national speleological society news - tham khoun xe - the great

2 NSS NewS, July 2009

Send items for the calendar to [email protected] at least 6 weeks before desired month of publication (i.e., by March 15 for the

May issue).

USAJuly 17-19, 2009—The Texas Cave Conservancy invites all cavers going to the International Congress of Speleology to stop by the TCC Headquarters in Cedar Park, Texas (near Austin) for camping, swimming, caving and a Saturday night party. Cavers will be able to see a number of examples of urban cave management situations including the TCC Educational Show Cave, the TCC educational sign program and learn about the TCC CAVE DAY program. For additional information call 512-249-2283 or e-mail us at [email protected] July 19-26, 2009–NSS Convention and 15th International Congress of Speleology, sponsored by the NSS, in Kerrville, Texas. For more information contact [email protected] or visit the web site: www.ics2009.us July 27-August 5—International Congress of Speleology Post-Congress Excursions and Camps: See www.ics2009.us/exmenu.html and www.ics2009.us/fcmenu.html for more information.August 14-16, 2009 – 56th Annual Cave Capers, hosted by the Central Indiana Grotto at the beautiful and wooded Camp Rivervale on the high bluffs of the White River in Mitchell, IN for great caving, swimming, vendors, music, cookout, and fun. Go to www.cavecapers.com or call Ron Adams 317-490-7727.August 21-23, 2009—Basic Cave Rescue Orientation Seminar* - Huntsville, AL - Sponsored by the Huntsville Cave Rescue Unit. Designed to present the most current, specialized cave rescue techniques to those individuals, groups, agencies and others interested in or charged with the responsibility of performing high angle, cliff, pit or cave rescue. *Hands-on classroom sessions & a day in the field. $50 includes lunch on Sunday. See http://HCRU.org for details and registration form.October 2-4, 2009—Fall MVOR regional at Keener Cave and Spring Resort near Williamsville Missouri. For information contact Jim Sherrell [email protected] or check the mvor.org. websiteOctober 2-4, 2009—Mid-Appalachian Region Fall Field Meet at the site of Rupert Cave in scenic Mifflin County, Pennsylvania in celebration of the York Grotto’s 50th anniversary. Directions and other info at yorkgrotto.org.October 4-10, 2009—Carlsbad Caverns NP. Lint Camp. Contact Pat Jablonsky, [email protected] for information.October 8-11, 2009---32nd Annual TAG Fall Cave-In at TAG On The Mountain (TOTM), Lookout Mountain, Georgia. Hosted by the Dogwood City Grotto for NSS members and their guests. Sorry, no dogs or ATVs. For pre-registration, contact Ms. Andrea Tognetti 309-453-2816, email [email protected]. Vendors contact Ms. Pam Dopp 770-301-9360, email [email protected]. Registration forms and directions are available at www.tagfallcavein.org.

September 11-13, 2009—45th Annual WSS Hodag Hunt, at Cherney Maribel Caves County Park, on County Road R, near Maribel, Wisconsin. Guided cave trips to numerous Northeastern Wisconsin caves, including Maribel New Hope Cave, Carolyn’s Caverns System at Ledge View Nature Center, and others. Also, Dave Redell, a DNR expert on bat ecology, will be the guest speaker at the Saturday night banquet. For more information contact WSS Chairman, Kasey Fiske at [email protected] or his home phone

at 1 – (608) 544-2212.September 14-18, 2009—Black Hills Cave Restoration Camp, hosted by Wind Cave National Park and Jewel Cave National Monument, South Dakota. Volunteers clean lint accumulations at both caves. No registration fee, caving trips available, housing provided, space is limited. Contact Marc Ohms by July 31, 2009: (605) 745-1182 or [email protected] 7, 2009—NSS Board of Governors meeting at the Birmingham Zoo Lodge hosted by the Birmingham and Central Alabama Grottos. Contact Scott Fee ([email protected]) for more information or visit www.bhamgrotto.org/

bham/bid/ August 2-6, 2010—NSS Convention in Essex Junction, Vermont.Chairman: Ken Moore, [email protected] 18-22, 2011—NSS Convention in Glenwood Springs, ColoradoJune 25-29, 2012—NSS Convention in the Greenbrier Valley of West Virginia

INTERNATIONALAugust, 2010—15th International Symposium on Vulcanospeleology, Undara & Victoria, Australia. Info: [email protected]

Aven des Trois Ponts (3 Bridges Pit) in Lebanon. Photo by Philippe Crochet.

NSS NewS, July 2009 3

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The NSS News (ISSN 0027-7010) is published monthly with the Members Manual and American Caving Accidents published as additional issues by the National Speleological Society, Inc, 2813 Cave Ave, Huntsville, AL 35810-4431. Periodicals Postage Paid at Huntsville, Al and additional mailing offices. Tel: (256)852-1300; FAX (256)851-9241, e-mail: [email protected], web: www.caves.orgRegular membership in the NSS is $36 per year. See http://caves.org/info/membertypes.shtml for descriptions of other membership categories. Subscriptions to the NSS News are $23 per year; individual copies are $3.00 each. Contact the Huntsville office for membership applications, subscriptions, orders, or for replacement of issues missing or damaged in the mail. Moving? Please report changes of address to the office promptly or online at: www.caves.org/info/changeinfo.shtml

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NSS NewsJuly 2009

Volume 67 Number 7

Underground Update .................... 26Classified Ads ...............................31

Society News ................................25Letters............................................25

Front cover: Caver Kevin Stanway walks the edge of a 60m long rimstone pool basin in Tham Khoun Xe in Laos. This could well be the largest single such basin known, and is in a cave that has one of the largest river passages known. The spine is the best route through the vast rimstone terraces in this part of the cave.

Back cover: Right: Annie Giraud in Grotte de Cotepatière, Gard, France. Photo by Philippe Crochet, who describes it as “an easy and photogenic cave.” Left: Cavers kayaking near the upstream entrance of Tham Khoun Xe.Bottom: Cavers on a balcony look down at the underground Xe Bang Fai River some 18 m below them in Tham Kound Xe. Photos of this cave by Dave Bunnell.

Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR)Tham Khoun Xe - The Great Cave on the Xe Bang Fai River ......... 4

John Pollack, Pat Kambesis, Bob Osburn, Dave Bunnell, Aaron Addison, Kevin Stanway, David Sawatzky, and Phil Whitfield

Spelean SpotlightAn Interview with Philippe Crochet ............................................ 23

Dave Bunnell

International Congress Special IssueThis issue should be in most members’ hands by the time that the International

Congress meets in Kerrville, Texas this month. A few months back I conceived of the idea of doing a specially themed international issue of the News with lots of cool color photos, and then doing a larger print run than usual to allow giving free copies to non-NSS cavers coming to the Congress from around the world. While not a typi-cal issue it gives people an idea of what our publication is like, and perhaps we will even pick up some new members. But at time I wasn’t sure what we’d have for it.

Two things came together to make the issue you see here. First, National Geographic finally released their photo embargo on my images from an expedition to an amazing cave in Laos that a group of us visited in Feb 2008; the map was completed by Bob Osburn, and John Pollack and Pat Kambesis were keen to write an article. There are lots of pages devoted to it, yes, but it is a spectacular, world-class cave, possibly the world’s largest volume river passsage over its course than any other.

Secondly, I received an e-mail from accomplished French cave photographer Philippe Crochet; if you are familiar with the Speleo Projects calendar you have seen his work. He has just built a fine website with a bunch of his best work. I rushed to look at it and was soon drooling over the prospect of publishing some of his work. Fortunately Philippe was quite willing to be published in the News, and I have coupled that with an interview. I am honored to share the photo spotlight in this issue with him. By the way, the extra signature of color in this issue (8 pages) was made possible by tapping the News Endowment Fund, which exists for just such a purpose.It’s been available for many years but I have never actually bothered to use it.. A $2,000 dona-tion from that covered more color and the print overrun for ICS. I hope you enjoy the results and next month we will return to a more typical issue with more text.


IntroductIonIn 2006 a small team of North American

cavers visited an immense river cave in central Laos. They camped below the lower entrance where the force of exiting floodwa-ter during the monsoon had blown a huge pool in the jungle. Kayaking upstream, the group paddled long sections of wall-to-wall water through huge river trunk, portaged eight sets of rapids, and emerged from an upper entrance five hours later.

The great cave on the Xe Bang Fai River is known by several names, of which Tham Khoun Xe or Khoun Xe Cave, is the published Lao name (Shoemaker et al 2001). The cave is an underground segment of the Xe Bang Fai River, and it is located in a remote corner of Khammouane Province of Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR) (Figure 1). The Xe Bang Fai River originates in the Annam Trung Sun Mountains on the border between Lao PDR and Vietnam and flows across the Nakhai Plateau en route to the Mekong River. The Xe Bang Fai River drains through mountainous highlands of granitic and metamorphic rock and across the Nakhai Plateau which is composed of sandstones, silts and shales to the northwest and massive carbonates in the northeast (Mouret, 2001). When the river encounters the carbonate bedrock it sinks in its surface channel and cuts a 7 km subterranean course forming Tham Khoun Xe. Surface drainage from a 1300 km2 recharge area disap-pears into the upstream entrance of what is undoubtedly one of the largest active river cave passages in the world. Stream discharge ranges from a low of 9 m3/s to an average

discharge of 68 m3/s and maximum of over 600 m3/s in monsoon storms.

the PeoPle of the Xe Bang faI rIver Any visit to the area involves a fascinat-

ing encounter with Lao culture and tradition. Over 120,000 Lao people live along and near the Xe Bang Fai, and the river is an integral part of their daily lives and welfare (Shoemaker et al. 2001) Villages in the area include ethnic Brou (Lao Theunbg or midland Lao), Phou Thai, Ngouan (Vietic), and Lowland Lao. Typically they conduct subsistence agriculture along its seasonally-inundated banks and use it for travel, drinking and irrigation. They forage and hunt in the jungle, shooting deer, birds, and trapping bamboo rats, and they fish in the river. The river is a mainstay for the villages during hard times, and there is a local saying “Rice grows on the back of a fish” meaning simply when times are hard and crops fail, the local people can fish and sell their catch for rice.

Life is not easy in this remote area. The last 20 km of dirt road leading to the cave village periodically loses its bridges in monsoon floods. Often the farmers’ rice tractors are the only means of mechanized transportation in the height of the rainy season. Malaria and dysentery take a toll, and many families have lost sons and daughters. There is also the legacy from the Indochina war, as the cave is close to the Vietnamese border and the immediate area contains remnants of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Code-named “Steel Tiger East” during the Vietnam War, many village names on the topographic maps include the phrases “abandoned” or

“destroyed” under them. Villages in the area endured substantial hardship during the war, and former Pathet Lao fighters, now elders, still live among the local villages. In general the Lao people are friendly, warm, generous, and resilient.

A majority of Laotians in the cave area are Animists, who believe spirits inhabit the lands, rivers and forests around them. They are wary of the great cave due to the pres-ence of Phe Thame and Phe Nam, the spirits of the caves and waters. Our boatmen and local villagers would forage in the entrance areas of the great cave, but they do not penetrate its inner reaches due to the pres-ence of spirits and ghosts.

John Pollack, Pat Kambesis, Bob Osburn, Dave Bunnell, Aaron Addison, Kevin Stanway, David Sawatzky, and Phil Whitfield. Cartography: Bob Osburn Photos: Dave Bunnell

Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR)

Tham Khoun Xe - The Great Cave on the Xe

Bang Fai River

Gear and expedition members packed in for an 8-hour road trip to the village.


In terms of biodiversity the area is tremendously rich. Over 130 species of fish were identified in a 1996 survey, including more than 20 species of catfish. A freshwater eel from the China Sea migrates up to the cave, and a species of freshwater stingray has been reported. The local villagers spoke to us of fish as large as a man in the cave, and there is a complex system of community-based prohibitions against fishing in certain deep pools and caves (including Tham Khoun Xe) as they are sanctuaries for fish during the dry season. Large scale fish migrations move up the river to the lower entrance of this cave at the start of the rainy seasons. It is unknown as to whether these migrations travel through the cave and into the isolated upper Xe Bang Fai basin.

hIstory of eXPloratIon Tham Khoun Xe is an immense feature

on the landscape, and it was well-known to the Lao people who for centuries have fished in the river that flows from the downstream entrance and scaled its entrance walls to harvest bird’s nests. European exploration of the cave dates back to 1904 when the French gunboat La Grandiere steamed up the river at high water and raked the lower entrance pool with machine gun fire. In March of the next year (1905), the explorer Paul Macey traversed the active river passage between the two entrances with a bamboo raft that was taken apart at the base of each rapid, and then reassembled above it. Macey’s first attempt ended when his small French/Lao party was blown out of the lower entrance by a 1 m flood pulse. Several days later they succeeded in making the through-trip after a 21-hour effort.

In 1908 Macey published an account of his trip in Spelunca (Macey 1908). However the cave remained virtually unknown to Westerners due to its remoteness, WWII and the Indochina war, and its position on the Ho

Chi Minh Trail. Claude Mouret visited the cave in 1995 after which the area was closed to foreigners. It was reluctantly reopened to kayakers circa 2005, and we regained access with some difficulty in 2006. Both French and North American teams are now operating in the area and ecotourism has discovered the cave.

2008 eXPedItIon logIstIcs

Tham Khoun Xe lies beyond the end of a dirt track that is impass-able during high water and rainstorms. During our reconnaissance trip in the dry season of 2006, we managed to push a truck up the track and over fords to the last village and spent several days at the lower entrance. The team was expanded to include expert cave surveyors and a professional cave photographer, and we returned in February 2008. This time we used small long-tail boats to travel 22 km upriver from the last all-weather road to the downstream entrance. Typically groups operating in the Lao PDR require permits from the National Tourism Administration, NTA-approved guides and local support, so on both occasions the team relied on a local outfitter for camp support.

Camp was established at the down-stream entrance pool, and eight, two-person Zebec inflatable kayaks were used to traverse the long stretches of underground river. Two sets of four boats were “staged” above the first and second (of eight) portages to reduce damage to the kayaks and the cavers. None

of the rapids required special equipment or rigging at low water, and we simply hauled the boats around them. There was evidence of vast floods throughout the cave and the rapids— while relatively minor obstacles at low water—can change rapidly in bad weather. The flow encountered in 2008 was less than in 2006, yet we still set up battery-powered red flashers above each portage so the safe take-out points could be readily identified when paddling downstream. In high water this technique would be a life-saver given the huge scale of the passages and the problems that would ensue if a boat was sucked into the boulder-strewn rapids.

Two independent teams were fielded each day, one team to photo-document the cave and the second team to survey it and as many of the side passages that they could manage within the allotted 8-day expedition.

Expedition gear packed into a longtail boat for the 22km ride to the cave’s downstream end. Arriving at camp, cave entrance visible in the background


survey challengesDuring the initial trip in 2006, we

learned standard survey equipment and techniques (e.g. hand-held instruments and fiberglass tapes) were unsuitable in such large river passage. The 2006 team had a Trimble HD150 laser distometer that proved to be an absolute necessity in measuring long distances over water. The great size of the passage required a 1:1000 scale in order to fit passage sketches on the width of available paper. Communication was a challenge in the large reverberating river passage and impossible near the rapids.

survey shots exceeded 100 meters. The Impulse was sealed to military specifications and capa-ble of surviving a very wet cave environment. In order to fully document the cave passages the survey team maintained a sketch-to-scale standard with protractor on 8.5 x 11 survey paper and sketching duties were split between two team members. Finally, we

solved the communication problem using several pairs of cheap FM walkie-talkies.

With this arrangement the survey team netted from 700 to 2200 m of passage survey daily, for eight consecutive days. Because of the sketch-to-scale mode such survey footage was possible only because the

m across, demanded numerous ray shots in addition to the above passage lengths, and the survey team made a total 13.6 km of shots to map 9.7 km of passage.

We maintained a high standard of mapping due to the experience of the sketch-ers—Pat Kambesis and Bob Osburn—who captured both passage detail and made nearly 40 cross-sections of the active river cave. Kambesis and Osburn knew from their decades of experience that it was not possible to estimate very large distances underground, and they relied upon ray shots from Aaron Addison to accurately scale their drawings. In order to capture passage and wall detail for really long survey shots, Kambesis used hand-held instruments and a small disto in order

Despite those difficulties the 2-person survey team managed to survey 700 meters of passage in a day.

In 2008, the team arrived with Leica A-5’s, a Trimble HD150, and a power-ful reflectorless survey instrument—the Impluse 200xl—capable of accurate distance measurements to several hundred meters. The long range of the Impulse 200xl made it the instrument of choice as nearly all of our

floor detail for the main passage was wall-to-wall water other than a few beaches and some partially submerged boulders and two sketchers worked simultaneously. However, on those days where the team surveyed on dry land, the daily tally was on the low end of the daily range. The last survey trip to the back end of the cave covered 17 km underground and lasted 16 hours. The size of the passages, some of which exceeded 140

to break up the shot into more mentally manageable pieces. Without a high power reflectorless instrument such as the Impulse 200xl, they felt an accurate map would have been impossible, as “eyeballed” passage widths could be in error by 50 to 100%.

The resultant map sets a new standard for a detailed survey of a giant river passage - see http://gis.wustl.edu/xbf/ for a detailed view of it.

Our experience has shown that it is not possible to accurately estimate distances (or heights) greater than 15-20 meters, even when the survey is conducted by experienced people. Also, working in large, wall-to-wall river passage from kayaks or canoes is challenging with standard survey equip-ment and techniques. A different approach is required in order to produce an accurate and detailed map of large passages. Not

Left: basecamp for 10 days

DOWNSTREAM ENTRANCE

BALCONY

A l i e n Eggs


only is a seasoned survey crew required, but you need determined sketchers who utilize numerous ray shots, and a powerful (and expensive) reflectorless survey instrument is mandatory. Without proper instrumentation it is extremely difficult and time consuming to accurately measure the size of enormous cave passages, especially when trying to capture good passage detail.

PhotograPhIc logIstIcs The huge river passages also posed

challenges for the photography team. The four-person photo team led by Dave Bunnell used kayaks as either lighting positions, camera positions, or both. Added to this factor was the difficulty of communication in large passage, the current, and the need to keep everything out of the water.

Many large passage photos were made with flashbulbs and a dozen Meggaflash PF300s. However most of the shots were made with the smaller M5 and M3 bulbs. To enhance light output, flash units with large polished reflectors and clear bulbs were used. To avoid the problem of noise on long tripod exposures, multi-flash shots were sometimes made by combining separate frames.

The white balance of the camera was set to color balance the bulbs rather than using filters. To fire the bulbs vintage and homemade flash units were utilized. The latter were constructed from PVC pipe and designed for wet conditions the vintage units wouldn’t tolerate. All the shots were made

in RAW format, as required by our National Geographic sponsorship. This made it really easy to adjust for differences in the color temperature of different brands and sizes of flashbulbs, as all clear flashbulbs do not have the same color output.

In addition to bulbs, four electronic strobes - two Vivitar 283 and two Sunpak 120J bare-tube flashes were used. The latter are some of the most powerful strobes

capable of using AA batteries (as opposed to rechargeable battery packs; these units were not an option for this remote expedition loca-tion). The large strobes were indispensable for photos shot from a kayak, where bulbs couldn’t be used because of the necessity of setting up a tripod. To synchronize strobes, specially constructed slaves were used. The photographer used a Nikon D70s camera, with a Tokina 12-24 mm f/4.5 lens. He also brought an f/2.8 Nikkor 24 mm lens specifi-

cally for the additional f/stop it afforded. This flexibility was crucial for strobe shots from the kayak.

cave descrIPtIonThe Xe Bang Fai River sinks in a

jumble of trees and rock just outside of the upstream cave entrance and immediately resurges under the dripline of a massive surface collapse that nears tiankeng dimen-

sions. At this entrance the cave forks into an upper, fossil or overflow passage at an upper entrance, and into an active river passage that traverses 7.0 km of passage before breaching daylight at the down-stream entrance and pool. The downstream entrance area forms a 60-meter tall arch at the base of an imposing limestone amphi-theater over 150 m tall. The river resurges into an elliptical 240 meter long pool that

Boudler choke at downstream entrance

STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN


marks the resumption of surface flow of the Xe Bang Fai River.

The overflow passage near the upstream entrance was explored on the last day of the expedition and “ended” with no end in sight. Access to this section is down a steep, sedi-ment slope to a T junction. The north end sumps and is most likely the downstream end of a similar sumped passage off of the main stream. The south trend goes to at least 3 km of damp trunk passage, meaning it contains no active river. Driven by a good, stiff breeze and a supply of Snickers candy bars, the survey team efficiently knocked off hundreds of meters of survey through this mazy bit of cave. Because of time constraints the survey crew was unable to map any of the side passages in this area. And just when the maze seemed to be shutting down it blasted open again into a huge breakdown-floored passage that averaged 60-80 meters wide and still going—typical fare for the end of an expedition in a remote area of the world.

Between the two river entrances, the cathedral-like walls of the river passage reach heights of 120 meters in some places. The active river passage averages 76 m wide by

53 m high (as determined from 38 cross-sections) and frequently exceeds 100 m in width. The largest passage widths noted were 200 and 140 m downstream of, and at the Oxbow. Most of the cave passage is floored with 4-12 m deep water but there are sections where breakdown forms small islands, bends in the river make long beach segments, and bolder piles make 8 distinct rapids. Many large stalagmites, some in excess of 20 meters in height, have formed along the rocky banks of breakdown beaches and in large, dry rooms above the river.

The passage at The Oxbow has been enlarged by massive ceiling collapse. This room is 140 m in width and contains an extensive area of gour pools including one over 60 m in length and 5 m deep. The Oxbow also contains a large collection of cave pearls, including world-record hexago-

nal cave pearls of 32 cm circumference. Truck-sized breakdown blocks litter the floor of the room and the river cuts a big bend on the east side of the room. Large tree branches that were jammed in ceiling cracks and pieces of big tree trunks wedged in breakdown piles were sobering reminders of the volume of water that flows through the cave during the wet season.

Mapping giant river passage every day was bound to cause some degree of sketcher burn-out. Those days that were spent exploring and mapping side passages were a welcome psychological break for the sketchers. With four seasoned cave mappers, high-tech and low tech survey gear, two-person teams explored and mapped some of the side passages off of main river.

A series of upper-level side passages that are not river in-feeders have been intersected by the underground course of the Xe Bang Fai River, indicating that these passages pre-

date the river. All of the side passages occur on the north side of the river trunk with the exception of one which trends south. Some of the side passages lead to small entrances that are hidden in the jungle high above river level.

The largest of these passages, located on the north side of the river, is the Stairway to Heaven; a steeply ascending passage which begins as a wide breakdown chamber approximately 25 meters above the river and containing a number of immense stalagmites that overlook the river. This chamber is 400 m by 230 m in area, or approximately the size of the Belize Chamber in the Chiquibul System of Belize. The Stairway to Heaven continues to ascend until it reaches its high-est point 160 meters above river level. The most challenging aspect of mapping this chamber was not its size or the amount of

floor detail, but the flies which swarmed the headlamps of the survey team as they worked. These pesky insects would fly into every facial orifice, which made it impossible to read instruments, take notes, or even to talk. The final solution involved removing headlamps and with a gloved hand, holding them at arms length away from one’s face.

The unnamed southern side passages contained some surprising features. In the north extent of this passage the survey team (Kambesis & Sawatsky) discovered a section of passage that at one time contained a

meter-deep pool populated with half-meter tall, oval-shaped speleothems. This caused the survey team some pause as the pool and features resembled the alien egg chamber from the movie “Aliens” (and was thusly named). A good stiff breeze issued from the northern reaches of the passage and the team expected to discover copious amounts of cave. Instead they found a massive balcony that overlooked the main river just upstream of the main entrance—a disappointment in terms of continued exploration, but a fabu-lous photo opportunity. The southern extent of this passage led down a steep sediment slope into a clean-washed flood water maze which was perched slightly above and parallel to the main river. It sumped both upstream and downstream.

The Bicentennial Skyway is an auspi-cious upper level passage in the upstream

O X B O W A R E A & GIANT GOUR POOL


section of cave. A massive flowstone cascade seems to pour out of the passage and leads to a 120 meters of beautifully decorated chambers and eventually ends at another jungle entrance. The small entrance hidden under breakdown and vegetation would be impossible to find from the surface. During the survey, the team noted many small piles

of brown-patterned spikes that were 10-12 cm long (about 5 inches) —located through-out the passage. At the upper entrance they finally discovered the source of those spikes. These were segments that made up the legs of large brown spiders that were size of dinner plates and that moved like lightning. Kambesis attempted to photograph the monster spiders but Sawatsky refused to provide a hand for scale.

The team of Addison and Osburn surveyed a large, but short lived, side passage near the downstream entrance to the cave. This passage begins as a 6m tall sand bank and quickly gives way to a 50m wide passage. The passage trends upwards with

many large formations and flowstone areas. The passage ended in a formation choked area with a small drain leading downward. This passage does not appear to carry any significant amount of water into the cave, but its decoration with extensive formation and cave pearls reminded them of caves found in the Guadalupe Mountains of New Mexico.

eXPedItIon summary Despite the lighting and equipment

challenges inherent to large passage cave photography, the photo documentation effort was successful. Likewise, we confirmed it was possible to create a high quality map of very large cave passages utilizing long range (>250m) digital survey equipment combined with detailed in-cave sketching. A total of 13.6 km of survey (which includes passage definition shots) was completed in Tham

Khoun Xe during the 8 days of field work . The active river passages total 7.0 km and the fossil passage adds another 2.7 km. An additional 2-3 km of passage remains to be surveyed in the upstream fossil river passage. There is considerable potential for further passage within Tham Khoun Xe, and in the surrounding karst, noting the cave lies only

45 km west of the recently discovered Hang Soon Dong in Vietnam. Ridge walking will not be pleasant due to the rugged nature of the karst, and the threat of unexploded ordinance.

Our experience raises some issues related to mapping very large passages and claims of “world-class” status. At present there is no set standard for defining “large” cave passage on the world scale. Does “large” refer to floor area, passage volume, or both?

CATHDERAL PASSAGE

BICENTENNIAL SKYWAY


How much of that “large” floor area or volume does the cave need to contain to be called the largest or biggest cave? Deer Cave in Borneo (Gua Payou) has been documented to contain the largest single segment of cave passage in the world at 170 meters wide by 120 meters high at its maximum dimension. However the length of the cave is just a little over 2 km, most of which is not at the maxi-mum dimension. Deer Cave’s status as the biggest cave passage in the world appears to be based on measurements from the map completed in the early 1980s prior to the availability of reflectorless instruments. Deer Cave is certainly huge, but a resurvey with modern equipment is warranted, particularly given recent reports that Hang Soon Dong is larger, based on preliminary measurements and comparisons to incorrectly reported dimensions of Deer Cave.

In summary, without a definitive stan-dard on how “large” is measured and reported, dimensional claims will always be in question. However, we can state with certainty that Tham Khoun Xe is one of the largest sustained river passages in the world, it is superbly decorated, and we have documented it to a high standard using appropriate survey equipment and detailed sketching. This statement is based on accu-rate measurements—not estimates—and we hope to see similar survey methods become standard practice when “world-class” caves are discovered and surveyed. Great caves deserve great maps.

acknowledgements The 2008 Laos Expedition would

like to acknowledge the Laos Peoples Democratic Republic, the Expedition Council of the National Geographic Society, Leica Geosystems Canada, the National Speleological Society, Stenlite Advanced Lighting Products, PMI, and Wildside-Asia.

references MACY, P., (1908), Spéléologie

Hydrologie Géologie Hydrogéologie Eaux souterraines Cours d’eau souterrains Laos Cammon Indo-Chine IndochineSpelunca, Bulletin Et Mémoires De La Société De Spéléologie, No. 52 : Cours D’Eau Souterrains Du Cammon Au Laos

MOURET, M., 2001: Le karst du Khammouane au Laos central. Dix ans de récherches spéléologiques. Spelunca, 84, p. 7–32

SHOEMAKER, B., I.G. BAIRD, AND M. BAIRD. The People and Their River: A Survey of River-Based Livelihoods in the Xe Bang Fai River Basin in Central Lao PDR. Unpublished report to the Lao PDR/Canada Fund for Local Initiatives. Vientiane, Lao PDR.

Aaron takes a distance measurement with the Impulse 200xl while Pat and Bob sketch. Lead checker extraordinaire David Sawatzky awaits the team in the boat.

Expedition members: Back row, L-R: Lana Miller (camp manager), John Pollack, Phil Whitfield, Pat Kambesis, Bob Osburn, Kevin Stanway, Mr. Mee, Dave Bunnell. Front row, Mr. Vilay, Aaron Addison, Mr. Ing (Wildside Asia), David Sawatzky, and Mr. Leuk

The lagoon outside the cave entrance


Photo Essay: Wonders of the Tham Khoun Xe

Downstream entrance to the cave. Shot using daylight only but this High Dynamic Range image combined 3 shots of different exposures.

The upstream entrance to the cave, which opens into a huge collapse doline. Climbing breakdown to the right leads to the overflow passages.


The Cathedral Passage is the tallest in the cave, reaching heights of 70m. This shot used a couple of the Meggaflash P300 bulbs.

Section of river passage about midway through the cave. Flowstone decorations were common along the route.


Fossil in the bedrock along the river (this photo by Kevin Stanway)

The river passage reduces to its smallest size here in a section we called The Wind Tunnel. It produced a surface current on the river that was difficult to paddle against.

At the Second Portage the boats had to be hauled through a breakdown area.

Three views of flowstone deposits along the river.


Huge formations abound in the cave, as in the Stairway to Heaven area (top two) and bottom, on a sand bank along the river.

Formations old and new in the Guads Passage

Flowstone above a gravel bank along the river

Oxbow area


Panorama image of the Giant Gour in the Oxbow area. This single basin measures 60 m long, and is probably one of the world’s largest single rimstone basins. The cover photo was taken along the right-hand edge of it.

Natural-light panorama of the downstream entrance region


Rimstone in the Oxbow area

The Deviled Eggs appear to be pearls that have been dissolved on their top surfaces by aggressive dripwater.

John with a group of “elephant’s foot stalactites” just off the main river. They have formed underneath the flowstone canopy shown on page 15, middle left.

A view out the entrance of the Overlow Passage area

Large hexagonal and cubic pearls may be the world’s largest known examples. These are up to 32 cm in circumfrence.

The “Alien Eggs” in a rimstone basin in the Balcony Passage. My conjecture (DB) is that they are remnanats of previous dams destroyed by periodic floods through this fossil passage.

Gours in the Oxbow


Photographer Spotlight: Philippe Crochet

Left: Sunken plunge pool in Sexton’s section of Kazumura Cave, Hawaii

Below: Cocalière. Gard, France—a very easy horizontal cave. The objective was to light the “bell holes” on the ceiling. It is a wide-angle picture. Three electronic flashes were used.

Bottom:Aven des deux Versants. Hérault, France. This cave is a through trip. The last pit opens in the middle of a cliff. Four electronic flashes were used to light Annie and the foreground.


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The three images below and facing page, left, are from an unnamed cave in the south of France.

Snail egg sac on a cave ceiling, France

Aragonite in a southern France cave


Grotte de Malaval, Lozère. Aragonite bunch.

Green cave stalactites

Grotte de Vitalis, Hérault, France

Grotte de Malaval, Lozère, France. Coralloid aragonite.

Grotte Bleue, South of France. Blue aragonite needles


Philippe Crochet Back in 1981, I took Philippe and a

group of his friends caving in TAG after the first ICS in the USA, in Bowling Green, Kentucky. He was then becoming, and has long been, one of France’s top cave photographers. Still fairly new to cave photography myself back then, watching him at work had a great influence on my subsequent work. He made quick work of large passage shots, with each team member carrying flash equipment and able to deploy it at a moment’s notice.

Could you tell us when and how you got started as a caver?

I started at the age of 17 when I joined the local club in Blois which was looking for people for exploration and also expeditions. That is how I took part in 1971 and 1972 on two expeditions to Morocco (Kef Toghobeit) quickly after I began caving.

Were you already taking pictures before being a caver, or did you get interested in photography as a result of caving?

I was already taking pictures way before being a caver. I got interested in photography when, at the age of 10, my father gave me his camera. I read a lot about photographic techniques and that gave me a good basic knowledge. At the time, cameras did not measure light automatically so we had to set aperture and speed according to light which was measured with a meter. That was good training. And as soon as I started caving, I saw pictures of caves and I immediately felt like doing the same. My first caving pictures date back to1971. I mainly wanted to show my friends and my parents pictures from a world I had fallen in love with.

Are you still using film or do you shoot digital now? What camera(s) do you use?

I started shooting digital in 2007, quite reluctantly I must say because I thought digital pictures did not look quite as good as films (especially Fuji Velvia 50 ASA which is my reference). My first digital camera was a Nikon D2X, which was the first one in my opinion which could provide an acceptable quality. I quickly saw its advantages in caves: I could work better and polish up the lights. At the time on my trips abroad (to Ethiopia and Chile), I used both digital and slides. So the same picture was shot both ways and I had to manage with two cameras at the same

time, and that was really heavy and tiring.In February 2008, I bought a Nikon D3

and I was definitely won over by the quality of the photos, even if I feel a pang of nostalgia whenever I look at my old slides! I think they have a particular softness, and their colors and shades seem more accurate.

How has digital photography changed your cave photography?

First of all, it did not change the way I work and my style of pictures thoroughly.

I still figure out my picture (exposure and framing) before I press the button, instead of shooting many pictures in a row hoping that there will be a good one among them, which is very tempting for people starting with digital cameras.

What has changed though is that now I often try difficult subjects (the difficulty could be the exposure, for instance, or because it requires a progressive approach). Digital makes them easier, such as the splashing of a water drop on a stalagmite (see photo on the facing page). Now I dare doing this kind of photo because I know that, unlike a slide, it costs almost nothing.

On a digital camera, you can see the picture as soon as it is shot, which is a real advantage. One of the consequences is that I want to go on and on until it’s perfect. As a result, the photo sessions tend to get longer and longer!

One other advantage is that I can choose a higher sensitivity when there is less light. With the Nikon D3 the quality is still excellent at 800 ASA, whereas the slide

would have had a lot of grain. But I rarely use that possibility because I always want the best quality.

One last thing: sorting out, and filing digital pictures takes a lot of time, especially if editing is necessary. Slides were easier to deal with: we used to spot the bad ones at first glance and then number the remaining ones. The whole procedure would take 10 minutes. For the same number of pictures, it now takes one hour!

Do you do much digital editing of your photos after a shoot? And with what software?

For me, a picture should be good on shooting. Editing can be useful for details only, for example correcting the perspectives in a wide angle picture, removing unwanted details, darkening the blacks, or slightly reframing a photo.

What do you usually take in your cave photo kit (how many flashes, slaves and what type)?

Of course, it all depends on the cave. For caves with formations, only a minimum is required. One kit bag is enough. In it, there is the camera (Nikon D3), my standard lens which is a 17-35mm zoom, a macro lens (60mm) and 2 or 3 electronic strobes (Nikon flashes GN 32 to 100 ASA with zoom and power setting.) and some slaves. All this fits in one single but large case (Explorer). When the cave is bigger, I usually take a fourth strobe, a tripod, and some flashguns and bulbs (several of them are slave units

interview by Dave Bunnell

Philippe and his wife Annie Giraud, who works with him on all his photo trips


wanted: newsletter revIew edItor for nss news

Bern Szukalski has just let me know that he’d like to step down from doing the monthly newsletter review in the NSS News, after 5.5 years. I’m now soliciting a new columnist for what I believe to be one of our more popular regular News features. Bern says each column takes him about 8 to 12 hours altogether, with the reading and writing. It’s been more on the 8 hour side in recent years since he’s well practiced at it and with the new format that uses the newsletter titles as headings.

If interested, please contact the NSS News editor at [email protected] Bern will also be happy to give advice to whoever takes over the position.

Bern’s shoes will be hard to fill. He’s been one of the most consistent and reliable columnists I’ve worked with over the years. I’d like to thank him for all the effort he’s put in on behalf of the membership.

that can be triggered by a strobe). All this is stored in two little cases carried in a second kit bag carried by Annie. Finally for big room pictures, I have PF100 bulbs that I carry in a Cur Tec container. So in vertical caves, there is no more room in our bags for ropes and gear, which have to be carried by other members of the team.

I know you sell a lot of photos. Is this mostly to books or magazines? Any idea how many publications you’ve been printed in?

Well, first of all, let me remind you that I am not a professional photographer. I am a hydrogeologist in an engineering company. So, for me photography is a passion that does not have to be profitable.

It is difficult to tell how many pictures have been published so far. I used to keep a precise account of them, but now I no longer do. However, I guess all my favorite ones have been published (that would amount to more than 100 ).

I mainly take two types of pictures: mineral landscapes outside (deserts, karst, volcanoes) and caving pictures. These photos are in a photo agency, so they are likely to be published in all sorts of books or magazines.

As to caving pictures, selling them is not so important. I often give them to the cavers or to the FFS whenever they need one. That is the least I can do for them.

Moreover selling a cave photo can sometimes be very awkward because a single photo involves many people: the cave owner, the discoverers, and the exploring team.

Have you produced any books with just your photos? If not, do you plan to do so?

Not yet, but of course I am planning to do so when I retire. As a matter of fact I will be very strict on its quality (of content as well as form) so I would like to have plenty of time to polish it up.

What are you favorite caves to photograph?

The caves with exceptional formations, of course, or the ones where rock has this particular structure favorable to back light. But a real challenge for a photographer is to convey the ambience with pictures taken in ordinary caves. What makes a good picture is not necessarily the subject, but the team, its dedication and its creativity. And also it is essential to have plenty of time in order to work in good conditions.

Are there caves you hope to visit some-day but haven’t managed to visit?

We have visited a lot of caves in France, but there are still many we hope to see one day, especially in the States. I must say

you have so many beautiful caves such as Carlsbad Caverns, Caverns of Sonora, or Lechuguilla. Generally, some pictures seen in caving magazines or books are an incen-tive for me to go and visit the caves . One of our best photo trips was in the Hawaii lava tubes with Peter and Ann Bosted. We spent ten fabulous days there totally dedicated to cave photography in exceptional caves. Our next plan would be to visit the salt caves in the south of Iran.

I know a bunch of caves in France, especially some of the blue-green caves, were proposed as world heritage sites. Did some of these designations get approved? And did your photos play a role in documenting those pproposals?

To my knowledge, these designations did not get approved. My photos were not used to document the proposals. The authors used their own pictures. These caves are closed and protected.

Your wife Annie seems to work with you on most of your shoots and is often your model. Does she give input into lighting or setup suggestions? Does she ever take the photographs?

We are lucky as a couple to share the same passion. Annie takes part in all the photo trips and she plays an essential part even if she is not interested in technique. She is my main model and she can be very patient in any circumstances. Her red clad silhouette has now become a recurrent feature in my pictures. This silhouette has even been the subject of one of our slide shows (called “Silhouette Insolite”). We work together a lot, we discuss the lighting and set up, editing, and sorting out. And we also work together on programs for which she writes the text.

Besides photography, do you get involved in exploration or survey trips?

No, actually now I go caving only for photographic purposes. The same for traveling. We choose the countries we visit according to their photographic interest. I have become so involved that I can’t do anything without taking pictures. And I can’t imagine taking souvenir pictures without paying attention to their quality.

When we met in 1981 and went caving together here in the US, you were part of a small club that was dedicated to helping you take photos How did you form such a club and are you still active with them?

We were three founder members of the Gouffre des Amateurs de Goufres in 1974 after we split away from the Spéléo Club de Blois. It was mainly a group of friends and

people joined it most of all for the fun and friendly atmosphere. The two other founders died in 1975 (one of them was very keen on cave photography). The club survived and its main activities were initiation and exploring of known caves. Our objective was not to go to the bottom of the cave but to have a good time together, which was a perfect condition for photography. It was a very creative period: everyone in the groups was involved in the process and had many ideas, particularly humorous ones.

What would you say are some of the main differences between caving here in the states and caving in France?

There used to be obvious differences in techniques. I realized them when I attended the Bowling Green ISC in 1981. I remember how tense I was while going up Fantastic Pit (Ellison’s cave) on a rope that was rubbing against the rock! Although now the tech-niques are roughly all the same everywhere in the world. Another big difference is that in France, except for protected caves, it is rather easy for everybody to explore any cave. We don’t have to care if it is on private property. In the States that does not seem to be so easy.

One last difference is that in the States scientists and cavers are all part of the same community whereas in France they are not quite integrated, but I might be wrong.

To see more of Philippe’s photos, above and below ground, visit his web site at: www.philippe-crochet.com


nss It commIttee chaIrman neededIT Committee Chairman Darrell Wells is

stepping down. The search is on for some-one to take his place. With the importance of our Web site to the Society and its members, the IT Committee Chairman is critical to NSS operations and success.

We are looking for an experienced Unix (Linux) systems administrator, with additional skills as listed below. The volunteer would be responsible for the maintenance and opera-tion of a dedicated virtual private server in a managed hosting environment. Primarily, this includes Apache, MySQL, and FTP administration. Most common tasks are completed via Parallels Plesk; although, due to legacy configurations from our previous servers, some tasks must be done via the command line.

The time commitment is a minimum of 8 hours per month. However, with several mission critical projects currently underway, the initial time commitment will be greater. The chairman will be expected to respond quickly to e-mail, and address problems as they arise. S/he will also be expected to work with other NSS Committees, Internal

the nss vertIcal sectIonThe purpose of the NSS’s Vertical

Section is to educate and train cavers in safe and efficient vertical caving techniques, and to encourage the development of new ones. The Section is open to all NSS members. Members receive access to the Section’s on-line publication “Nylon Highway” that includes excellent articles such as the recent one comparing the Frog and Mitchell Ascending Systems by John Woods. The Section also offers two main avenues for training: a Vertical Techniques Workshop conducted at each annual NSS conven-tion; and, a Vertical Training Program that includes both Basic and Intermediate Courses designed to assist the Grottos in their train-ing. And, of course, don’t forget the Vertical Climbing Contest that challenges individuals to demonstrate their ascending techniques in timed events. To participate in discussions of vertical caving techniques, go to the Vertical Section’s forum on the NSS website forums.caves.org/, under the name “On Rope!” So come join us. Membership is free. All one needs to do is to submit the membership application available on our website. For more information, visit: http://www.caves.org/section/vertical/.

aPrIl conservatIon IssueReading the article in the April 2009

NSS News - “Buckner Cave Restoration Project” by Bill Blaus brought back an interesting memory. This memory was triggered by the statement “It’s never been a really pretty cave, but........” in the second paragraph.

Sometime in the 60’s, I ended up taking another of my many trips through Buckner’s with a group that was visiting the cave for the first time. One of the cavers was a blind man with his guide dog who became my responsibility for guiding in the cave. Frankly, while interested in helping out the blind caver, I was not very interested in visit-ing Buckner’s Cave.

In very short order, the tables were turned on me. Never in all of my caving trips, with neophytes or more experienced cavers, before or since, had I ever been asked so many questions. The blind caver “saw” many things that I had never noticed by feeling his way by his hands. As a result, he asked for an explanation, a visual in one manner of speaking, for each thing that he noticed. He found many small fossils in the walls and ceilings, interesting scallops and flutings, and even a few isolated small formations. In addition, he was interested in the composition of the floor materials.

After that trip, I would have to argue with the statement that Buckner’s Cave has never been a really pretty cave. On that day, I saw Buckner’s in an entirely different way and came away with the feeling that it was a truly beautiful cave - it just depends on how one “looks” at it. It is certainly one of the most memorable and enjoyable cave trips I have ever taken.

Larry FisherNSS 4372

Organizations, and advertisers who interface with the NSS server. The chairman may recruit additional members as s/he feels necessary.

Necessary core skills:* Linux systems administration* Familiarity with Parallels Plesk or cPanel *

Apache web server administration* Knowledge of HTML* Perl/CGI/PHP scripting* MySQL administration

Desirable skills: * Knowledge of common web publish-

ing tools, such as DreamWeaver and FrontPage.

* Javascript, ASP

Note:This position does not include maintenance of content on caves.org. That responsibility is managed by the webmaster who serves on the IT Committee.

If you are interested in the job, or know someone we should approach, please contact me. If you have any questions about the job, please contact Darrell. <[email protected]>.

Wm ShrewsburyNSS Operations VP

[email protected]


Oztotl CaverApril, 2009Dallas-Fort Worth Grotto

“A cave system is born” is how Bill Steele titles his article covering a trip to Mexico’s Purificación area. Steele and Diana Tomchick returned to Soplo de los Torres, a cave they dug into in 2005. In 2008 Soplo was pushed to nearly 500 meters in depth. A nearby pit entrance was named Zorillo after the dead skunk aromatizing its second drop. Last year Yvonne Droms and Charles Fromén pushed down several more drops, leaving yet more to be plumbed. A resur-gence cave is also located some 900 meters down in a nearby canyon.

With the above layout as the back-drop for this latest expedition, Steele and Tomchick were joined by Heather Levy, Mark Minton, Yvonne Droms, Aaron Moses, Paul Heinerth, Ellie Thoene, James Hunter, and Tanja Pietras. The group split with one heading into Soplo, the other to Zorillo. In Zorillo a connection was found to the main Soplo shaft about 600 feet down, thus forming a system Steele now calls Sistema Los Torres.

Later in the trip Heinerth geared up to dive the sump in the lower resurgence and found it over 200 feet long. On the other side it lead to a passage that split in two direc-tions. By the end of the expedition Sistema Los Torres had been pushed to a depth of over 1,696 feet, with a length of 4,738 feet and only a lack of more rope preventing further exploration.

James Hunter’s map of the cave is included with the article and it shows the vari-ous reaches of the cave as it’s been extended over the years. The cover features Hunter’s photo of Aaron Moses at a large formation at the base of the Pearl Drop.

The CIG NewsletterApril, 2009Central Indiana Grotto

The front cover photo sure doesn’t look like Indiana, and indeed it’s not. The Ty Spatta photo shows Kyle Voyles looking out over an arid canyon in the northern reaches of Arizona, an area known to many as “the strip.” Spatta’s a regular on the trips to the far reaches of this area, and while many of the caves that are discovered are relatively short and dry there are some notable exceptions.

One such cave is KyPet Caverns, located in a very remote area reachable only by traversing many miles of dirt roads and descending 1,500 feet in a secluded canyon.

The cave had been discovered by Voyles on a previous trip and shortly after its discovery Voyles (a BLM employee) had arranged for a helicopter to support the ferrying of tools and materials needed to gate the cave. Spatta thinks that gating should be done only in special circumstances, but totally agrees this is one of them.

The 3-foot diameter tube entrance is easily overlooked, and invisible from anywhere but right on top of it. But once inside it’s a different world than outside, with a large room heavily decorated with thou-sands of stalagmites, stalactites, soda straws, massive flowstone formations, columns, coral, and popcorn greeting those who enter. Voyles and Spatta spent a couple of days in the cave surveying and marveling at its many spectacular formations, using clean changes of clothes and footwear to preserve the pristine environment. Voyles and Spatta include a number of very impressive photos taken inside the cave. They managed to map 1,485 feet of passage but left plenty more behind for the next trip.

Minnesota Speleology MonthlyApril, 2009Minnesota Speleological Survey

Dawn Ryan’s photo of Neal Hines and Peter Anderson-Sprecher surveying on a recent Mystery Cave trip is on the cover, and inside there are several articles and trip reports about the cave. A list of frequently asked questions about the survey project by Kery Erickson provides additional details.

The survey began in the fall of 2005, with the goal being to provide a detailed digi-tal map of the cave so that the meticulously collected inventory of cave features could be included on it. Currently 2.3 miles of cave have been surveyed with an estimated 11 more miles to go. And new leads and previ-ously unknown cave are turned up from time to time as the survey progresses. As interest in the project grows, volunteer hours have increased from a total of 19 hours in 2005 to 752 hours through October 2008. To date over 1,300 hours of volunteer time have been accumulated. The collection of articles on Mystery Cave includes a map of the Sand Camp area by Amy Funk, cartographer for the project.

Also in the issue is Dawn Ryan’s map of Party Cave, Pierce County, Wisconsin. The cave was surveyed by Ryan and Tim Stenerson on January 24, 2009. The cave is 113 feet long.

The West Virginia CaverApril, 2009

The construction of wind turbines near New Creek Mountain is the topic of an article by Rick Lambert. An eight-mile stretch of the mountain range spanning Grant and Mineral Counties is currently proposed to have 48 turbines. Lambert notes that 8 of the 14 species of bats known to occur in West Virginia are found in the proposed project area. While none of those species are endangered, the area is also part of the migratory path for species that are.

Lambert says that bat mortalities via wind turbines in other parts of the US and the region have been documented as very high, raising concerns about the wisdom of constructing wind turbine generators in the Allegheny Highlands since it serves as an endangered bat recovery area. The USFWS has warned the contractors that if the predicted 78,000 to 112,000 bat deaths anticipated over the life of the project went unchecked that it could have “population-level impacts” on many species. Lambert encourages those opposed to the project to contact one of the West Virginia public service commission representatives (see the article for more details).

Bob Hoke says that White-Nose Syndrome (WNS) has come to West Virginia, noting a trip by DC-area cavers to Hamilton Cave in Pendleton County. The cavers entered the cave as part of an annual winter bat count started after the NSS purchased the cave in 1982.

On this trip cavers noted many bats flying about, unusual for this time of year when they should be hibernating. Also observed were signs of the telltale WNS fungus, observed on bats throughout the entire cave, and affecting an estimated 25% of all bats found within in.

Bill Balfour heads to Berkeley County with Wil Orndorff and Dan Doctor to check out a cave that Doctor found while mapping the geology of the area. Doctor had made prior arrangements with the owner for the visit so they were able to slip right into the woods to return to it.

Balfour describes the entrance as “nice-sized,” about 20 feet wide and 5 feet high. Immediately beyond the entrance a large passage slopes down and out of sight. As they surveyed into the cave the passage became higher, reaching comfortable walk-ing height and leading to a room with a 1950s vintage red wagon. Beyond the room was a crawlway, which terminated decisively


after 50 more feet. As Balfour describes it, “it mercifully ended without us having to exert too much effort.”

Detamore Cave taped out at 312 feet long, and nearby Detamore Cave #2 surveyed to 101 feet in length. Balfour’s map of the two is also published with his report.

Balfour also turns in a report and map of The Blasted Mouse Hole located in Greenbrier County. The cave’s small entrance hole was one that Balfour had first noted some 20 years ago. The air moving in it seemed to be an indication that it could go, but a bedrock hole at the bottom of the entrance was too small to enter.

In July of last year, after some off and on work, microblasting by Balfour, John Pearson, Carroll Bassett, and Dave Cowan finally paid off. Just before the decisive blast a small mouse popped out of the hole and began crawling along the blasting wire. After the charge fired (and as Balfour puts it) “that blasted mouse was still crawling around the hole” and thus came the name for the new little cave.

Though a small tube about 20 feet beyond the entrance seems to be the source of the air, enthusiasm to continue the dig has waned for the moment. The group surveyed what they had found, netting a grand total of only 115 feet. Balfour includes his map of the cave with the report.

Another Bill Balfour article covers Troytino Cave, first noted by Balfour in the mid-1970s. But it was not until 2008 that Balfour was able to return to survey it. On the first survey trip the water from a nearby stream was very high, and the cave now had a deep pool of water in it. They surveyed what they could, returning to finish it on July 19 after the water receded.

The cave was surveyed by Bill Balfour, Juliet Balfour, Carroll Bassett, Dave Cowan, John Pearson, and Gordon Birkhimer and taped out at 288 feet long, with a vertical relief of 10 feet. Balfour’s map is included with the report.

DC SpeleographJanuary-February, 2009DC Grotto

In what is an increasing trend in news-letter content, this issue contains mostly information and articles related to WNS. And in what is another trend, several caves are announced as closed as a result of the deadly bat disease. Rick Lambert announces that Breathing Cave is closed after a trip by Lambert and Virginia Department of Conservation biologist Wil Orndorf uncovered early signs of a WNS outbreak. Approximately 10 to 15% of the bats

observed in the cave showed signs of the fungus. Based on their observations the owners of Breathing Cave have decided to close it. The Highland County Cave Survey has also asked its members to take a “short sabbatical” from caving as a precaution, since the county is situated between documented WNS occurrences to the north and south.

At Hellole the annual bat count was cancelled by US Fish and Wildlife Service personnel. Suspected WNS occurrences have been found in four other Pendleton County caves. The value of the information gained by the census was deemed not worth the risk of introducing WNS into one of the premier bat caves in the region.

Cave owner and caver Dave Cowan announces the closing of The Boar Hole and The Portal (a.k.a the Boartal System) as well as several other caves on his property. Cowan and co-owner Carroll Bassett made the decision after much deliberation, doing their part as responsible cave owners to ensure that they wouldn’t be inadvertently contributing to the possible spread of WNS.

Peter Youngbaer reports that WNS has been discovered in Clover Hollow Cave and Wil Orndorf of the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation cautions cavers to stay out of it and also Tawneys Cave. Orndorf cautions everyone to stay clear of caving in Bland County entirely, or other areas south or west of Giles County. Orndorf says any caver that has been caving in Giles County within the last year should consider themselves exposed and act accordingly.

The Carbide FlashJanuary- March 2009Paha Sapa Grotto

Marc Ohms peeks out of a hole on the cover. He’s at the top of the entrance pit of Elk Cave. Rene Ohms took the photo of Marc in the Custer County, South Dakota, find that Marc and Rene surveyed in 2005. The cave consists of a short drop that leads to an even shorter crawl that fizzles out quickly. Marc drew the accompanying map which lists the cave’s length at 53 feet and depth at 26 feet.

Carter Hall delivers the reports, and Dean Faust the maps, of several small caves which include two Meade County and one Pennington County cave. Respectively they are Shirlee’s Cliffside Collapse (62 feet long, 32 feet deep), Heat Stroke (57 feet long), and Cragmont Shelter (34 feet long).

If you’re worried about running out of cave to survey then an article by Christian Sugrue might help you worry less. Sugrue works up some statistics on surveys in Wind Cave and Jewel Cave. Both of those caves are in the Black Hills, and both are among the largest on the planet. Jewel Cave is currently the world’s second longest cave at 143 miles. Wind Cave is the fourth longest at 129 miles. Both were discovered over 100 years ago by prospectors. Sugrue takes the average survey rate and the estimated potential length of both to come up with some interesting statistics.

The distance and difficulty of explora-tion in both caves requires a strenuous trip, with round-trip times just to reach the last station taking about 12 to 16 hours. Sugrue uses this and other data and comes up with the average number of hours required to survey a mile of new passage in each cave.

At Wind Cave the overall average number of caver time required to survey one mile of cave is 111 hours. In the 1960s this was considerably less, about 61 hours per mile, but has grown to 138 hours per mile more recently. This is attributed to the increasing complexity of the tight and maze-like cave, and the longer distance to reach survey goals. At Jewel Cave the time per mile averages 91 hours. In the 1960s this was just a little less at 82 hours per mile, and within the last decade has grown to 126 hours per mile.

The cave potential can be calculated based on the density and volume of currently known passage and by using air flow calcula-tions to determine the volume of exchanged air. Using these Wind Cave could potentially have 722 miles of passage with 592 miles still awaiting discovery and survey. Jewel Cave calculates out to having a potential of 2,860 miles of passage, with 2,717 miles of virgin cave awaiting the pencil of a survey crew. Sugrue discusses several variables in the calculations, but roughly one can figure at the present hours-per-surveyed-mile rate it will take 211 years to finish the survey of Wind Cave and 975 years to finish the survey of Jewel Cave.

Karst ChronicleWinter 2008-2009Mid-Atlantic Karst Conservancy

Kim Metzgar publishes a map and report on Strangford Cave, the longest mapped cave in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, with a total surveyed length of 1,157 feet and a vertical relief of 65 feet. The cave was remapped by MAKC members with special permission from the Pennsylvania Game Commission who controls access. The cave is located in an abandoned quarry, features two entrances, and is gated. The gates


were erected to protect not bats, but rather the eastern woodrat, which Metzgar notes seems to be thriving judging by the plentiful droppings.

The cave was mapped on June 21, 2007, by Metzgar, Walt Hamm, Jon Hamm, Andrea and Ray Gillis, Jeff Jahn, Dennis Melko, Kevin Patrick, Micke Schirato, Kerry Speelman, and Megan Yost. The cave had not been entered since it was gated by the Commission. Now the mapping project has been completed the cave is closed again, but might possibly be opened for research projects in the future.

PassagesApril 2009Springfield Plateau Grotto

On March 7 a host of cavers from several organizations gathered at a Lawrence County sinkhole to remove three trailer loads of trash. The sink lies within the recharge zone of Billies Creek Cave, a known crayfish habitat.

On March 21 Jon Beard, Roy Gold, and Charley Young met Dr. Bill Elliot for graffiti removal at Little Smittle Cave, located in Wright County, Missouri. White spray paint had been applied to a delicate area of cave coral and flowstone, making it impossible to remove with brushes. But a backpack pres-sure sprayer was used to pressure wash the area, with tarps and sponges used to collect the draining water and paint chips. This method proved highly successful, with the pressure washing removing about 90% of the paint without any damage to the fragile coral.

Jon Beard, Zach Copeland, and Brian Goeppner surveyed newly documented Cox Cave in Lawrence County. The cave has a small vertical entrance squeeze that leads to a narrow crawlway providing access to the main passage. The main cave is 4 feet high and 15 feet wide, but ends after 60 feet in a too-tight crawl. The total surveyed length was 311 feet.

York Grotto NewsletterSpring 2009York Grotto

Nick Stoner helps with the annual bat count in Pennsylvania’s Rupert Cave, joining Karen and George Bange, Bill and Kathy Schultz, Molly Wright, Dave Aders, and Jamie Smith for the annual event. In his article Stoner describes how the crew combed both the old and new sections of the cave to complete the census, pushing into tight areas to get the most accurate tally possible. All told they counted 144 bats, with Tri Color (Eastern pips) making over half the tally, Northern Long-Eared bats coming in

second, and few Big and Little Brown bats rounding out the species.

Oregon UndergroundWinter 2009Oregon High Desert Grotto

Brent McGregor’s striking photo of a sunbeam penetrating Skylight Cave is featured on the cover. Inside, Neil Marchington covers the completion of the survey of Titus Canyon Cave, located in Death Valley National Park and closed to cavers for over 20 years. Northern Nevada Grotto members had worked with Dave Ek, park resource manager, to complete the survey of the cave. The cave was discovered when pre-park mining operations intersected it.

The cave is highly decorated with gypsum and aragonite crystals growing in dense clusters from the walls and ceiling. Though there is obvious damage to stalactites within the cave, much of the other minerals remain intact. Marchington completes his article with several fine photos showing the unique mineralogy of the cave.

Northern Rocky Mountain Grot-to NewsNumber 16, April 2009Northern Rocky Mountain Grotto

Hans Bodenhamer and Carl Erickson teamed to survey Kenelty Mountain Cave and Fire Cave, both located in Lincoln County, Montana. The latter is actually two caves measuring 74 feet long and 57 feet long respectively that never quite reach total darkness. Kenelty Mountain Cave is the more spacious, taping out at 332 feet long with a depth of 30 feet. Bodenhamer includes maps of all with his report.

Bodenhamer also includes a report and map of Bean Hole Cave, located in Lewis and Clark County, Montana. The cave was surveyed by Bodenhamer, Mike McEachern, John Citta, and Kasey Korey over two trips taking place on January 17, 2002, and June 28, 2007. The cave has a total surveyed length of 577 feet with a depth of 251 feet.

The cave entrance is a 165-foot drop described by Bodenhamer as “truly spec-tacular.” It’s mostly free and drops into a room with a prominent fault (featured on the issue’s cover in a Mike McEachern photo) and some smoked graffiti. The graffiti was left by Basil Hritsco and Dick Flourmont, the first to descend the pit on July 6, 1950, and both early NSS members.

Valley CaverSpring 2009Mother Lode Grotto

Sandy Stephens is framed by roots on

the cover in a photo taken by Bern Szukalski in Hawaii’s Ambigua Cave. Inside the issue Szukalski provides a synopsis of the cave’s survey, which took place over two trips spread out over five years. The cave is located high on the Hualalai Volcano and is protected by 4WD access and a fenced forest reserve. The survey started in 2003 with Szukalski, Stephens, Doug and Hazel Medville, Don Coons, Nevin and Judy Davis, John Rosenfeld, and Bob Richards splitting into two teams and heading in opposite directions. The uphill section was pushed to its end on the second day of survey as the tube began to break up high on the volcano’s flanks. But the lower end surveyed by Szukalski, Richards, and Stephens wasn’t completed, leaving good leads for another time.

The next opportunity came almost five years to the day later when other caves were being surveyed in the area, bringing cavers within striking distance of the lower end of Ambigua. Szukalski, Richards, and Stephens finished it off this time, and the cave was declared done. The final stats – in what amounted to three trips over 5 years and 161 stations, the cave taped out at 6,437 feet long with a vertical extent of 1,003 feet. One sheet of the 8-page map is included with the article.

Also in the issue Szukalski publishes a report and maps of two small Mojave National Preserve (San Bernardino County, California) caves surveyed by Szukalski and Dell Quick on March 8, 2003. Room With A View and nearby Closet With A View taped out at roughly 30 feet and 20 feet respectively.

Rocky Mountain CavingWinter 2009

Rodney D. Horrocks of Wind Cave writes of not wind, but earthquakes, in the South Dakota system. Horrocks says the area is prone to earthquakes, though most register below 3.0 on the Richter scale and cause no damage either in the cave or above it. But there are two notable exceptions.

The first is a rock which toppled onto the tourist trail in 1907. The second is a small roof collapse in 1964. Both have been attributed to earthquakes, the latter to either a small quake in Wyoming or a much larger quake in Alaska’s Prince William Sound.

More recently a swarm of quakes docu-mented between 1999 and 2000 were felt underground, having a duration of 3 to 5 seconds. A number of park employees expe-rienced some of those, but upon returning topside to the visitor’s center nobody else seemed to have noticed.

Horrocks says that most earthquakes at


Wind can potentially be heard in the cave, but aren’t normally felt. If one happens to be standing or sitting quietly it’s possible that a low rumbling can be recognized. Horrocks says the sound is cause by fast-moving P-waves (compressional or longitudinal body waves) that radiate from the earthquake epicenter. When these waves encounter a cavity like the cave, they generate an acoustic wave which visitors hear as rolling, thunder-like sounds. An upcoming research project to be conducted in the cave by Margaret Bruschez hopes to record and document these sounds.

In 2007 Dave Lambert spied an entrance on the way back from a caving trip and stopped to take a look at it, parking near a dead deer along the road. Another entrance was found higher, this one with a stream in it, unusual for the gypsum caves found in the area. On that day they surveyed about 120 feet in Another Dead Deer Cave and left the rest for a return.

The return to ADD didn’t happen until 2008, and on that day Lambert came with Mary Klaus to continue where they had left off. Somewhat oddly they noted several deer carcasses nearby. As they began their survey they heard the sound of car doors closing. Hoping it wasn’t the same person who had left the deer carcasses, Lambert emerged

to find Doug and Hazel Medville, Rick Rhinehart, Donald Davis, and Fred Luiszer. It seems they had both been working the same cave. Together they managed to complete ADD and nearby Salt Creek Cave, both gypsum caves, with 305 feet and 76 feet total surveyed passage respectively.

Doug and Hazel Medville followed up on a report of a couple of lava tubes found in one of Doug’s “project flows” on Hawaii: the 1801. The caves were reported in an earlier article published in Rocky Mountain Caver and had been found by Mike Frazier and Donna Renee. Doug was somewhat chagrined to learn these caves were only 50 feet from the road, near an area he had been working for years. Frazier had named them Kane and Wahine Cave, Hawaiian words meaning “man” and “woman.”

The Medvilles surveyed the cave during a couple of their regular visits on January 19 and December 11, 2008. The complete survey tallied 1,064 feet, and Doug’s map is published with his follow-up report.

The Alaskan CaverApril 2009Glacier Grotto

Kevin Allred’s photo of Josiah Huestis standing next to the entrance of Iron Spike Cave is on the cover. The mysterious spike

and some wood pieces can be seen sticking out of both sides of the entrance passage. Inside the issue Kevin and Carlene Allred document their August, 2008, expedition to the Misty Wrangells along with Huestis, Carol Vesely, Bill Farr, and Ben Tobin. Numerous black holes dot the area, and while not all were worthwhile a number of interesting caves were found and surveyed.

Carlene Allred publishes five maps from the trip with the article, all featuring her fine cartographic skills. Three of the caves were surveyed by Kevin and Carlene, with Huestis helping on the other two. They include Fosse Pothole (299 feet long, 146 feet deep), Frosty Cave (146 feet long, 31 feet deep), Meadow Pit (47 feet long, 46 feet deep), Willow Pit (152 feet long, 46 feet deep), and Goat Track Cave (23 feet long).

The ExplorerMarch, 2009Southern California Grotto

Bern and Sandy Szukalski publish maps and reports on two definitely for-the-record-only caves in Mohave County, Arizona. The shelters are located in an area first visited by Szukalski and others in the late 1980s, and since then many other small caves have been documented. Wye View Shelter and Big Yawn Shelter now become part of the Mohave County record.


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15th InternatIonal congress of sPeleology and annual nss

conventIonThe National Speleological Society

(NSS) welcomes everyone to the 15th International Congress of Speleology and annual NSS Convention! We are honored to host this prestigious premier speleo-logical event, and to be the first country to ever host a Congress twice. There are only three remaining areas of exploration in the universe: outer space, the deep oceans, and caves. We are fortunate to be the pioneers of one of these last frontiers, the karst horizons. The NSS has been preparing for several years to welcome you to this Congress and introduce you to U.S. cavers and scientists. The organizing committee’s goal is to make your experience in our country one to remember. I would like to personally thank all of our generous sponsors, excellent volunteers, and the outstanding Schreiner University staff, all of whom are dedicated to making this Congress a splendid success. We all look forward to meeting you, shar-ing ideas, and introducing you to new karst horizons. Again, welcome to Kerrville!

the nss headquarters oPen forumThe BOG has received three suitable

proposals for Huntsville, AL, or Buckner Cave, IN, or Horse Cave, KY (alphabetical order by state) during the acceptance period. The next phase of the process is to select the best location that will serve the purposes of the Society. An NSS Headquarters Open Forum will be held during the NSS Convention to exchange thoughts and ideas. All members are encouraged to attend and contribute to the discussion that will impact the historic decision that will soon be made. The final selection of the future location will conducted on November 7, 2009 at the BOG Meeting in Birmingham, AL.

We are now at the stage where it’s time to begin estimating how much it will cost to prepare each selected property for our purpose. We are fleshing out those issues at the individual properties in order to make an intelligent decision. We’ve got to ask good questions to get good answers prior to making any commitment or selection. The following questions and thoughts are not all inclusive but are designed to get the ball rolling:

Does Huntsville, AL really have room for future expansion when needed? If there is not enough room for expansion, then would that location be adequate? Can Huntsville obtain a zoning permit for commercial prior to the selection? If a permit can be obtained,

would that make the selection of that location more ideal?

Are the old buildings identified at Horse Cave, Kentucky structurally sound? Is there a way to have the building structure evaluated by a professional before the selection? What if the life of the building is only 10 years? We need to be looking towards the future and selecting a location that will fulfill our needs for the next 50 to 100 year period.

The sewage issue at Buckner Cave, IN must be addressed and more information is required. What if the sewage cannot be structurally or economically solved? And, will the sharp bend in the road around the sinkhole be an issue for larger trucks and construction equipment that will be required for a move? If the road cannot be improved, would that hinder our planned construction and development?

As the name “Open Forum” implies, the format will be open, and the forum will consist of members speaking about any topic relating to the location of the Headquarters. Past President Bill Tozer will be the modera-tor for this program. Please be prepared by reading the available information on the NSS Web Site prior to the forum. It is requested that you go to the NSS Home Page and go to “About the NSS,” and then go to “New Headquarters Proposal,” or just go to the

following link: http://www.caves.org/info/headquarters/index.shtml for the most current details.

Gordon Birkhimer

Moving? Please help the NSS save money by

sending address changes promptly to the NSS Office: 2813 Cave Ave., Huntsville, AL 35810-4431 or log onto www.caves.org/info/changeinfo.shtml. Otherwise the NSS incurs charges by the post office for address corrections and must bear the cost of replacing missed issues.


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