Registration Information

Early registration discounts end on September 7. After that, registration packages increase by $50. For day passes, please contact our registrar, Gail McCoy, directly at: [email protected]

  • Includes access to the Western Cave Conservancy President's Reception on Saturday, October 4, all mid-week presentations and poster sessions, workshops on Monday, dinners on Tuesday and Thursday, a ride on the geology-themed steam train excursion, and your choice of field trips (including lunch) on Wednesday.
    Pre-symposium workshops on October 4th-5th are optional upgrades.

  • Includes all the elements of the professional package.
    All student registrants must bring a currently valid student ID from a recognized educational institution to show when you check in. Students are encouraged to present a poster session or other presentation.
    Limited scholarships are available. Please see our website for more information.

Workshop Note:

Most workshops at the 2025 NCKMS are included in your registration and will be held on Monday, October 6 at the Bristlecone Convention Center. This year, we are also including 2 intensive workshops on our opening weekend (Oct. 4-5). Due to the nature of these events, they do incur added fees. There are capacity limits on both pre-symposium workshops, but we will try to create a wait-list when they sell out.

Please check our website for extended information on all workshops.

Pre-Symposium Workshops

  • Orientation to Cave Rescue

    Orientation to Cave Rescue

    This 2-day workshop will be held on Saturday (Oct. 4) and Sunday (Oct. 5). You must attend both days to receive a certificate of completion.

    Suitable for cave and karst managers in addition to recreational explorers, this is an intensive two-day introduction to the science and management of cave rescue operations. Led by a team of highly qualified instructors, the techniques and skills you will learn from this seminar may be directly applied to cave rescue scenarios in commercial, agency, or undeveloped caves.

    Lunches on both days are included in your registration. You will need basic cave gear.

    Please read the full course description before you commit to this workshop.

    Price $88.00
  • Microbiology of a Hot Spring

    Microbiology of a Hot Spring

    This all-day workshop will be held on Sunday (Oct. 5).

    This is an intensive primer for cave geo-microbiology using Monte Neva Hot Spring as an analog site.

    Microbial ecology is one of the most understudied and underappreciated components of cave systems. This is true for how microorganisms are viewed as part of the ecosystem within the caves and as a force that shapes the lithology of caves themselves. Every cave is slightly different, and the specifics of the local geology, cave hydrology, cave geochemistry, and other associated environmental conditions (temperature, humidity, etc.) set up gradients that will alter the cave ecosystem and change the role that microbes play in shaping the ecosystem and cave around them.

    Lunch and transportation are included in your registration. Please read the full course description before you commit to this workshop.

    Price $74.00

The following workshops will be held on Monday, October 6 and are included in your registration at no extra cost. For our planning purposes, please let us know which of these you would like to attend.

Full details are available on our website.

  • This workshop presents philosophies, methods, and current best practices in cave restoration. This two-hour classroom session introduces cave-friendly restoration methods and tools for graffiti assessment/mitigation, speleothem repair, and human impact remediation.

  • Cave resource inventories are essential for understanding, managing, and conserving caves and their ecosystems. This course provides an in-depth look at why inventories are critical for protecting biological, geological, hydrological, archaeological, and geological resources.

  • If you manage, own, or visit a cave, you may feel better knowing that if someone falls or gets sick in a cave, there's already a pre-plan to get that person out of the cave. This workshop concentrates on developing that rescue pre-plan. Participants MUST send a map of the cave they would like to discuss in advance of the workshop. Please read the full course description for details.

  • This 2-part workshop includes 2 hours in class, and 2 hours in the field.

    Fluorescent dye tracing is one of the best tools available to study karst groundwater movement. This methodology is usually the first step in obtaining information about karst aquifer characteristics to support monitoring, pollution prevention, water resource management, contaminant source tracing, and remediation planning. This workshop series will briefly introduce karst hydrogeology principles but will primarily focus on the process of planning and conducting a dye trace investigation for a variety of applications.

  • If you are attending NCKMS it is likely you are already captivated by caves, but how do you get attention from the general public?

    Science can be a dense subject that can be difficult to grasp for newcomers and scare away or disinterest potential cave allies. Whether you are managing a show cave, a preserve, or an organization centered on caves & karst, getting your team AND the community at large interested in cave science can be critical.

2025 NCKMS Swag

  • Troglodyte Playing Cards

    Troglodyte Playing Cards

    We're not entirely sure what these will look like yet, but we couldn't think of hosting NCKMS in Nevada without offering some themed-out playing cards. There's a good chance the card backs will feature a cave critter of some kind, but we still have some time to figure it out.

    $12.50 ea.
  • WCC Photon Blocker Bucket Hat

    WCC Photon Blocker Bucket Hat

    Is ridge-walking in your future?

    Wearing a custom-embroidered Western Cave Conservancy bucket hat is like giving the sun a cheeky wink and saying, "Nice try, but not today!"

    It's not just a hat - it's your sun-shielding speleo-superhero, strutting in style while making the sun work for it.

    $34.00 ea.
  • 2025 NCKMS T-Shirts

    2025 NCKMS T-Shirts

    Of course we'll have t-shirts! What would a caver event be without them?

    It might look like this thing that an AI system suggested, but we're having real humans dress it up a bit. Might look completely different by the time our humans are done with it.

    Our theme at NCKMS this year is "Hidden Waters - Hidden Life". So, we have a concept at least!

  • h2go Essen Vacuum Food Container

    h2go Essen Vacuum Food Container

    It's a double-wall, stainless steel, 17 oz capacity thermos from h2go®. This thing is more rugged than your cave pack! We've been trying to beat up the manufacturer's sample they sent, but it keeps winning. Hot things stayed hot, cold things stayed cold.

    And ours will have the cool NCKMS logo printed on it.

    $26.50 ea.
  • WCC Ball Cap

    WCC Ball Cap

    Wearing a ball cap? Oh, that's a whole vibe. It's like saying, "I'm strong, but I'm not here for your speleo-approval." It's the kind of quiet power that doesn't scream for attention, but when it walks into the grotto meeting, everyone knows it's the real deal. No need to flaunt or flex when you're declaring your subtle support for the Western Cave Conservancy!

    $12.75 ea.
  • Campfire Coffee Mug

    Campfire Coffee Mug

    Stay up all night with our personalized NCKMS coffee mug.

    This 13 oz mug is perfect for school, campfire socials, marathon thesis proofreading, and all-night grant-writing sessions.

    $9.50 ea.

Proceedings

  • Printed Proceedings

    Printed Proceedings

    This will be a printed copy of the proceedings from the 2025 NCKMS. PDF versions will be made available to all participants, but this option gets you a durable print copy. These will be produced after the symposium and mailed to you.

    $48.00 ea.
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Host Hotel Information

Three hotels in downtown Ely have graciously offered discounts for our 2025 NCKMS participants. Hotel Nevada, the Jailhouse Casino Motel, and the Four Sevens Motel are all within 2 easy blocks from the convention center.To take full advantage of these discounted hotel rates, please check the details on our website for each hotel. These rates are not available through online reservation websites.

Important!! All room blocks will be released by mid September. You must reserve your room before then or risk losing out on the discounts.

Answering these few questions helps us plan resources for the 2025 National Cave & Karst Management Symposium in Ely, Nevada. We appreciate your time to share some details.

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