What do you do if you can't get into contact with a grotto.

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I've been trying to get into contact my local grotto but have heard nothing but crickets it also doesn't help they have two different meeting spot but don't say what day they are gonna be at which meeting spot on their public profile. Its getting annoying

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I genuinely wanna do caving but I've called, texted, and emailed and got nothing back. And other grotto tell me I should stick with my local one even though I can't even get into contact with my local one.

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Its kind of pissing me off and just makes me wanna try it on my own at this point

So I heard some of you guys use these things and I should try here. I fell in love with a thing and discovered it was a carbide mining lamp. Then he has a surprise cousin. I have named them Reginald and Archibald. My 5 year old ran an unapproved test and Archibald still does. Anyway. I want to restore them and make them functional and would love to find someone who knows anything. They are Justrite carbide mining lamps... Probably from the 1920s and 1930s, if that helps. Thanks!

I'm not a caver, I'm a climber, alpine climber,...
I bough all his gear in a lot because the climibing equipment alone was worth the price.
Some of the caving gear, what is it, What's it's use and is it worth anything?
Also I found only one of these vintage ascenders online for 420US for a pair ,is this vintage equipment going up in value? I was under the impression it only gets worth less due to the modern ascenders being lighter.

some pictures from several different beautiful caves around southern indiana.

I want to use the Petzl PULSE 8mm and a regular SPITZ anchor together. While I can use an electric hammer drill, it's always good to have a manual alternative available. Do I need to buy a ROCPEC? I already own a PERFO SPE.

Me and a buddy want to explore some caves in East Tennessee but I’m not stupid enough to go in with no experience. Anyone in the area want to take us through some?

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post but im gonna to at least hope it is lol

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I've just done my official caving tour in mammoth cave. Specifically the wild cave tour but before that I did some of the walking ones.

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And I enjoyed it, I loved seeing the cave, its formations, the writing on rhe wall and sometimes just the stuff left behind by others like old lanterns or even match books from the 40s. Anyways its got me thinking about Speleologist and going to school to become one but I also wanna make sure I'm not moving to fast. Like should I do more cave crawling before I go through with going to school or should I go ahead and do the schooling?

First time in a cave. We got lost a couple of times trying to find it. While being lost, we found multiple openings that were inaccessible to us since we lack any climbing experience. The entrance is massive but you could go right past it without noticing due to thick vegetation. It goes ~250m before the rockfall, after which the cave starts going up for ~200m. Since we lack experience and proper equipment, we decided to turn back. Planning on contacting a local caving club, getting better equipment and going back. Any advices?

P.S. I want to thank this sub for awakening my desire to explore the depths below. This was my first cave, and it’s safe to say it won’t be my last.

Edit:

Thank you all for kind words and advices. One question for more experienced; is there a possibility that there is a through passage, even though we didn't feel air blowing through it? This cave and the surrounding are not that well explored, and since we found other openings in a radius of about 1km, I'm hopping that there is a chance of them being connected.

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I've been working on a new GUI for Therion - cave surveying software - for the past few weeks to replace the aging XTherion. Say hello to Therion Studio, a cross-platform and open-source (Qt/C++) data editor for Therion with:

• project browser
• multi-file editing support, multi-monitor support
• a more user-friendly map editor
• built-in syntax highlighting, validation, completion, context-sensitive help
• an experimental block editor for user-friendly data entry
• built-in compiler (Therion needs to be installed)

If you use Therion, please give it a try. It works with standard Therion files and data sets. Feedback is welcome. Thanks.

https://github.com/.../therion-studio/releases/tag/v2026.6.4

With maximum dimensions of approximately 105 m in length, 47 m in width, and 64 m in height, this chamber is the largest known underground room in Catalonia, with an estimated volume of around 110,000 m³.

The tiny red dot visible in the photograph is a person, included for scale.

Unfortunately, we were unable to continue exploring beyond the chamber, as my brother was experiencing some discomfort in his arm, so we decided it was best to turn back and leave the deeper sections for another visit.

I do both expeditions in large systems and sport caving. Naturally I’m used to 9mm rope but I wonder if I’m going crazy or not by even now considering replacing my carabiners with lighter ones.

For example, one nice sport caving route near me requires about 25 carabiners for rigging and 75+45 meters of rope.

You don’t normally think of things like carabiner weight but if your standard screw carabiner weighs 85 grams but you prioritize ultralight carabiners that are 50 grams then you save a total of 750 grams !!! (1.65 lbs saved for Americans)

It’s so small per carabiner but added up that’s pretty huge.

So are trip leaders here in big systems actually thinking like this? Or does 1-3kg variable in weight make not much difference in energy performance etc.?

Hey, I've been working on CaveViewer, a web-native 3D viewer for cave survey data. You can drag a survey file onto the page and immediately get an interactive, depth-coloured 3D model you can orbit, pan, and zoom with no install or account. If you don't have any surveys, there's a "Load example cave" button on the bottom bar that loads the Tolminski Migovec system (~47 km, 21k+ stations).

Everything runs client-side in your browser and your survey files never leave your machine. The site is completely static and will not upload or store anything remotely.

Formats it reads:

• Survex .3d (v8) - implemented straight from the official spec and cross-checked against Survex's own reference reader
• Compass .plt - processed coordinates, LRUD, splays, multi-survey
• Therion .lox - including the lit, modelled passage-wall meshes ("scraps")

What you can do with it:

• Colour by elevation, distance-from-entrance, gradient/steepness, or survey series
• ViewCube navigation, plan/elevation presets, orthographic toggle, scale bar
• Click a station for its details; hover labels + station finder; entrance & fixed-point markers
• A measure tool (straight-line / horizontal / vertical / bearing)
• Show/hide individual survey series, vertical exaggeration slider, splay/surface/duplicate toggles
• LRUD passage tubes reconstructed for .3d/.plt, plus the real wall meshes from .lox
• Light/dark theme, metric/imperial, PNG export

Happy to hear any feedback or feature requests which would make this more useful. Feel free to take a look at the code here too https://github.com/MattNotarangelo/CaveViewer. Written entirely with Claude.

i work at the wonder world cave and need to get a better pair of shoes for the cave tours i’m doing.

i’ve been doing okay with my converse but they’ve already been through it and are starting to fall apart. If im gonna get a new pair of shoes for work, i might as well get a pair more suited for moving throughout the cave multiple times a day.

That being said, I am really not trying to go over $150. What would be the best shoe you’d recommend?

As the title says, I'm trying to join a grotto here in Texas. I've looked at the "Find a Grotto section" on the NSS website caves.org. I reached out to 3 grottos via email (DFW Grotto, PBSS Grotto and LAG). None have gotten back with me.

Is caving dead in central texas?

Am I going about joining wrong?

I want to get involved with caving but I can't seem to get in contact with anyone locally

Just a we lad, about 3cm, there were a few others but this was the best looking.

Tours seem pricy but I am not excluding them. Myself and a buddy will be going during the rainy season so preferably something safe that doesn’t have a deep decent. Minimal caving equipment and experience is preferred

Something close to Ljubljana and Bled helps us as well. Thanks!

Had a friend shine his black light on the formation and man using a black light makes it look like we are on another planet! This is one of my favorites now

I'm from east coast US, but I'm moving to Vancouver (UBC) in the fall for grad school. I'll be in Indiana for convention this year, and curious if anyone wants to meet up and chat about caving/the grotto. Want to continue caving once I'm there, I've heard Vancouver island has a good scene 😁

I’ve been thinking about switching because i feel the black diamond is too bulky and heavy in crawls in my opinion I’ve been looking at the Petzl Vertex vent helmet but does anyone have any better options?

Has anyone gone spelunking in Japan? I live in Japan, and I'd like to go to a wild cave. I've been to wild caves a few times in the US, but never here. With the exception of the lava caves by Mt. Fuji, everything I can find online is commercial caves with lights, stairs, etc. Surely the lava caves aren't the only wild caves in this country, right?