At the age of five, Roger Brucker made an important discovery: his new trainers had enough grip to scale his friend’s laundry chute. He promptly climbed from the basement to the first storey bathroom. Regrettably, it was occupied. It’s an obsession for a few people who are intrigued by how big it is, how far is goes and how many kinds of cave passages it contains,” Brucker said. “I think this is just unbridled curiosity fed by a continuous stream of discoveries.” Mammoth Cave, the centrepiece of Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave National Park, has attracted explorers for centuries. Spelunkers have discovered blind fish in underground rivers, tunnels blooming with gypsum flowers and sheer, gaping pits. What they haven’t found is the end of the cave. In the 1950s, Brucker was part of a team of ambitious young cavers exploring the Flint Ridge landscape around Mammoth Cave National Park. Together, they founded the Cave Research Foundation, a team of volunteers dedicated to scientific exploration. What does it take to be a caver? “Curiosity, the ability to see things in three dimensions and persistence,” Brucker listed. “I would not look for some kind of macho muscle man.” Not least of all because macho men can’t squeeze through narrow passageways. Size is often a deciding factor in caving: even the park’s Wild Cave Tour is limited to people measuring 42in or less at the shoulders and hips.

Brucker has worn a lot of hats – writer, executive, teacher, activist. But his favourite has a carbide lamp on the front. He’s been exploring the uncharted reaches of the Mammoth Cave System for more than 60 years. In that time, he’s played a role in most major discoveries, including Mammoth’s establishment as the longest cave in the world. Source: BBC