A Winter in Great Basin National Park

This article was originally published in The Midden - Great Basin National Park: Vol 24., No.1, Summer 2024.

SIP Heather Hansen navigating a cave canyon passage.

NPS/G. Baker

By Heather Hansen, Scientist in Parks: Caves and Karst Assistant at Great Basin National Park

During the 2023-24 winter I had the opportunity to be the Caves and Karst Assistant at Great Basin National Park. My main responsibility was to create a map of all the lights and wires and write a demolition plan for the lighting system in Lehman Caves. A new lighting system will be put in next year. I knew very little about electrical systems before this, but learning about them has been interesting. In addition to this part of my experience I have been able to try a lot of different things!

One activity I have gained a lot more experience and skills with is wild caving. Prior to this experience I had been in two wild caves. A wild cave is a cave that doesn’t have lights and a designated paved trail. I have been able to push myself and learn some of the limits I have and push beyond some of the limits I thought I had. I honestly did not think I would be able to go into tight spaces, but I was able to do every single one I tried. Some I never need to do again, but most of them were great! I also learned how to stem and chimney which helps you when you do not have a rope, or a rope is not really practical in those spots. I have also become more adept at moving through cave efficiently and safely. I was able to work on my single rope technique (SRT) skills which are needed when you are entering a cave that has a vertical element like a 40-foot drop to get into the cave.

Volunteers and staff members holding bags of lint and hair that they removed during Lehman Caves 2024 lint camp.

NPS/G. Baker

I was able to work with researchers in the park and through video calls which was super interesting. There is a researcher doing some drip rate studies in Lehman caves. They want to see how fast specific formations drip throughout the year and how fast calcite is deposited in three spots in the cave. Counting drips during the dry season can take quite some time, one spot has yet to drip in over 3 weeks! Another researcher is doing an acoustic study of the water dripping in the cave. The difference in the cave sounds between last spring and this winter is drastic!

Another group that came to the park to do research was a group of paleontologists from around the country. They came to look for bones in nearby Forest Service caves. I had not ever done real paleontology, but uncovering horse hooves, pika, marmot, and bat bones was incredible! It was also relaxing to sift through dirt and sand. Some microbiologists from New Mexico came out to take microbe samples in multiple park and Forest Service caves. I had not ever intently considered microbes, but now I see them all over in caves. I did not realize how microbes shape so much of what happens in caves. They shape where some of the water goes and how some of the formations form. It was awesome to learn from some of the top people in their chosen area of study.

In January I was able to plan and run the Lehman Caves Lint Camp. We had 29 participants that provided over 300 hours of volunteer service in three days! It was wonderful to help organize this event. I learned how to design a website that would limit how many people could sign up, different cave cleaning techniques, and how to delegate since I could not be everywhere all at once. Two weeks later we held a mini lint camp and that also went wonderfully, and I am so grateful to everyone who came and donated their time and effort to keep Lehman Caves looking beautiful.

Heather in Lehman Caves smiling into the camera with soda straws in the background.

NPS/H. Hansen

Some of the other experience I have been fortunate to have are helped with the Nevada state raptor surveys, participated in the Christmas bird count where my partner for the day and I found a species that has not ever been recorded in this area, swabbed bats for White nose syndrome, learned how air quality samples are taken here, helped maintenance with their infrastructure projects in Lehman Caves, spread native seeds over a recently burned prescribed burn area, did invertebrate studies in multiple caves, put dataloggers in multiple caves, programmed and placed trail cameras, learned how to run the CaveSim that Great Basin recently got, and participated in the annual snow surveys. I have loved my time at Great Basin National Park, and I am grateful to everyone who has helped guide me in this adventure.