, Auditorium
In 2024, caving in Vietnam became more accessible to NSS cavers with the signing of the NSS–Vietnam Memorandum of Understanding. A key area of interest is the Lạng Sơn UNESCO Global Geopark, located at the northern end of the country. With its gorgeous tower karst, extensive river caves, and little history of survey, the Geopark is an exciting place to be project caving.
For two weeks in early 2026, 11 US cavers collaborated with Vietnamese partners to survey 6.8km of cave passage within the Geopark. Dragon Cave was surveyed to 3.2km with few remaining leads, and featured massive formations, long river sections, and a tricky connection across a massive flotilla of wood debris. On the same river system, Spring Cave was fully surveyed to 642m entirely on stand-up paddleboards. Fairy Cave was surveyed to 2.3km and was mostly dry with massive branching passages, beautiful orange flowstone, boulders of knife-like limestone, and one large going borehole lead.
The karst in the Geopark is extensive and riddled with caves, with many more exciting surveys to be completed in the years to come. The project was permitted by the Provincial Agency and Geopark officials and executed in collaboration with Vietnam Expeditions.
Carol Vesely, Carl Haken, Shane Fryer