2012 TriTrog Grotto Awards Revealed

Much like Hollywood's Oscars, February is the time to officially announce the awards for the previous year, at least for those who missed the Bodacious Red Carpet (worn as a Santa hat) affair known as the Annual Triangle Troglodytes Holiday Party.  

       At last night's meeting we finally got to give the final 2 awards in person to the esteemed victim, I mean honoree.     

     And so with further ado, and for anyone who missed them or wants to relive them, the 2012 TriTrog Grotto Awards ! !   :  

 

 

1)  Carlin, Jacob, Ava, and Ken were standing outside a gas station at midnight, almost to the Fall VAR.  The convenience store lights went out, but we were still a member short.  The front door was locked so we weren’t sure about our driver who was still in the bathroom.  A minute or two later the remaining TriTrog emerged, found an attendant, and escaped the building.  Because she remembered to carry her headlamp into the bathroom, we award Diana Gietl- for being prepared for any bathroom situation, the

 

 

 

 Most Well Equipped Caver Award

The Triangle Troglodytes, 

 A Distinguished and Official Grotto of the

National Speleological Society 

Do Hereby Present 

This Honorable and Facetious  

Actual Award to

Diana Gietl

 

For carrying a backup light into even the darkest of Convenience Store Bathrooms, above and beyond the call of Duty.   Or whatever she was doing in there. 

 

Presented this day, December 1, 2012, just before the Mayan World Ended.

Signed     ___________L. Gaga______________         

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 2) The next award goes to a sharp pair of individuals whose exploits go to Infiniti and beyond. 2 Guys who really held it together, with duct tape and super glue, and kept our first aid supplies from going stale, we honor Martin Groenewegen for slicing his finger while preparing dinner and Rob Harris for smashing his digit in his own car door.  To the pair, we give the [hold up right fists] Two Thumbs Off award.  Close the doors gently!  For skewering their hands we award

  

  Two Thumbs Off Award

 

The Triangle Troglodytes,

A Distinguished and Official Grotto of the 

National Speleological Society

Do Hereby Present

This Honorable and Facetious 

Actual Award to 

Martin Groenewegen and Rob Harris 

 

for attacking their own hands with ordinary everyday objects in the heretofore safe zones known as “camp.”  

Presented this day, December 1, 2012, just before the Mayan World Ended. 

Signed     ___________L. Jack Horner________________  

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 3)  Our local Brewme-aster, I mean webmaster, was implicated in our punniest award.  He smuggled beer bottles out of Germany and brought them expertly re-filled to western Virginia for us to imbibe.  To Mike Broome we raise our glasses in tribute to his Pint of No Return.  We hope that the next draught on tap is the map of Copenhaver’s. 

 

Pint of No Return Award 

Mike “Brew-man” Broome

 

 for expertly and bravely recycling beer bottles smuggled from East Germany and with improved contents to share among TriTrogs. 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

 

4) This next person is never Aiken to get out of the caves.  He’ll just drum and sing with a sub-lime voice while he’s waiting for Ken to sketch or Carlin to take photos.  Therefore, we honor Jacob Jackson with the American Cave Idol award.

 

American Cave Idol Award

 

Jacob Jackson 

for his sub-lime (stone) crooning.  He knows how to idle away the slow times.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

 

5)  Our Youth Group Leader award goes to an individual who would teach young people many phrases they’ve never heard before while traveling underground.  The award goes to Martin Groenewegen for his colorful language in tight spots.

 

Youth Group Leadership Award

 

Martin Groenewegen 

for his colorful, multi hued, spectrally enhanced language in the face of scary youth.   “Damn, we’re in a tight spot.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

 

6)  Is a cave conservation trip about the laborers hauling buckets of gravel a half mile into the cave?  Apparently not.  At Grand Caverns, the reporters and photographers flock to Bithika Khargharia.  So for Bithika, we award the  

 

 Seeking the Lime(stone) Light Award

 

Bithika Khargharia 

for seeking the Lime(stone) Light and wowing the reporters at Grand Caverns Cave Conservation Weekend.   It was a rocking good time and buckets of fun.  

 

Presented this day, December 1, 2012, just before the Mayan World Ended.

Signed     ____SkeetsMiller       

                     

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   

 

7)  You may have thought that our little oompah loompah deserves a tribute to salamander obsession.  However, Ava Pope (in trailer park fashion) was responsible for organizing a unique event this past year.  We’d like to thank her for creating an opportunity for the TriTrogs to meet the world famous Roger Brucker...’s poodles...and his wife.  For this, we’re awarding Ava with the Dog and Pony Show award.

 

Dog and Pony Show

 

 Ava Pope

 

for arranging for the TriTrogs to meet Roger Brucker’s poodles.  And tour their fabulous home on wheels, packed with enough spare room to make Cold Sink crawls seem Spacious.  Where will the dogs ride?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

 

8)  Only one TriTrog took enough risks at Convention to earn the next award.  In fact, his entire tent blew away and is still missing so we’re honoring Rob Harris with the High Stakes Award. 

 

High Stakes Award 

Rob Harris

 

for his tent which was (and still is for all we know) Flying High at the 2012 NSS Convention.  There’s no place like home (left) for your ruby red cave boots. 

 

Presented this day, December 1, 2012, just before the Mayan World Ended.

Signed     ___________Guy Weyer______Dorothy Gale__________   

 

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

9) Our next award is for the Animal Lover.  You may think we picked him for such a great presentation on cave biology, but that’s not it.  You may think it’s because he talked the TriTrogs into working at BugFest, but that’s not it.  You may think it’s because he’ll sit for an hour observing cave flies, but that’s not it.  We’re giving Pete Hertl the Animal Lover award because he invites TriTrogs over to his place every night at dusk to feed his pets...the mosquitoes. 

 

Animal Lover Award

 

Peter Hertl

 

for bringing TriTrogs home to feed his pet mosquitoes.  All 18,379,932,437,741 of them. 

 

Presented this day, December 1, 2012, just before the Mayan World Ended.

Signed     _____K. T_.Didd________________

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

10)  After a caving trip, other party members look at me and say "I've got to clean my face." I know what that means. Another grotto member seems to elicit the same comments. The face is marked by a stripe across the forehead creating a sort of unibrow. Hence the moniker Oompah Loompah has been shared with her to denote the menacing look she takes on. From the TriTrogs, we'd like to award German-speaking Ava 'the Cava' Pope with

 

The Burrowed Frau Award 

Ava 'the Cava' Pope

for her muddy unibrow.  Gotta hand it to her- a baby wipe that is.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  

 

11) We do joke about the single-minded determination of one grotto member and the fact that he drags other people into his obsession. Drag is the appropriate word, but I think that everyone here recognizes that it’s an accomplishment to lead up a major cave survey effort.  In a cave where most of the survey stations are less than two feet from the floor, we really are impressed that Carlin Kartchner has convinced so many people to survey more than 4300 feet of passage in Cold Sink Cave in less than a year.  For his accomplishment, we offer the : 

 

Motivational Speaker Award

 

Carlin Kartchner

 

for leading the 2011-2012 major cave survey into Cold Sink Cave.  It’s a dirty job, but everybody's got to do it.   How about this weekend? 

 

Presented this day, December 1, 2012, just before the Mayan World Ended.

Signed     ________Sir Faye Statience

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

12) And Finally, a true honor, which sets the joking aside.  

        One morning at Fall VAR Tanya McLaughlin wandered bleary-eyed up to the TriTrog camp, complaining of someone yelling drunkenly outside her tent all night long.  Four weeks later Carlin rounded up Cold Sink victims, and the shouter joined the surveyors.  Tanya recognized the voice but still graciously offered up her home as a place to sleep on a cold night.  They got along well when all were sober.  This is just one recent example of the generosity that Tanya has shown in the caving community.

       Tanya joined the TriTrogs back in 1990. She was the first person to say “I’ll run for office if you pay my dues” and get a free membership paid for by Nadi Findikli.  For years she served as a TriTrog officer. 

     When she was nearing retirement, the VSS was looking for a county director for Smyth County in Virginia.  The files contained just a few cave maps back then, but Tanya has added more than two dozen maps to the files.  When Tanya moved to Marion in 2002, she actively began seeking out new landowners and became known as the "Cave Lady of Smyth County."  She has also played a key role in planning many of our conservation trips.  The TriTrogs have never been short of new cave to explore since Tanya started her role as the county director for the VSS, and she has always offered us a place to stay.

      For these and so many other things, the TriTrog officers bestowed upon Tanya McLaughlin a very unique and completely serious award.  Tanya was granted Lifetime membership for her lifetime achievement in making the TriTrogs a successful grotto.

 

Lifetime Achievement Award 

 

The Triangle Troglodytes,

A Distinguished and Official Grotto of the  

National Speleological Society 

Do Hereby Award 

 

Tanya McLaughlin

 

For  Initiative, Hospitality, Generosity, Inquisitiveness, Leadership and Immeasurable Contributions to the Grotto and to Caving in Smyth County, Virginia .

 

This award by unanimous approval of the officers here signed, confers Lifetime Membership in the Grotto, paid in full in good standing.   

 

Presented this day, December 1, 2012

Signed     _____Carlin Kartchner (Chair), Ken Walsh (Vice Chair), Mark Little (Treasurer), Mike Broome (Webmaster), Mark Daughtridge (Secretary)

TriTrogs Officer Meeting-Feb 2013

02-04-2013

TriTrogs Officer Meeting Agenda

Carlin’s Apartment

Meeting started at 7:05 p.m.

Mark D, Mark L., Carlin K., Mike B. and Ava P. in attendance

Agenda:

1) What we want covered in general meetings/the generic agenda. It has
been suggested we start our meetings with the program rather than end with it.


Carlin likes the idea—better time management, will help keep the other stuff from dragging on

Mike would like things to start on time

Mark D. suggests sending agenda out ahead of time to encourage timeliness

Ava- would newcomers be more interested if we have a program first? Maybe a set time limit on programs?

Mark L. – maybe newcomers would not be enticed by presentations first, would rather interact with grotto members more, important to do introductions with new people

Set a time limit on trip reports?  We will do a trip report survey initially to establish appropriate time limit for each meeting.

It was decided that we would tentatively try a new order of operations as follows (with a 30 min suggested limit on programs):

Introductions from 7:30 to 7:40, then program, then everything else

2) Program ideas for 2013 -- Need 10 total, 30 minute max?

Tentative ideas for the year (not chronological):

Carlin on Arizona

Carlin on Cold Sink

Mike and Lisa on Mexico

Peter on Caravan Etiquette (we think this is a joke but not sure)

Ken on Cartography?

Cave Geology? – Ava will email geology professor, or if anyone else has connections let one of the officers know

Danny on first aid? Mark D. will ask him. 

Mark has a NOVA film on caves, or maybe film from NSS library

Mark (interest in Fungus presentation?)

Outside person on something cave related via skype? Possibly Will Orndorff?

3) Grotto trip date and destination


Carlin suggests June/July for grotto trip.  For the annual grotto trip officers decided on the weekend of July 13^-14.  For now we’re planning on Union Cave (will ask Ken about getting access).  If Union doesn’t work out then possibly Bone-Norman.  Camping options include Dave D.’s place in WV or other yet-to-be-determined campgrounds outside of Lewisburg.

5) Location and date preferences for a cleanup trip


Based on dates for other events/trips October 19/20^th seems like it will work

We will talk to Tanya about ideas, would like to keep it in Smyth County

4) Update from the loaner gear and library custodian (any needs
expressed)

From Mike: The new Princeton Tec headlamps have been loaned out and taken on a few trips, and so far them seem to be working out pretty well.  We might want to get one more so we have the same number of loaner headlamps as helmets (4). Mike will order another one. (this has now been taken care of)

6) PO box -- should we eliminate it?            

It was agreed on that we do not need a PO box.

Mark L. will take care of getting rid of the PO box and have stuff temporarily forwarded to his address

Mike will remove the PO box info from the website

10) Donations to charities this year

Officers decided that the annual donation to the museum will be $100

12) How should we use our grotto funds?

From Mark L: We have suggestions for charitable contributions every year. But I             would like more discussion of how we can use our dues income in the service of          members, and in ways that will promote more caving and more participation in             the grotto.

Other officers agree, use grotto money for caving(ie. Grotto trip!)/purchasing group gear (replacement canopy, lights, etc.) to facilitate more caving!

7) Vertical training program?

Things that would be included:

A monthly grotto meeting dedicated to intro to vertical techniques to spur interest in getting people vertically active, this would be followed by several outside meetings to get familiar with on-rope experience.  We would like to do this once the weather gets a little bit better (possibly have the program at the April meeting? We will talk to Pete about setting up at his place)

Some topics would include:

Knotwork with gloves/without gloves?

NSS vertical skills checklist?

8) Plans for the NSS Convention
         

Get a canopy before convention- Ken found a good one that will actually fit in cars without much hassle. Ken can you go ahead and order it?  I guess I should send you an email.

Officers planning to attend:

Carlin is going

Mark D. is going

Others are not sure

9) Plans for and status of the web site


Notes from Mike B.(webmaster):

1) One thing I'd like to do is to add in more social media.  Add a Twitter

account.  Use the various media channels - web site, FB, Google+,

Twitter - to announce meetings with more lead time.  For that to be

effective, we'd need to know what the presentation topics are at least a

couple weeks or a month in advance.  But I think this would help keep

people reminded and interested in coming to the meetings.

Mike is going to take a stab at the social media aspect of advertising our grotto, maybe Rob would be interested in helping since he’s into facebook and could help remotely?

2) Membership list on the website? Do we want this? Is it too much to keep up with? Right now are names and numbers from 2009.

Officers agreed that we should remove the list from the website in an effort to keep the site up to date

3) Get constitution by-laws updated on the website, we’re not sure if they actually got changed.

Mike has latest ones, he will send them out and we can agree on them.  Mark (not sure which one) suggested having a copy of the membership form on the website and having it fill-inable online.  Mike will look into this.

4) Maybe remove the flaming pumpkin from the website blog?

We think it scares people.  Officers agreed to remove it, Mike will take care of the flaming pumpkin removal

11) From Mark L. addressing membership:

Is there anything more we can do to attract new people to visit our meetings or come on a caving trip with us? Are there things we could do to encourage people who
have visited our meetings or who have tried a caving trip to take the next step and join the grotto?
How do we do this? Make beginner trips and hope they come? Or find beginners and play around with them. 

Officers will try some new outside advertisement-- Ava will contact The Rock Club at NC State and put up flyers up at climbing gym at UNC . Tell your friends how cool we are!

12) Other business????

Someone should build a squeeze box, any volunteers?

TriTrogs January 2013 General Meeting

The Month the Mayans Never Saw Coming

Attendance:  One Dozen Cavers:  Jacob, Ava, Mike Broome, Lisa L,  Nicholas H, Tim Vaughn, Matthew Weiss, Mark D, Peter H, Mark L,  Ben , Carlin

 

Matthew told his human squirrel story of tearing tendon from bone in his shoulder, which sadly will have him out of caving for a while and wearing a cumbersome brace/sling.   But he still operates a mean slide one armed slide show.  

  

Old Business:

Award presented to Mike B since he missed the holiday party, and we reported on the presentation of the Lifetime Achievement award we made to Tanya at her house on the last Cold Sink trip.  

Payment of dues to Mark L by many.

Canopy looks nice in the photos, to be decided on soon

Holiday party was fun

  

New Business:
Election of Officers for 2013!
Minutes of discussion and much campaigning costing way less than $2B resulted in the following slate being duly elected:

Officers for 2013 Triangle Troglodytes are  (drum roll . . . )

• Chair:  Carlin Kartchner
• Vice Chair:  Mark Daughtridge
• Secretary:  Ava Pope
• Treasurer: Mark Little
• Web Master: Mike Broome

 (Or was that Ava Secretary elected as Pope?)

 

Trip Reports:

Carlin and his brother visited an AZ cave, well hidden under brush, over Christmas break.  Showed a few pictures 

Rowland's vertical pictures from November shown by Carlin

 

Matthew showed cool pictures from Worley's TN - Beautiful pictures w cool camera gear.  Including rim stone /Flowstone area.  Discussed photography techniques

Also pictures from Smokehole, cool pics with cool lighting

Demoed new light he built over Christmas  2.5 hours very bright

 

Carlin described the recent Cold Sink survey trip- 5100 ft total, still a shade under 1 mile (5280 ft)! 4 teams on last trip with 14 cavers total, one more trip to cleanup , one crawl dig that is unlikely to go.  Sadly would need major digging or smaller feet to stretch it to a full mile.  

 

Ava talked about two small caves at bottom of Grand Canyon, an exact Christmas tree formation which later was found listed on the map as the Christmas Tree cave.  The trip was at New Years but it's one stone tree that's up year round.

 

Little cave at Schoolhouse Rocks, goes 2 directions, Dave Duguid and "the Virginia Lisa" did quick survey, lying in 4 inches of water. Found monorail worm saw a mouse. 

 

Carlin back to Memorial Day Cave 3 day camp trip, need vertical surveyors.  It's a vertical jungle gym.  Decorated well, protected some formations w plastic

Did some survey in breakdown, there are 70 to 89 ft ceiling in areas under the camp room.  More leads and pits remain.  Getting to camp takes 3 hours or so.  It's a 5 hr drive in WV

 

Mike B showed a few short videos from the Mexico trip.  Mike plans to do a full and more formal program on the trip at a later meeting.  Very cool rappelling video including dropping a hitchhiking bit of vegetation and racing it to the bottom.

Lisa, Peter and Mike went with VBATS group 14 total.  Rob H was there on a separate trip w VPI

Most drove, Mike and Lisa flew.  50 hour drive!

5 days of caving,rental car antenna got stolen.  1st car had no engine so traded it.

Rain 3 of 4 days, very slick in cave. 200' to 1150' pits. 4400 ft total over 4 vertical days

Golindrinas, near Aquismon town

All limestone

One rig was on biting ants nest! One pit is 7 acres wide at bottom!

 

 

Due to elections and the many excellent trip reports since our last (non party) meeting in November we did not have a formal Program this meeting.   

We also forgot to talk about upcoming trips, so please see the calendar on the website for that info.

 

Adjourned at 9:06 to a local watering and tacoing establishment.