NSS Western Regional Meeting

 

The Southern Nevada Grotto hosted the 2022 NSS Western Regional meeting at Great Basin National Park. This last happened in 2018, during a cold and blustery weekend. This year we were blessed with a beautiful weekend. Cavers were eager to check out some of the caves of eastern Nevada, and registration swelled to 120 and capped, as the campground and caves can hold only so many people!

In addition to over 10 cave trips offered each day on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, there were also some special opportunities. One was a four-hour self-rescue for cavers class. Different stations highlighted alternative ways to ascend and descend;

how to set up a traveling haul with just a couple pulleys and your regular SRT (single-rope technique) gear; 

how to rescue someone stuck on a rope tied off (instead of rigging for contingency, which would have made the rescue so much easier!); 

how to navigate a deviation, rebelay, J-hang, and guided rappel;

and some useful knots.

If you're a caver, can you ascend with a webbing harness you made yourself, a Garda hitch (two carabiners), and a prussik? Katrina can!

Later on Friday there was a special geology tour of Lehman Caves and a trip to Rose Guano Cave to see the bat flight. The bat numbers have plummeted over the past couple of years due to drought, but there were still a few that could be seen with a special instrument.

Saturday mid-morning the campground was quiet because most cavers had departed for caves or sight-seeing. 

In the afternoon, several presentations in Baker Hall highlighted various aspects of caving. Louise Hose spoke on the geology of Lehman Caves.

Alyssa Richards showed a poster about her studies of packrat middens and how they show what vegetation grew in the area over thousands of years.

EC Moe introduced the western region of the Vertical Training Commission, a new commission that is being set up to train cavers proper methods for ascending and descending rope in caves.

Matt Paulson highlighted Caves of Utah's House Range, located about 1.5 hours from Baker.

Then it was time for Saturday night's catered dinner.

The hall filled with hungry cavers. Afterwards it was time for the annual Western Region business meeting.

Then it was time for the auction, raising money for the Western Region and the Western Cave Conservancy.

There was likely good partying Saturday night, but I was exhausted and went to bed. I was up Sunday to attend the pancake breakfast fundraiser put on by the EskDale HS Choir. It was delicious.

Then I led a cave cleanup in Lehman Caves in Great Basin National Park focused on removing old carbide. Carbide lamps used to be the main light source for miners and cavers. Back in the day, when the carbide powder had been spent (used up), it was dumped out, and new carbide powder and water were added to the lamp. These little dumps of white powder are toxic to cave invertebrates. 

If the spent carbide is dry, it's in powder format. If it's moist, it will be a clump. Some people tried to hide where they dumped it, making it harder to get to.

Most of the carbide dumps are near pools of water. That way the user didn't have to bring in extra water but could use water from cave pools.

We used a variety of tools to remove the carbide, including brushes, tweezers, turkey basters, and small vacuum.

As a reward, participants got to visit parts of the cave that are normally off limits, like the Talus Room.

Altogether, we removed nearly a five-gallon bucket of carbide!

The mighty carbide cleaners

It was a great weekend of seeing old friends, meeting new ones, sharing a passion for caves, and enjoying some wonderful weather and camaraderie. 

The Western Regional meeting is held every fall in various locations. You can learn more by joining the Facebook page or checking out the main National Speleological Society website.