Ryan Maurer

Participate and lead trips into the historic north section of the Hellhole Cave System to service bat sensors, conduct cleanup, and monitor, install, and maintain rigging. This work is being conducted by Extreme Endeavors at the request of Greer Limestone, the owner of the Historic Hellhole Entrance.

Assisted the Pennsylvania Game Commission in gate maintenance for Casparis Cave, a habitat for endangered bats in southwestern Pennsylvania. Also assisted in a bat count and survey of the cave establishing the population count as of March 2023.

Conducted photography of sensitive cave and karst locations and some biological species within. Locations include Chance Window, Gallohan Cave System, Golf Course Cave, Madison Saltpeter Cave, Natural Bridge, Ogdens Cave, Surgeners Cave, Thompson Cedar Cave, and Unthanks Cave. Species photographed include Lirceus usdagalun (Lee County cave isopod) and the Powell Valley cave ispod.

Produced photographs for Forest K. Fisher's book Produced photographs for this celebrated commercial cave, primarily of commercial tour route scenes, speleothems, and the undeveloped back sections of Whisper Rocks.

Produced photographs for Forest K. Fisher's book Alexander Caverns: Mifflin County's Once Spectacular Show Cave. This project involved working in delicate and pristine formation galleries rarely visited by cavers.

Produced photographs for Forest K. Fisher's book Participated in field work for microbial sampling in various locations for Dr. Hazel Barton's lab at the University of Akron with graduate student Katey Bender.

Spent 9 days in Havana and rural northwest Cuba photographing an expedition led by Dr. Maria Perez at West Virginia University. During the expedition we worked with local cavers to explore and document caves and foster international connections.

Photographed Goat Cave, Lake Cave, Deep Cave, Slaughter Canyon Cave, Wen Cave, Helens Cave, Spider Cave, and the Guadalupe and New Mexico Rooms of Carlsbad Cavern for the National Park Service.

Photographed commercial and off-trail areas of Timpanogos Cave for the National Park Service..

Friars Hole Cave System is currently the second longest cave in West Virginia. It is 52.05 miles long and 625 feet deep. Cartography work for this project has included merging data from the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and the 2000s with modern survey of higher quality. Data management has been conducted primarily by Bill Storage with Ryan Maurer serving as quality assurance. Cartography work has resulted in a large wall display map drawn at 100 feet to the inch that is 7 feet tall and 19 feet long. This map is currently being converted into an atlas form and a digital object. It was a blue ribbon Merit Award at the 2023 Convention of the National Speleological Society.
I am also the cartographer for the following quads:

• Snedegars Cave
• South Ontario Extension
• Toothpick Cave

For copies and inquiries contact the West Virginia Speleological Survey (WVASS).

Fantasy Cave is a complicated 3-dimensional maze cave in south central Pennsylvania. It is currently 4,000ft long and 106 feet deep. The cave is formed on 7 overlapping vertical levels and is extrmely complication. Cartography is a work in progress and is being co-managed with Hope Brooks. The complicated nature of the cave requires unique cartographic practices to be employed: a digital map is being produced with varying levels of interactiveness, multiple paper maps are being generated for navigation, geology, and outreach. Copies are currently only available for project members and special requests.

Spanish Point Cave is a 1,500 foot long hypogenic cave on Spanish Point, in the Bighorn Mountains. The cave is moderately complicated with boneyard occuring on three overlapping vertical levels. This map is being drawn in a traditional, monochromatic style. The cave was surveyed in August 2022 by Ryan Maurer, Hope Brooks, Daniel Heins, Jen Foote, Ben Smith, and Kevin Manley.
For copies and inquiries contact Daniel Austin or Ryan Maurer.

Cedar Ridge Crystal Cave is a 800 foot long highly decorated cave in Marion County, Tennessee. The cave is formed on one level within the Monteagle Limestone. The map is drafted in a traditional, monochromatic style.
For copies and inquiries contact the Tennessee Cave Survey.

Floyd Waggys Cave is a 1,500ft long cave in Pendelton County, West Virginia. The cave is closed and access was granted for photography and exploration work on a very limited basis. Copies are not avaiable.

Whitings Neck Cave is a propular 1,300ft long cave in the pandhandle of West Virginia. This resurvey was conducted from August 2018 to December 2021. Copies are available upon request.

This 67 foot open air pit was resurveyed and remapped in the winter of 2018 and summer of 2022. The map was published in the 2023 Guidebook for the Convention of the National Speleological Society. For copies, contact the West Virginia Association for Cave Studies.

Laurel Caverns is a 4.15 mile long and 480 foot deep commercial cave. This map was the result of an intensive geographic and geological resurvey of the cave conducted in the winter and spring of 2019. The map was hand drafted using traditional drafting techniques and then digitized for final use. The map is used by the commercial cave operations for outreach and education and has been used and published in internal documents by the Pennsylvania Geological Survey. For copies, contact Laurel Caverns.

I served as an expedition photographer, sketcher, and climber for this week long expedition. Survey and exploration efforts in Spanish Point Cave resulted in a 25 foot aid climb which extended the known length of the cave by five times. I also participated in surface and sub-surface exploration and survey work in Tres Charros Cave.

I was expedition photographer for 9 days in Havana and rural northwest Cuba photographing an expedition led by Dr. Maria Perez at West Virginia University. During the expedition we worked with local cavers to explore and document caves and foster international connections.

• Oversaw and conducted lectures and workshops to onboard new club members into the design and construction of solid rocket motors.
• Lead the design team for yearly projects inlcuding the design and deployment of solid rocket motors up to "O" class and the development of numerous solid rocket propellants.
• Lead the development of software for modelling solid rocket motor behavior and the analysis of test data for the purposes of managing burn rate augmentation, performance anomalies, and model anchoring.

A 1,500 word essay on exploring and documenting underground cave systems. The article touches on the technical processes involved as well as the subjective nuances of conservation and responsible exploration. For the article I provided 5 color photographs and a set of simulated cave survey data, sketches, and a map. The data and map was simulated to avoid publishing protected sensitive information regard real-world cave systems.
Read this article!

A 1,200 word essay on the underground environments and ecosystems as well as how humans explore and ejoy these places..
Read this article!

I contributed photographs to this article.
Read this article!

A 650 word article highlighting the wild caving trips lead by the NROCKS commercial operation in Pendelton County, WV.
Read this article!

A 550 word article highlighting the caves and karst of Greenbrier County, WV.
Read this article!

Worked as an instructor with groups of students from 1st through 12th grade on all levels of math from basic counting to calculus.

Lead a geology field trip above and below ground to cave and karst locations in and around Laurel Caverns, Pennsylvania. This was as a guest speaker for the anniversary picnic for the Pittsburgh Grotto.
Trips lead:

• A surface geology field trip to outcroppings of the limestones which control development of the cave, surface inlet features, two small caves, and a paleontological site. Group size was 30, round trip distance was ~2 miles, total time ~2.5 hours.
• A geological field trip in the cave both in the developed commercial sections and wild caving sections. Highlights included structural controls such as joints, faults, bedding planes, unit horizons, and insoluble lenses. Group size was 20, caving distance was 1/2 mile, and total time was ~4 hours.

Lead a geology field trip above and below ground to cave and karst locations in and around Laurel Caverns, Pennsylvania. This was assisting Katherine Schmid in leading and speaking for visiting geologists.

Every year the WVU Experimental Rocketry (WVUER) team would get an influx of new members. Those new members required training and education in the niche field of solid rocket motor design and construction. This required the development of a specialized curriculum within the club that taught new members topics and theories that many would not learn for another 3 or 4 years in their normal studies. These classes were entirely voluntary for both students and lecturers (which I shared lecture responsibilities with another club members). A simulated rocket motor project was conducted among the students that ran in parallel with projects being conducted by the club.
The results of this leture series produced several tangible results:

• 1st and 2nd place awards by WVUER at the International Rocketry Engineering Challenge, multiple years between 2015 and 2020
• A perfect safety and performance record for the testing and use of solid rocket motors both in static test firings and flight vehicles.
• Numberous students went on to work for various aerospace engineering firms such as NASA - Huntsville, JPL, and SpaceX.

There were two curriculums that ran simultaneously. A beginners series was conducted in the Fall semester. An advanced series was conducted in the Spring. An advanced "refresher" course was conducted in the fall for returning students. The series was: Beginners Course
Advanced topics italicized

1. Introduction and Required Skills
   • History of Solid Rocket Motor Design
   • Overview of Solid Rocket Motor Design
   • Solid motor design and testing
   • Required math: Algebra, calculus, trigonometry.
   • Required math: Differential equations
   • Required programming languages: Matlab
2. Fundamentals of Solid Rocket Motor operation
   • Propellant combustion and the ignition process
   • Choked flow and pressure generation
   • Flow behavior through nozzles
   • Thrust generation
3. Solid Rocket Motor design and construction
   • Propellant grain geometry
   • Nozzle optimization
   • Structural designs of solid rocket motor casements
   • solid rocket propellant manufacturing
   • O-ring groove design
   • Introduction to solid rocket motor casement fabrications inclduing the use of mills and metal lathes
4. Modelling solid rocket motor performance
   • Incremental modelling in Microsoft Excel
   • introduction to iterative modelling to determine nozzle exit pressure
   • modelling burn rate augmentation based on mean bulk temperature
   • iterative modelling using differential calculus to determine chamber pressure rate changes
   • burn rate augmentation predictions based on mass flux and erosive burning models.
5. Solid Rocket Motor testing
   • Data acquisition systems
   • basic data analysis for performance and anomalies including changes to characteristic velocity and nozzle efficiency
   • model anchoring
   • data analysis to calculate burn rate augmentation by comparing inferred burn rate from mass generation and inferred burn rate by chamber pressure rate change
   • model anchoring of advanced topics
6. Characterization of solid rocket motor propellants
   • Basic three-point characterization series.
   • Use of real-time performance data to anchor characterization data

Trained children, teens, and young adults in the basics of single rope technique and then lead them through rope drops of 25 to 40 feet in a controlled environment. Also lead the training for new instructors and belayers. Groups included the general public, church groups, various youth groups, and workplace development groups.

Lead trips through the deepest cave in Pennsylvania on a routine basis for members of the general public and various youth groups. All trips involved pushing participants mentally and physically in a challenging natural environment while educating them on the geological, cultural, and biological significance of the cave.

Lead trips through the commercialized sections of the deepest cave in Pennsylvania on a routine basis for members of the general public and various youth groups. All tours focused on educating them on the geological, cultural, and biological significance of the cave.

In this position I contributed to a large body of information collected by citizen scientists on the behavioral patterns of geothermal features such as geysers, hot springs, fumaroles, mud pots, and associated features like runoff channel biota. This information is largely accesible at GeyserTimes, a non-profit volunteer organization which collects and organizes this information. During active field work I routinely engaged with members of the public and officials of the National Park Service to aid and assist in interpretation of thermal features, management of public safety, and protection of public resources. I also gained experience with working long hours in hard natural environments under stress.

In this position I served as the initial contact point for visitors staying at this hotel. I managed reservations, guest complaints and requests, and activity schedules.