Hi all!
I hope everyone got a chance to watch last night's airing of the
"Into the Unknown with Josh Bernstein" segment that had a portion
filmed in Fort Stanton Cave. It was interesting, especially so to
those of us that have been fortunate enough to have been to Snowy
River. I have a few comments that may be of interest, particularly
to those who were not involved with the production.
First, as you view this video, you will see short clips of familiar
New Mexico cavers, including Penny Boston, myself, Kathy Peerman,
Mike Bilbo, Wayne Walker, Jim Cox, Allen Wright, Janice Tucker, &
Mike Dimatteo. Penny was, of course, the focus of the program's
"star", John Bernstein, and most of the footage features
conversations between Josh and Penny. The rest of us were there as
sherpas. A good bit of gear - cameras, lights, audio equipment,
tripods, etc. had to be carried into the cave, and that's what we
were there for.
The portion taking place at Fort Stanton Cave is the first part of
the program after the introduction. It ends up being about 6 minutes
long and occurs before the first commercial. It begins with a scene
of Josh driving to the cave. The careful viewer will note that only
the last portion of that scene takes place in the Fort Stanton area.
Though the audio appears to be continuous, the video shows Josh
driving in probably two other areas before ending up at the turn
heading into the FSC camping area.
The program then cuts to a scene with Penny putting on her helmet,
followed by some close-ups of some other cavers, and then Josh is
shown leaving his vehicle and greeting Penny, (who now, mysteriously,
does not have her helmet on). These scenes, as were most everything
done for this program, were filmed over and over until they were
satisfied with them. Why they ended up combining them in the
particular order they did, is beyond our purview!
After a cut to some computer graphics and pictures of sinkholes on
Mars, the program then returns to Josh and Penny getting their gear
(gloves and knee pads) on and discussing protective gear. You'll
note that this takes place in the back of Wayne Walker's truck, with
Allen Wright's truck quite prominently shown parked beside it.
Following this the group is shown walking to the cave, with Josh
turned to the side, talking to the camera. He makes a comment about
the location being secret which we (the Sherpas) found quite
mystifying, in that Fort Stanton Cave is well known with lots of
prior publicity about the existence and significance of Snowy River
and is adequately managed and gated to protect the resource. But so
be it - on with the show!
There is a short clip of boots and kneepads (mine) followed by the
group dramatically walking over a hill. Well, must of know that
there is no hill to be walked over to get to FSC. What we actually
did was walk beyond the fence gate, over the rise near the
cattleguard. The filming angle made it appear we were coming over a
hill, much like a scene from "The Sound of Music"!
Then we're descending the trail into the entrance sink. They filmed
these scenes over and over many times, and we were carrying the heavy
equipment - it was pretty tiring - and we hadn't even started the
real caving trip!
Finally we get into the main cave with a scene showing Josh walking
somewhere in the main corridor. I couldn't identify exactly where
this scene was filmed - perhaps someone else can. The program then
cuts to Josh crawling in the entry passage to Don Sawyer Memorial
Hall (if you look carefully you'll see some of the shoring on the
right side of the scene), then Josh walking in some mud. This was
filmed in the area of Conrad's Branch heading into the Sewer Pipe.
They walked back and forth there several times capturing the audio of
the boots sucking the sticky mud. The rest of the main corridor was
not wet enough for these sounds. Though everything was filmed in
sequence, these scenes appear out of sequence, since next it cuts
back to the group arriving and ascending 20 Steps. Penny and Josh
have a good conversation going up 20 steps and then continuing across
the top. As with the other scenes, this was filmed multiple times
and the final cut is a combination of many parts of these shots. The
observant viewer will note that the scene ends with the group again
arriving at the base of 20 steps.
Next the program cuts to Penny and Josh changing clothes at Turtle
Junction. What's missing is the trip through Mud Turtle. They spent
a good bit of time filming Josh crawling through some of the tight
areas of Mud Turtle passage, but I guess it didn't come out too well,
or there wasn't time in the program for it.
After changing, Josh and Penny head out onto the Snowy River surface
and begin walking upstream. Most of us were around the corner,
downstream, at this point. Wayne remained with the film crew as
advisor. The final portion of the FSC segment shows Penny taking a
sample from the manganese deposit and discussing its significance
with Josh.
The remainder of the program discusses various aspects of the theory
that life could exist on Mars and could have travelled to Earth.
Someone else can judge whether this is the best program on the topic,
but our focus, of course, is on the portion filmed at FSC. I
believe, despite the editing issues, it shows FSC and caving in a
pretty good light. There is a pretty good conservation message, and
it doesn't sensationalize the sport.
At the beginning of the program Josh talks about heading into the
cave for a grueling 12 hour trip. It turned out to be that - and
more. We started filming about 7 am and some of us didn't get out of
the cave until around 10 pm. The grueling part was for us sherpas.
Carrying the equipment in and out of the cave was pretty hard work.
We had 8 sherpas and we could have used more. But we did it, and
they rewarded us with a steak dinner at the Horseman's Grill in
Capitan at 11 pm that night! All in all, an interesting experience!
Steve Peerman
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things
you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines,
Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in you sails.
Explore. Dream. Discover."
attributed to Mark Twain, but no record exists of his having
written this.
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