Cavechat.org

Hi all, I'm Greg, new NSS/San Joaquin Valley Grotto member! Like Matt (Hi!) a few threads down, I've been hiking all over the Sierras for years, but never visited a wild cave, though I've been vaguely aware of their existence. I've always been fascinated by caves, visited our local show/commercial caves (Boyden, Crystal, Moaning Cavern...), and wanted to see more; but was always under the impression that they were not accessible except for research/park staff/etc. I started looking in to visiting a few mines/caves in Mineral King that I've heard local people talking about, and when asking for advice on the correct gear in a local sporting goods store, I was advised to seek help and training from a local group that specializes in that kind of thing. It hadn't even occurred to me that such a thing existed. A search took about five minutes, and after an email exchange with a contact listed for my region on the NSS website, I started attending the meetings. Everyone at SJVG has been extremely helpful in offering advice and training on general caving practices, gear, vertical technique/SRT, etc. They're a really great group of people!

Welcome.


I was in the SFBC (San Francisco Bay Chapter) of the NSS in the early 80's. Good bunch of cavers!

There are about a dozen local NSS-affiliated caving clubs up and down California. Check them out at http://www.caves.org/grotto. You'll meet some good cavers at any one of them (as I always maintain, they might not be as hard-core as we Ohio cavers...but good people nonetheless )