Surveying through a very low passage (10 inches tall and 200 feet wide(!)), into a very large passage. Fun times... Photos taken with flashbulbs and a DSLR for the quantity and quality of light.

Shot on Portra 400.

The National Speleological Society is celebrating the International Day of Caves and Karst with an open house! Join the NSS on September 13th for an afternoon of cave exploration and guided walkthroughs of NSS Headquarters.

Free registration is available here

More info about the International Day of Caves and Karst is available here

You guys can stop by and meet the new NSS staff (including me!), Division Heads, Interim Director, and fellow cavers. You'll be able to get a personal walkthrough of the NSS campgrounds, museum, library, auditorium, and offices while learning more about the resources and benefits the NSS has to offer. Even if you've already visited HQ before this is a great in-person opportunity to ask questions or give us feedback, whether it be good or bad.

And if you'd like to get underground, we'll also be doing guided tours of Shelta Cave! Shelta is a very beginner friendly cave if you'd like to bring a novice or non caver along with you to give caving a try.

HQ Walkthroughs are from 1:00 PM - 5:30 PM

Small-Group Shelta Cave trips will depart at:

2:00 PM • 3:00 PM • 3:30 PM

Btw, I’m Nadya, the NSS’s new Events & Engagement Manager. My role includes planning events like these, so y’all are especially welcome to come yell at me when you drop in on the 13th. And if you can’t make it to the open house, feel free to yell at me here! Leave a comment or shoot me a message anytime, would love to hear from you.

Check it out on Steam and wishlist, that will help the development a lot.
Feel free to ask any questions here.

We are cavers ourselves that are developing this game. I myself have been caving for ten years so you can bet I want to make it as realistic and faithful as possible ❤️

Though these were so cool. Located in a locked cave for research so seeing these guys in person was a real treat!

Hey all,

Misplaced one of my Wurkkos HD15 headlamps in 4000k. They only make them in 5000k now, I much prefer the warmer tones. Any suggestions for a replacement? I used 2 on my helmet, and a spare in 5000k in my pack. Dumbass me took it off my helmet and of course its gone lol

Either 18650 or 21700 are fine I have plenty of both batteries.

Found this when I was a teenager on my family farm (western Virginia). The ridge that it’s on is in between two creeks, has several sinkholes and a pretty good amount of limestone. I finally decided to really check it out and started digging. I dug as far as I could but I can tell that it goes farther back. Is there any tips or tricks that I can use to confirm it’s in fact a cave entrance before I waste my time digging it out? Thanks in advance.

Hi I'm not a caver myself but I'm currently working on a project about Welsh folklore and was hoping someone here could help me identify a cave mentioned by Wirt Sikes in British Goblins (1880) It is “Ogof Cigfrain, or Cavern of the Ravens,”he describes it as somewhere in Glamorgan. It was associated with a folklore story about treasure guarded by two dark birds. Does anyone know whether Ogof Cigfrain survives under another modern cave name, or appears in older cave surveys? I'm not looking for an exact location just trying to find the general area and hopefully get some photos from inside the cave .

I wanted to ping the community again to see what thoughts the community might have about CT Removables vs. the Pulses.

My only hesitation for the CT Removables is the lack of official EN959 certification, however Hownot2 seems to support them along with other independent testers.

While the Petzl Pulses are rated, and the extra cost not a problem (I want to be as sure as possible of my and my team's safety underground so I'm willing to pay for a EN959 rated bolt), I have some frustrations that are making me more seriously re-consider getting the CT Removables:

1. The 8mm pulses are wonderful for short drops in perfect rock, but otherwise have a very short shaft length and also feature an aluminum hangar which requires them to be removed on the same day.

2. I've jammed a few 12mm pulses permanently in rock now. I have various theories why, but am quite frustrated with their performance. Just 3 12mm pulses is a lot of money to have jammed in a cave. At least the whole thing is 316l so it can effectively be a permanent wedge anchor now.

Also I am drilling the hole deeper than necessary, extensively cleaning, SDS bit, etc. all that stuff. I theorize the 12mm's are way more sensitive to even the tiniest amount of dust, or water entering the hole. The plunger mechanism + removal technique is not always easy, and I've had a few act stuck that I was able to get out with a light tap on the plunger (effectively pushing the bolt deeper in allowing more play of the mechanism). In any case, I'm not too keen on jamming more pulses in the rock, so I am having an every so slightly tiny amount of space between the hangar and rock when placing the 12's.

1. In any case, due to the plunger setup, even the 12mm pulses are not ideal for being left in a cave for a month, even if they'd be "fine" due to being 316l.

The main pain point here is that the pulses are not appropriate for "extended temporary rigging," for example a cave that will be visited multiple times over a week or month(s). In many of these cases, rock real estate is limited so we don't want to use wedge bolts, but it's not always practical to put epoxy bolts immediately. Even for our glue-in projects, they can take multiple days to complete, and it would be MUCH nicer to leave the pulses IN along with the ropes and then return later. However, due to my experiences having them seize & jam ridiculously easy, I'm not keen on leaving them in.

Presumably due to the screw-lock method of the Climbing Taiwan bolts, they should be better for "extended temporary rigging," for example being left in a cave for 1-2 months and slowly replaced with glue-ins, etc. (this allows us to not have to re-haul the rope/bolts/re-rig/etc.).

My inital pain point with the CT bolts were first and primarily the lack of EN959 rating, and also the drilling diameter being a weird 10mm. 8mm is optimal for exploring, 12mm optimal for glue-in bolting. However, after a recent experience of a friend using CT bolts to explore and me re-drilling them to 12mm for glue-ins, I realized that it's silly because re-drilling to 12 is no problem. Furthermore if drilling 10 at start (instead of 8) allows us to leave gear in the expedition cave for future pushes (as opposed to de-rigging then re-rigging), then the extra upfront work is well worth it.

My friend has extensively used the CT bolts and he's still here, but that's not always a good metric for "should you do the same." It lacks the EN959 rating, but I'm seriously reconsidering how "necessary" that is?

I don't want my expeditions to end up on some horror story having been the person that trusted non-rated Chinese gear, but in this case it seems to be reputable people (and from Taiwan, not mainland) and Americans (the Hownot2 people) seem to like it.

So am I just being a weirdo for obsessing over EN959 and sticking to Petzl, or are times changing and it's time to get some Climbing Taiwan bolts? My #1 concern is how legitimate the steel grades are of the Climbing Taiwan bolts, particularly regarding consistency. Why else wouldn't they have the EN959 rating?

Hello,

The Bluetooth on my disto isn't working anymore; the last time I used it last summer, it was still working fine. Even after restarting it, it still doesn't work.

Have you ever had the same problem? Can I just replace the Bluetooth module by myself ?

16℃避暑秘境 970公里矿道的“凉”转型 A summer wonderland at 16℃ the ”cool” transformation of the 970 kilometer mine tunnels

title says it all. im in northern jersey, and theres plenty of black bear. today while walking the woods i stumbled upon this decent sized cave opening with a path going into it. im soo curious but we know how the saying goes, and have also never “caved” 😅 theres bear tracks less than half a mile away in the mud, and i saw one up here yesterday.

is there a way to tell if anyone is currently home? i didnt smell any musk, but theres certainly tracks. or do we just not go into caves we know bears go into aswell.

Doing level 3 hang en (Vietnam) caving/trekking in April and looking for shoe recommendations. The website says non-waterproof shoes with good drainage and closed toe. I was thinking about bringing keens closed toe sandals and then using the jungle boots they provide if needed. Thoughts?

A cave near to me had this inside. I wish I could've gone in further to take a better photo, but I did not want to risk falling. I assume it's common for people to dump things in caves, but the red-painted sacks are weird to say the least. Any ideas what this could be?

I'm no caver, but this has peaked my interest. I may go back soon.

Make has a fun intro-to-cave radio this morning.

Beautiful weather, delicious food, new & old friends, other awesome people, amazing caves.

Like why are the cave canals always, even narrow, they are ALWAYS enough wide for people to come in. Is there a reason? Why i always see people going through narrow canals and they always pass through it successfully. Like the size of water passing in caves is similar size as a human?

And want to go the next step up and start training with ropes/harnesses/ and all the other gadgets

But overwhelmed with where to start and what to get

Can anyone help me out with what gear to grab? Thanks!

We visit around 2-3 caves per year and have been for most of the last decade. Just about any vacation we do, we add a cave tour if one is available. We aren't spelunkers... this was the first year since 2021 where we didn't bring a baby carrier on the walking tour, but we love show caves.

Does anyone have a good checklist (or even better, some kind of cool map) where we can keep track of which caves we've visited? Do you keep a list?

My parents have a scratch-off map of the world to track which countries they have visited and I've seen people who have corkboard maps where they put in pins for each state they visit. Something like that would be even better.