Cascade Grotto Meeting
Hybrid meeting (Phinney Neighborhood Association and Google Meet)
Wednesday July 10, 2024
Votes
Fund website hosting
Eric proposes 180 per year allocation per year
- PASSED: 5 for, none against
General Meeting
Presentation
2024 NSS convention @ Swanee, TN
Presented by Eric, Conrad, Megan
- easy access to TAG region
- had some small contingent of PNW members including Stephen Gladieux, a NSS board member
- lots of people from all over the country
- part scientific conference, part caving trip conference, part party
- many interesting talks & a fine arts salon
- board of governors meeting:
- hiring executive director
- vertical training commission
- new insurance policy for NSS and regional events
- lots of vendors:
- inner mountain outfitters had a large amount for sale
- PMI sold out all their rope
- post convention at caver’s paradise
- 2025 convention is in NY
Trip Reports
Poet’s Crest (7/6)
- Robert & Mark
- Lots of snow present still (too much to do much)
Caving in Poland (6/30)
- Sarah & Maurice & Alex Krolick
- mostly in Tatras national park near Krakow
- need a license/certification to go caving in Poland
- year-long course
- all rigging is in alpine style
- everyone carries bolting bags
- all rope used is semi-static
- have similar issues to here with legal concerns
- SAR vs cave rescue boundaries
Ribbon cave (early June)
- Bram & Sirius
- survey trip
Cave Ridge (mid June)
- Bram & Ainsley
- got into Norton, Ice, Danger which were melted out (newton was not)
Marbles trip in Northern CA (July 4 trip)
- Bram & others
- yearly trip but smaller than usual because of convention
- lots of caves
- found some old 20+ year old carabiners from a route not often taken
Thanksgiving cave (late June)
- Richard Jack, Jen, Amy, Megan, Rebecca, Eric & others
- VICEG has cabin there so makes caving very easy
- resurvey in 2025
- huge cave system with a possible through trip
- can be accessible year-round (depending on snow)
Announcements
Cave ridge trip
- next weekend (19-21, Friday-Sunday)
- hopefully most snow will be gone
- bring vertical gear if you can
- might check out exhilation?
Vertical Practice
- at UW wall, before cave ridge trip
- lead by Eric Fredrickson
Papoose cave
- 3rd weekend of August
- big alpine cave in Idaho (7hr drive from Seattle)
- Planned for fri/sat/sun trips
- Ethan donnehue is digging near the bottom (high bypass for the sump in dirt)
Newsletter
- coming out tonight! (look for it in your emails)
- covers august – december of last year
- in memory of Lauren Kenyon
Tesseract Canyon trip
- cancelled and not happening
Newton rerigging
- this weekend
- Sarah, Bram, Eric rerigging with new ropes
Western Regional
- pre-registration is open
- spots are selling out for campsite & parking
Convention 2025
- first week in July
Business Meeting
Old Business
Final information on scholarship
- To be posted soon
- Update with all of the amendments
WCRR approved
- specifics haven’t been generated yet
- self-nominations are in but haven’t voted yet
- state-wide SAR organizatoin is interested in having a meeting with us
Newton rerigging
- In progress of being rerigged with the help of many
Bank account
- Needs to get figured out ASAP
WNS coordinator
- looking to organize information dissemination
- maybe we can bring alcohol wipes on official trips
- take time to inform everyone on how gear is decon’d
- we don’t know where it is in WA (hasn’t been detected in caves yet though)
New Business
Wolf cave
- Dusty requesting gas money reimbursement
- have done this before should continue
- previous resolution was 2x $75 per year for trainings, so may still be policy
Website hosting providers
- our storage space is vanishing and we need more space
- eric & maurice working on this
- vote passed (see above)
Executive committee expansion
- more people involved, the better
- regional reps as additional positions? (e.g. north, south, east, west, central, etc)
- have meetups/parties once a year
- should these people be part of the EC?
- formal proposal will be presented in coming months
- can get people very invested, helping for years