Caving

The majority of caves trips will be led as 95% of the Vermont caves are located on private land with trip size regulations required. The non-led trips will be limited in size and number per day.

Led trips
Led trips have been arranged to caves including Morris Cave, Weybridge Cave, Red Mountain Pit, Gargantua and Chiller caves in Mt Horrid's Great Cliffs, Hotwater Pond caves in the Adirondacks, and the Mill Pond Caves. There may be led trips to old hand dug mines in Vermont as well.

See bottom of this page for descriptions of the caves, and the schedule page for trip details.

Self-Led Trips
The Adirondacks in NY contain numerous caves located on state park lands that are open to the public. These trips can be self led. Directions to these trip will be provided at the convention .

White Nose Syndrome
Nearly all known caves in VT and eastern NY have WNS. Caving Gear used during the convention may be a possible vector for the spread of WNS to other regions. To help minimize this risk, basic caving clothing and gear will be provided for cavers arriving from areas which are not currently affected by WNS. Cavers coming from areas already affected by WNS should bring their own gear.
 
Please see the White Nose Info page for details on cave gear.

CAVE DESCRIPTIONS

Morris Cave - VT:
Morris Cave is one of the longest and best-known caves in Vermont and offers nearly 2000ft of winding passages ranging from belly crawls to large rooms. There are several pinches in the entrance series that challenge larger cavers, but once one reaches the main room, the cave opens up. From there, one can climb down to the lake room, up to highest point of the cave, or take secondary passages to a series of waterfall cascades or a marble corkscrew. The cave is formed in white Sutherland Falls marble and bedded out on pink weathering dolomite that can be seen in the floor in some parts of the cave. The cave is located near East Dorset, VT, and is approximately 2 and ½  hours travel south from the convention site. There will be several led trips and directions available at the convention.

Weybridge Cave - VT
Weybridge Cave is Vermont’s third-longest solutional cave at over 1500ft. It consists of a vadose entry passage with a 25ft climbdown followed by a 45ft rappel into the main trunk of the cave, a long walking passage with comfortable ceilings and a great deal of mud infill. There are several points where the passage is nearly choked, but then opens again almost immediately. There are also a number of smaller, muddy side passages that drain the main trunk passage, and a larger side passage that travels about 275ft and drains the intermittent stream that flows into the cave through the entrance passage. The entire cave is formed in Belden’s limestone, which further south in Vermont has been metamorphosed into Belden’s marble. The cave is located in Weybridge, VT, approximately an hour and a quarter from the convention site. There will be led trips and directions available at the convention.

Red Mountain Pit - VT
This cave has the single deepest drop in the northeast at 168ft, which can be rigged either as a single drop with a questionable ledge partway down, or a shorter drop followed by a rebelay and traverse and then a clean drop from the opposite side of the pit. Though no further passage is known at the bottom of Red Mountain Pit, the cave offers some excellent technical challenges as well as nice views of the marble strata as it descends through the Bascolm-Beldens formation. The cave is located near Arlington, VT, and is about two and a half hours south of the convention site. The convention will provide a led trip for vertically skilled cavers only.

Mill Pond Caves - VT
The Mill Pond Caves are a series of three short hydrologically related stream caves, two wet and one dry. The upper dry cave is about 85ft long with one minor constriction and a series of rooms and domes. The insurgence cave is mostly small and wet, with about 75ft of crawls and pinches in the stream. The resurgence cave is connected to the insurgence cave, but blocked by breakdown, and has entrances at both ends of its 70ft of passage. There is an ear dip half-way between the sinkhole entrance and the resurgence entrance that guarantees getting completely soaked. All the caves are formed in Clarenden Springs Marble. The caves are located in Colchester, VT, and are about ten-minutes drive from the convention site.

Mount Horrid Talus Caves - VT
The Mount Horrid Talus Caves are not quite a two hour drive from the convention site. At the name suggests the caves are in talus. In this case the talus is very massive and tricky to navigate through. The hike from the parking area to the talus caves will take at least an hour (uphill).

There are three main so called caves in this area. Mt. Horrid Ice Cave, Gargantua Cave and Chiller Cave. The Ice Cave is the most cave like of the group, nestled under the base of a hundred foot cliff. Gargantua and Chiller Caves are complex and hard to figure out and hard to find. They have strong vertical relief and lots of tricky climbing is necessary. Helmets, lights, kneepads, gloves, long shirts and pants are necessary. Ropes and vertical gear may be necessary to get to some places but are not required. The caves are quite clean with very little mud or dirt, just lots of sharp and unstable rock.

The experience of simply getting to the talus area and the surroundings are well worth the effort. It is harder to navigate through the massive talus and to find cave entrances than navigating in the caves.

This area isn’t recommended for a family type outing or for those who don’t like being cut and whipped by sharp undergrowth and getting generally bruised and beaten up by the landscape. The trip will use up most of a day.

Burrough’s Cave and the Hotwater Pond Caves - NY
The Hotwater Pond Cave system is a series of hydrologically related caves ranging from 2000ft to 25ft., with about 2700ft of known cave in the system. The longest cave, Burrough’s, is also the resurgence for the system. It contains several multi-level passages and one of the largest breakdown rooms in NY, filled with climbs and meandering passages between breakdown blocks. Past the breakdown room is the bulk of the cave, mostly multi-level stream passage leading to gradually shrinking infeeder passages. The stream is lost towards the back of the cave, though sections of the dry passage drain away towards it. Next door to Burrough’s is Rusty Stove, a narrow cave about 300ft long with walls covered in popcorn that grab and tear coveralls. Above on the plateau is Hotwater Pond Cave, the insurgence for the system, with about 250ft of walking passage and two entrances. Two other small caves, Porter and Neverellen, are also located in the karst. All the caves are formed in Grenville marble, which is ancient and so metamorphosed that it has reduced to many of its constituent minerals; igneous intrusions into the marble are also common. These caves are located in Minerva, NY in the Adirondacks, approximately 2 and ½  hours travel south from the convention site. There will be led trips and directions available at the convention.