The Western Region of the National Cave Rescue Commission (NCRC) includes the US states of California, Nevada, and Hawaii. The region is comprised of many diverse cave types: limestone and marble caves, lava tubes, sea caves, talus caves, and alpine ice caves.
The main focus of the NCRC is development and maintenance of a national curriculum in cave rescue operations. It maintains a cadre of qualified cave rescue instructors, who help it deliver cave rescue educational programs at the national and regional levels, in a variety of formats.
The NCRC strives to maintain working relationships with organizations engaged in cave rescue, and to maintain a professional liaison on behalf of the NSS with federal, state, and local agencies possessing jurisdiction for cave emergencies.
It also tracks the persons trained under its programs and maintains inventories of specialized cave rescue equipment that might be needed in the event of an emergency. These lists are available to providers of cave rescue services, and may best be utilized in pre-planning activities.