Vermont Caves
1867 Cave
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Cave Type: Horizontal
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Rock Type: Beldens marble, Chipman formation
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Description: The cave is named for a carved date, 1867, at the far end of the passage. It is a tight, sinuous cave with relatively unspoiled decorations and interesting passage shapes. The entrance area is home to a family of porcupines year round.
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Difficulty: Easy
Bear Bones Cave
Cave Type: High-angle
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Rock Type: Beldens marble, Chipman formation
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Description: A short, easy cave with a modest vertical challenge. This cave, relocated in 1991, was named for the partial bear skeleton found at the bottom of the entrance drop.
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Difficulty: Easy
​Chimney Cave (SICO’s Cave)
Cave Type: High-angle, steep climbs
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Rock Type: Bascom-Beldens marble, Bascom formation
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Description: Chimney Cave is a very steep passage formed along a high-angle fault in the marble. It descends, with loose rock, to a larger room with several climbs and domes before ending in a debris choke. The cave is home to a significant colony of hibernating bats and should not be visited in the winter.
Most photos below are from a 2014 bat survey.
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Difficulty: Moderate
Aeolus Cave (Dorset Bat Cave)
Cave Type: Horizontal with vertical areas
Rock Type: Columbian marble, Shelburne formation
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Description: Aeolus Bat Cave, also known as Dorset Bat Cave and Green Peak Cave, is owned by the Nature Conservancy. This cave used to house large numbers of bats, including Myotis Sodalis. It is still Vermont’s longest known cave and most significant natural hibernaculum. The cave contains an easier upper level, historically know, and a much more challenging lower level with tight crawls, large rooms, and abundant formations (the bulk of the cave, discovered in 2001). The cave is gated and not open to public visitation.
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Difficulty: Challenging
Carbide Cave
Cave Type: Horizontal
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Rock Type: Sherman marble, Mount Holly complex
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Description: This cave was discovered in the 1990s by Bob Dion. It is named for a disused carbide quarry, through which the cave stream resurges, but the majority of the cave is a dry upper level in white marble with nodules of graphite and quartz.
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Difficulty: Easy
Cliff Hole Cave
Cave Type: Horizontal, but requires vertical equipment to access the entrance
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Rock Type: Bascom-Beldens marble, Bascom formation
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Description: A short cave halfway up a 65′ high quarry face. A rappel entry leaves one hanging 4′ from the face.
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Difficulty: Easy
Easter Cave
Cave Type: Horizontal, with some short climbs
Rock Type: Sherman marble, Mount Holly complex
Description: The cave is a series of fractures, domes, and crawls with little relationship to existing water flow. It has three entrances and sections, each connected to the next by tight pinches and a combination of breakdown and solid passages. It several places, there are nice exposures of white banded marble.
Difficulty: Moderate
Freedlyville Quarry
Quarry Type: Horizontal
Rock Type: Bascom-Beldens marble, Bascom formation
Description: Though not a cave, this abandoned underground quarry is a favorite spot for ice skating in the winter. The VCA holds an annual skating party there in February, provided the ice is solid. There are also nice ice formations and a short natural dome in one part of the quarry.
Difficulty: Easy
Milton Gorge and Mill Pond Caves
Cave Types: Horizontal
Rock Types: Dunham dolomite and Clarenden Springs dolomite
Description: The Milton Gorge caves are a series of large entrances with short associated passages adjacent to Milton Falls. The Mill Pond caves are three related caves with active stream flow in two of them. Most of the photos below are from a July 2006 trip by the VCA to investigate these openings.
Difficulty: Easy
Falls Cliff Cave
Cave Type: Vertical
Rock Type: Bascom-Beldens marble, Bascom formation
Description: A very pretty marble cave, wet, requiring vertical skills. There is very beautiful clean-washed banded marble in the lower sections of the cave.
Difficulty: Moderate
Johnston Cave (Hangover Pit)
Cave Type: Vertical
Rock Type: Winooski dolomite
Description: Johnston Pit is formed in a vertical bed of dolomite and has a short pinch at the top. Once inside, a dry drop of 30′ requiring rope and vertical gear brings one down to a wide room with a short crawl passage heading off.
Difficulty: Easy
Morris Cave
Cave Type: Horizontal
Rock Type: Colombian marble, Shelburne formation
Description: New England’s fourth largest cave, Morris Cave has some 1800′ of passage, the first 600′ containing three ‘filters’: the Cobble Crawl, the wet pinch, and the last pinch. The last of these, 500′ into the cave, is a 9.5″ x 15″ x 24″ long squeeze at the bottom of a U shaped passage; most folks have to take off their helmets, and enter the pinch upside down, on their back. After the last pinch, the cave opens into some large rooms with multiple passages heading out to the Lake Room, Waterfalls Passage, and Corkscrew.
Difficulty: Moderate
Mt Horrid Talus Caves
Cave Type: Horizontal
Rock Type: Granitoid gneiss, Mount Holly complex
Description: Three large talus caves, first recorded by Robert W. Carroll Jr. in the 1970s, exist in the talus slopes of Mt Horrid. These are Mt Horrid Ice Cave, Chiller Cave, and Gargantua Cave. Unlike typical talus caves, which are short and rarely dark, these contain large dark rooms and even an occasional climb.
This area is closed annually from March 15- August 1 to protect peregrine falcons. Area closures may be lifted if falcons are not present. Inquiries should be directed to the Forest Service Rochester Ranger District at 1-802-767-4261.
Difficulty: Moderate
PerSeverance Cave
Cave Type: Vertical
Rock Type: Bascom-Beldens marble, Bascom formation
Description: A sporting, often-wet, vertical cave with some of the best lightly-banded marble in the state. It was first opened in 1998, and new passages were found in July, 1999. Perseverance contains vertical, free-hanging pits of 43′, 77′, and 78′.
Difficulty: Challenging
Pittsford Ice Cave
Cave Type: High-angle; some steep climbs
Rock Type: Quartzite, Dalton formation
Description: Pittsford Ice Cave is one of the Vermont’s best known talus caves, formed by house-sized boulders pulling away from a cliff face inside a large ravine. It forms very pretty ice formations in the winter and holds ice well into the summer. It also has a very large room, and a ladder installed near the entrance to make one of the climbs easier.
Difficulty: Easy
Nickwackett Cave
Cave Type: Horizontal
Rock Type: Forestdale marble, Mendon formation
Description: Nickwackett is an old, dry cave with no relationship to existing water flow. It consists of both crawling and walking passages and was a popular beginner cave until it was gated as part of a bat research project. The cave remains gated and closed.
Difficulty: Easy
Philadelphia Cave
Cave Type: Horizontal, but has some tough short climbs
Rock Type: Forestdale marble, Mendon formation
Description: A nasty, tight, wet, debris-filled cave. There is little evidence of solutional activity, and the cave is formed almost entirely in breakdown. There are very slippery, muddy conditions, and a handline may be useful for some drops.
Difficulty: Moderate
Purgatory Pit
Cave Type: Vertical
Rock Type: Bascom-Beldens marble, Bascom formation
Description: Purgatory Pit is a classic pit entrance – the only one known in Vermont. It consists of an open 84′ rappel into a large room, followed by a traverse through two other domes and a 15′ pit. A tight crawl leads to the last pit, also 84′, which drops to the bottom of the cave.
Difficulty: Challenging
Mt Horrid Talus Caves
Cave Type: Horizontal
Rock Type: Granitoid gneiss, Mount Holly complex
Description: Three large talus caves, first recorded by Robert W. Carroll Jr. in the 1970s, exist in the talus slopes of Mt Horrid. These are Mt Horrid Ice Cave, Chiller Cave, and Gargantua Cave. Unlike typical talus caves, which are short and rarely dark, these contain large dark rooms and even an occasional climb.
This area is closed annually from March 15- August 1 to protect peregrine falcons. Area closures may be lifted if falcons are not present. Inquiries should be directed to the Forest Service Rochester Ranger District at 1-802-767-4261.
Difficulty: Moderate
PerSeverance Cave
Cave Type: Vertical
Rock Type: Bascom-Beldens marble, Bascom formation
Description: A sporting, often-wet, vertical cave with some of the best lightly-banded marble in the state. It was first opened in 1998, and new passages were found in July, 1999. Perseverance contains vertical, free-hanging pits of 43′, 77′, and 78′.
Difficulty: Challenging
Pittsford Ice Cave
Cave Type: High-angle; some steep climbs
Rock Type: Quartzite, Dalton formation
Description: Pittsford Ice Cave is one of the Vermont’s best known talus caves, formed by house-sized boulders pulling away from a cliff face inside a large ravine. It forms very pretty ice formations in the winter and holds ice well into the summer. It also has a very large room, and a ladder installed near the entrance to make one of the climbs easier.
Difficulty: Easy
Nickwackett Cave
Cave Type: Horizontal
Rock Type: Forestdale marble, Mendon formation
Description: Nickwackett is an old, dry cave with no relationship to existing water flow. It consists of both crawling and walking passages and was a popular beginner cave until it was gated as part of a bat research project. The cave remains gated and closed.
Difficulty: Easy
Philadelphia Cave
Cave Type: Horizontal, but has some tough short climbs
Rock Type: Forestdale marble, Mendon formation
Description: A nasty, tight, wet, debris-filled cave. There is little evidence of solutional activity, and the cave is formed almost entirely in breakdown. There are very slippery, muddy conditions, and a handline may be useful for some drops.
Difficulty: Moderate
Purgatory Pit
Cave Type: Vertical
Rock Type: Bascom-Beldens marble, Bascom formation
Description: Purgatory Pit is a classic pit entrance – the only one known in Vermont. It consists of an open 84′ rappel into a large room, followed by a traverse through two other domes and a 15′ pit. A tight crawl leads to the last pit, also 84′, which drops to the bottom of the cave.
Difficulty: Challenging
Tallow Cave
Cave Type: Vertical
Rock Type: Bascom-Beldens marble, Bascom formation
Description: Tallow Cave is notable for its copious amounts of ‘moon milk’, found throughout the cave. The cave consists of a short climb into a series of connected rooms and two short pits requiring vertical gear to descend.A short cave halfway up a 65′ high quarry face. A rappel entry leaves one hanging 4′ from the face.The cave is named for a carved date, 1867, at the far end of the passage.
Difficulty: Moderate
Windy River Cave
Cave Type: Horizontal
Rock Type: Beldens marble, Bascom formation
Description: This cave was discovered in 2015 by the Berkshire Area Diggers Association. It is formed in unusually undeformed, thin-bedded marble and alternates between wide hands-and-knees crawlways and walking-height stream passage, a rare developmental pattern for Vermont. The cave also has numerous rare and delicate formations that are also unusual for the state.
Windy River is privately owned and not open without permission.
Difficulty: Moderate – the passages are easy, but extreme care is required to avoid damaging the many delicate formations
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The Vermonster Cave System
Cave Type: Vertical
Rock Type: Bascom-Beldens marble, Bascom formation
Description: The Vermonster system is the second-logest cave in New England, and was discovered in 2012 by the Berkshire Area Diggers Association. It consists of multiple infeeding stream passages, often wet, and several short vertical drops. The passage alternates between tight segments and large rooms, often with extensive breakdown in the upper levels. Some sections have multiple overlapping passages with vertical exposure, and rope and vertical gear is required in three places.
The cave is not generally open for visitation; photos below are from the 2012 exploration and survey.
Difficulty: Challenging
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Tallow Cave