2008 NCA Regional

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2008 NCA Regional

Postby Sidewayscaver » May 11, 2008 8:10 pm

The 2008 Northwest Caving Association Regional will be held Memorial Day weekend, May 24th, 25th, & 26th.

This year the regional is being hosted by the Gem State Grotto at the site of the former commercially operated Crystal Ice Cave on the Wapi lava flow.

The Wapi lava flow is part of the Craters of the Moon National Monument and is situated on the Great Rift, a 65 mile long series of cracks in the earths crust where lava pushed up and flowed out onto the surface, or erupted to form spatter cones like South Grotto, which is supposed to have been surveyed to over 600 feet deep.

The camping will be primitive so you will need to bring everyting. There will be port-a-potties on site. The nearest town (American Falls) is about 1 hour away from the camp site. The Gem State Grotto is going to offer a meal plan for the entire weekend or individual meals.

Caving will range from easy walking family caves like Lariat, ice caves like Moss, short drop vertical entrance caves like Sullivans (23 feet), and deep vertical caves like Creons (190 feet) and South Grotto (325
feet, or more?).

The BLM is providing a volcanologist, David Frieberg, to give a talk or interpretive hike of the area on Saturday.
The NPS is providing a geologist, Doug Owen, to give an interpretive hike of Kings Bowl and other volcanic features on Sunday.

Some more information:
The camp site will be the former commercial cave operation, Crystal Ice Cave, about 25 miles from American Falls Idaho. There are no services there but we will have port-a-potties. Bring plenty of water. Average temperatures for the end of May are lows around 45, highs around 75, we were out there last year for Memorial Day weekend and it was mild and pleasant. There is lots to see and explore right around Crystal Ice Cave on the Great Rift. Crystal Ice Cave has a 40 foot entrance rappel and if you do a through trip there is a 25 foot rappel in the middle and a 140 foot exit climb. There will be cavers from all over the northwest to hang out and go caving with!

The lava has historically flowed every 2,000 - 3,000 years in the area and is currently OVERDUE so we are hoping for live volcanic action while we are out there, come and see if it happens...

Here is the website for the 2008 NCA Regional with information and a registration form: http://www.gemstategrotto.org/NCA2008Regional.html

Here are some pictures of the regional site and the area on the adventure pages of Owen Jones.
http://www.catpeople.com/id/Caving/Wapi ... index.html

Cave on ... Sam
Sidewayscaver
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