Vandalism in Ellisons

[GroundquestMSA]

This may be through literature, online forums, grottos, unaffiliated cavers, etc. Whatever the path there's generally a hierarchy where step #1 is you learn the importance of cave conservation. The combined knowledge of learning about a cave's location, traveling underground, using ropes to descend and ascend, and learning the routes through a complex cave, all come much, much later. The point Andy and Aaron have made is that it's hard to imagine how someone gets to step #179 without learning step #1.

I don't mean to ramble on and on about this, but my own case may help to expand your imagination. I had visited 31 caves (according to my imperfect memory, and not 50-foot long things such as I spend most of my time with now), many of them multiple times, learned the basics of SRT, explored 5 vertical caves, learned the nature and location of Ellison's and several other deep caves, all before I knew that the NSS existed, before I had ever met or spoken to another "caver". The first two cavers I corresponded with, one via email, the other by letter, gave me a lot to think about. They told me what books to read, how to ridgewalk, how to collect specimens, not to go down without up gear. They gave me the locations of caves in three states, including vertical and "closed" ones, even though I readily admitted to being inexperienced and unaffiliated. They invited me to visit them and cave with them and they told me to keep caving. These well-known and well-respected cavers never said one word about conservation. When I bought and read On Rope, I learned a lot about vertical caving, but absolutely nothing about conservation. When I wanted to learn more about surveying and vertical gear and started using this forum, I wasn't forced to learn about conservation. My point is that an education in conservation may not in practice be the #1 that you think it is. Hopefully, most people who are willing to devote much time and practice to exploring caves are the sort who care about the cave environment, but we shouldn't be surprised if some of them haven't been trained according to the current modus of clean caving, or if some are careless vandals.

No, I haven't explored Ellison's, but that is a product of my limited material resources and my personal timidity, not because I can't gain the needed skills. I sure hope to see it some day, and I'll be very sad if I see a lot of graffiti at the bottom.

[Extremeophile]

My point is that an education in conservation may not in practice be the #1 that you think it is. Hopefully, most people who are willing to devote much time and practice to exploring caves are the sort who care about the cave environment, but we shouldn't be surprised if some of them haven't been trained according to the current modus of clean caving, or if some are careless vandals.

My point is that an education in conservation should be #1. If it isn't then the established caving community isn't doing its job. This incident serves as a reminder that Information about cave locations, vertical caving skills, etc. shouldn't be made easily available without verifying that people will treat caves responsibly. We should be surprised when we've failed to communicate the importance of conservation to someone with advanced skills.

I understand that there are examples of people being raised by wolves. The caving community needs to actively engage them in order to protect caves and protect them from themselves. Without guidance from the caving community some people may even think it's safe to cave without a helmet.

[Shane S]

Some can be educated while others can't. It's often our outcome of life is ten percent what happens to us and 90 percent of what actions we take "what we do about it". Growing pains and lessons learned play a role in these actions. What I see here are people who realized their mistakes and who are trying diligently to make them right. Sometimes there are people who are sorry that they let something occur and other times there are people who are sorry that they got caught. Having talked to Elliott prior to this hitting the NSS News, he was truly sorry that this had occurred on his trip.
Sometimes in life we get huge results for small things. Timing is sometimes on our side and sometimes aginst us. Ok the fact that "the perpetrator" picks the connection in something as sacred as Ellisons shows that timing was not on his side this time.
I do admire the people who worked diligently to protect such a sacred passage and took actions to ensure that the DNR knew vandalism was taking place in such a sacred place. You'd better believe i'd do the same. In my mind a chalk mark turns into a chisel on the next trip, then a broken formation and so on. On the other token I do admire the people who seemingly learned from this behavior and who are taking appologetic actions and attempting to make this right.

On a different subject, "the perpetrator" didn't have as much vertical skills as everyone may think. He had hardly done a few short drops prior to a trip to Ellison’s which was probably within in his first ten pits. It's a wonder if he didn't become a casualty himself. He had a crash course and was pretty much thrown into the deep end if you will. That’s a whole different HUGE issue in itself and another that I'm sure will not happen again as. If I had to fault Elliott for anything "as he is one of my good friends" and we have had discussions on the following topic since; it would be to be much more mindful of who you take in that cave and making sure that people are at the skill level for the trip. Not just Ellisons or any trip in a cave. It's constructive criticism and often how we learn, when some one is concerned enough to offer advice.

I'm not saying that it's mandatory that you must have a card saying that you took an NCRC approved SRT class to do Ellison’s but at least have some prior experience on larger pitches. I agree with Groundquest that there are many venues to learning vertical caving. But for heaven sakes learn it before you attempt an almost 600 foot drop.

P.S. I made a similar mistake on not taking skill level into account once. We had a newby to join the grotto who wanted to do a grotto trip to the Wilkson Hollow Horror Hole. I tried to deter her from the trip but she was consistent in saying that she wanted to go very bad and that she was very athletic and in great shape and could do it. She had no vertical skills but we were going to belay her on short drops and she was not to do the bigger drops and hang out in the volcano room with others. She got down the first wet drop and the water intimidated her so that we almost never got her back on rope. When we did she froze up out of fear and wouldn’t climb. We finally ended up having to Z-rig her up the short 15 foot wet waterfall drop. She was almost hypothermic at the top and we ended up bagging her and preventing her condition. I was the one who insisted she’s in great shape she’ll do fine just watch her. I really felt stupid and irresponsible afterwards. These are the stories that we usually don’t post nor tell and I do know that we all have them. Just sharing to say that we all make mistakes and learn from them. And to my surprise this young lady actually wants to go caving again under better training and starting out in easier caves. I didn’t completely destroy her.

[Anonymous_Coward]

My point is that an education in conservation should be #1. If it isn't then the established caving community isn't doing its job.

This was the point I was trying to make above. That we as the caving community are letting people slip through the cracks when it comes to conservation. I do not believe that this necessarily implies that I am selfish or lack a broad range of imagination.

[GroundquestMSA]

...we as the caving community are letting people slip through the cracks when it comes to conservation. I do not believe that this necessarily implies that I am selfish or lack a broad range of imagination.

That's surely true, and I guess the results may occasionally be disastrous, depending on the predisposition of the individual. I wonder though how many people who actually join the NSS or associate with responsible cavers are afterward guilty of gross vandalism? Hopefully, probably, thankfully, very few.

[Anonymous_Coward]

I wonder though how many people who actually join the NSS or associate with responsible cavers are afterward guilty of gross vandalism?

Well that would all depend on your personal definition of gross vandalism. By the strictest definitions, we would all be considered vandals. By the loosest definitons, it is okay to leave turds on the ground and blast crawlways until they are big enough to walk through.

I suspect most of us fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum.

[GroundquestMSA]

Well that would all depend on your personal definition of gross vandalism. By the strictest definitions, we would all be considered vandals. By the loosest definitons, it is okay to leave turds on the ground and blast crawlways until they are big enough to walk through.

I suspect most of us fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum.

A couple of more quality insights by cavers...

Is all change damage? What is man's place in the natural world, including caves? What is the correct balance between exploration, preservation, and the scientific study of caves? We will all have to grapple with these in our careers as cavers. There are tensions between types of cave preservation (biologic, geologic, aesthetic, and historic) which cavers need to be aware of.

I'm not suggesting that cavers have to be Kung Fu and leave no footprints wherever they go, merely that we should minimize the extent of damage that we do with our footprints, our handprints, our kneeprints, our buttprints, all our prints! I suppose everyone makes small blunders periodically while in caves; avidly seeking to be low-impact can only lower the frequency of such blunders, not eliminate them. However, the frequency of blundering in places such as Blue Spring suggest to me that the very notion of low-impact is unknown to, or ignored by many cavers. Its too bad that having a reputation for being extemely low-impact is not as vogue as having a reputation for being hardcore, high-speed, and fearless.

This last supports Derek's notion that cavers aren't doing their job.

[Extremeophile]

Good insights Jonah. It's certainly true that we can only aspire to be low-impact, but it's a good thing to strive for.

For myself, I must confess I just got through drilling a whole bunch of holes in a wall in WV.

[Elliott-Hellmann]

It's good to see that this has turned into a prudent discussion that will potentially benefit new cavers. While of course scratching a name deep in the bottom cave of Ellisons is an "extreme" example, it's good to know that writing on cave walls (permanent or not) is considered vandalism and negligent behavior. The nature of adventure sports (caving, alpine climbing ect..) which differ from conventional sports, is that the consequences of mistakes are usually tragic and life altering/ending. It goes beyond the physical. In this case the issue behavioral and ethical.

Both the American Alpine Club the NSS offer publications of "accidents" in their sports. The often severe and unforgiving consequences of accidents as mentioned above don't always give us the chance to learn from our own mistakes. These accident reports are valuable resources to those of us who are active cavers/climbers. It makes us aware of potential dangers and provides us with the knowledge to be proactive about protecting ourselves against them.

There are too many good responses to quote so I'll make a general response. It seems that the issue in this case is not so much the damage but where it was done. Anyone who knows me knows how much I appreciate Ellisons. This is comforting to know.

Some people are of the opinion that the perpetrator could not have possibly made it through Ellisons without being exposed to caving culture and ethics. He is not alone in this. My path to the vertical world consisted of purchasing the book "On Rope" and studying the applicable sections. I then purchased the equipment I needed. I joined the Local Grotto and started attending meetings when I had the time in an effort to find companions to cave with. I quickly saw that my interest and ambitions did not not align with many of the people I met there. I appreciate and respect all that they do but I was inspired by the Stephen Alvarez portfolio on Ellisons and wanted to get down there. I learned rope skills in a tree in a friends back yard. I practiced all the techniques and emergency procedures (change overs, crossing knots and re-belays). I went to the warm up pit and bounced it. I discovered that my frog system was not very efficient and needed some tweaking. After making some adjustments I realized that a 600ft ascent of a fixed line was not going to be as hard as I anticipated. Especially if I took breaks. The rope weight that works against you starting the descent of large pitches likes the ones found in Ellisons actually works for you on the ascent. The first 200ft of the climb, the stretch in the rope makes the ascenders work more efficiently, especially if you sync the rhythm of your climbing with the bouncing of the rope.

Long story short, myself and the perpetrator did not have much exposure to the caving community prior to exploring this cave. As Shane mentioned in a previous post, this is not advisable. I admit my own folly literally jumping off the deep end though I don't regret it. My inexperience made me appreciate the things I saw in Ellisons all the more.

[Elliott-Hellmann]

Vandalism is removed. Big thanks to Shane Streetman for motivating me to get this done in spite of the forecasted wet weather. It wasn't just a chore, we did some caving. Third photo is Shane at formations in the Hall for the Giants and the bottom is me looking down at Incredible pit from the west balcony.

[Lava]

[DawgsgoCaving]

Good for y'all. I admire you for being proactive about that.

[Shane S]

Now everybody on here knows what I look like. Ba ha ha