New Via Ferrata set Skyrider able to brake on cable!

Skylotec released the SkyRider: A new via ferrata set, where one of the karabiners is replaced by an innovative blocking mechanism (Skyturn) that instantly brakes on the safety cable when a fall occurs.

15th International Symposium on Vulcanospeleology

The Union Internationale de Spéléologie (UIS) Commission on Volcanic Caves happily announces the:

15th International Symposium on Vulcanospeleology

Royal Culture Center, Amman, Jordan
March 15-18, 2012

Caving field trips to the volcanic fields of Jordan & possibly Syria
March 19-22, 2012

Dinosaur track discovered by cavers on Mount Pelmo, Dolomites

In September 2011 a group of five speleologists and mountaineers of La Venta Association spotted a possible track of dinosaur footprints at 3025 meters on the North-east ridge of Mount Pelmo in the Dolomites.

Mauro "Lampo" Olivotto, the known sculptor and mountaineer from the Cadore area and author of sculptures known as "Giauli", is the promoter of an extravagant mission suspended among art, mountaineering and poetry: reaching a big cave in the middle of Mount Pelmo's rock face to cast a photographic set for his wooden characters. 

The enterprise was accomplished on 10th and 11th September 2011 thanks to four speleologists and mountaineers of La Venta Association of Geographical Explorations. The exploration required establishing a small camp on the north-east ridge of Mount Pelmo, which gave them the time to abseil down to the cavity called the Giauli Cave. This over 150 meter descent down the almost 1000m high face was equipped by speleologist Antonio De Vivo from Treviso.

Karst Systems in our changing environment

ANNOUNCEMENT AND FIRST CIRCULAR

International Conference dedicated to the 300th Anniversary of the birth of M.V.Lomonosov
to be held 5-10 September 2011

The International Conference 'Northern karst systems in our changing environment' will focus on the problems of northern karst territories, their natural character, details of their genesis and geography, structure and dynamics of karst system components, research on cave glaciation, changes in karst systems under the impact of global climate change and the issues of karst landscape and cave conservation. The conference will be held at the State Nature Reserve «Pinezhsky» near the small town of Pinega in the north of Russia,

3D Photo exhibition of Lechuguilla & Postcard contest

“Underground of Enchantment” is a 3D photo exhibit featuring the beautiful magic & microbial secrets of one of the most interesting caves in the world - Lechuguilla Cave in southeastern New Mexico.

Lechuguilla Cave is the deepest limestone cave (486.9m) in the USA & fifth longest cave in the world (128miles/206km). The cave holds a spectacular but fragile ecosystem which was cut off from the surface until 1986. To protect this system, entry into Lechuguilla is restricted to exploration & science.

Picture (c) by David De Roest / Underground of Enchantment

The exhibit will feature 3D photography & image presentations by David De Roest, Daniel Chailloux, Peter & Ann Bosted & Michel Renda, all remarkable photographers & outstanding cavers from Belgium, France & the United States.

New pseudoscorpion species discovered in Glenwood Caverns

This pseudoscorpion was found in Glenwood Cavern

Colorado cave biologist Dave Steinmann is used to discovering new species in hidden places - but it's not every day one is named after him.

A new species of pseudoscorpion, discovered in Glenwood Caverns, was named after Steinmann in Subterranean Biology's yearly journal, published in December.

"It's fun and an honor to be recognized," Steinmann said in an interview. "I just hope it contributes to people understanding that caves are sensitive."

Cryptograegris steinmanni - just one of several species Steinmann discovered in the cave - were first spotted in 2000 by a tour guide at Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park.

Steve Beckley, owner of Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park, said this is not the first species discovered in Glenwood Caverns. About 50 species have been discovered and named since the park opened in 1990.

Steinmann said it took 10 years of rigorous genetic tests in New York and Australia to verify the species was an unprecedented discovery. Specimens of the species now reside at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, which funded Steinmann's research.

Pseudoscorpions resemble true scorpions but are smaller, usually about half an inch. Also, pseudoscorpions do not have a stinger on their tail — instead they have poison in the tips of their claws.

There are more than 3,000 species of pseudoscorpions, Steinmann said.

Steinmann spent the last 12 years collecting research and turning over rocks in Colorado's caves. In addition to the Glenwood Caverns, Steinmann frequents caves in Eagle County, Steamboat Springs and Colorado Springs.

During that time Steinmann said he has discovered about 100 new species — 20 of those in Glenwood Caverns. Those discoveries include new species of millipedes, beetles and pseudoscorpions.

Steinmann has not found the new species in any other cave systems, and there could be as few as 100 of the arachnids living in Glenwood Caverns.

The species lives entirely in darkness and is at the top of the cave's food chain, eating smaller cave insects such as beetles.

The new-pseudoscorpion study appeared in December 2010 in the journal Subterranean Biology.

Source: Denver Post & National Geographic

Upcoming 3D movie: Cave of forgotten dreams

Cave of Forgotten Dreams is a documentary film about the Chauvet Cave. The film is directed by Werner Herzog, and is his first 3D film. The film consists of footage filmed inside the cave, as well as interviews with scientists and historians. The film also includes footage of the nearby Pont d'Arc natural bridge.

The Chauvet Cave is a cave in the Ardèche department of southern France. The cave was first explored on December 18, 1994 by a group of three speleologists: Eliette Brunel-Deschamps, Christian Hillaire, and Jean-Marie Chauvet, after whom it was named. 

Free Cave Rescue Manual: Life on a Line

This book describes itself as "A manual of modern cave rescue ropework techniques" and provides a lot of useful information on rigging techniques in general, with an emphasis on rescue rigging. Written by D. F. Merchant (UK).

The first edition (2002) can be download for free from here:

• Life on a line: Part 1
• Life on a line: Part 2
• Life on a line: Part 3

Please note that there is a new, updated edition available for purchase from Lifeonaline.com ($14.95 for the ebook) or a hard copy at Amazon ($31.50).

The Second Edition is a completely new book, containing 210 pages full of expanded information and updated techniques for all aspects of ropework, from equipment selection and basic rigging to the complex mathematics of friction and traverses. New in this edition are the chapters covering casualty care, stretcher selection and rigging, large animal and expedition rescue, plus in-depth explanations of the standards and legal frameworks affecting today's teams. It remains an international textbook, with techniques and explanations aimed at both European EN/CE, American ASTM/NFPA and international ISO/UIAA standards.

Eurobats: Free magazine about bat conservation and protection.

The EUROBATS Publication Series deals with various aspects of bat conservation - sometimes reporting of the implementation of the EUROBATS Agreement in the Range States, sometimes providing guidance on the best ways to protect bats and their habitats.

Currently there are 5 issues published:

1. 1991 - 2006. EUROBATS celebrates its 15th anniversary
2. Protecting and managing underground sites for bats, 3rd edition
3. Guidelines for consideration of bats in wind farm projects
4. Protection of overground roosts for bats, 2nd edition 
5. Guidelines for Surveillance and Monitoring of European Bats

Source:  EUROBATS

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Bonus link:
3rd Edition Bat Workers' Manual (2004) - Mitchell-Jones, A.J, & McLeish, A.P. Ed.

International Journal of Speleology - Volume 40 (1) 2011

Content:

Comparison of 14C and U-Th ages of two Holocene phreatic overgrowths on speleothems from Mallorca (Western Mediterranean): Environmental implications
Paola Tuccimei - Mark Van Strydonck - Angel Ginés - Joaquìn Ginés - Michele Soligo - Igor M. Villa - Joan J. Fornós.

A comparative integrated geophysical study of Horseshoe Chimney Cave, Colorado Bend State Park, Texas
Wesley A. Brown - Kevin Stafford - Mindy Shaw-Faulkner - Andy Grubbs.

In situ acetylene reduction activity of Scytonema julianum in Vapor cave (Spain)
Antonia Dolores Asencio - Marina Aboal.

The subterranean fauna of a biodiversity hotspot region - Portugal: an overview and its conservation
Ana Sofia P.S. Reboleira - Paulo A.V. Borges - Fernando Gonçalves - Artur R.M. Serrano - Pedro Oromí.

A note on the occurrence of a crayback stalagmite at Niah Caves, Borneo
Joyce Lundberg - Donald A. McFarlane.

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International Journal of Speleology: Archive

Win a guided tour to one of 150 mountains + Mammut gear

To celebrate its 150th birthday, Mammut is organising the biggest peak project in history: 150 teams will be scaling 150 mountains around the world. Build your own virtual mountains and apply to take part - or support your friends' mountains.

The first 300 teams will get a t-shirt, the 150 best get a guided tour to one of 150 the 150 mountains and a complete set of Mammut gear for the whole team.

Apply now! www.mammut.ch/peakproject

Post a link to your mountain project in the comments section so we can all support you!

Digital surveying: Disto X replacement? Pre-order now!

The digital surveying tool Disto X, combining laser distance meter, compass and azimuth readings, based on the Leica A3 is no more...

Because Leica discontinued the A3-series, the inventor Beat Heeb stopped making new batches as the extention board no longer fitted into the new D3 model.

But from all over the world there came requests from cavers to continue the production. The exotic pieces to construct the board were however no longer available, alas.

Luckily Beat responded to the community that he is developing a new board for a different model: the Leica DXT, based on more common elements.

This new Leica distance meter is more appropriate for caving: it is dust and jet water proof  (IP65) and the rubber casing protects it against impacts.

A completion date is not yet given, but it'll probably be somewhere second half this year. As soon as I know more I'll let you know.

WVCaver2011 from cavechat.org is still grouping the orders. So if you want to be one of the first to test out this new and improved Disto X² be sure to drop him a note at the cavechat forum in this topic.


For more info on digital surveying I can recommend following sites:

• http://paperless.bheeb.ch/ 
• http://speleo.us/~abird/DigitalSurveyInstruments_NSS2008-AUG2008.pdf
• http://clan.des.tritons.free.fr/blog/?p=397
• http://www.speleo.qc.ca/Auriga
• http://cachtice.speleo.sk/laser/

Huge free caving and cave science repository

Paolo Forti and the Italian Institute of Speleology, supported by the European Speleological  Federation,  developed presentations covering almost all topics of caving and cave science in order to educate people. (see below for the list)

These presentations range in difficulty from beginner to more advanced level and are free for use (licensed under a Creative Commens license). They are available in following languages: French, Italian, English, Spanish.

They were distributed at the International Congress of Speleology in Kerrville (2009), but are now available for everyone through the SSI Documents website. Just click on your desired language above to create a log-in and subscribe to the desired course.

Underground GPS: finally possible!

GPS is everywhere, in your car, handheld, mobile, ... everywhere except underground.

As GPS signals cannot penetrate into the ground it cannot be used in caves or mines. A Swiss company however found a smart solution to this problem and presents now the first Underground GPS.

Since 2004 researchers from the Swiss Institute of Speleology and Karstology (ISSKA) were working on a system for underground positioning (see paper about U-GPS v1).

In 2010 the company InfraSurvey was founded to commercialise the idea. A new prototype was developed (U-GPS v2) and tested in real world situations. It's now even possible to follow a caver in real time (see movie on the main page of Infrasurvey).

The system consists of:

• underground : a mobile emitter (8 kg)
• at surface : four receivers at fixed positions determined by GPS, a radio link between the receivers and a computer with custom software to analyse and visualize the signals

Marble mine "Les Grands Malades" (Beez, Belgium)

The marble mine "Les Grands Malades" is located in Beez, a small town near Namur (Belgium). There used to be multiple entrances to the mine, but now it's only accessible through a small cave, the "Trou des Charrues".

This weekend we went down this cave and visited the old mine with the "Werkgroep Speleologische Vorming" (WSV) to test some new caving techniques and materials (of which I will report later) and had a meeting about the course program for 2011-2012.

As you can see from the following pictures, stalactites and stalagmites are starting to form everywhere. Multiple pools with cave pearls are being formed and the last remains of the mining activities are being consumed by nature.

Classification of bats

The clade Chiroptera includes two extant clades, Megachiroptera  (Old World Fruit Bats) and Microchiroptera  (echolocating bats).

Bats vary greatly in size. The smallest bat, Craseonycteris thonglongyai (Microchiroptera), weighs less than 2 g and has a wingspan of 12-13 cm, while the largest bats, those of the genus Pteropus (Megachiroptera), weigh up to 1.5 kg and may have a wing span over 2m (Fenton, 1992).

When we look at the differences between the Megachiroptera and the Microchiroptera we can see that that are more differences than just size:

Rechargeable Battery for your headlamp: Tikka2 Core (Petzl)

Petzl finally started selling a rechargeable battery for their light weight headlamps. The 900 mAh lithium-ion Tikka2 Core is especially designed for the Tikka2 and Zipka2 series (CP, Plus, Tikkina, ...).

The Petzl Core can be easily fitted in between the two parts of the Tikka2 (see movie below for instructions on how to do it exactly without damaging your Tikka2).

Magazine: Underwater Speleology Volume 38 n° 1 released

Journal of the Cave Diving Section of the National Speleological Society.

Contents of Volume 38 n°1: The Taming Continues: The Peacock to Baptizing Connection (Agnes Milowka, James Toland) Conservation Corner (Kelly Jessop)  Skills, Tips & Techniques (Jim Wyatt)  Wes Skiles Peacock Springs State Park (Kelly Jessop)  Exploring the Philippines (Bruce Konefe)  "20'12" Cave Conservation Documentary Wins Awards (Luis Sanchez, translated by Celia Evesque) NSS-CDS Bylaws Update (Forrest Wilson) Click here to download a copy (PDF, 3.32MB).

Marquette Backcountry skis: Forget about skins!

Dave Ollila, the inventor of the Marquette backcountry skis designed them so that they requires no skins to climb but can slide down easily without catching.

The idea behind it was to find something that was, much like snowshoes, flexible enough to let anyone explore the woods and hills in winter but at the same time be able to enjoy a faster downhill experience.

The unique scale design on the bottom of the skis grabs the snow and keeps the skis from sliding backwards while climbing.

Threaded inserts allow for no-drill mounting of standard three pin bindings so you don't have to go out and buy all new special kit.

The Marquette backcountry skis costs $179 and can be directly purchased from the company's website.

World's Biggest Cave?

A Britisch team led by Howard Limbert discovered what they claim to be the biggest cave in the world  in a remote part of Vietnam.

A photography and filming crew from National Geographic Channel joined the team in 2010 on a 20 day expedition into Hang Son Doong ("Mountain River Cave").

Together with an international team of scientists they hiked deep into the jungle of the Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park and descened into the abyss to find out the thruth: Is this cave really bigger then Deer Cave (Malaysia), the current record holder?

You can read the report of the expedion in the January 2011 edition of the National Geographic Magazine both in paper version as well as online. On the NGC website you can also find a nice picture gallery and an interactive map of Hang Son Doong.

The documentary "World's biggest cave" will be aired the first time in Europe on January 30th at 21.00 (GMT+1). You can find the trailer below:

Helmet Releases Awful Stink When Damaged

You know the feeling-you have taken the occasional rock or ice chunk to the head or had a couple of nasty falls on your mountain bike but don't want to get a new helmet without knowing for sure the old one is toast. Well now you will be able to know for certain if it is necessary to replace your helmet with a new process that causes stinky oils to seep out of plastic materials when they are damaged.

Only completely damage-free helmets do the job of protecting your head properly. Normally it is recommended that you buy a new helmet after a certain period of time but it is hard to throw away a perfectly good helmet and spend money on a new one.

Developed by research scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany, a new helmet making process produces polymer materials or plastics that start to smell if they develop small cracks. Large cracks will really cause a stink.

International Caving Expeditions data base

A database of international caving expeditions is being developed on the World-Wide Web (www).
Its goal is to allow countries, speleological national organisations and caving expeditions' leaders of different countries and institutions to know the really speleological work made in other countries around the world and develop them jointly.

The speleology isn’t excluded from the rapid and growing world globalization. The international caving expeditions are growing, are more often and well organized. The caving expeditions are a great contributor for a best knowledge and understanding of the karst systems and for a better caving development in all countries around the world.

Synergy of expedition types, localisation and diversity assignments reflect a range of challenges that will be face on the ICE db.
While contributing and sharing their knowledge cavers will also learn from each other, revising their speleological projects from more up-to-date material, information and results in various speleological sub fields. The World Wide Web is a convenient medium for such collaboration.

This project is an official partnership between European Speleological Federation (FSE) and the International Union of Speleology (UIS).

All interested contributors are invited to participate on it.

For more details, please contact Manuel Freire or Marcin Gala.

Please read this document for further details.

Speleo twin clubs

Source: FSE - Europena Speleological society

The FSE General Assembly launched on the 8^th of May 2010 the EuroSpeleo Twin Clubs FSE. It is a unique opportunity for European Caving Clubs who wish it, to build an exchange relationship with a caving club from another European country. The EuroSpeleo Twin Clubs, that are based on the model of the “Twin Cities”, will enable to promote the organization of common exploration activities and other speleological projects involving clubs from different European countries.

L’Assemblée Générale FSE a lancé le 8 mai 2010 les EuroSpeleo Twin Clubs FSE. Il s’agit d’une opportunité unique pour les Clubs Spéléo Européens qui le souhaitent de construire une relation d’échange avec un club spéléo d’un autre pays européen. Les EuroSpeleo Twin Clubs, qui sont sont basés sur le modèle des « Villes jumelées », permettront l’organisation d’activités d’exploration communes et d’autres projets spéléo impliquant des clubs spéléos de different pays.

2011: Year of the Bat

The UNEP Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) and The Agreement on the Conservation of Populations of European Bats (EUROBATS) have joined together to celebrate the Year of the Bat.

Bats may be mysterious and misunderstood, but the earth’s only flying mammals are essential to our global environment. Discover with us how bats contribute to our rich biodiversity and well-being, through pollination, seed dispersal, insect control and other eco-services.

Every week a new article will be published on the world of bats.

For now I'd like to point out that you can find a complete list of Belgian caves that are closed until March 31st  due to hibernating bats in one of our previous posts.

2011 Calendar

With a new year comes a new calendar.

To start I'd like to present you the calendar from ARSIP (Association pour la Recherche Spéléologique Internationale à la Pierre Saint Martin) in which a lot of members from our grotto (SC Avalon) participate through their work at the Réseau d'Anialarra. It contains some magnificient shots from the Pierre Saint Martin area in A3 format. Costs € 15.00
Belgium orders: click here
International orders: click here

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The calendar from Speleo Projects is a real classic. It contains pictures from all over the world. As a bonus you will also get 24 coloured cave postcards. Price: €14.50

Belgium orders: click here

International orders: click here

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Or if your more interested in a nice agenda containing caving pictures from all over the world, I can recommend this little book from speleo.pl at € 15.00 containting 53 caving pictures and a list of the 25 deepest and longest caves in the world.

Belgium orders: click here

International orders: click here

Remember: by buying any of these you support the community/groups behind it and help them finance new expeditions etc.

Happy New Year

Karst worlds wishes you a happy new year. 

We wish you success on all of your adventures whether they are high in the mountains, or far below the ground.