Oklahoma Christian University’s newest venture into God’s creation is led by Tristan Johnston and the Caving Club. Johnston and some friends saw an interest in cave exploration and decided to do something about it.
“It was mostly my idea, and I had a few friends interested. I just know some other people that have the same interests so I thought I would create the club to allow those who don’t know how to get started to get started,” Johnston said.
The Caving Club plans to advance members’ knowledge about caves by taking trips to different caves in Oklahoma, including the Arbuckle Mountain region. Their first mission is to introduce the new members to the basics.
“Our goal is to introduce everybody to the caving to start off, with the basic safety caving guidelines, and then introduce everyone to the kind of equipment that’s needed, and how to find caving groups,” Johnston said. “After the general safety, and once we have our group established, we’ll start working on more technical trips as well as exploring harder to get to caves.”
The club aims to help the Oklahoma Cave Rescue Association, allowing club members to establish basic knowledge about cave equipment, safety and exploration. Johnston is looking to acquire enough members to contribute to Oklahoma’s search and rescue.
“We’re trying to develop a group to work with the Oklahoma Cave Rescue Association, since the group just started it’s pretty small,” Johnston said. “My goal with introducing people here is to add more hands to the mix to travel anywhere across the state of Oklahoma to assist search and rescue.”
With the help of carpooling and loaned equipment, expenses are limited. The trips will include an hour and a half drive to Murray County to work with the Arbuckle Mountain Grotto, a caving group in southern Oklahoma.
“We will go on trips with them, (Arbuckle Mountain Grotto) whether it’s counting bats, swabbing bats, exploring new caves on private property, or exploring caves that we’ve been through,” Johnston said.
As members dive into Oklahoma’s lesser-known cave systems, the Caving Club aims to educate on underground exploration through comprehensive educational workshops. These sessions will equip participants with essential knowledge about cave safety, techniques, and local cave environments.
“There will be training for vertical rope, so that could be repelling down into a cave or just down a cliff face and then ascending back up,” Johnston said. “Also, giving experience to those who haven’t done it before, so that way when they’re in a situation, whether we’re caving or doing search and rescue they know how to properly go up and down a rope.”
For more information regarding Caving Club contact Tristan Johnston, tristan.johnston@eagles.oc.edu or check out their Instagram: @oc_cavingclub.
Be First to Comment