Spring VAR 2019
CAVE TRIPS
Although we will have many area caves available for you to enjoy Thursday through Sunday on your own, we will also have several guided cave trips on Saturday. There will be guided horizontal and vertical trips, and trips for different skill levels! We will even have a guided "Kid's Trip", see details below! Unfortunately we cannot pre-register you for a guided cave trip, but signups will be held at the VAR Registration office beginning at 9 PM Friday night.
Guided Horizontal Cave Trips
New River
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"To the Forest Room, Waterfall, and Planetarium. All horizontal, good for beginners with some endurance. This cave will be great for self guided trips as well!"
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Tawney's
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"Tawney's Cave is basically an easy horizontal cave trip. A vertical exposure of up to 30 feet is possible, but we’ll keep it safe! We’ll visit the Moon Room, the Saltpeter Room, the sinkhole, and a few other goodies in between. Expect to get your boots wet!"
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Smoke Hole
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"Horizontal, Beginner level cave. Smoke Hole is a major resurgence for Clover Hollow Cave. The cave has approximately 2 miles of passage, some of which is accessible only during dry weather."
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James
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"To view some of the most beautiful formations in southwest Virginia and encounter every horizontal caving technique known, go to James Cave. Great beginner horizontal trip with some crawling and tight-ish spaces."
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Starnes
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"Starnes Caverns is located in Wilburn Valley about 45 minutes from Blacksburg. Starnes boasts a large passage 1,000 feet long with 40 foot by 60 foot trunk in places. Lots of breakdown. Climbing makes sturdy ankle-high boots a must. A sign-in book has been placed in a mailbox halfway down the landowners driveway. This is the only designated parking area. The walk to the cave is five or ten minutes."
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Links
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"Love canyoning? This horizontal cave is for you. This is a moderate to advanced level horizontal trip that will require you to be ok with no floor, and be able to squeeze and shimmy."
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Perkins
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"Perkins Cave is a highly decorated 10+ mile horizontal maze cave, managed by the Appalachian Cave Conservancy. The cave is only open for guided trips and ACC will be offering two trips for VAR guests. There is some crawling and a bit of vertical exposure, but all trips offered during VAR will be easy enough for experienced cavers. Many passages are fragile and trips will keep to established and marked trails to avoid damage to the numerous pristine formation areas. Expect to see such outstanding features as the White Room, Forest Trail, and Ghosttown.
· Horizontal, crawling, some vertical exposure · Difficulty: moderate, 3-4 hour trip · Special considerations: All Perkins trips during VAR will be relatively easy, but are intended only for experienced cavers. The farm lane down to the cave is not suitable for low clearance vehicles. In dry conditions, most vehicles can make the trip. In wet conditions, 4wd is required." |
Hancock
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"Extensive, horizontal, mazy, steep entrance slope, climbs. This 2.5-mile-long cave is deceptively complicated, running at up to four different levels with fifty-seven loops. It runs beneath two mountain spurs in Walker Mountain and may be mostly phreatic with some streams dropping from the limestone into the dolomite below. The edges are well decorated, but the fun is finding them in this caver’s cave."
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Kid's Trip
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We will guide a cave trip for the "little ones", the actual cave to be visited is TBD. It will be fun and safe introduction to caving for your up and coming caver. Please note that all children MUST be accompanied by their responsible parent or guardian on this trip!
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Guided Vertical Cave Trips
Clover Hollow
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"This beginner vertical trip will go down two drops (70′ and 80′) and go through the main tourist loop. The entrance to this cave will also be a great cave to work on your vertical if you are just starting to learn!"
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Pig Hole
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"A through trip consisting of rappelling the vertical entrance, visiting the Queen's Bath, then exiting through the culvert should take 2-3 hours of leisurely caving."
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Newberry
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"A moderate level vertical trip out in Skydusky hollow. This trip should be doing the straddle pit loop,"
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We will have maps of the caves for those who want to venture on their own. Maps are available in a number of publications as well such as NSS convention guidebooks, prior VAR guidebooks, and Douglas's "Caves of Virginia".
Check with registration, however, if you are venturing on your own to the caves. as some visitation restrictions may apply!!!
If you are interested in leading a trip to one of the local caves, let us know at [email protected] and we can add it to the list above. Likewise, we will have blank cave trip forms available on Cave Trip Signup Night so you can organize a self-lead trip of your own, and invite other VAR cavers!
Check with registration, however, if you are venturing on your own to the caves. as some visitation restrictions may apply!!!
If you are interested in leading a trip to one of the local caves, let us know at [email protected] and we can add it to the list above. Likewise, we will have blank cave trip forms available on Cave Trip Signup Night so you can organize a self-lead trip of your own, and invite other VAR cavers!
Self-Guided Cave Trips
There are a multitude of caves in the counties surrounding Camp Powhatan. We are working on a list of caves that will be open and accessible to VAR cavers over the weekend. We will post the available caves here soon, and we should have cave maps available for you for your self guided trip. Please check back!
There are a multitude of caves in the counties surrounding Camp Powhatan. We are working on a list of caves that will be open and accessible to VAR cavers over the weekend. We will post the available caves here soon, and we should have cave maps available for you for your self guided trip. Please check back!