NSS 2025 Luminary - Bruce Smith

The Great Vertical Transition

Bruce Smith, NSS 12458FE, CM

I have been gifted, living in the time of our life that included so much of the evolution of ropework. How did all the people and their skills and knowledge come together? This period of time has become the great vertical transition.

When I was twelve, I joined a boy scout troop that went sailing in the summers and caving in the winters, and my 64 years of dark adventure began. I collected and read the Speleo Digests and other cave books and absorbed as much as I could.

I moved from Illinois to Maryland where I discovered William Davies, Caves of West Virginia, and saw the picture of Hellhole in Pendleton County. This 154-foot drop became our challenge. I purchased some Heibler ascenders from a rock climbing shop and along with my brother and Tim Skellchock, we used a ¾ inch hemp rope for our first descent of Hellhole. We were assisted out of the cave by a passerby named Kennedy, and so began my vertical caving career.

I attended my first NSS convention in State College, Pennsylvania in 1969 or 1970, and met Bill Cuddington, and such began the great vertical transition. Vertical caving systems were evolving quickly with Gibbs Ascenders, Jumars and chest rollers. The rope walker was developed along with the Mitchell system. Rappelling devices were also evolving from brake bars to squeeze brakes and rappel racks. Caving ropes were evolving from hemp, to nylon Goldline, to Sampson, to Bluewater and PMI.

In the early 70s, the NSS Vertical Section was formed, and I was named the editor of the section newsletter that I named the Nylon Highway. Many advances in caving techniques were developed and described over the years in the Nylon Highway.

In 1984, the NSS asked if I would author a book on vertical caving techniques. I teamed with Allan Padgett, and we worked out the details at the 1984 NSS Convention in Sheridan, Wyoming. Three years later, we published On Rope, in 1987. The book received a substantial amount of success. We created a completely rewritten second edition with improved illustrations and photographs, which was published in 1996.

In 1995, I started On Rope I which specialized in the manufacture and sale of vertical caving equipment. It was my intent to make climbing and rappelling systems available to everyone who desired them.

I have seen a drastic and great vertical transition in the way North American cavers climb and rig. Over the last 65 years, I’ve served as an expert witness, single rope technician, rappelling and rope ascent instructor, rescue instructor, fireman instructor for advanced high angle rescue, industrial safety officer, cave and cliff rescue team, rigger, rigger instructor and in urban search and rescue. It has been an amazing career.