Maybe you are curious about how cavers get out of a cave when they are stuck! Strathcona Wilderness Institute present Trevor (Mad Mapper) Moelaert with his stunning slide and DVD show on caving titled An Introduction to Caves and Caving on Vancouver Island.
Moelaert’s caving resumé is as long as some of the underground caves on the island. Beginning in 1991, he and his wife Nancy spend over 10 weeks a year crawling, wriggling, squirming, swimming and rappelling into the bowels of the earth.
He has visited more than 300 caves on Vancouver Island and discovered about 100 that were not known to the caving community. His particular interest is in remote areas, not previously visited, or known to other cavers and his ability to find cave entrances baffles many of his comrades.
Moelaert has been involved with the British Columbia Cave Rescue (BCCR) of the provincial emergency program (PEP) since July 1996 and instrumental in the training courses content and development for BCCR.
In 2002 he was appointed deputy provincial co-ordinator for BCCR and since 1995 he has been a director for the B.C. Speleological Federation (BCSF). He served as vice-president of the Vancouver Island Cave Exploration Group for a couple of years and in 2011 he was elected president, although at the end of 2011 he stepped down to devote more time to the Provincial Cave Archive Database project.
This includes all the inventory and classification work the BCSF does. The skills that he has learned over the years has led him to host and organize many rope climbing practice sessions essential for getting into and out of caves, cave rescue courses and several cave survey courses.
In the caving community he is known as the Mad Mapper, having surveyed, mapped, photographed and GPSed nearly 60 caves. His maps have gained a reputation for being some of the finest produced in the country.
By the time you leave the Stan Hagen Theatre, you will no longer be in the dark about caving.
The presentation is at the North Island College campus on Ryan Road on Feb. 18. Doors will open at 6 p.m. with the show running from 7 to 9. There is a cover charge of $10 per person at the door.
— Strathcona Wilderness Institute