Blue Ridge Grotto of the NSS
MEETING MINUTES
November 16, 2012 - 7:30p – Vinton Firehouse
1. Attendance:
Pat Sims – Chair Dave Socky Al Stewart
Joseph Caldwell Alan Staton Mary Sue Socky – Vice
Marian McConnell – Secty Trish Geiger – Treasurer Nicole Gulden
Stephanie Petri Doug Feller Dusty Gulden
Cyndi Hutchison Thomas Mitchell*
*Guest
2. Trip Reports:
·
10/13 – Dave
Socky, Errol Glidden, Vanessa Krabacher, George Dasher surveyed in Savannah Cave, WV. George was too big to go through the tight
spot.
·
10/20 – Dave
& Mary Sue Socky, Bob Alderson, Carol and Joe Zokaites, Ray Sira, and Tanya
McLaughlin stopped at Island Ford Cave,
VA, toured the entrance room, and restocked the WVCC info kiosk. Earlier in the day, many of these same folks
climbed a volcano (old volcanic plug) in Monterey VA before the VSS
meeting.
·
10/21 – Friar’s Hole Cave Preserve, WV: Snedegar’s
Saltpeter Cave and North Entrance. Doug
Feller, Susan Burr, Jordon Masters, Dave Socky, Ed Swepston, Cliff Lindsay. Fun-filled 4-hour cave trip exploring every
nook and cranny of the Saltpeter Maze (saw 3 saltpeter vats) and the Druid
Passage: a narrow stream canyon that was about half walking and half crawling
in the water; interesting passage with lots of scallops and some nice orange
flowstone. Cliff and Ed did photography
in the Saltpeter Entrance.
·
11/4 – Dave
Socky, Phil Lucas, Mark Hodge, Zeb Lilly worked on the ‘Super Sweet Dig” in Helectite Cave, VA. Easy digging in the
80’ passage, with help of a wagon.
Hopefully Helectite Cave and Wishing Well Cave will connect through this
dig (proven air connection). The end of the dig in Helectite is about 400
horizontal feet from Wishing Well Cave and around 70 vertical feet (Helectite
is lower than Wishing Well). Lots more work to do. 8.5 hours.
·
11/10 –Savannah
Cave, Greenbrier Co. WV (4 hr. trip) David
Socky, Errol Glidden, Vanessa Krabacher, Ed Saugstad, Gordon Cole, Larry
Fisher. Dave, Vanessa, and Ed first surveyed the short cut near the
junction room just down from the entrance. Errol, Larry, and Gordon
headed to the end of the B survey to put bolts in for the 15 foot ladder.
Gordon couldn't get through the tight spot, so both Gordon and Larry turned
around while Errol drug all the heavy stuff to the end
of the B survey. Ed, Vanessa, and Dave met Gordon and Larry at the first
room in the B survey as they were coming out. Larry and Vanessa pushed a
lead that went for a little ways, but got tight. Larry and Gordon headed
toward the A survey and the 80 foot drop while Vanessa, Ed, and Dave squeezed
our way through the tight spots and mud and finally found Errol just finishing
with the ladder. We decided to survey out. The ladder climb was only 10
feet. At the bottom, the stream canyon went around the corner past a low spot, and
then opened back up to a high canyon with another drop just 15 feet further
in. This one was a sloping water cascade and could be done with a
handline. Ed sacrificed his 30 foot webbing while Errol put two more
bolts in. Errol and Dave went down to check it out. At the bottom of the drop was another 8 foot
climb down, then 10 feet later, the passage turned into a high, narrow slot
canyon with a trickle of water at the bottom. The slot canyon was about 2
feet wide, but undulations in the walls effectively made it about 6 to 12
inches wide. However, a lot of the knobs and undulations where mud and/or
shale and could be broken off easily. Errol tried climbing high, but got
worried about his foot and hand holds breaking off. Dave went down to the
stream, but would have had to climb up and in about 4 feet, and drop back down
into a slightly wider spot. Then it got narrow again. We both
concluded that a big sledge would be needed to continue. Once back up the
handline, we got ready to survey, but Ed said he was getting cold. We decided
to exit. Ed, Dave, and Vanessa carried the extra heavy pack out so Errol
could have a break. It was extremely muddy. We were slimed. Erroll
took pictures once we were out.
·
10/20 – Stephanie
Petri, Brian Williams, Ken Walsh, Jacob Jackson, Carlin Kartchner, and Buford
Pruitt went surveying in Cold Sink Cave, VA. This was
Stephanie’s “learn how to survey’ trip.
They started in a crawl, and ended in screaming borehole passage, which
still goes. They surveyed 750’, of which
500’ was virgin passage! 14 hour trip.
·
Stephanie Petri,
Brian Williams, Ken Walsh, Jacob Jackson, Carlin Kartchner, and Buford Pruitt ridge walked
some promising land in far SW VA.
·
11/11 – Paxton’s Cave, VA. Doug Feller, Susan Burr, Stephanie Petri,
Thomas Mitchell, Jessica Jones, Ben Hester.
They went everywhere! Doug led
the trip. Went to First Formation Room,
Christmas Room, then Doug took them into high passage, looking for the Worm
Garden. Good 4 hour trip.
·
10/21 – Bridge Day, WV. Pat Sims, Jeramy Sims, Alan Staton, Cyndi
Hutchison, Carl Cornett, Ivy Lidstone, Alan Staton. Good day, everyone dropped the 900’ bridge at
least once; some got in multiple drops.
Shuttle service was
horrible
– paying tourists are now allowed on the rappeller bus & catwalk under the
bridge ($). Rappellers need their own
shuttle, like the BASE Jumpers. Alan
thinks the rappel will disappear within a decade, because paying tourists bring
in more revenue than rappellers.
·
11/10 – Mary Sue
Socky talked with owner Steve Silverberg, visited Lost World Caverns, WV, enjoyed a nice self-paced tour along the
commercial route. Some of the formations
need a good cleaning. Trish Geiger
suggested that BRG offer their volunteer services to help clean the cave.
Upcoming Trips:
·
Nov 30-Dec 2:
Practice Rescue module with VPI Cave Club.
Possibly Tawney’s Cave, VA. BRG
will attend the Dec. 1 Practice Rescue.
See Mary Sue Socky to sign up.
·
Dec. 16 – Rappel
in Catawba Murder Hole, “Daylight Cave”.
10a -2p. RSVP with Marian
McConnell.
·
Possible trip to
Crossroads Cave, VA. Susan Burr will
coordinate.
3. Program: We could not see the video of Blanchard Springs Cave, AR due to
technical difficulties. This video will
be shown at the Dec. 16 BRG Christmas Party.
BUSINESS MEETING
4. TREASURER’S
REPORT (Trish Geiger):
11/15/2012 Balance Sheet
Petty Cash 110.00
General Fund 3,581.26
Conservation 266.59
Equipment 225.36
Cave Bucks 164.30
TOTAL BALANCE:
$4,408.33
5. NEWSLETTER –
print shop is still honoring $.05 per-page agreement. Postage will go up $.01/stamp in 2013.
6. MEMBERSHIP –
Pay your dues! Thanks to all who have
already paid.
7. ROCKS – nothing
new.
8. SAFETY &
TECHNIQUES – nothing new.
9. MEMBERSHIP
PROPOSALS – none.
10. OLD BUSINESS:
·
Roanoke City
GO-FEST: No one from BRG attended. Media
exposure looked positive; perhaps we should try to have a booth next year
(2013).
·
BRG has an open
invite to ridgewalk Sharon Money’s property (Botetourt Co. VA), and Sharon can
possibly get us permission to visit her neighbor’s land, too. Marian McConnell has not had time to inquire
as to ridgewalking/caving on the Botetourt Vineyard property.
·
There will be a
contingent from BRG to attend the VPI Practice rescue on Dec. 1. Please Sign up!
·
BRG Christmas Cards
– got 75 printed. Good photo, with a few
shadows. Cards will be sent out in early
December.
·
BRG Christmas
Party – 2p-5p, potluck at McConnell’s house.
Please RSVP Marian (call, email, or sign the list).
11. ELECTIONS:
The following people were
nominated:
Chair: Marian McConnell NSS # 37358
Vice Chair: David Socky NSS
# 16334
Secretary: Mary Sue Socky NSS
# 24206
Treasurer: Stephanie Petri NSS # 62805
Nominations were
closed. Al Stewart moved that the slate
be accepted by acclimation. Mary Sue
Socky seconded.
All voted FOR the new
officers. The new officers were
installed. There was dancing in the
streets. Pat Sims passd the gavel to
Marian McConnell, and business resumed.
12. NEW BUSINESS:
·
Goodwins – Alan
Staton offered to repair the Goodwin Gate.
Dave and Mary Sue Socky will take him over to the property to look at
the gate tomorrow (Sat. 11/17/2012).
·
Alan Staton and
Glen Hugus are working with Alleghany HS (Covington VA) students on a cave
presentation. They would really appreciate
it if anyone can help them, especially with the geology part. Mary Sue Socky volunteered to come up with
the educational stuff and help them Nov. 30.
·
Mary Sue Socky
informed BRG about the recent brouhaha at Island Ford Cave, VA. A commercial outfitter, Wilderness Adventure
(WA), based in New Castle, VA has used Island Ford Cave for years without
permission. On 11/9/2012, WA put out a
GROUPON advertising their cave trips, and West Va Cave
Conservancy (WVCC) (who owns Island Ford Cave, specifies No Commercial Trips)
sent them a cease and desist letter telling them to stay off the property. WA
is now trying to get permission to use the cave, which they claim they used
“infrequently in the past”. WA has also contacted
BRG members for caves, cave owner info they can use in their operation (they
were told NO, most of the caves are closed due to WNS; cave owners do not want
to deal with commercial outfitters. Dan
and Marian McConnell are working with them on one trip into CMH). WVCC has suggested that WA employees attend
BRG meetings, learn how to cave with landowner permission, respect landowner
wishes and NOT overuse any cave (all wild caves are fragile natural resources
and cannot handle daily traffic.) This is not the first cave that WA has
overused, used on a daily basis and run ruts in the cave until the owners said
“NO MORE”. On the positive side, WA’s
presence at Island Ford has helped to ‘run off the riff-raff’ who would misuse,
vandalize the cave. WA also helps the
property by picking up litter in the cave entrance. It was discussed. If WVCC were to allow WA’s use of Island Ford
Cave in the future, they should be limited to X number of trips per week/month,
etc. – but that is for the WVCC Board to decide. In the meantime, don’t give anyone cave
names, owner info, or take them to your favorite wild cave unless you know them
really well and know they will not return on their own, begin a chain of
vandalism or overuse.
13. ANNOUNCEMENTS,
MAIL BAG, ETC.
·
New NSS website
is great! Take a look at it!
·
NEW WNS Decon
protocols – HOT water (122 F) for 15 min. will kill WNS spores!
·
River Rock Climbing Gym – have heard nothing about their opening. Maybe soon.
·
NSS Members Manual needs photos for the cover.
·
NSS Convention 2013 will be in Shippensburg, PA, Aug
5-9, 2013. Forms on desk. Mail in your registration with a check
today to save the NSS money. (Online is OK, too but costs the NSS)
·
MURDER HOLE book
by Marian McConnell will be available soon – it ought to be a NSS Bookstore by
Dec.3!
·
NO December BRG meeting. See
you at the rappel and the party, then the January
18, 2013 meeting!
14. CHRISTMAS IN
NOVEMBER
Retired caver Liz McGowan
has moved to Seattle, WA. Before she
left, she gave Mary Sue Socky all of her old caving stuff, with instructions to
find it a good home. So, folks, step up
and see what Liz left you – it’s Christmas one month
early!
At this point, the meeting
adjourned. Time not recorded, but it was
near 8:45p.
Minutes Submitted by
Mary
Sue Socky
BRG Secretary