Extraordinary Women Leaders in Speleology (EWLS)

Here is a ghost story for you on Halloween. By some estimates, Odessa's Catacombs in Russia span about 1,550 miles, a little longer than the whole Pacific coastline of the continuous United States! Besides this, they are dangerous and spooky. Sections regularly flood with groundwater, some ceilings a propped with make-shift support beams, and some ventilation systems are completely dismantled. Murders have happened there too. A guy murdered his teenage girlfriend in the catacombs with an ax in 2015 and in 2011 murdered man was found after being dead for three to six months. There is a rumor that the catacombs contain stacked corpses of murdered Jews from World War II too. There is also evidence that they were used for the summary executions of Nazi soldiers. This is where the tale begins. In 2005 Masha was in the catacombs with other teen students of Odessa's School Number 56. The reason was unclear but it could have been a drunken party or a treasure search. It's rumor

In 2010 a three person dive survey team that included Extraordinary Woman Caver Chrissy Richards added an additional 1.3 mi to the cave length of Blue Spring Cave . In only 8 hours this White County, TN cave became quite longer. The dive took 3 hours in 53 degree water. The team found and surveyed an additional approx 1,000' of dry cave. The team found and surveyed a new sump which ended up finally connecting to known passage. "Right after this picture was taken, we realized we had made the connection. I was so excited, cold, tired, and proud. I was part of a three man dive team, two man push team, and 16 years of diving effort to make this connection." Christina said.  The cave is now 38.19 mi long.

By Tabitha Rossman , Edited by Lisa Bauman   Virginia Treat, amazing photographer who supports conservation and caves, has a project you will find quite interesting. Virginia has been photographing since 2015 when she found out she enjoyed being behind the camera instead of in front of it. It started out as a hobby just taking photos of family and nature photos, as well as improving on her photography by taking photos of models/friends. Virginia’s work has been published in several magazines and newspapers from the Surreal Magazine , Fashion Bombshell Magazine, Idaho City Newspaper, Idaho Statesman Newspaper and an article that came out in the July/August issue of Greenbelt Magazine . Then after a family trip to Craters of the Moon , Virginia started talking with her husband about a big idea she had combining nature with high fashion to create a variety of different themes throughout the year. She wanted to create a book and use the proceeds to donate back to nature conservation fa

By Tabitha Rossman , Edited by Lisa Bauman & Karla Zajac Karla Zajac and I attended the NCRC Orientation to Cave Rescue South Western Region, a weekend course that took place in the southwestern region in Carlsbad, New Mexico this year. This Introductory level program consists of classroom and field work showing all the phases of cave rescue. It involves underground environment, extrication techniques, communication systems, medical management, and organization and management of cave rescue. The basic orientation course material is presented for students that typically include cavers, emergency services personnel and rescue management personnel. The second day of the class is designed for both cave explorers who have the desire to learn the basics of rescues and personnel who want to expand the knowledge as well as the experiences that are involved in cave rescues. For the orientation you do not need to have any prior caving experience however it does help. “I feel like eve