Ste. Genevieve, MO Caver

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Ste. Genevieve, MO Caver

Postby norman1 » Nov 24, 2013 10:30 pm

Hello to all from Ste. Genevieve. I am a local small business construction contractor. I am also a local firefighter and serve on the county TRT (Tech Rescue Team). I haven't been caving in a few years due to the relocation of my business to here from IL after my marriage and then my two kids came along. So, I am just getting back into caving. I should be experienced as I started when I was fifteen in southern IL just slightly rusty from the past nine years. I'm currently 43. I've got a couple of items to replace in my vertical gear, including rope, then I will be ready once again to start doing vertical again. I am a master diver, commercial diver and cave diver. I just went to the last Meramec Valley grotto meeting last week and just waiting to go caving with them to join them. I have an invitation from the SEMO grotto to join them. I am located in the middle of both groups. And in the middle of cave country. I know that I can't be the only caver here in Ste. Genevieve. I just started a yahoo group yesterday to hopefully get a active group going again here as I have been told by a few locals that there use to be an active group here yrs ago. I have been topo map hunting and ridgewalking and have found a number of caves. The locals have put me onto a couple of these. Another caver told me about two caves real close to me that I had overlooked and gave me a vague area to look, I found them today. One is vertical. And I went back to the area today that I had been looking at and found two more and at least one of them is vertical. I haven't been in any of these other than the large entrance of one of these at the moment due to not having anyone to cave with. My son is currently to young to start (5yrs old). And before I start him out I would prefer someone with experience like myself and someone that I trust to be along.
Anyways that's my intro,
regards from Ste. Genevieve
Norm
Those that venture deep down below where it's pitch black, may just come across me crawling around exploring and they just call me nightcrawler.

When you gotta be called something it might as well be appropriate.
norman1
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Posts: 9
Joined: Oct 29, 2013 10:26 pm
Location: Ste. Genevieve, MO
Name: Norman Gallup
NSS #: 65459
Primary Grotto Affiliation: Independent
  

Re: Ste. Genevieve, MO Caver

Postby Phil Winkler » Nov 25, 2013 10:47 am

Welcome to the forum, Norm. I checked the NSS membership database and cannot find any member living in Ste. Genevieve. What is your zip code, tho?
Phil Winkler
13627 FE
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Phil Winkler
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Re: Ste. Genevieve, MO Caver

Postby norman1 » Nov 25, 2013 3:51 pm

Hello Phil,

My zip is 63670 and my NSS Member # is 65459 and I am a regular CDS member
Those that venture deep down below where it's pitch black, may just come across me crawling around exploring and they just call me nightcrawler.

When you gotta be called something it might as well be appropriate.
norman1
Infrequent Poster
 
Posts: 9
Joined: Oct 29, 2013 10:26 pm
Location: Ste. Genevieve, MO
Name: Norman Gallup
NSS #: 65459
Primary Grotto Affiliation: Independent
  

Re: Ste. Genevieve, MO Caver

Postby Phil Winkler » Nov 25, 2013 7:33 pm

I was searching in an old copy of the db. I see you just joined. There is one other person in Ste Genevieve and 4 in area code starting with 636. Did you get a Members Manual when you joined? Anyway, there are several cavers near you for sure.
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Re: Ste. Genevieve, MO Caver

Postby Chads93GT » Nov 25, 2013 8:29 pm

there is only one "retired" caver in Ste. Genevieve county that I know of. He was a long time SEMO member back in the day and did a lot in perry county. He has been there and done that but unfortunately he doesnt cave anymore. He lives right on 32 before I55 and has the cavers bat sticker on his green truck, south side of the road.

Other than that, there are no NSS members in Ste Gen except you, but there are a few in Perry county, then cape county, several in jefferson county (me) and tons in st louis county.
But.........weve already spoke ;)
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Re: Ste. Genevieve, MO Caver

Postby norman1 » Nov 25, 2013 11:41 pm

Phil Winkler wrote:I was searching in an old copy of the db. I see you just joined. There is one other person in Ste Genevieve and 4 in area code starting with 636. Did you get a Members Manual when you joined? Anyway, there are several cavers near you for sure.


I did get a members manual and found one person here and recently inadvertently spoke to his mother while trying to find out who owned some property I wanted to ridgewalk. I haven't contacted him yet though.


Chad and I have had a couple of conversations in a weeks time now, feeling each other out so to speak. We will probably end up caving together at some point. I'm the new guy here so I know how everyone is a little hesitant at first trying to figure out is he a caver, a spelunker (yes I said it while biting off my own tongue), what's his experience etc. etc. I'm rusty, but I am a caver. Just never joined any grottos or associations before. Just too plain independent. I'm older now and have two kids to think about so I can't afford the independence or ignorance, however one chooses to view it, I once did. Anything can happen below, as so many of us know, so now I have to network for my kids' sake.

Norm
Those that venture deep down below where it's pitch black, may just come across me crawling around exploring and they just call me nightcrawler.

When you gotta be called something it might as well be appropriate.
norman1
Infrequent Poster
 
Posts: 9
Joined: Oct 29, 2013 10:26 pm
Location: Ste. Genevieve, MO
Name: Norman Gallup
NSS #: 65459
Primary Grotto Affiliation: Independent
  

Re: Ste. Genevieve, MO Caver

Postby norman1 » Nov 29, 2013 4:22 pm

Just to let anyone in the area know; I am willing to cave with almost anyone, but they must have there own gear. I'm limited at the current moment in the amount of rope that I have and currently do not have an bolts/hangers in my gear bag. As for all other equipment, I have a sufficient amount of. I would prefer to cave with people that have vertical experience. Most of the places I want to visit are not what I would want to take a beginner into. As far as my style this is a brief quote from one of my emails to another caver:

"Around here though, where I'm not doing 300 ft or more of drop then I have a petzl stop. Some guys hate them, some like them, the old arguments go both ways. For short drops from 20 ft up to 150- 200 or so ft I like mine, longer than around 225 than I like a rack. And for ascending all I have ever used was a petzl ascension, footape, long side of cows tail clipped to ascension, chest croll and foot pantin. I've never had a problem with that set up and it's what I'm use to. Should I ever have the need for additional point's of contact while doing a change over or whatever then I always keep pursik cord and/or a rescucender handy. I always try to plan ahead for the what if's. As someone who has spent lots of hrs underground knows, anything can happen. I also always
keep two 33 ft 8mm pursik cords in my pack. One of which is pre rigged for load release. "

And the reply was:

"sounds like you use a frog system. Bravo. It sounds like you are vertically knowledgable and know your shit so that's good."

This doesn't confirm that I'm experienced it just means that I know the talk. However, if no one ever caves with me then no one will ever know if I'm as competent as I say. I'm not a know it all by any means and open to new techniques, but prefer my style as that is what I'm use to and comfortable with. Not to mention it's the kind of gear I already have on hand to use. I can say this, as I may have already done so, I'm just a little rusty from not caving the past nine yrs. But ready to get back into it. I do have permission from one land owner at the moment and it will be one of my project caves I plan on doing soon. It's nothing spectacular and may turn out to be a tough crawl cave but it's not mapped and there hasn't been anyone in it in many yrs. I do know this about it; it's not suppose to be a vertical and the last survey team in there did not complete it as they ran out of rope. (I am assuming that they where using the rope as a hand line for a incline passageway). This is all the owners could tell me. But they where happy that I wanted to map it.
I have some other caves that I am awaiting permission on and cross checking with a couple of other cavers to make sure that 1) they're not project caves their working on 2) that they don't control access to the entry 3) that their not already in talks with the land owner to enter and 4) that i'm not stepping on anyone's toes. Because, I wouldn't want it done to me.
There are plenty of caves around here that there is no need of or call for offending anyone.
I believe most responsible cavers will agree that we pretty much all want the same things; find a cave, map it, conserve it, keep vandals out and keep good land owner relations so that the caves can continue being accessed.
This should probably be the sum of my introduction unless anyone else would like to chat with me more.
Those that venture deep down below where it's pitch black, may just come across me crawling around exploring and they just call me nightcrawler.

When you gotta be called something it might as well be appropriate.
norman1
Infrequent Poster
 
Posts: 9
Joined: Oct 29, 2013 10:26 pm
Location: Ste. Genevieve, MO
Name: Norman Gallup
NSS #: 65459
Primary Grotto Affiliation: Independent
  


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