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Caving is my absolute favorite thing to do. I try to get to every caving event in the area including the VAR and MAR field meets in the Spring and Fall, PSC (Potomac Speleological Club) events including the PSC Jamboree, DC Grotto outings, and the NSS Conventions that are in the area such as this year's in West Virginia and next year's in Pennsylvania. I am 18 and I have been caving for 6 years since I was 12. I first started caving with my church and I have been in love with caving ever since. My first cave was Sinnett- Thorn Cave and I was blown away by everything- the around 30 foot tall waterfall that landed in a deep pool of water, the fissure that you had to climb up to reach the Big Room, the Big Room itself which was so large that you could not see with your headlight the end of the room to the left, the right, or in front of you and the deep chasm that you had to traverse above. Sinnett-Thorn is still one of my favorite caves. So far I have been caving in 29 wild caves that required gear such as a headlight which does not include the 2 tourist caves I have been to, the at least 7 caves that did not have a name but which were at least large enough for my entire body to fit inside, and the 20 or so sea caves that I kayaked through in California. 3 of the 29 wild caves I have been to twice. I have been caving in West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina and you could count California if you include the 20 or so sea caves that I kayaked through on a guided sea cave kayaking excursion on Santa Cruz Island. 17 of the wild caves I have been to have been at least a mile long. I started practicing vertical with vertical caving gear two years ago at the 2011 Spring VAR and I bought my own vertical gear the next fall. I started doing vertical caves this fall so far doing 2 caves that required vertical gear with one having a 25 foot drop and the other having a 50 foot drop...continued

The things I love about caving include going into the unknown not knowing what is going to come next, challenging myself to see how tricky a climb (such as in McAllisterville Cave) and how small a squeeze I can do (such as the Airblower in Hamilton Cave), the wildlife in caves (such as colorful blue, orange, and black salamanders and crayfish and bats), the formations (such as the Great White Way in Bone-Norman Cave), the man-made sculptures (such as the huge sculpture room in Sharps Cave with sculptures such as a life like 3 foot tall Buddha in a sitting position), and the waterfalls (such as the around 30 foot tall waterfall in Bone-Norman Cave). My favorite cave is probably McAllisterville Cave because of the variety in the cave and because of how tricky some of the climbs were to reach the ground water level in the cave. Currently, I am an NSS member and a member of the DC Grotto. I would like to get involved in surveying and cave diving in the future too. I would love to someday go on an international caving expedition like the ones that have gone recently to Mexico, Peru, and Vietnam. Now that would be the coolest thing in the world. I take caving as a priority over just about everything so when I hear about a caving trip or event in my area I try my hardest to make it. So far I have bought a lot of my own caving gear including my $400 vertical gear which includes my Superavanti harness, my $400 350 lumens Petzl Ultra headlamp, and my $150 150 foot long PMI Max Wear Static Rope in addition to my caving suit, caving helmet, and caving pack.

Welcome, Greg! Look forward to caving with you someday.

Well Scott if you come to the Spring VAR I might see you there. The drive is about an hour longer for you than me though.

Welcome Greg! Check out this link.... http://www.cavehillgrotto.com Go to the 'Events' "MUDfest 2013" Held this year the following weekend just after the Shippensburg, PA. NSS Convention. It's a FREE annual caving event sponsored and hosted by us friendly Cave Hill Grotto cavers. A great chance to see some other fine central PA. caves!

That actually does sound great. I'm surprised it's even free. Thanks for letting me know about it.

Greg- next time you are looking to buy some rope, you may want to shop around a bit. OnRope1 sells PMI pit rope (11 mm MaxWear) for 69 cents a foot. Sometimes you can get better deals than that if you shop around. Unless of course you are independently wealthy, and don't mind spending extra money just for the heck of it.

Trogman

Nope, I wouldn't say that I am wealthy but I usually look for the the least expensive highest quality deal. I'm running low on money right now with like $50. I was actually looking at buying it from OnRope1 online originally. But I didn't have enough time to wait for it to come through the mail because the vertical trip was going to be the following weekend. It would have taken about 5 working days for me to get it through the mail so it would have been cutting it close. I kind of rounded off how much the rope cost but really the REI rope was 80 cents a foot so it was more like $120. I get my money from the money I have saved up over a long time, my summer job as a tennis counselor, taking care of neighbors pets while their away, walking my neighbors dog, shoveling snow, raking leaves, mowing lawns, and from Christmas and my birthday. A lot of my money I had saved up and not used until recently when I bought most of my caving gear over the past 2 years. I'm still in high school in 12th grade so I still live with my parents who I wouldn't say are wealthy either. We're more middle class I'd say but maybe on the upper side. My dad is a piano tuner and my mom is a scientist and our house has a main floor and a basement.

Ok enough talk about money. Welcome to the forum.

Well he is from Montgomery County, Maryland. There is way too much money flying around there, but welcome to cavechat.

Yup you and me Nathan are from the 10th richest county in the country.