Posted on April 2, 2007
For the past 27 years, the JMU Caving Club has been hiking, camping, white-water rafting and of course, caving. And according to senior Adam Gosney, the best part (besides the stalactites and stalagmites) is the people.
“What’s so good about the club is the social atmosphere,” he said.
After-all, crawling through an 8-inch opening called the Devil’s Pinch in Bore-Norman cave in West Virginia requires teamwork and trust.
“One of my favorite things is taking new people into a cave and seeing their reaction,” president Robert Svercl said. “They just stand in awe because they can’t believe something like that is underground.”
Svercl said he was forced to go caving on his first trip.
“One of my friends heard about it and didn’t want to go alone,” he said. “The first time I went I was scared that I would come to a spot where I would get stuck.”
Former president Steve Cummings also enjoys sharing caving with newcomers.
“I’ve gone through every cave plenty of times,” he said, “and the thing that keeps me going is giving that experience to other people, just seeing their faces full of excitement.”
Cummings first went caving in the tenth grade with the Boy Scouts.
“I was so excited that they had something like that here,” he said.
For $10, members are provided with all the equipment and transportation needed and opportunities to go on one or two trips nearly every weekend.
“We try to get in a combination of hiking, climbing and crawling,” Svercl said. “And of course, you’re doing this all in the dark.”
One very popular trip for the Caving Club is Aqua Cave, near the West Virginia border.
“It’s so popular because you’re partially submerged and have to swim up to your shoulders in freezing cold water,” Svercl said.
For more experienced cavers, favorites include Breathing Cave and Marshall Cave, which are both an hour away.
“Marshall is a very dynamic cave because the water levels are always changing,” Cummings said. “It’s also at a great location, right next to a river. There’s a rope swing [and] we used to go swimming when we come out caked in mud.”
Their monthly trips and bonding experiences have influenced most members to continue caving after graduating from JMU.
“I’m moving to California after graduation,” Gosney said. “They have some amazing caves I can’t wait to go explore.”
