Caving

 
 

Cave Exploring: The Definitive Guide to Caving Technique, Safety, Gear, and Trip Leadership (Falconguides) by Paul Burger Paperback from Falcon ISBN: 0762725605 This intructional guide to cave exploring will help readers select the right gear for a caving expedition and understand the proper techniques for exploring safely and with minimal impact. Cave Exploring also discusses the very important topic of trip leadership, something most other caving books give only passing treatment to if any at all.

Complete Caving Manual by Andy Sparrow Paperback from Crowood Press ISBN: 1847971466 Underground cave systems have a unique fascination for explorers, with their soaring caverns, breath-taking formations, and potential for finding uncharted passageways. Illustrated throughout with stunning photographs and explanatory diagrams, The Complete Caving Manual is a comprehensive guide to safe, responsible caving for novices and experts alike. Topics covered include: how caves and cave formations develop; modern caving equipment; planning and preparation for a caving trip; party leadership; horizontal techniques; vertical techniques and rope work; dealing with emergencies; exploring underground; cave flora and fauna, and where to cave.

Blind Descent: The Quest to Discover the Deepest Place on Earth by James M. Tabor Hardcover from Random House Media Published: 2010- ISBN: 1400067677 The deepest cave on earth was a prize that had remained unclaimed for centuries, long after every other ultimate discovery had been made: both poles by 1912, Everest in 1958, the Challenger Deep in 1961. In 1969 we even walked on the moon. And yet as late as 2000, the earth's deepest cave--the supercave--remained undiscovered. This is the story of the men and women who risked everything to find it, earning their place in history beside the likes of Peary, Amundsen, Hillary, and Armstrong. In 2004, two great scientist-explorers are attempting to find the bottom of the world. Bold, heroic American Bill Stone is committed to the vast Cheve Cave, located in southern Mexico and deadly even by supercave standards. On the other side of the globe, legendary Ukrainian explorer Alexander Klimchouk--Stone's polar opposite in temperament and style, but every bit his equal in scientific expertise, physical bravery, and sheer determination--has targeted Krubera, a freezing nightmare of a supercave in the Republic of Georgia, where underground dangers are compounded by the horrors of separatist war in this former Soviet republic. Blind Descent explores both the brightest and darkest aspects of the timeless human urge to discover--to be first. It is also a thrilling epic about a pursuit that makes even extreme mountaineering and ocean exploration pale by comparison. These supercavers spent months in multiple camps almost two vertical miles deep and many more miles from their caves' exits. They had to contend with thousand-foot drops, deadly flooded tunnels, raging whitewater rivers, monstrous waterfalls, mile-long belly crawls, and much more. Perhaps even worse were the psychological horrors produced by weeks plunged into absolute, perpetual darkness, beyond all hope of rescue, including a particularly insidious derangement called The Rapture. James M. Tabor was granted unprecedented access to logs, journals, photographs, and video footage of these expeditions, as well as many hours of personal interviews with surviving participants. Blind Descent is an unforgettable addition to the classic literature of discovery and adventure. It is also a testament to human survival and endurance--and to two extraordinary men whose relentless pursuit of greatness led them to heights of triumph and depths of tragedy neither could have imagined. Includes a 16-pg full-color insert Amazon Best Books of the Month, June 2010: Set in impenetrable darkness, James M. Tabor's Blind Descent is as awe-inspiring as any adventure story above ground. Tabor's claustrophobic and pulse-pounding narrative follows two of the world's premier cavers--American Bill Stone and Ukrainian Alexander Klimchouk--as they race to explore Earth's deepest caves, swimming through steering wheel-sized tunnels and scaling rock walls slick with spring runoff. Caving is dirty and dangerous work, and Tabor pulls no punches in describing the many terrifying hazards that cavers face underground, including falling rocks, hypothermia, starvation, nitrogen narcosis, hallucinations, hypoxia, and deadly anxiety attacks. He captures the eerie mixture of excitement and horror that accompanies life in extreme environments, while shedding light on the ineffable and complex moral code that governs men and women in places where survival is hoped for, but never guaranteed. Blind Descent is a captivating summer read for adventure seekers and armchair adrenaline junkies alike. --Lynette Mong

Caving Basics 3ED by Jerry Hassemer Paperback from National Speleological Society ISBN: 1879961008

Opening Goliath: Danger and Discovery in Caving by Cary J. Griffith Hardcover from Borealis Books ISBN: 0873516494 Narrow passages, twisting upward or dropping precipitously. Huge vaults filled with fantastic shapes. Tunnels twined in tangled mazes. Over centuries, underground rivers can carve holes and rooms in solid rock; drips of water build walls of stone. Natural caves shape another world beneath our feet. Dangerous and beautiful, these places remain unknown--until someone decides to investigate.  In 2004, businessman and caver John Ackerman drilled an entryway into Goliath Cave, a huge and unexplored complex in the karst region of southeastern Minnesota. Squeezing through tiny openings, scuba diving through silt-filled waters, scaling walls, and traversing crevasses, he and his fellow cavers painstakingly mapped ever-further reaches of the complex in an exploration that continues to this day. But man-made caves that do not breathe can be even more dangerous than their natural cousins. In St. Paul, also in 2004, five teenagers entered an area where intermittent fires robbed the air of oxygen. Only two emerged alive. Cary Griffith, author of the acclaimed Lost in the Wild, intertwines these two incidents, showing the dangers experienced by both groups--one highly prepared and experienced and the other tragically ill equipped. With equal parts of suspense and caution, Opening Goliath never leaves readers alone in the dark. Cary J. Griffith, who specializes in writing about the outdoors, is the author of Lost in the Wild: Danger and Survival in the North Woods.

On Rope: North American Vertical Rope Techniques for Caving ... Rappellers by Bruce Smith, Allen Padgett Hardcover from Natl Speleological Society ISBN: 1879961059 ON ROPE - 2ND EDITION HB In the decade since its original publication, On Rope has gained worldwide recognition as the most authoritative book on single rope techniques (SRT). Like its predecessor, this new edition is a practical approach to North American vertical ropework. It contains 384 pages with over 700 detailed drawings. This new edition has been extensively revised and expanded to include detailed descriptions of other ropes users including: arborists, river rescue, window cleaners, and circus riggers among others. Coverage of European SRT rigging techniques and climbing systems has also been greatly enlarged.

Great Caves of the World by Tony Waltham Hardcover from Firefly Books ISBN: 1554074134 A stunning visual tour of the world's most spectacular caves and cave systems. Caves are found on every continent. The United States is home to the world's longest cave system, the Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, and to the world's most popular tourist cave, New Mexico's Carlsbad Caverns. Great Caves of the World takes readers to these and 25 other astonishing and challenging caves across the globe. Each entry includes lavish photographs and authoritative text describing the cave, its inhabitants, its environment, how and when it was discovered, access sites, and travel tips on how to get there. In addition to Carlsbad and Mammoth, featured caves include: Sterkfontein Cave in South Africa, the site of four-million-year-old hominid remains New Zealand's Waitomo Cave, dazzlingly illuminated by glow-worms The underground waterfalls of Gruta do Janelão, Brazil Looming glaciers of ice in Austria's limestone caves The cool Nullarbar Caves under the Australian desert Ethiopia's underground maze, the Sof Omar Cave The Caves of Mulu in Sarawak (Borneo), the world's largest Castleguard Cave in the Canadian Rockies. Geologists, expert cavers, spelunkers, climbers, adventure travelers, natural history enthusiasts and general readers will find this book fascinating. (20090228)

Beyond the Deep: The Deadly Descent into the World's Most Treacherous Cave by William Stone, Barbara am Ende, Monte Paulsen Hardcover from Grand Central Publishing ISBN: 0446527092 The Huautla in Mexico is the deepest cave in the Western Hemisphere, possibly the world. Shafts reach skyscraper-depths, caverns are stadium-sized, and sudden floods can drown divers in an instant. With a two-decade obsession, William Stone and his 44-member team entered the sinkhole at Sotano de San Augustin. The first camp settled 2,328 feet below ground in a cavern where headlamps couldn't even illuminate the walls and ceiling. The second camp teetered precariously above an underground canyon where two subterranean rivers collided. But beyond that lay the unknown territory -- a flooded corridor that had blocked all previous comers, claimed a diver's life, and drove the rest of the team back. Except for William Stone and Barbara am Ende, who forged on for 18 more days, with no hope of rescue, to set the record for the deepest cave dive in the Western Hemisphere.

Wookey Hole by Peter Mark May Kindle Edition from Ghostwriter Publications Media Published: 2010-   Another eChap from Ghostwriter Publications. 1932, Somerset, UK - An international diving team, equipped with the most modern apparatus of the time, explore the uncharted reaches of the Wookey Hole cave network. What they discover, is the answer to the question...'Are we the first?'...but then they have to make sure they get the answer they're hoping for. Another eChap from Ghostwriter Publications. 1932, Somerset, UK - An international diving team, equipped with the most modern apparatus of the time, explore the uncharted reaches of the Wookey Hole cave network. What they discover, is the answer to the question...'Are we the first?'...but then they have to make sure they get the answer they're hoping for.

Adaptation and Natural Selection in Caves: The Evolution of Gammarus Minus
by David C. Culver
Research into the genetics, ecology, morphology and systematics of a cave-dwelling crustacean. Db.
Hardcover: 235 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.06 x 9.57 x 6.41
Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr; (March )
ISBN: 0674004256
 

Adventure of Caving by David R. McClurg Paperback from D&J Press

Adventures Underground: Volcanoes, Earthquakes, Mines, Quarries, Caves and Peat Beds
by David Falkayn

Ancient Caves Of The Great Salt Lake
by Julian H. Steward
Library Binding: 131 pages
Reprint Services Corp; ISBN: 0781241162; (January 1937)
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The Art of Caving
by Linda Heslop
Paperback
Cave Books; ISBN: 0939748444;
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At the Edge of the World: Caves and Late Classic Maya World View
by Karen Bassie-Sweet
Hardcover: 245 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.00 x 10.32 x 7.30
Univ of Oklahoma Pr (Txt); ISBN: 0806128291; (April )

Atlas of the Great Caves of the World
by Paul Courbon
Paperback: 368 pages
Cave Books; ISBN: 0939748215; (June 1989)
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Awesome Caverns of Marble in the Oregon Caves National Monument: Documentary
by Bert Webber
Webb Research Group Publishers; ISBN: 0936738944;

Basic Cave Diving: A Blueprint for Survival
by S. Exley

Basic Underwater Cave Surveying
by J. Burge

Beneath the Earth: The Facts and The Fables
by Finn Bevan

Beyond Mammoth Cave: A Tale of Obsession in the World's Longest Cave
by James D. Borden

Beyond the Deep: The Deadly Descent Into the World's Most Treacherous Cave
by Barbara William/Ende Stone
Book Description: The Huautla in Mexico is the deepest cave in the Western Hemisphere, possibly the world. Shafts reach skyscraper-depths, caverns are stadium-sized, and sudden floods can drown divers in an instant. With a two-decade obsession, William Stone and his 44-member team entered the sinkhole at Sotano de San Augustin. The first camp settled 2,328 feet below ground in a cavern where headlamps couldn't even illuminate the walls and ceiling. The second camp teeter-ed precariously above an underground canyon where two subterranean rivers collided. But beyond that lay the unknown territory-a flooded corridor that had blocked all previous comers, claimed a diver's life, and drove the rest of the team back. Except for William Stone and Barbara am Ende, who forged on for 18 more days, with no hope of rescue, to set the record for the deepest cave dive in the Western Hemisphere.
Hardcover from Warner Books

Carlsbad Caves and a Camera
by Robert Nymeyer

Cave
by Diane Siebert

Cave (One Small Square)
by Donald M. Silver

Cave Animals (Animals in Their Habitats)
by Francine Galko

The Cave Divers
by Robert F. Burgess

The Cave Fauna of North America: Remarks on the Anatomy of the Brain and Origin of the Blind Species
by Alpheus S. Packard

Cave Minerals of the World
by Carol Hill
Hardcover: 463 pages
National Speleological Society; ISBN: 1879961075; 2nd edition ()
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Caverns Measureless to Man
by Sheck Exley
Book Description:
Caverns Measureless to Man is the story of the passion of an extraordinary individual who spent his life exploring underwater caves. For nearly 30 years Sheck Exley was the leader. He set records, he developed the techniques, and he maintained the highest standards of excellence. Sheck lived a life of adventure, danger, and excitement of a degree that few people can ever dream of, or, if they do, those dreams are nightmares. If you participate on the highest level, you know that some of your best friends are going to die. If you continue to push yourself and your equipment to the limits--if you persist in being a world class diver as Sheck was--the chances are very high that you, too, will die.
This book may terrify you, but it will unquestionably fascinate you, and in the end, Sheck Exley will convince you that his death came to him in the midst of the incredibly intense joy he took in diving into the depths of the earth.
Paperback: 176 pages
Cave Books; ISBN: 0939748258; (March )
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Caves
by Stephen Kramer

Caves (Geography Starts) [library binding]
by Claire Llewellyn

Caves (Geography Starts)
(Paperback)
by Claire Llewellyn

Caves (The Wonders of Our World)
by Neil Morris
Reading level: Ages 9-12
Paperback: 32 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.19 x 9.84 x 7.84
Crabtree Pub; ISBN: 0865058423;

Caves (World's Top Ten)
by Neil Morris

Caves and Caverns [library binding]
by Gail Gibbons

Caves and Caverns
(Paperback)
by Gail Gibbons
Reading level: Ages 9-12

Caves Beyond: The Story of Floyd Collins' Crystal Cave Exploration
by Joe Lawrence
Book Description: In February, 1954, under the direction of Joe Lawrence, Jr., the National Speleological Society sent the largest, most highly organized, and best-equipped expedition in the history of American cave exploration into Floyd Collins' Crystal Cave, Kentucky. The Caves Beyond is the official account of that expedition and a classic American caving story. There is no other caving book like it.

First published in 1955 in an edition of 10,000 copies, the book was out of print soon afterwards. Good copies of the rare first edition are a sought after prize to book collectors. This quality reprint reproduces every word and picture of the original edition. Brucker's new introduction to the long-awaited reprint edition reveals a number of "untold stories" about the expedition, including stories of the politics behind the C-3 expedition and of how the book came to be written in an attic in Brooklyn in two weeks' time. There is also a detailed index, which the first edition lacked.
Paperback: ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.50 x 9.25 x 6.00
Publisher: Cave Books; (August 1975)
ISBN: 0914264184

Caves, Cliffs and Canyons (Discovery Travel Adventures)
by Robert Burnham
 

Caves: Exploring Hidden Realms by Michael Ray Taylor If you were to travel to the Amazon, say, or the source of the Nile, you would likely find the people there wearing corporate logo-branded T-shirts and listening to the latest pop hits on the radio. Using a GPS device or satellite photos, you can track your location just about anywhere on the face of the planet. Given globalism and the ease of travel to once-remote places, where is a would-be flag-planting adventurer to go these days? The answer, writes Michael Ray Taylor in this intriguing book, is inward: inside the earth by way of the millions of caves that pierce its surface. Following an international team of fellow cavers--men and women in peak physical form and apparently without fear--his narrative takes us deep within the ice caves of Greenland; a vast underground labyrinth of rivers and chambers in Mexico's Yucatan; a cave on a cliff wall overlooking the Colorado River near the Grand Canyon, one that no human had ever before entered; and other great caverns of North America. High-quality (and sometimes astounding) full-color images accompany the text, offering views that usher us into a world of blind snakes, bats, strange geological formations, and uncanny sights that few surface-dwellers have been privileged to see. Caving is not merely adventure for its own sake, Taylor notes. "Over the past decade," he observes, "scientists have been surprised to learn that in the deepest recesses of the Earth are repositories of exotic microbes ... far more varied in types of species and their individual strategies for survival than all the plants of an equatorial rain forest." Some of these microbes, he suggests, may deliver chemicals for fighting disease; they also deliver important evidence about the history of life on the planet. But, all that said, caving offers plenty of thrills, and Taylor's book does a superb job of capturing both the science and the adventure of a journey to the center of the earth. --Gregory McNamee - Amazon.com

Caves for Kids: In Historic New York
by Patricia Edwards Clyne

Caves, Graves and Catacombs: Secrets from Beneath the Earth
by Natalie Jane Prior
Out of Print - Try Used Books

Caves: Hidden World (First Discovery Book)
by Claude Delafosse

Caves: Mysteries Beneath Our Feet
by David L. Harrison

Caves of the Upper Gila and Hueco Areas in New Mexico and Texas
by Carnelius B. Cosgrove

Caves: Processes, Development and Management
(Hardcover)
by David Gillieson

Caves: Processes, Development and Management
(Paperback)
by David Gillieson

Caving
by Steven Boga

Caving
by P. K. Swart

Caving
by Red Watson

Caving Adventures (Dangerous Adventures)
by Anne M. Todd

Caving Basics
by Tom Rea
Paperback: 128 pages
Publisher: National Speleological Society; (May 1992)
ISBN: 0961509317

Caving: Exploring Limestone Caves
by Larry Dane Brimner

Classic Caves of the Peak District
by Ian Barker

Colorado Caves: Hidden Worlds Beneath the Peaks
by Richard J. Rhinehart

Cumberland Caverns
by Larry E. Matthews

Dark Life: Martian Nanobacteria, Rock-Eating Cave Bugs, and Other Extreme Organisms of Inner Earth and Outer Space
by Michael Ray Taylor

Deep Into Blue Holes
by Rob Palmer

Dive: Your Guide to Snorkeling, Scuba, Night-Diving, Freediving, Exploring Shipwrecks, Caves, and More
by Darice Bailer
 

Entering the Stone : On Caves and Feeling Through the Dark by Barbara Hurd Hardcover from Houghton Mifflin Co

Explore in a Cave
by Dana Meachen Rau

Exploring Caves: Journeys into the Earth
by Nancy Holler Aulenbach

Exploring Underground Habitats (Mondo's Exploring Series)
by Margaret Yatsevitch Phinney

Geomorphology and Hydrology of Karst Terrains
by William B. White

Going Underground: Your Guide to Caves in the Mid-Atlantic
by Sharon Hernes Silverman
Covers many of the more popular limestone caves in Pennsylvania, Virginia, New York, and West Virginia.
Paperback: 119 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.39 x 8.39 x 5.39
Camino Books; ISBN: 0940159120; (March )

A Guide to Speleological Literature of the English Language 1794-1996
by Diana E. Northup
Hardcover: 539 pages
Cave Books; ISBN: 0939748525;

Guidelines for Cave and Karst Protection
by John Watson

Hiking Carlsbad Caverns and Guadalupe Mountains National Parks
by Bill Schneider

Images Below: A Manual of Underground and Flash Photography
by Chris Howes

Jamaica Underground: The Caves, Sinkholes and Underground Rivers of the Island
by Alan G. Fincham
 (hardcover)

Jamaica Underground: The Caves, Sinkholes and Underground Rivers of the Island
by Alan G. Fincham
 (paperback)

Jewel Cave: The Story Behind the Scenery
by Karen S. Rosga

Karst and Caves of Great Britain
by Tony Waltham

Karst Hydrology: Concepts from the Mammoth Cave Area
by William B. White

Let's Take a Field Trip to a Cave
by Kathy Furgang

Life in a Cave
by Clare Oliver

Life in a Cave (Microhabitats)
by Clare Oliver

Limestone Caves (First Book)
by Roy A. Gallant

The Longest Cave
by Richard A. Watson

Memoirs of a Speleologist: The Adventurous Life of a Famous French Cave Explorer (hardcover)
by Robert De Joly

Memoirs of a Speleologist: The Adventurous Life of a Famous French Cave Explorer (paperback)
by Robert De Joly

Of Caves and Caving: A Way and a Life
by John E. Gillett

On Station
by George R. Dasher

Rappelling
by Tom Martin
Hardcover: 304 pages
Search; ISBN: 0930871030; 2nd Rev edition (April )

The Remarkable Howe Caverns Story
by Dana D. Cudmore

Scary Stories of Mammoth Cave
by Colleen O'Connor Olson

The 6th International Symposium on Vulcanospeleology

Snow Caves for Fun and Survival
by Ernest Wilkinson

Speleogenesis, Evolution of Karst Aquifers
by Alexander B. Klimchouk

Speleology
by Cave Books

Spelology : Caves and the Cave Environment
by Nicholas Sullivan, George W. Moore
Book Description: This newly-revised edition of a classic introduction to speleology covers the latest discoveries about the mysterious world of caves. Drs. Moore and Sullivan are among the founders of modern cave research. They present here the principles of speleology in language that anyone can understand. The authors show how cave processes involve biological as well as geological, chemical, and physical processes, and they examine such topics as the origin of caves, the structure of cave food chains, and the evolution of blind cave animals. The book was a selection of the Science Book Club and is widely used as a textbook in high schools and colleges.
Paperback from National Speleological Society

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Speleology: Caves & the Cave Environment
by Nicholas Sullivan, George William Moore
Hardcover from National Speleological Society

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Tales from the Underground: A Natural History of Subterranean Life
by David W. Wolfe

Texas Caves
by Blair Pittman
"Texas has about three thousand known, explored caves, ranging in size from small crawlways to huge caverns. Most of these caves, however, are generally restricted to exploration by trained, experienced cavers, geologists, and biologists."--BOOK JACKET.
Hardcover: 144 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.71 x 11.33 x 8.80
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press; (September )
ISBN: 0890968497

Trapped! The Story of Floyd Collins
by Robert K. Murray

Under Grotto Mountain: Rat's Nest Cave
by Charles Yonge

Vercors Caves: Classic French Caving
by Des Marshall

Walking in Jordan: Walks, Treks, Caves, Climbs, and Canyons
by Di Taylor

What Are Caves (Earth Features)
by Mari C. Schuh

The Wilderness Underground: Caves of the Ozark Plateau
by H. Dwight Weaver

Wisconsin Underground: A Guide to Caves, Mines, and Tunnels In and Around the Badger State
by Doris Green
Book Description Hundreds of books have been written about the beauty of aboveground Wisconsin, yet few have revealed much about the natural wonders of the state's underground attractions. This book is a guide for modern-day adventurers who want to know more about what lies beneath the surface. Doris Green has provided a wonderful treasure map to nearly 50 of the state's caves, mines, tunnels, and underground oddities, as well as 7 sites in nearby states.
Paperback: 160 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.48 x 9.00 x 6.09
Publisher: Trails Books; (September 1, )
ISBN: 0915024853

The World of Caves, Mines and Tunnels
by Stephen Hoare
Reading level: Ages 4-8

Tales of Dirt, Danger, and Darkness
by Paul Jay Steward
ISBN: 0966354702
Out of Print - Try Used Books

Darkness Beckons: The History and Development of Cave Diving
by Martyn Farr
Out of Print - Try Used Books

Glenwood Caverns and the Historic Fairy Caves
by Jim Nelson
Out of Print - Try Used Books
 
 
 

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