wyandottecaver wrote:Others will be more know more details, but unless it has changed, you must first be Sponsored by someone who has already been on a Lech trip as I recall.
This was policy during the LEARN era in the 1990s, but is no longer the case. The link that Greg posted contains the current rules, as outlined in the 2006 management plan. Exploration trips are privately run but approved by the Cave Resources Office. Anyone may submit a proposal for survey and exploration, but as the management plan describes, priority is given to teams based on their likelihood to contribute to the goal of completing maps, and the skills and experience of the team. This process tends to favor giving people with prior experience in the cave a better chance of getting their proposals approved. If you don't have this prior experience then you may have better luck trying to get invited on someone else's private expedition. Some expedition leaders like to bring a few new people along each year to help seed the next generation of Lech explorers. To go on a multi-day survey trip you need to be a strong/fast caver, have good vertical skills, and be efficient at survey. It may also help if you have experience with rigging, lead climbing, sketching, and expedition cave camping, but these aren't mandatory. There are also a number of typically shorter science and work trips that go into the cave each year.
Proposals for 2013 were due at the end of December, so teams have largely been selected already.