Cavechat.org

You began summiting? hmmm are you part of the small fraction of the Philo population that speaks spanish?

if you are, you're probably confusing sima with cima, sima means the bottom of an abyss and cima the top of a mountain and it's english equivalent is summit.
so, do you climb mountains or descend into caves?

im not confused to both sima and cima.

what i mean is, i began my adventure needs in ascending peaks and now hitting the earth by descending into caves.

i dunno how to speak spanish dialect. thus, my apology for my consusing statements here.

lastly, thank you for ur reply.

That's alright CnS.
Have fun in the forum

thanks. u too bro!

I'm 27 and have been caving since I was 12, if you don't count the toured caves. My first cave was Bighorn Cavern on the border of WY and MT. I have too many hobbies, so I don't get underground as much as I'd like. Especially since up until recently I only went caving on vacations to Northern WY. Hello!!! There's plenty of good caves in Utah too!!!

So now I'm trying to get time to explore some more of the local Utah caves. I haven't made it to a grotto meeting yet.

Jeff

I used to post on the old board but have been MIA virtually and in real caving life for a while. I finally went caving again yesterday after over a year above ground - my 51st cave. I'm a member of the Nashville Grotto.

Welcome to Cavechat, you two. Hope you'll come back often and participate in our online discussions.

Hello everybody. I've been lurking here for about a week and thought I should go ahead and say hello and tell you about my very limited caving experience. I have no real caving experience outside of commercially guided tours. I have taken tours in:

- Carlsbad Caverns. As a kid 25+ years ago.
- Crystal Cave in Sequoia National Park. 10 years ago on a College field trip.
- Vague memories of 1-2 other caves 15-20+ years ago but can't remember. :(

... and just this past year I have visited (in Arizona):

- Grand Canyon Caverns (west of Seligman).
- Kartchner Caverns, Rotunda Room (south of Benson).
- Colossal Cave, Normal and "Ladder Tour" (south of Tucson).

I have always had an interest in caves and mines and have taken tours when I could and always told myself that I wanted to do (and explore) more. My lack of experience can be attributed to being distracted by jobs, friends, other hobbies (Hiking, Backpacking and Camping, mainly) and life's little (and big) problems.

I was reading an article in the local paper recently about Kartchner and decided to Google 'caves' and I found the NSS web site. I registered for this discussion board and starting reading. Good Stuff. I have shifted my mindset from: Thinking about caves every once in a long while; to thinking about them on a more consistent basis. This is a good thing.

My current caving plans are to visit more caves (commercial tours probably) geographically centered around Phoenix, Arizona (aka caves I can drive to in 1-2 days) and work my way out from there to gain experience and knowledge. I'm not planning on buying a bunch of caving gear soon, but I see myself doing so in the future. Eventually, I'll be exploring caves that are not part of a commercial tour.

Thanks for your patience and Happy Caving.

Welcome and glad you decided to finally say hi. Have you thought about joining your local grotto where you live?

Hello Snowhiker,

I'm not from Az, but, Wendy has a great point that you should join a local grotto!

http://www.escabrosa.org/

You probably already know about this group, but, they are really great cavers!

If, by any chance, that you are jumping on the I10 out to SoCal, just give me a message and I will show you what I know out here.

Do you like to do snowshoe trips! Those are my favorite when we get snow here!!

Jim

Thanks for the tips/info guys.

Yes Vadosian, I have hiked, snow hiked, snow shoed and backpacked in the San Jacinto and San Gorgonio mountains MANY times, as well as the Eastern Sierras and Yosemite NP.

As far as the I-10 interstate, I've gone east/west from Phoenix area to Socal, and back, about 70-80 times the last 25 years. I just moved to AZ this last December, but my bro has lived here since '80. And my sis still lives in SoCal so I go back and forth on that Interstate many times. Anything of interest you can mention to me on or near I-10 will be greatly appreciated as I really hate that drive.

Two GREAT sites to visit since you are based in SoCal:
http://www.sgwa.org/
http://www.palm-springs-photography.com ... /index.php

The first is the San Gorgonio Wilderness Association site and the second is a discussion board for San Jacinto.

If anybody else has any information on commercial cave or mine tours centered on the Phoenix, AZ area, that are about a days drive please let me know. Thanks.

oops, new to cavechat and didn't post an intro first - had a friendly request to rectify that so here it goes:

I'm Kelly and I'm a caver (applause and welcome to the 12 step program)....
Some of ya'll probably know me - I'm a TAG caver currently with the Montgomery Grotto and with friendly connections to some of the folks up in Chattanooga and N. GA. I started caving about seven years ago while at Berry College (Rome, GA) in the TAG area. Four years of vet school in western NY led to a little caving up north, but mostly a time and geography induced hiatus. I've been back just south of TAG for the past year and a half and have loved getting active again. I did my first vertical trip at TAG 2005 and haven't looked back. The caves aren't as close as I'd like, but I have a great group to cave with (you know who you are!) when I get a 4-day weekend and I've been able to take advantage of SE-NCRC training (2006, level 1) and the past couple of fall TAGs. With only 8 months left here, I'll be packing in the trips before heading off to check out the Korean underground courtesy of Uncle Sam. HOOAH.

Howdy Kelly! Good to see you here! When you coming up to Chattanoogy next?

Welcome Kelly nice to see U here.

My name is Allen I am a new caver and I am just under 1 year shy of the big 40. I have always been curious about caving but never followed through with going until I got involved with a royal ranger group back in 2000 where I started taking a group of boys on some over night Raccoon Mountain Wild Cave tours in Chattanooga, TN (rangers are similar to the scouts).

I joined the forum back in Oct this year. I have been caving since 2001, in which the first 2 years where limited but the past several I have been more active. I do also have several years of repelling under my belt. I have finally joined the NSS and my local Hsv, AL Grotto this year.

This year has been fun and I have meet a lot of new cavers in my area . Also I have went thru some training with the local cave rescue unit* HCRU* and went thru a vertical class by my local grotto. Both were a great learning experience . I since purchased more vertical gear and started dropping some of the local pits .

I am looking forward to getting more caving experience under my belt this coming year. I have not had much time to travel outside my area to go caving but I am determined to change that this year. I am looking forward in teaching my 2 children (son age 12 & daughter age 8) more about caving also. My wife is not to sure about caving much more outside of the commercial tours since she is a little claustrophobic.

Finally I want to also wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.