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UID:pretalx-nss-convention-2026-DECK7J@talks.caving.dev
DTSTART;TZID=EST:20260707T123000
DTEND;TZID=EST:20260707T133000
DESCRIPTION:Charles Bishop\, NSS 9355 FE LB\nCatherine "Cat" Bishop\, NSS 1
 2100 FE LB\nA Couple of Cavers from Kentucky\n\nA family vacation trip to 
 Mammoth Cave in 1965 was Charlie's introduction to the underground world. 
 He joined the NSS in 1966 while still in high school\, started caving with
  Blue Grass Grotto in central Kentucky\, and learned to survey after he wa
 s invited to work on the Sloan's Valley Cave mapping project. Catherine "C
 at" Bishop also started with a commercial tour of Mammoth Cave but didn't 
 do any wild caving until a few years later when\, as a summer camp counsel
 or\, she helped other staff members lead younger Girl Scouts through a sma
 ll cave in the nearby Daniel Boone National Forest. In 1969 she joined Blu
 e Grass Grotto and assisted in exploring\, surveying\, and mapping numerou
 s horizontal and vertical caves in the karst areas south of Lexington\, Ke
 ntucky.\n\nAfter entering college with the intention of becoming a geologi
 st\, Charlie soon changed his major to engineering. He graduated from the 
 University of Kentucky with bachelor's and master's degrees in civil engin
 eering with specialization in geotechnical engineering. Cat's degree is in
  social welfare because\, as she says\, "People are so interesting! They d
 o such crazy things!" Her professional career has included teaching high s
 chool equivalency courses and writing technical articles for a company tha
 t researches nutrition and exercise physiology in Thoroughbred racehorses.
 \n\nFor over 50 years\, Charlie and Cat have participated in the ongoing e
 xploration and study of James Cave. Located only a few miles south of Mamm
 oth Cave\, James is an 11-mile-long maze of vertical and horizontal passag
 es on five levels under 30 acres. Coach Cave\, less than 200 feet away\, o
 ffers 3.5 miles of low crawls\, huge domepits\, a booming canyon\, and hun
 dreds of signatures from the Civil War era. As the keeper of five decades 
 of survey notes\, Charlie is working with the next generation of cavers to
  update and produce a digital map of the two caves.\n\nBoth Bishops are NS
 S Fellows\, and in 2010 they received the Lou Bicking Award which honors c
 avers who have devoted many years to a specific caving project.
DTSTAMP:20260826T232052Z
LOCATION:Auditorium
SUMMARY:Luminary Speaker: Catherine "Cat" & Charlie Bishop - 
URL:https://talks.caving.dev/nss-convention-2026/talk/DECK7J/
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