BCRA Cave Science Symposium Saturday 4th March Bristol UK

Location is the School of Geographical Sciences http://www.ggy.bris.ac.uk/, University Road, University of Bristol, BRISTOL, BS8 1SS, UK. Start Time: door open 9:30, start 10:00, finish at 16:30.

Further information (maps, parking, travel, etc.): see www.bcra.org.uk/#events

Admission charges (payable on door) will be £5 (BCRA members £4, undergraduate students £3). This charge includes tea/coffee in the morning and afternoon. The cost of lunch is not included but there are suitable venues within walking distance of the venue.

For information about the venue, including accommodation, please contact Dr Phil Hopley, Department of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, BS8 1SS. +44 117 928 9111. Phil.Hopley[at]bristol.ac.uk

Presentations

• Peter L. Smart, Patricia A. Beddows, Jim Coke, Stefan Doerr, Samantha Smith and Fiona F. Whitaker Cave Development on the Caribbean Coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, Quintana Roo, Mexico
• Andrew Farrant Swildons Hole: a centenary reappraisal
• Peter Smithers The Diet of the Cave Spider Meta menardi (Latreille 1804), (Araneae-Tetragnathidae).
• Alison Blyth Vegetational and microbial ecosystem signals as preserved in stalagmites from Scotland and Ethiopia
• Stephanie Leach, Martin Smith and Megan Brickley A Shot in the Dark. Identification of a fatal projectile injury in the skeletal remains of a young woman excavated from Feizor Nick Cave, North Yorkshire
• Gina Moseley, Peter L. Smart and David A. Richards Quaternary Sea Level and Palaeoclimate from Submerged Speleothems 
• Ian Fairchild, Claire Smith, Andy Baker, Lisa Fuller, Emily McMillan, Christoph Spötl, Dave Mattey, Frank McDermott, Silvia Frisia, Andrea Borsato Karstic systems and the preservation of palaeoenvironmental signals by speleothems
• Simon Bottrell Tracing the impact of mine drainage pollution in a karst aquifer, Xingwen, China
• Sam Allshorn Rapid karstic by-pass flow in the unsaturated zone of the Chalk and implications for contaminant transport. 
• Trevor Faulkner Relationships between cave dimensions and local catchment areas
• John Gunn The Roosky turloughs, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland
• Stephanie Leach In Sickness and in Health: Earlier Neolithic human mortuary activities in Yorkshire caves and rock shelters
• Julia Lee-Thorp Interpretation of isotope proxies and variability in a mid-latitude savanna: the Cold Air Cave stalagmites, Makapans Valley, South Africa.

Auriga 1.0 soon

Version 1.0 of the Auriga cave survey freeware for PalmOS handheld computers is approaching soon. Some minor bugs are still reported once in a while, mostly from testing done by Chris Chénier - author of the

Compass and VisualTopo exchange conduits - and myself, but very few from the field, other than congratulations. I wish to launch a bug hunt so as to quickly publish version 1.0 before the Summer expeditions. I thus ask users to report with as much details as possible any error they may encounter.

http://www.speleo.qc.ca/Auriga

Two Hungarians die in avalanche in Italy

Two Hungarian speleologists died in an avalanche in Mount Bila Pec in northern Italy as they explored a cave, the ANSA news agency reported.

The two – a man and a woman – were found dead today. A third, who was with the victims when they were hit by the avalanche, was reported safe, the Alpine rescue service in north-eastern Italy said.

The three had been the first in the group to leave the cave. They were hit first by a minor avalanche yesterday morning on Mount Bila Pec, near Udine. They managed to free themselves from the snow, but were struck by another avalanche two hours later as they descended from the mountain, rescuers said.

Heavy snowfall was complicating efforts to rescue the remaining seven, rescue teams said, but added that the seven did not appear to be in immediate danger as long as they remained inside the cave.

Italian civil protection officials then discovered the bodies of the two Hungarians, one man and one woman, the agency said.

The seven others were still trapped in the Bila Pec cave.

Update:

Two Hungarian speleologists, a man and a woman died in the north Italian Julia-Alps region, while a third, reported missing earlier, escaped an accident unharmed, the rescue services told Italia ADNKronos news agency on Tuesday.

Hungarian Consul in Milan, Miklos Karpati confirmed to MTI the death of the two speleologists.

A group of ten Hungarian speleologists disappeared at the Sella-Nevea pass in the Canin mountain region on Monday. Three of them reported over mobile phone that due to an avalanche rolling close, seven of their colleagues got stuck in a cave but they were not in direct danger, the agency said.

The search and rescue operations for the ten speleologists by the Friuli-Venezia (Venice)-Giulia region mountain rescue services and a helicopter continued on Tuesday. Heavy snow and bad weather in the region seriously hindered the rescue operations on Tuesday morning.

Rescuers had the last contact with the speleologists outside the cave at 1530 local time on Monday, but contact with them was then lost as their mobiles went dead.

The ten speleologists were participating in a several days long cave tour in the 1750-metre-high Canin mountain. Three of them left the cave they toured on Monday afternoon to go to another one called Cave del Predil. An avalanche rolling down when they left the cave dumped the three in a 3-metre-deep snow. One of the three managed to free himself and alert the rescue services, ADNKronos said, and added that the survivor was in good physical condition.

Meanwhile, rescue operations for the seven Hungarians, who were advised to stay inside the cave, is going on, Italian sources said

Spring VAR info--revised to include kids' prices

Grand Caverns, Grottoes, Virginia

April 28-30, 2006

Price
Pre-registration price (must be postmarked by April 12): $25; kids 4-14 $20
On-site price: $27; kids 4-14 $22 (kids under 4 admitted free)

Cave Trips
There will be a variety of cave trips offered, both led and self-guided.

A kids'rsquo trip to Fountain Cave is planned.

Trips to less demanding caves such as Church Mountain, Linville Quarry, and Island Ford Caves will also be available.

Other more challenging cave trips will be 3-D Maze, Lyles Pit, Glade Cave (one of the muddiest caves in Virginia), and Cave Spring Cave (which has a most spectacular wall of flowstone called "Buttermilk Falls").

A trip! into Crozet Tunnel (an old railroad tunnel) is planned.

In addition to guided trips into Grand Caverns (not the new section!), you will be able to explore the hillside above Grand Caverns and check out many of the "new discoveries" on Cave Hill.

Friday Night
Music by John Fox

Saturday Night Menu 

Chicken Bake
Meatloaf
Salad with assorted dressings
Mashed potatoes
Macaroni & cheese
California blend veggies (cauliflower, broccoli, carrots)
Corn
Rolls & butter
Brownies, Banana Cake, Carrot Cake, Cheese Cake, Cookies
Tea, Lemonade

Saturday Night Program
Grand Caverns Video by Dave Socky
Talk on Cave Hill by Jim McConkey
Photos of the "New Section" from various contributors
More music by John Fox

Other Attractions
Speleovendors and the Guillotine Trough Squeeze Box will be on-site.

Registration Form
Make checks out to D.C. Grotto and mail to Carol Tiderman, 7600 Pindell School Road, Fulton, MD
 20759-9725

Be sure to PRINT neatly so that you will get your Region Record in the mail.

Book Review: Wind Cave by John Eric Ellison

WIND CAVE
(2003) by John Eric Ellison
PublishAmerica, Baltimore
Paperback, 211 pages, 5.5 x 8.5 format.
ISBN: 1-4137-0407-7
$19.95 retail
$16.95 direct from PublishAmerica.com

On Saturday, June 14, 1969, John Ellison, age 13, and his stepfather were exploring Wind Cave, a segment of the Arnold Lava Tube System in Bend, Oregon. Shortly after entering the cave, John had a sudden, overwhelming feeling of dread and a premonition that something was terribly wrong.

John convinced his stepfather to leave the cave as quickly as possible. About a half hour later, two other men in the cave discovered the badly decomposed body of Mrs. Beverly Gayley. The body was wrapped in bedding and hastily buried under rocks near the entrance. She had an electrical cord around her neck and severe head trauma. Gayley, age 54, had been reported missing from her home since mid-April. An autopsy reported her death was due to "combined acts of violence." For young John Ellison, the memories of that trip and the ensuing murder investigation would have a profound effect on him for years to come. So profound in fact that as an adult, "the need to purge his soul of disturbing memories" would inspire him to write Wind Cave.

In Wind Cave, Ellison (NSS# 50750) has relived the events of his youth through the eyes of Ronny Hazelwood and his young companions. When a woman's body is found in Wind Cave, the kids begin their own murder investigation and unintentionally get caught between supernatural forces of good and evil, culminating deep underground where the known laws of nature seem to have disappeared. It is the perfect book to read aloud the next time you find yourself trapped underground with a bunch of scouts.

Anyone wishing to explore Wind Cave after reading this book should be reminded that the murderer of Beverly Gayley was never found. And you know what they say: the guilty always return to the scene of the crime.