February 5th, 2025
Hybrid meeting
Minutes by Bram Lovelace, Secretary

Introductions

Amy, Sterling, Nancy and Bill link, Nathan, Eric, Bram, Warren, Avril, Sarah, Angelica, Laina, Dusty, Ginger, Shannon, Drew S, Tommy, Mark (Garnick), Pat

Presentation

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1vtMpLtICkIm16cmDULpveJuTYqz7-NxoEXLQI3PVqvo/edit?usp=sharing

Trip Reports

• Eric went to lava tubes around MSH 2nd weekend with OG (Garry, etc). Fortune 500 cave (discovered by Calvin a few years ago), ~2′ tall all but 500′.
• Eric and Drew and Brianna and co went to Ancient Palace cleanup w/ CA cavers. Largest room in CA. Lots of formations. 1/25/25. Discovered by noncavers, overheard at diner by cavers who had govt gated it. Noncavers come back and rip out the gate (when they’re out of jail) !!!note dont put this in the official minutes!!. Cleaning mud off formations. They take it seriously! change of clothes when you’re at the pretty section. change of clothes, check feet, etc.
• Sarah did a day at Jackman creek cave 1/18/25. Found a bat (not there 2 weeks before) so didn’t dig. Spent the day ridgewalking. Got into a new(?) cave. Very Loose! “A crack”: Jackman Crack Cave. Also refound Cave What Cave. Will wait till spring to dig in Jackman Creek but ridgewalking potential around there. We should make a citizen monitoring form for people to report things (like bats) they find
• Sarah and Maurice went to Vancouver Island 1/24/25 stayed with Jim Salmaker and his wife in Port Alberni. Went to caves ~30 mins up the road. Piper’s pit is rappel down sinkhole to short cave, Sarah squeezed into a thing and found a dome with lots of leads and pretty formations after “one of the tighter squeezes I’ve done” vertically up a solutional shaft with a chockstone in the middle of it. Nobody else attempted it. Sarah’s helmet got stuck coming down and popped the suspension out. Also visited a couple other little caves. Next day went to Black Tea cave, relatively big.
• Warren went looking for shark fossils in KY and found a lead that was previously mentioned in 1870, lost section of base level river passage in Mammoth.

Announcements

• One more Ancient Palace trip 2/15: Sarah and Megan are going… maybe full. Talk to Megan or James Newell.
• Sarah and Maurice registered for BCCR memorial day weekend (23rd-27th of may in Horne Lake, BC)! you should too. Formatted as a workshop, not exactly like SPAR. Richard and Rebecca are both Instructors. Limited loaner kits (for WNS) available with Stops (practice if you’re used to a rack). Dates cover both workshops. Fill out the form ASAP. VICEG, ASS, BC cavers get priority on waitlist. ~$100-$220CAD.
• OCR on August 16th and 17th. Hannah setting it up and has a few instructors (we should get Boof!). Course size limited by instructors. 5:1 ratio $60 registration. Expect to help from scholarship if you need it.
• Treadmill competition (team based by grotto)
  • Eric and Anastasiya. Max volume in a single day.
  • Cascade grotto vs SFBC.
  • one day to do tbd. Advanced vertical rope practice?
    • 2/20 thur (chosen by SFBC)
      • 2-3

Business meeting

New Business

Directive Updates

• D4: Meetings: (10/18/2019): Grotto business meetings will be held on the third Friday of each month except in August and December, and will start at 7:00 PM. The time and location of the meetings is determined by the EC, subject to approval of the general membership. Scheduled programs shall start promptly at 8:00 PM, and all non-emergent business shall be tabled at that time. The presiding officer at regular business meetings shall have the sole authority to table any business not added to the agenda prior to the start of the meeting. Whenever possible, the meeting Agenda shall be published and available to the membership in advance of the meeting.
  • Update to “first Wednesday of each month at 7pm except December and as directed by the EC.”
  • Strike “Scheduled programs shall start promptly at 8:00 PM, and all non-emergent business shall be tabled at that time.”
  • 13-0 passes unopposed
• D6: Local Units/Meet Ups/Pub Nights: (10/18/2019): To encourage activity among our geographically diverse membership area while ensuring Grotto unity, Grotto members shall be authorized and encouraged to form “local units” and sponsor “Meet Ups” (or “Pub Nights”) in their respective areas. These are intended as informal gatherings; no official Grotto business or voting will occur at these informal meetings. Any member of the Grotto may sponsor such an event.
  • Sarah would like to propose we remove “Pub Nights” from D6. Obvs events can be at bars but it is not an inclusive title. We have a lot of members who are sober and also driving to a meetup for alcohol has never made the most sense.
  • 14-0 passes unopposed
• D12: Supporting an inclusive environment “The Grotto will take steps to provide support to LGBTQ+ cavers and cave-curious community members. The Grotto will establish a committee to identify barriers to inclusivity and develop plans to make caving more accessible for all people.”
  • 13-0 passes unopposed

Statement of Solidarity

Link

• Diversity Statement read by Sarah. Thanks to everyone who helped. To be sent out on letterhead and sent out to COG and the NSS at large

Training Discussion

Link
We’ve had some intermediate training and want to separate them. We’ve done one already.
Reach out to Amy if you have ideas or want to lead them!

• Breaking into tensioned lines, hauling, rescue techniques with Dusty up in Mt. Vernon. Date TBD
• Bill: knot workshop? Intermediate / technical ones
• add Derek Bristol video to the doc!
• Heavy packs and long ropes! (this month, date tbd with Sarah and Bram). Hopefully beginner one beforehand

Training session in Olympia? Rent vertical indoor space for $30/hr. questionable on if we can bring our rigging or if they have to ($10 extra) (Jaq) Lacy has trees (Shannon). Issaquah (cougar mountain climbing wall) has some prerigged ropes (Warren)

Amy and co has written a Cascade Grotto Training Document. standardization for SRT practice. Document to be shared

• Beginner and Intermediate 1x each a month. VTC Manual as basis for training.
• Competency Leveling: Beginner -> Intermediate + exam. Either proof of course that required NCRC entrance exam or equivalent. Or sign off from proctor / grotto.
• SRT Training events will be beginner or intermediate+ events.

If the timing doesn’t work with an open practice, talk to anyone that does training stuff, contact them and they will test you. Send a video of you doing the test!

Amy proposes $80 to purchase two VTC manuals. Bill second.
passes unopposed

Scholarship

Next month or one after we will open application for Lauren Kenyon Memorial Cave Rescue Scholarship. Available to anyone has not had a cave rescue class before (except one OCR).

Presentation Planning

• Sean is interested
• Hannah Keith wants to do one
• Sarah works with one of the first people to culture Pd for WNS in a lab at EPA in Seattle, would present.
• If you have one you want to do then let us know!

Old Business

Dates for eastern caving

10/9-10/19 TAG + KY caving

• 10/9-10/12 is indigenous people’s day and TAG fall cave in
  • big caver party
  • vertical! horizontal! non alpine!
• Rest is a week in KY with Whigpistle and FRCS combined expeditions. We have space in HV
  • Assist with survey
  • we should set up survey workshop if you don’t know how to survey now. Talk to Eric F. Reach out to us and look up videos online.
  • COG is doing survey classes online