Caving Organizations
One of the fastest ways to get into caving is to involve yourself with local group of like-minded individuals. This gives you a built in group of people to get out caving with; as well a varying backgrounds, knowledge, and skills to learn from each other. Finding out who is going caving locally can take a little bit of work and research, but pays off in the long run because you don't have to reinvent the wheel for everything you do. Below are some useful starting points to find local cavers:
The largest caving organization in the US is currently the National Speleological Society or NSS. This organization has roughly 12,000 members, and a very strong national and international presence. Their various websites are the single best online caving resources that I am aware of, and recommended reading for anyone interested in caving anywhere in the world.
On a more local level, the NSS has local chapters, referred to as grottos. These end up being the better resource for people trying to find other cavers and get started in the sport on a local level. You can find them through the NSS webpages, or searching for caving and your state/region. The Utah specific grottos are listed below for convenience:
- Salt Lake Grotto - Earliest grotto in the state, and obviously based in the Salt Lake City area.
- Wasatch Grotto - Meetings are currently in Bountiful, tends to cover cavers north of Salt Lake.
- Timpanogos Grotto - Meetings in Orem, covers most cavers immediately south of Salt Lake.
- Utah Grotto - Newly developed online-only grotto. No current plans for regular monthly meetings, but will likely develop into a useful online resource for the region.
All of these grottos are close together due to the way Utah's population is focused along the Wasatch Front. This leads to some overlap in membership, general membership boundaries, and usually there is coordination of trips and planning between the various groups. Each grotto has a little different core group and style. However, if you are planning on caving in northern Utah very long; you will eventually have reason to meet most of the active members of all the groups.