Spelunking superstars: 5 cavers who changed the sport forever

Curious about caving? Meet some real rock stars who changed the world of potholing for the better.

Sheck Exley was one of the pioneers of cave diving and was a regular record-breaker.

At the age of 23, he became the first caver in the world to log over 100 cave dives – and he went on to make more than 4,000 dives during his 29-year career. During this time, he explored and surveyed an impressive portion of the world's deep-water cave systems.

He established many of the fundamental safety procedures used in cave diving today, including the use of the "octopus". This backup diving regulator is now used regularly in deep-sea diving. 

But he wasn't just a technological whizz. Exley had a few superpowers up his sleeve, too. For instance, he was known to have an unusual resistance to nitrogen narcosis. This is a phenomenon where the gases used by divers can have a narcotic effect and sometimes cause them to lose consciousness.

As if his CV wasn't impressive enough, Exley was also the first chairman of the Cave Diving Section of the American National Speleological Society. To finance his passion, he worked as a maths teacher in Florida. 

Considered one of the fathers of cave diving, he literally wrote the book on the emerging sport: 1979's Basic Cave Diving, among others.

2. Édouard-Alfred Martel 

Édouard-Alfred Martel was born in France in 1859. He was a world pioneer of cave exploration and study.

Known as the "father of modern speleology", he strove to make sure it was recognised as a serious field of scientific study.

After completing his military service, he studied law and became an attorney. All of his leisure and holiday time was spent travelling France – and he became fascinated by the karst formations found in the Causses.

He truly began his caving career in the Bramabiau gorge in Gard when he and several companions entered a rock cavity and explored the caves within. From that moment on, Martel was hooked. 

While he explored the cave systems in France extensively, he also made time to study several caves in the UK. During these trips, he discovered much of the Marble Arch Caves in County Fermanagh and undertook the first complete descent of Gaping Gill in Yorkshire.

In 1895, Martel founded the Société de Spéléologie, the first organisation based on cave science in the world. But despite this new venture, he continued to travel across Europe to explore caves. In 1899 he left his professional life behind to devote himself fully to speleology. 

Martel was a true pioneer – and many future cave explorers admired his passion and evocative writing. 

3. Stephen Bishop 

Born in 1821, Stephen Bishop was a self-taught geologist and – for much of his life – a slave.

Bishop's career began at the age of 17 when his enslaver introduced him to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky: the longest known cave system in the world. He then explored and named much of the cave – and as it became a major tourist attraction, Bishop became its premier tour guide.

Visitors such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and opera singer Jenny Lind joined his tours – and many respected scientists consulted Bishop, impressed by his knowledge of geology and expertise about Mammoth Cave.

Later on, he was enslaved by John Croghan, who had purchased Mammoth Cave. In 1842, Croghan asked Bishop to draw a map of the cave while staying at his estate, which Bishop did from memory.

The map was published two years later by Morton and Griswold as a pull-out insert in Alexander Clark Bullitt's Rambles in Mammoth Cave in the Year 1844 by a Visiter [sic]. Bishop was named as the author and given full credit – an anomaly for an enslaved person. 

The map remained in use for well over 40 years. 

4. Jill Heinerth

Jill Heinerth is an award-winning Canadian cave diver and explorer. She has not only created documentaries and written extensively about caving but has also served as a consultant for directors like James Cameron.

It's fair to say that Cameron is a big fan. He once said that "more people have walked on the moon than have been to some of the places Jill Heinerth has gone right here on Earth".

As a child, Heinerth was inspired by Jacques Cousteau's famous television series about deep sea exploration. After working as a graphic designer (while also teaching scuba diving), she quit her job in 1991 to become a full-time diver and photographer.

In 1998, Heinerth was involved in the creation of the first 3D map of an underwater cave. Since then, she has become the first person in the world to dive in the ice caves of Antarctica and has explored countless caves around the world. That includes the anchialine caves of Christmas Island, as well as the flooded Bell Island Mines at Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada.

Heinerth's documentaries have been shown on channels like the BBC, PBS and National Geographic. She is also a prolific public speaker and educator, dedicated to teaching others about caving and cave exploration. 

5. Geoff Workman

In 1963, caver and Yorkshireman Geoff Workman broke the record for time spent underground in total isolation. He lasted a staggering 105 days underground – smashing the previous record of 40 days.

Workman was interested in how isolation affected the mind and body. He made himself a human guinea pig with the caves as his controlled environment. While underground, he made himself busy by surveying and studying the caves and creating a map of the environment. 

Surprisingly, Workman said that he enjoyed his time in the caves and that he never got bored or lonely.

Where did he spend all that time underground, you ask? Well, our very own Stump Cross Caverns, of course!

At Stump Cross Caverns, you can explore snaking passageways, gasp at the astonishing rock formations and discover ancient mysteries hidden deep underground, just like these caving superstars.

Are you ready for an underground cave tour like no other? Book your tickets online today.