The first known story of people exploring the Fang area starts with Bill Barclay and Larry Coniff, a pair of hunters looking for goats in the Pass Lake area in 1965. They stumbled upon the big cave where, later, Bill’s son, James, and a friend rappelled into the Coliseum.
In his book ‘Viking to Canuck’, Bjorn Norheim speaks of early exploration in the Fang Mountain area as far back as 1967. Northwood Pulp and Timber’s bush foreman, Roger Kozowy, shared with Bjorn about the hole in the wall up near Pass Lake. People hunting goats and other game had come across these holes in the mountain. Bill Harvie, another bush foreman at Northwood, spoke about the hole as well as others like McGregor supervisor Kitil Barlaug.
In his book ‘The Mountain Knows No Expert’, Mike Nash speaks of his first mountain ski camp with George Evanoff in the McGregor Mountains west of Pass Lake in 1981. George shared with Mike regarding a large hole in the ground just across the valley. Little did they know that the sharing of this cave with the broader community would propel Prince George onto the national and international speleological stage. For full details regarding the exploration of the Fang Cave, see Mike’s book titled ‘The Mountain Knows No Expert’, which has that story.
George called the area ‘The Fangs’ because of the jagged peaks that guard the entrance of the alpine where the cave is located. George constructed what became known as The Fang Trail and the Torpy Trail to provide access into the area from opposite sides.
Dave King shared that there was an old outfitters’ trail that wasn’t very good in the area that went up to the right ridge above the valley, looking down on Pass Lake. Dave and George worked together to create the trails into the Fang basin. George has been working on one part of the trail while Dave was working on another, and they met there on Fang.
In the early exploration of the Fang cave, Dave shares that one of his most memorable times with Mike Nash was their exploration of the Fang cave system.
The 1473-hectare Evanoff Provincial Park is named after George Evanoff, recognizing him as the leader of the first group to formally explore the cave system in 1981. In March of 1999, the BC government approved the area for recommendation, and the park was established on June 29, 2000.
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