Jan and Herb Conn

Jan H. Conn (1924 to 2023) and Herbert William Conn (1920 to 2012) were a married couple who became pioneers of both rock climbing and caving in the United States. Beginning at Carderock near Washington, DC in 1942, they went on to make first ascents at Seneca Rocks in West Virginia, Cannon Cliff in New Hampshire and in the Needles of the Black Hills of South Dakota, where they settled and made around 220 first ascents. From 1959 to 1979 they explored and mapped more than sixty miles of Jewel Cave, now one of the longest caves in the world, and they later told the story in a book, The Jewel Cave Adventure. Their travelling life of casual work and climbing helped define what later became known as dirtbag climbing.