NSS CONVENTION 2000
Old Timer's Reunion Site
Dailey, West Virginia
INTRODUCTION
The National Speleological Society 2000 convention was held in Dailey, West Virginia, from June 26 to June 30, 2000.
I attended this convention as a member of Niagara Frontier Grotto (NFG) of New York.
PRE-CONVENTION CAVING CAMP
Friar's Hole, West Virginia
Before the convention I spent some time at Friar's Hole.
I was lucky to travel 12-hours round-trip to see West Virginia's second highest waterfall, Monster Falls, back in Canadian Hole with Kirk MacGregor.
Unfortunately the high humidity back in the cave prevented me from getting any photographs of this waterfall.
The Pre-Convention Camp at Friar's Hole
The first of six rappels into Canadian Hole
Canadian Kirk MacGregor in Canadian Hole
Harry deep in Canadian Hole, posing next to a "war club"
NSS CONVENTION 2006
Dailey, West Virginia
The 2000 NSS Convention was held at the Old Timer's Reunion (OTR) site.
Nearly 2,000 cavers at the OTR site
Eric Oogjen at the Niagara Frontier Grotto camp site
Higgenbothams Cave
Higgenbothams Cave is a wonderful stream cave with some spectacular formations.
A low stinky crawl through cow shit leads into walking stream passageway.
There is one short climb down a waterfall.
A hand line makes the climb much easier. Formations abound in the passageways.
Norman Cave
Norman cave is a popular cave in West Virginia.
The waterfall is a popular destination.
There is a nice climb up through some flowstone into an upper chamber that is wildy eroded.
Left Tit Pit
Left Tit Pit is a difficult and technical cave.
The entrance is a small hole in the bottom of a stream bed.
Obviously, conditions have to be extremely dry to descend into this cave.
At the bottom of the initial down climb there is a 37-foot waterfall pit.
Once you have descended the 37-foot waterfall pit, you are in the main trunk of the cave.
This lower trunk floods completely and is lined with a thick layer of mud, from floor to ceiling.
The main trunk is a series of deep mud pools surrounded by bottomless mud.
We wore full wetsuits underneath our caving clothes.
Eric Oogjen down-climbing the initial drop into the cave, with the stream draining down onto him from above
See Chuck smile as he gets ready to rappel off a bunch of shitty anchors tied together
Chuck on rappel, heading down the waterfall dome
Eric Oogjen heading down the main trunk of the cave, getting his boots sucked off in the sticky mud
Chuck sliming through a muddy restriction
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