Sunday, May 13, 2007

TriTrog Officers Conference Call (5/9/2007)

Participants: Mike Broome, Lisa Lorenzin, Ken Walsh, Howard Holgate, and John Plyler

The agenda was set to discuss programs, VAR, and money allocated but not spent last year.

Regarding the May meeting, John discussed the plans for the vertical training at his house. He will send out an email the Friday before telling people when and where to come and what to bring. He will put a notice with directions to his place on the museum after 5 PM. He plans to include Knots stations (double figure 8, bowline, and prussiks), climbing along the rope on a pulley, switchovers to stationary rope with rappel, and call signals for belay. He plans to make it available from 5 PM until 12 midnight. People will be encouraged to bring what they want to cook, and the officers agreed that the grotto can fund the cookout.

Regarding the Fall VAR/MAR event, Lisa is on the mailing list and following the Port-a-Potty discussions. The responsibility of the TriTrogs is the guided trips. Lisa is forming a list of cave trips, but the grotto members didn’t volunteer to help out. Lisa will continue to ask people to volunteer. Howard and Hayden will lead a trip to Mystic Cave and get in touch with the landowner in advance. If Philly Grotto wants to make trip signups available to preregistrants, Lisa will provide the lists to them. Ken told Lisa to contact Jim McConkey or Carol Tiderman to get the list of contacts at the I/Os when she asked. John Plyler volunteered to lead a vertical trip to Cass Cave but only if he can find a 200-foot rope. Ken agreed to lead a short survey trip to Middle of Nowhere Cave. Lisa will make sure that the signup list will likely go up with the setup. Regarding the cave guidebook, Lisa is getting Philly Grotto the descriptions but not the directions to the caves.

Ken brought up the topic of the things that the TriTrogs allocated funds for last year but never spent. The officers unanimously agreed to spend the following after a brief discussion: $150 for the Eight Rivers Safe Development Inc. (www.8riverssafedevelopment.com/main/index.php), $100 for the Southeastern Cave Conservancy, $100 for the West Virginia Cave Conservancy, affiliate membership up to $50 for the NCSU Outing Club, two new Apex LED headlamps (4 AAs and not as water resistant as Duos) for up to $140, and around $70 for the Cave Minerals of the World book Dave Duguid requested for the library.

Mike was concerned that the library usage wasn’t substantial, and he agreed to get the library list up on the web site. Dave Duguid should get the book, Howard will handle the lamps, and Mark Little can handle the charities and NCSU (check with Matt Jenkins for the NCSU contact person). Mark may donate some headlamps, but we still could use at least one new bright light. Mike reported that the helmets are still serviceable.

We also discussed the program for the June meeting. We have the Grand Caverns video as a backup and discussed the possibilities that were discussed in last year’s officer meetings. Hopefully Howard can talk Dave Duguid into giving a cave diving presentation in June.

Sunday, May 6, 2007

TriTrog General Meeting Minutes (4/24/2007)

Introductions of the fifteen attendees went quickly and smoothly once we determined that Howard was unlikely to show up.

Regarding the old business of redefining the officer’s role, the officers reported that it was a work in progress begun on email thread with a knot tied in the end. Howard had proposed a conference call defining officer’s roles and conducting other business. He apparently skipped the meeting for a cold.

It was suggested that the annual TriTrog trip should be held in late July or early August.

Next month the meeting will be held at John Plyler’s house instead of at the museum. Folks will learn to tie some knots (including a double figure 8), climb rope, switch over, belay, and cook out on a grill. Look for an announcement from him with times and directions.

Diana Gietl and Dave Duguid went caving with Tanya McLaughlin to Rowland Springs Cave. Dave wanted to confirm the upper connection, and they found a big room in the cave. They surveyed a lot of side passages. After the mapping, Diana would like to go back for a photo trip in this dolomite cave. There was a 48’ drop, and the rope was just long enough. Tanya had no vertical gear with her, so Dave and Tanya left Diana at the bottom while they left the cave and went around the other way. They let Diana rig the cable ladder and drop it down to them from the middle level. Cave access is very convenient, and there are probably at least two more survey trips to go.

Upcoming Trips
Spring VAR (April 27-29)
Memorial Day trip likely organized by Ken
[SERA Summer Cave Carnival (May 31-June 3)]
[Weeklong NCRC training in Salem, VA (June 16-23)]
July 14-15-Girl Scout camp—Blountville, TN area. Saturday on a wild trip into Renfrew Cave. Graffiti cleanup. Slides of bats Saturday night. Spend the night in Lost Sea Cave. Ten girls signed up.
Indiana Convention—Diana described the convention experience in detail and how it’s about learning. John mentioned the vertical climbing contest.

As the program, John Plyler shared his slides from the high and low points in Mexico. He described the accommodations and costs in a handout and shared his driving routes. Between his three-LED light and the GPS, John found his way solo up to the glacier at 2 AM to get an early start before the faster hikers. Other groups said that it was too icy, too soft, or too cloudy as reasons why they skipped climbing to the peak. John found that the clouds on the glacier helped avoid sunburn. He also shared photos of the concrete gardens that were obviously built by someone on drugs, all the way down to the concrete bamboo. At Golondrinas Pit, the locals brought you morning coffee for a fee. It only cost five dollars to camp and drop Golondrinas. One of the amazing sights were the chimney swallows and parrots.