[Music]
[Laughter]
[Music]
man has always been afraid of the dark
our evolution under the Sun drives our
psyche and in fact in little as 48 hours
and continual darkness and isolation
you’ll start to hallucinate and go mad
my passion brings me into the battle
between light and dark regularly I’m a
caver and I been doing it for many years
feel very comfortable at home for me
caving is I become one with the earth it
I love the way a cave smells I love the
way it feels I love the way it kind of
hugs you when you start to wiggle
through passages it just grounds me I
feel just content and it’s in my
sanctuary down there but not everyone
likes to go caving evidently there is
many many phobias associated with and
there’s probably some that aren’t up
there but I am not perfect either I have
my own phobias fortunately they’re
mostly not on this list although I have
been cluster phobic a few times but part
of the being comfortable in the cave is
is bringing in the right gear and you
know I bring in a bag and I have certain
things in it that that will keep you
comfortable water extra light is
extremely important and piss bottles and
food air cavers carry everything out of
a cave so yes a urine bottle is
important and one of the things that I
like to do underground or one of the
reasons is is because it’s a underground
Gulf the obstacle course in the dark you
have to wiggle you have to squirm you
have to climb passages sometimes you’re
way out of your comfort zone doing it
but I just love though it just energizes
me and and and I use muscles that I have
never used before in making sense of the
underground we all go down and help
survey it and by surveying cave you get
to know where
passages are you get to know how long
the cave is where certain features are
in the cave and and occasionally to name
some passages and they can get put on
the map well I’m one of the projects I
work on is Wind Cave National Park I’m a
volunteer up there I’ve been doing it
for twenty years with them we I go in
with a team of three other people and we
basically map or affine passage explore
it map it and inventory inventory is
it’s basically marking any features
there any formations what level is the
Kon is there other minerals in there any
animals we saw but we bring all that
data out and the Park Service uh adds it
to their master archive line plot file
this line plot is the most recent it has
over a hundred and forty seven it’s
close to one hundred forty eight miles
long the what they do with this then is
they we can overlay it and get more
information out of it this is showing
basically where passage trends are with
in relation to the surface are they
going to go are they not going to go
where’s the aquifer contact is it under
owed maybe they would like to do another
entrance one of these days and then they
they will use that data to make a final
map and this one shows basically the
passage names of passages the level of
the cave that is and this map here is
twenty five miles ago it was a hundred
and twenty two miles in so anyway it’s a
little outdated but we’re waiting for a
new one it just takes time not
everything those struggles in the dark
there is certain critters that live in
there they these were collected by David
Steinman he’s a cave biologist with the
Denver Museum of Nature and Science he’s
been doing it for quite a while now and
he’s already identified over a hundred
species most of them are totally unique
to the cave they’re in there always
slight difference he’s either pincers
are longer legs are longer they’re
in the middle though those are from
Steamboat Springs there’s a sulfur cave
there and it’s a very important cave
they found out that this lives in a is
in a very toxic environment the hydrogen
sulfide gas is in there and it would
basically we’d not be able to breathe
but these worms live in that and they
thrive in it there they’re using that
for for study and for medicine and
anyway it’s just a great discovery and
then there’s a common bat or the common
critters the bats are the most critical
they’re going through they’re dying off
in that northeast due to white nose
syndrome and it’s a fungus that’s
affects them wakes them up during
hibernation and sadly enough there could
be some vets with it right now and
they’re they’re not probably not doing
very well they they could be dying in
the entrance and that’s just breaks my
heart that this also breaks my heart
seeing people disrespect caves just
protecting nature disrespecting the
planet and things are forever down there
in a cave that moves so slowly down
there
it’s things don’t wash off and and of
course we’ve trashed the entire planet
there’s virtually no place left on the
surface that we haven’t impacted whether
it’s wedding balloons being let go or
cans being tossed in the ocean is just
horrible
but there are some some virgin caves
that are still out there
they haven’t been discovered yet but
they’re still there we haven’t tapped it
well we have the technology to tap into
some of them now and it’s becoming more
and more easier to do but I I’m torn
between you know it basically even
talking about caves you know but I want
more notice and I want people to
understand and educate people on how
delicate these environments are we once
we start going down the path of opening
all these up we all will lose them you
know and I mean by going through the
cave just me going through
and as careful as I am I will still
impact the cave I’m going to leave skin
cells I can drop an eyelash
inadvertently an occasional spit bubble
or something when I’m talking but I try
not to do it but it it happens and that
so the more people that do go caving
into an environment like this the more
impacts there are and there’s more
cleanup involved so I come to the you
know whether or not to to encourage
everyone to go caving I know most of you
probably don’t want to go because those
are the phobias and understandable but
but we can all participate by just
learning a little bit more about caves
and then educating people your kids your
friends anybody else that may be going
caving to just respect these places and
and not turn them into that vandalize
party cave picture so I’m torn between
for me anyway because I know that I
impact caves of opening up these virgin
caves and going in I have seen virgin
cave many much many miles of it in it
I’ve seen the impacts associated with
that so I’m it’s like go caving Randy
follow your passion know preserve them
forever
and I wish I had an easy answer there
aren’t enough caves out there enough of
them have already been impacted to the
point of you know they are what they are
so I will still continue to go those and
to go to those and follow my passion and
squirm and and and feel it and and love
it
and some of the other ones we just need
to respect them from afar we there’s
people that what can go in occasionally
to these their gated or they’re closed
for whatever reason anyway anyway so if
you’d like to know more please educate
yourself there’s plenty of books out
there there’s lots of documentaries and
anyway love your mother and especially
what’s underneath thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Music]
[Laughter]
[Music]
man has always been afraid of the dark
our evolution under the Sun drives our
psyche and in fact in little as 48 hours
and continual darkness and isolation
you’ll start to hallucinate and go mad
my passion brings me into the battle
between light and dark regularly I’m a
caver and I been doing it for many years
feel very comfortable at home for me
caving is I become one with the earth it
I love the way a cave smells I love the
way it feels I love the way it kind of
hugs you when you start to wiggle
through passages it just grounds me I
feel just content and it’s in my
sanctuary down there but not everyone
likes to go caving evidently there is
many many phobias associated with and
there’s probably some that aren’t up
there but I am not perfect either I have
my own phobias fortunately they’re
mostly not on this list although I have
been cluster phobic a few times but part
of the being comfortable in the cave is
is bringing in the right gear and you
know I bring in a bag and I have certain
things in it that that will keep you
comfortable water extra light is
extremely important and piss bottles and
food air cavers carry everything out of
a cave so yes a urine bottle is
important and one of the things that I
like to do underground or one of the
reasons is is because it’s a underground
Gulf the obstacle course in the dark you
have to wiggle you have to squirm you
have to climb passages sometimes you’re
way out of your comfort zone doing it
but I just love though it just energizes
me and and and I use muscles that I have
never used before in making sense of the
underground we all go down and help
survey it and by surveying cave you get
to know where
passages are you get to know how long
the cave is where certain features are
in the cave and and occasionally to name
some passages and they can get put on
the map well I’m one of the projects I
work on is Wind Cave National Park I’m a
volunteer up there I’ve been doing it
for twenty years with them we I go in
with a team of three other people and we
basically map or affine passage explore
it map it and inventory inventory is
it’s basically marking any features
there any formations what level is the
Kon is there other minerals in there any
animals we saw but we bring all that
data out and the Park Service uh adds it
to their master archive line plot file
this line plot is the most recent it has
over a hundred and forty seven it’s
close to one hundred forty eight miles
long the what they do with this then is
they we can overlay it and get more
information out of it this is showing
basically where passage trends are with
in relation to the surface are they
going to go are they not going to go
where’s the aquifer contact is it under
owed maybe they would like to do another
entrance one of these days and then they
they will use that data to make a final
map and this one shows basically the
passage names of passages the level of
the cave that is and this map here is
twenty five miles ago it was a hundred
and twenty two miles in so anyway it’s a
little outdated but we’re waiting for a
new one it just takes time not
everything those struggles in the dark
there is certain critters that live in
there they these were collected by David
Steinman he’s a cave biologist with the
Denver Museum of Nature and Science he’s
been doing it for quite a while now and
he’s already identified over a hundred
species most of them are totally unique
to the cave they’re in there always
slight difference he’s either pincers
are longer legs are longer they’re
in the middle though those are from
Steamboat Springs there’s a sulfur cave
there and it’s a very important cave
they found out that this lives in a is
in a very toxic environment the hydrogen
sulfide gas is in there and it would
basically we’d not be able to breathe
but these worms live in that and they
thrive in it there they’re using that
for for study and for medicine and
anyway it’s just a great discovery and
then there’s a common bat or the common
critters the bats are the most critical
they’re going through they’re dying off
in that northeast due to white nose
syndrome and it’s a fungus that’s
affects them wakes them up during
hibernation and sadly enough there could
be some vets with it right now and
they’re they’re not probably not doing
very well they they could be dying in
the entrance and that’s just breaks my
heart that this also breaks my heart
seeing people disrespect caves just
protecting nature disrespecting the
planet and things are forever down there
in a cave that moves so slowly down
there
it’s things don’t wash off and and of
course we’ve trashed the entire planet
there’s virtually no place left on the
surface that we haven’t impacted whether
it’s wedding balloons being let go or
cans being tossed in the ocean is just
horrible
but there are some some virgin caves
that are still out there
they haven’t been discovered yet but
they’re still there we haven’t tapped it
well we have the technology to tap into
some of them now and it’s becoming more
and more easier to do but I I’m torn
between you know it basically even
talking about caves you know but I want
more notice and I want people to
understand and educate people on how
delicate these environments are we once
we start going down the path of opening
all these up we all will lose them you
know and I mean by going through the
cave just me going through
and as careful as I am I will still
impact the cave I’m going to leave skin
cells I can drop an eyelash
inadvertently an occasional spit bubble
or something when I’m talking but I try
not to do it but it it happens and that
so the more people that do go caving
into an environment like this the more
impacts there are and there’s more
cleanup involved so I come to the you
know whether or not to to encourage
everyone to go caving I know most of you
probably don’t want to go because those
are the phobias and understandable but
but we can all participate by just
learning a little bit more about caves
and then educating people your kids your
friends anybody else that may be going
caving to just respect these places and
and not turn them into that vandalize
party cave picture so I’m torn between
for me anyway because I know that I
impact caves of opening up these virgin
caves and going in I have seen virgin
cave many much many miles of it in it
I’ve seen the impacts associated with
that so I’m it’s like go caving Randy
follow your passion know preserve them
forever
and I wish I had an easy answer there
aren’t enough caves out there enough of
them have already been impacted to the
point of you know they are what they are
so I will still continue to go those and
to go to those and follow my passion and
squirm and and and feel it and and love
it
and some of the other ones we just need
to respect them from afar we there’s
people that what can go in occasionally
to these their gated or they’re closed
for whatever reason anyway anyway so if
you’d like to know more please educate
yourself there’s plenty of books out
there there’s lots of documentaries and
anyway love your mother and especially
what’s underneath thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Music]
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