing was open so went went to the IGA to meet the guides.
After signing our waiver forms and paying we drove east out of Canmore to the caves which are part of Grotto Mountain. We fitted our coveralls and hiked for about half an hour up into the canyon where the caves formed. Our guides gave us some natural history lessons about the glaciers and caves along the way. When we reached the entrance to the cave we all suited up and got ready to have a great time. 
After we were all equipped we posed for the standard "We're ready for an adventure" type picture. We climbed up to the cave entrance and learned that this cave wasn't much like your standard tunnel in the ground. For one, packrats had been dragging dead animals into a pit for thousands of years and it hand a faint (or not so faint) smell of rancid decay. Once you got over the smell though, it was quite a sight to behold.
From here on out it was down, down, down into the bowels of the Earth. 
After some crawling, sliding, climbing and dropping we managed to get to the area where we would try out rappelling.
Down down and down.....
Sure, I look all brave and adventurous, but the grip I have on my line during that 60 meter drop could choke a horse.
After rappelling we came upon the "Laundry Chute" a tunnel which sloped down at probably 80-90 degrees with just enough room to squeeze through. This already interesting obstacle was made more difficult by our guide saying,"The fun way to go down is head first." SO of course we went head first, including an area where you have to drop and tuck since the tunnel doubles back on itself. 
As you can see by my foot in the corner of each picture, and the fact that I am standing on the ground, you could probably drop a rock down the chute without it hitting anything, of course dropping yourself down would be fun! In the second picture you can see Erron has reached the dogleg where the tunnel changes direction.
After the chute, it was pretty much smooth sailing to the bottom of the cave wher we reached the Grand Gallery. The were many cool and ancient rock formations here so we had to be very careful where we stepped and climbed. Nevertheless, our guides let us stand in front of this 750,000 year old flowstone face to get another group picture taken.
After standing in awe of the beauty that surrounded us for a while, it was time to once again return to the surface. The next day we went hiking at Johnston Canyon. It was a nice hike with an easy paved trail, but the waterfalls make it a great place to see. 
All in all it was an excellent trip and I would recommend it to anyone!
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