Midnight Cave: The Time Experiment National Speleological Society 2026-09-23 | Midnight Cave: The Time Experiment
NSS Webinar Formation Repair National Speleological Society 2025-09-16 | NSS Webinar Series. September 2025. The Evolution of the Cave Formation Repair Project: the Caves, Repairs, Tools, and the People. By Michael C. Mansur.
NSS 2025 Luminary - Bruce Smith National Speleological Society 2025-08-27 | The Great Vertical TransitionBruce Smith, NSS 12458FE, CMI have been gifted, living in the time of our life that included so much of the evolution of ropework. How did all the people and their skills and knowledge come together? This period of time has become the great vertical transition. When I was twelve, I joined a boy scout troop that went sailing in the summers and caving in the winters, and my 64 years of dark adventure began. I collected and read the Speleo Digests and other cave books and absorbed as much as I could.I moved from Illinois to Maryland where I discovered William Davies, Caves of West Virginia, and saw the picture of Hellhole in Pendleton County. This 154-foot drop became our challenge. I purchased some Heibler ascenders from a rock climbing shop and along with my brother and Tim Skellchock, we used a ¾ inch hemp rope for our first descent of Hellhole. We were assisted out of the cave by a passerby named Kennedy, and so began my vertical caving career.I attended my first NSS convention in State College, Pennsylvania in 1969 or 1970, and met Bill Cuddington, and such began the great vertical transition. Vertical caving systems were evolving quickly with Gibbs Ascenders, Jumars and chest rollers. The rope walker was developed along with the Mitchell system. Rappelling devices were also evolving from brake bars to squeeze brakes and rappel racks. Caving ropes were evolving from hemp, to nylon Goldline, to Sampson, to Bluewater and PMI.In the early 70s, the NSS Vertical Section was formed, and I was named the editor of the section newsletter that I named the Nylon Highway. Many advances in caving techniques were developed and described over the years in the Nylon Highway.In 1984, the NSS asked if I would author a book on vertical caving techniques. I teamed with Allan Padgett, and we worked out the details at the 1984 NSS Convention in Sheridan, Wyoming. Three years later, we published On Rope, in 1987. The book received a substantial amount of success. We created a completely rewritten second edition with improved illustrations and photographs, which was published in 1996.In 1995, I started On Rope I which specialized in the manufacture and sale of vertical caving equipment. It was my intent to make climbing and rappelling systems available to everyone who desired them.I have seen a drastic and great vertical transition in the way North American cavers climb and rig. Over the last 65 years, I’ve served as an expert witness, single rope technician, rappelling and rope ascent instructor, rescue instructor, fireman instructor for advanced high angle rescue, industrial safety officer, cave and cliff rescue team, rigger, rigger instructor and in urban search and rescue. It has been an amazing career.
Mystery Cave Underground: Mapping for the Future National Speleological Society 2025-08-10 | 2025 NSS Video Salon. Mystery Cave Underground: Mapping for the Future explores the process of mapping the cave network that forms the Mystery Cave System in Minnesota, revealing the thrill of unexpected discoveries and a lot of mud! The video was shot and edited by Ryder Bates, a member of the student media team and a first-time caver. The video is part of a series documenting the scientific research being conducted in caves in South Dakota and Minnesota over the span of four years. Funded by NASA and the Iowa Space Grant Consortium, the project is a unique collaboration between the departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Biology, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Kinesiology and Athletic Training, and Communication and Media at the University of Northern Iowa.
NSS 2025 Luminary - Jim Pisarowicz National Speleological Society 2025-07-30 | Seems As If All the Decisions in My Life Were Because I Am a Caver. NSS 16872 FE, LB. Explorers Club FN 1979. It seems that I have been interested in caves for my entire life. I remember going into a sandstone cave with my sister and cousin in the St. Paul, Minnesota area when I was 4 years old. As a grew older, I would ride my bicycle to places in the Twin Cities where I had found out there were caves. As a Boy Scout, my fellow scouts and I would seek out and explore caves. Unfortunately, Minnesota is not a state with extensive cave resources, so it was a number of years until I was reintroduced to caving. Eventually I connected with the NSS. It seemed that all my old caving friends had moved on to other activities or places, but I still wanted to go caving. As such, I joined the Colorado Grotto in the early 1970s. Most cavers did not own a wetsuit, as I did because I was a diver. That led to my being involved in the exploration of Spring Cave, Colorado, involving multi-sump diving. After that project, the rest, as they say, is history. My caving spread across the United States, down into Mexico and Central America, and eventually overseas to Papua New Guinea. In 1990, I was awarded the NSS’s highest award for cave exploration, the Lew Bicking Award. After finishing graduate school and experiencing some personal tragedies, I left my academic career to start working as a park ranger with the National Park Service at Wind Cave National Park. There I led the exploration team to survey the cave’s 40th mile (1984) and beyond. Today, Wind Cave is the 7th longest cave in the world at over 154 miles long. I also worked for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to develop Mystery Cave in southeast Minnesota as a show cave. Further work in National Parks led me to become the Executive Director of the Death Valley National Park cooperation association and caving in the Death Valley area and other parts of the world. I have published hundreds of articles on caving. I was one of the initial editors of the Journal of Cave and Karst Studies (JOCKS) where I served as its co-editor for 11 years. I have also worked as a co-editor of several issues of the AMCS Activities Newsletter. I founded and directed the NSS’s Caves of Tabasco Project and its groundbreaking exploration and research in Cueva de Villa Luz, and its chemo-autotropic ecosystem. I eventually returned to academia. I have worked as a professor of psychology/math/statistics at Antioch University, Mesa State College (now Colorado Mesa University), and Sinclair Community College in Ohio. An award-winning wildflower photographer, publishing two books of Colorado wildflowers with co-author, Mary Menz (Common Wildflowers of the San Juan Mountains and Wildflowers of Colorado’s Western Slope). My photos have appeared in US News & World Reports, Time, New Scientist, Weekly Reader, and various other publications, textbooks and field guides. I have published in excess of 15,000 images. I live in Montrose on Colorado’s west- ern slope with my wife Karen Rosgand 3 agility dogs.
NSS 2025 Luminary - Bob Addis National Speleological Society 2025-07-18 | I Never Let Fear or Common Sense Hold Me Back: 64 Years of Spelean Adventure, Some Accomplishments and Lots of Mischief.Bob Addis, NSS 9958 RL, FE, COBob Addis was born and raised in Cobleskill, in the heart of the cave country of upstate New York. He spent as much time outside as possible and ultimately became an Eagle Scout. His first cave was Howe Caverns, and his father was good friends with Arthur Van Voris, an author of several local cave publications. Arthur befriend Bob and give him a copy of Celebrated American Caverns by Horace Hovey. The stage was set. In the 1960s, Bob was invited on a trip to Ball’s Cave (now part of the James Gage Karst Preserve). At the end of the day, he was scratched, bruised, exhausted and thought this was the worst thing he had ever done.” He drifted off to sleep wondering about the cave, where the water went, and if he could explore more. The next day, he woke up a caver. Bob had an earth science teacher in high school that was interested in caves, and they taught themselves horizontal and vertical caving techniques from rock climbing books. They started with cable ladders with a belay, hot seat rappels, then on to double brake bars, knots and Jumars. Wet suits soon followed. Then it was off to college and cars, outing clubs, grottos, regional meetings and trips to the holey land, West Virginia. In 1963, Bob got a summer job as a cave guide at Howe Caverns. It paid $10’s plus tips for an 8-hour day, discounts at the snack bar, and a chance to meet young ladies working there. Bob went on to study civil engineering at RPI in Troy, New York. Returning in the summer back to Howe Caverns with newly acquired surveying skills, he was asked to help map the cave. They extended the map from the 1930s to include lighting and trails and many areas that weren’t on the trail. After college, Bob was drafted and served in Vietnam as a Navy Seabee in a construction battalion. After being discharged in California, he joined the Southern California Grotto and met Bob Liebman. Bob attended the 1971 NSS Convention in Blacksburg with Liebman and ended up as the manager of Lost World Caverns in West Virginia. Bob Liebman was assistant manager. The owner of the cave talked Bob Addis into building a “tree house” on the War Club Stalagmite in the cave, where Bob spent the next 15 days setting a world record for stalagmite siting. In 1972, Bob drove with Bob Liebman to the 1972 NSS Convention in White Salmon. On the way back, they started buying Justrite carbide lamps as they heard they were no longer being made. They came up with the idea of forming a business of B & B Enterprises to get better discounts on gear and headed off to the Old Timers Reunion as one of the first speleovendors. They printed up T-shirts and had lamp parts to sell. Bob later sold his interest in Bob & Bob to Liebman to pursue opportunities in engineering in South Africa. He returned to Upstate New York for an MBA and formed the Northeastern Cave Conservancy. He ultimately ended up in West Virginia, working in the oil fields for Pennzoil. Bob also served on the NSS Board of Governors at the same time as Bob Liebman and have been lifelong friends until Bob’s passing in 2017. In 1985, for fun, Bob spread the word for a Doo Dah Parade at the Old Timers Reunion, which continues as an institution to this day. The Northeastern Cave Conservancy has gone on to own 12 preserves, has two liaisons with state agencies, has eighteen committees and has been in existence for 47 years. As Bob says. “it’s been a good ride.”
The One that Got Away - Trailer National Speleological Society 2025-07-08 | NSS 2025 Video Salon. BEST OF SHOW. Produced by Bill Storage 2025. The history of Airspot Cave, a lost cave near the Friars Hole system. (All media recorded prior to 1980 or after 2022). This is just a 2 minute trailer for the full length program. For access to the full program please contact Bill Storage through facebook.com/william.storage or https://x.com/storax101.
NSS 2025 Video Salon National Speleological Society 2025-07-07 | The show opener, including previews of all entries, followed by announcement of the winners.
2026 NSS Convention Promo National Speleological Society 2025-06-17 | This is the Promo video for the 2026 NSS Convention to be held in Corydon, Indiana. The dates for the 2026 Convention are July 6-10, 2026
Khammouane Vertical National Speleological Society 2025-06-06 | 2025 NSS Video Salon winner - Honorable Mention. The video covers a 2-week expedition in Laos in 2017. On the expedition we visited several caves. This film is about two small virgin caves which we surveyed, which are about 150 feet up a rock face. Also covered in this video is some of the lifestyle of the local villagers, and the struggle that exists in the Third World. This includes helping the village people improve their lives by drilling a well and installing running water to more than 50 houses in the village. This water project included installing 4 km of pipes.
Cenotes of Mayakoba National Speleological Society 2025-05-28 | 2025 NSS Video Salon. The Cenotes of Mayakoba is an exploration project dedicated to the discovery and documentation of a series of submerged cave systems that exist below Mayakoba, a prominent resort in the northern part of the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. So far, we’ve explored six cave systems, produced a beautiful 200-page art book, and made a short documentary film about the project. For more information, please visit cenotesofmayakoba.com.
Caving Underground: New Discoveries National Speleological Society 2025-05-28 | 2025 NSS Video Salon - Caving Underground: New Discoveries highlights the discovery of a new formation in the Snake Pit part of the Wind Cave System in South Dakota. The video was shot and edited by Easton Steffen, a member of the student media team and a first-time caver. The video is part of a series documenting the scientific research being conducted in caves in South Dakota and Minnesota over the span of four years. Funded by NASA and the Iowa Space Grant Consortium, the project is a unique collaboration between the departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Biology, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Kinesiology and Athletic Training, and Communication and Media at the University of Northern Iowa.
NSS Vertical Training Commission: Building the Future of Vertical Cave Training National Speleological Society 2025-05-16 | NSS Webinar Series - March 19, 2025. Presented by EC Moe - Western Region Coordinator of the NSS Vertical Training Commission.
Gear Check - an NSS STC Podcast National Speleological Society 2025-04-26 | Gear check! Catching vertical errors before they catch usAn audio podcast by the NSS Safety & Techniques Committee (STC)4/26/2025John Ganter, jganter@caves.orgArticle with user feedback: caves.org/gear-check-2025STC: caves.org/stc Write to us at stc@caves.org
NSS Video Salon 2009 National Speleological Society 2025-02-17 | The NSS hosted the International Congress of Speleology (ICS) quadrennial congress in conjunction with its own annual convention. (The location had to be changed from Texas to Florida.)
NSS Video Salon Show 2002 National Speleological Society 2025-02-17 | Show opener includes full entry videos plus awards
NSS Video Salon 2004 National Speleological Society 2025-02-17 | Show opener, including a teaser for each entry, and announcement of the winners.
NSS Video Salon 2003 National Speleological Society 2025-02-17 | The show opener, including previews of all entries, followed by announcement of the winners.
NSS Video Salon 2006 National Speleological Society 2025-02-16 | The salon opener, including previews of all entries, and announcement of the awards.
Convention Promo National Speleological Society 2025-02-16 | A preview of the 2008 convention facilities and nearby caving.
NSS Video Salon 2007 National Speleological Society 2025-02-16 | The show opener includes previews of all entries, and announcement of the winners.
NSS Video Salon 2009 National Speleological Society 2025-02-16 | The NSS hosted the 2009 International Congress of Speleology (ICS) in conjunction with the NSS 2009 Convention. (The Texas location had to be changed to Florida.)
NSS Video Salon 2011 National Speleological Society 2025-02-16 | Salon Opener with vignettes of all entries and awards
Bridge in Tunnel National Speleological Society 2025-02-16 | Building a highway tunnel through a cave!
Floyd Collins Newsreels National Speleological Society 2025-02-16 | Newsreel of the attempted rescue of Floyd Collins from Sand Cave in 1925.
NSS Video Salon 2010 National Speleological Society 2025-02-16 | Opening show, with previews of entries, and awards
NSS Video Salon Show 2013 National Speleological Society 2025-02-16 | Introduction and previews of entries and awards
NSS Convention 2014 Preview National Speleological Society 2025-02-15 | Promotion for the 2014 Convention in Huntsville, Alabama.
Intro to YOUR National Speleological Society (NSS) National Speleological Society 2025-01-30 | NSS Webinar Series - January 2025. Introduction to the NSS Webinar Series. NSS Mission and Programs. Member Resources & Value. Organizational Chart and Executive Director Update.
Getting Ahead of COVID 19 Part 4 National Speleological Society 2025-01-08 | Presented by Dr. Hazel Barton, a professor of biology and geology at the University of Akron. She has served for 6 years on the Public and Scientific Affairs Board for the American Society of Microbiology and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology.
NSS 2024 Luminary Louise Hose National Speleological Society 2024-09-20 | NSS 13138 RL FEA Triad of Speleo Science ContributionsBorn in 1952 in Los Angeles as the third daughter of working-class parents who never attended college, a life of cave exploration and academics was not Louise’s obvious path. It was a trajectory filled with many obstacles. Her frugal parents took to the outdoors for every family vacation and weekend excursion. She first camped at three months and first backpacked when she was five. These experiences, along with a lot of luck and serendipity, overwhelmed the odds and led to a full and satisfying speleo-life.Speleo Contribution 1: Caving and ExplorationDuring her early caving, she was surrounded by people who expected every serious caver to be good at just about everything. Within weeks of joining the grotto, Louise was doing vertical caves, helping with surveying and photography, and learning cave geology. Conservation ethics were pounded in. Her first husband, Tom Strong, introduced her to Grand Canyon caving, and they dedicated about 30 days a year to exploring there. Donald G. Davis, Mark Grady and Fred Wefer came into her life. These brilliant men treated her as an equal, and taught her how to “science the shit out of this” cave stuff.Speleo Contribution 2: Getting Serious About ScienceIn the 1980s, speleology received very little respect in mainstream science, and Louise decided to focus her dissertation on a more “acceptable” topic. She returned to cave exploration and science several years later after accepting a position as a professor in Colorado Springs. Locally, the hypogenic caves of Williams Canyon and the nearby granite caves drew her interest. She also headed back to Mexico.She joined six expeditions to Oaxaca, Mexico, and helped link several caves into Sistema Cheve. The caving there seemed the perfect mix for her skills, but the most attractive element was the area’s unmapped geology. In 1993, she received a National Geographic Society (NGS) grant that supported geologic mapping and, using the new technology of precision (differential) GPS. While not traversed by people, she demonstrated that the Cheve Cave System is the deepest in the world.For years, Jim Pisarowicz had tried to convince Louise to visit Cueva de Villa Luz in Mexico, and she finally made the trip in 1997. Immediately recognizing the spectacular, scientific value of the cave, she put together a multidisciplinary team of speleologists to visit the cave. She convinced NGS to sponsor work at Villa Luz. The cave is so novel, that soon media from around the world made trips to report on the work. Most prominent among the media, NGS ran a feature article. The new scientific understanding of active sulfuric acid speleogenesis and how organisms can exploit this environment was revolutionary.Speleo Contribution 3: Always Giving ServiceHopefully, every serious caver finds ways to serve caves and our community. A sampling of Louise’s service includes grotto officer in six states, Vice-President of the 2009 International Congress of Speleology, leadership for four NSS conventions, NSS Board of Governors member for six years, Executive Director of the National Cave and Karst Research Institute, and the Journal of Cave and Karst Studies editor-in-chief for eight years. She currently serves as Treasurer and Grant Committee Chair for the National Speleological Foundation.A swan song? The Dream Team, 2022 to 2024Louise, now in her 70s, continues pursuing cave science. Since May 2022, she has been exploring and documenting caves in eastern Nevada as part of the Wild Cave Project “Dream Team” hired by Great Basin National Park and Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. She is currently writing reports on 45 caves. Her contributions to the project include demonstrating that some of the caves are more than 11 million years old. While physically unable to visit some sites, one cave she visited several times last year required 60 m of vertical work, with numerous rebelays and redirectionals. She says when the body can’t handle the serious caving anymore, there are still loads of data to “science the shit out of.”
NSS 2024 Luminary Hazel Barton National Speleological Society 2024-09-20 | My Dark LifeHazel A. Barton, NSS 38664 FE, SC Hazel was born in Bristol, England in 1971, to a working class, and not outdoorsy, family. But she did have a mum that was very much into what good girls did. At an early age, Hazel learned all the arts that Jane Austin would describe as desirable in a lady. Her mum even tried to enroll her in ballet lessons, but unfortunately, Hazel was a daddy’s girl and found dirt and mud a compelling alternative. There are stories that she used to chase worms so they could be captured and eaten. It must be a Gollum-like tendency that may have had something to do with her eventual interest in caves.That cave interest emerged during an Outward Bound course at the age of 14. Outward Bound is a rite of passage in the UK; a bunch of city kids are forced onto the countryside for a week, before being (most of the time) safely returned home. Hazel was a timid and shy child, who struggled to be away from home. She was also clueless, following mum’s direction of packing a ‘nice dress’ in case the occasion needed it. The dress led to an attempted humiliation so great, that 40 years later she still feels the need to mention it in a biography. Nonetheless, the Outward Bound course taught Hazel three important lessons: 1) the outdoors was awesome; 2) caves were fun; and 3) she would not back down from a bully. The last lesson unleashed the kraken, and by the age of 16, Hazel was a loud extrovert who didn’t like to back down from anything.Hazel wanted to continue in the sciences and studied her A-levels in chemistry, biology, and math. During Sixth Form, with a less structured environment, students are given the opportunity to take a sports elective on Wednesday afternoons. The options were mostly traditional, but one teacher, Jim Moon, offered a course in caving. Remembering how fun caves were, Hazel immediately signed up. Jim would bundle six clueless students into the school minivan for grand adventures 20 minutes away, in the Mendip Hills. If the administrators had known what went on during those trips, there is no way they would have approved.Initially, Hazel was not good at caving. On their first caving trip to Goatchurch Cavern, she fell down a 10-foot hand line climb called the Coal Chute. The other five students gave Hazel six weeks before she would give up on this caving lark, but she didn’t. Instead, she continued to cave with the same group every Wednesday, even when class didn’t demand it. This increased to 2 to 3 times a week, exploring the other cave locations in the UK and developing friendships that continue to this day. Despite finding such activities incomprehensible, there were potential sons-in-law present, so her Mum did her bit to support these activities, valiantly scrubbing to try and get the mud stains out of the white coveralls that comprised Hazel’s first caving suit.Hazel is currently the Loper Endowed Professor of Geological Sciences at the University of Alabama, where her lab attempts to understand microbial interactions and processes in cave environments. She has published over 130 articles on this work, along with co-editing two books: Women in Microbiology, and Lechuguilla Cave: Discoveries in a Hidden Splendor. To date, her work has been funded by the US National Science Foundation, US National Institutes of Health, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the US National Park Service, and NASA. She and her research have been featured in magazines including Vice, Sports Illustrated, Forbes, National Geographic Explorer, Outside, Science News, The Scientist, Popular Mechanics, Wired, Geo and The Smithsonian. She has appeared on NPR and BBC Radio and in 16 different documentaries on Animal Planet, the History Channel, National Geographic, the CBS Early Show and BBC TV. Furthermore, she also appeared in the IMAX movie, Journey into Amazing Caves. Through research activities, Hazel has explored caves in 37 countries on six continents.Previously, she served on the NSS Board, as Chair of the Board of the National Cave and Karst Research Institute, is currently the Education Coordinator for the National Speleological Society (NSS) Vertical Training Commission and serves on the Board of the Black Hills Caves and Nature Conservancy. She is also a Kavli Fellow of the US National Academy of Science, and past Chair of the Committee on the Status of Women in Microbiology for the American Society for Microbiology, a recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the NSS Science Award, the Alice C. Evans Award for the advancement of Women in Science, and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology.
NSS 2024 Luminary Emily Davis National Speleological Society 2024-09-16 | Emily Davis Luminary talk at the 2024 NSS Convention in Swanee, TN.Emily was born in Boston in 1950. She grew up in a middle-class home where art, music and theater were prevalent features. Her first serious outdoor activity was hiking up Mount Washington at 13. She attended a Bohemian prep school where the students were encouraged to run all activities except the dormitories and academia. She worked for a veterinarian through high school and was accepted at the University of Denver (DU) in a pre-veterinary med program. It was at this time that her life took a 180-degree turn, which would lead her in the direction she would follow right up to this day. At a DU Outing Club meeting, a really cute guy stood up and started talking about caving. Emily had never heard of caving, but he was cute and caving sounded interesting. That weekend, she fell madly in love – with caving. But that cute guy, Peter Jones, is still her best friend. Emily became involved in supporting and helping to run the Outing Club’s caving group as the newsletter editor for the year she was in Denver. In 1978, Doug and Linda Rhodes, who had established Speleobooks in 1973, decided to sell the business. Emily borrowed money from her father to buy it. Her father asked if she thought it was a good investment. Emily replied, “I think it may be life changing.” Emily was teaching at a small, private school in western Massachusetts and managed to both run the business, teach, coach a bicycle team, run an outing club and build sets and do technical work in the theater for nine years. During that time, Emily realized how much she enjoyed making the NSS a stronger and more cohesive organization. She volunteered as treasurer for the 1979 Convention in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. In the early 1980s, Emily served as an NSS board member.By the mid 80s, Emily was no longer able to run Speleobooks, do NSS volunteer work, and teach. The teaching went, and Emily and Bill moved to Schoharie, New York, where they had plans to make their home in the center of the northeast caving world. Speleobooks had an open-door policy, welcoming experienced and beginner cavers with maps, permits and crash space, resulting in a fat guest register filled with the names of cavers from around the world.The NSS already owned nearby McFails Cave. In the late 80s, Emily and Russ Gurnee worked together to secure what would become the James Gage Nature Preserve to the National Speleological Foundation, later to be transferred to the NSS. Emily was heavily involved in the establishment of cave rescue training and rescue practices with the local cavers and two sheriff’s departments. She often made weekend trips to West Virginia, staying with or near Bob & Bob’s in Sinks Grove, West Virginia. She carried tanks to the back of Scott Hollow Cave, McFails Cave and others for dive exploration teams. She worked on high leads with climbers on many trips in Scott Hollow.On a Lechuguilla expedition in March 1991, a hand hold popped loose, causing Emily to become a worldwide celebrity when she broke her leg. From the beginning of the rescue and for weeks afterward, Emily’s goal was to put the caving community and the NSS in the best possible light and get back into Lechuguilla in a year. Her public speaking background allowed her to steer the press to accomplish the publicity goals. A tough physical therapist helped her accomplish the goal to be back in Lechuguilla a year later. Having a broken leg did not stop Emily from her job as the treasurer of the 1991 Cobleskill Convention, nor from running Speleobooks.In 2001, Emily and Mike were encouraged by Don Coons to come to Hawaii and join in the excitement of mapping long, multilevel, braided lava tubes. Project work in Hawaii has continued since. The Cave Conservancy of Hawaii was established during this time and has included Emily as a committee head since inception.Emily continues to try and find ways to support the caving community and the NSS. Having worked on the staff and volunteering for at least 25 conventions, she is now working on the Vertical Training Commission curriculum committee and is assistant to the chairs of the 2025 convention. Emily still runs Speleobooks, trying to connect used books with people who need or want them. And Emily is always looking for that next opportunity to help where she can because, in the end, it is the rewards that come with volunteering that open so many doors.
Caving Experience National Speleological Society 2024-06-17 | Produced by Francesca Soans. Caving Experience explores the student experience of caving in Wind Cave in South Dakota. The video was shot and edited by a student team, all of whom were novices in caving. The video is part of a series documenting the research being conducted at Wind Cave National Park, exploring the formation of the cave and the extreme life it supports. Funded by NASA and the Iowa Space Grant Consortium, the project is a unique collaboration between the departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Biology, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Kinesiology and Athletic Training, and Communication and Media at the University of Northern Iowa.Entered in the 2024 NSS Video Salon
Crypt of the Mega Fauna National Speleological Society 2024-06-17 | Produced by Mike Sandone. In 2023 a large quantity of Ice Age megafauna fossils were discovered in a cave in Mexico. The cave, however, is full of challenges: a tight vertical entrance, deep water, and long crawls. This film documents the efforts of a small group of cavers led by Cave Biologist Dr. Luis Espinasa to retrieve the fossils with the assistance of an ROUV (Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicle). And to answer the question: how did thousands of bones from mammoths, glyptodonts, camels, sloths, wolves, and cats end up in this cave? Was it the work of ice age humans?Entered in the 2024 NSS Video Salon
Emergence National Speleological Society 2024-06-17 | Produced by Marian McConnell. This multimedia presentation is a slide program based on the illustrations from the book I wrote called “Emergence”. The slide program is set to the music and song of the same name - “Emergence”. Entered in the 2024 NSS Multimedia Salon
Exploring Wind Cave National Speleological Society 2024-06-17 | Produced by Francesca Soans. Exploring Wind Cave explores different areas of the Wind Cave system in South Dakota. The video was shot and edited by a student team, all of whom were novices in caving. The video is part of a series documenting the research being conducted at Wind Cave National Park, exploring the formation of the cave and the extreme life it supports. Funded by NASA and the Iowa Space Grant Consortium, the project is a unique collaboration between the departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Biology, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Kinesiology and Athletic Training, and Communication and Media at the University of Northern Iowa.Entered in the 2024 NSS Video Salon
