After weeks of practicing, multiple trips to the local vertical caves in Indiana, and a practice trip to Valhalla Cave in April, our group of vertical caving specialists were ready to take on the deepest pit in the continental U.S. – Fantastic Pit, 586’, which was a part of the Ellison’s Cave system in GA. The club has a 200m (656ft) rope that has been sitting in its box, we aimed to change that.
We drove down to Georgia and set up camp near a spring called Blue Hole at the base of Pidgeon Mountain. At the trailhead we were greeted by the “Warning: this cave will try to kill you” sign and we registered our group. After a solid hike gaining 800’ of elevation, we found the entrance to the cave around 3pm. The cave began with a wet 20’ chimney where we made a fireline to transport all the gear; three ropes and six bags, one with a cake inside. The cave from then on was wet and full of squeezes and long crawl sections. The passage dropped down into a stream bed crawl that was so tight we couldn’t fit the 70L backpack that carried the big rope, which was already causing so much trouble on the crawls it required two people to wrestle it forward. At this point we realized we were in the Misery, the old entrance to the cave, and the next section was the Agony. Storms in the last couple of years had broken open a new passage into the cave, known as the Ecstasy. We turned around, and it was my turn with the big bag. Near the entrance there was a crack that required the combined effort of Carrie lifting from above, myself standing and lifting, and Sam lying between my legs bench pressing the pack from below to get it through. The cake was not having a good time in my wet and crushed bag, but those carrying it did their best to keep it in tact, and a surprise for Carrie’s birthday. We emerged from the cave nearly two hours later and ran into a couple out for a hike, who kindly explained we were in the wrong entrance, and the new one was just up the trail.
The Ecstasy was everything one could hope for, a huge stream passage where one could walk fully upright. We reached the first pit shortly after; Warmup pit. We rigged our short rope and rappelled into the 125’ tall large round room with the stream pouring into a large waterfall off to the left. Our short rope was barely long enough, luckily the rope hung directly over a large rock. We climbed up a section of steep breakdown using a rope hanging rope. At the top there was a rope hanging off a 20’ ledge above us, and a passage lying in front of us, with an intimidating 1’ wide ledge over a 50’ pit below. We elected to go up, unknowingly entering the attic. Fantastic pit has two rig points, an upper point, the attic, and a lower point known as the balcony. After clipping into a handline and crawling on the edge of a 586’ pit, we looked down and saw the balcony; our objective. We turned around, made our way down the breakdown section and realized you had to take the rope and swing it around a corner and follow it down a side passage. This rope had no stopper knot, and you got off the rappel dangerously close to another 20’ hole. Sam was caring the big rope and in the process of trying to squeeze it through the rappel, her pack fell down straight through to the other pit. The group pressed onward as she and Noah rigged our mid-sized rope to retrieve the pack. We traveled through a large stream passage until a small cylindrical room, where the stream turned and disappeared into a crack in the foot of the wall on the left. Next to that crack was a crawl section, where the wall on the left was open to Fantastic pit. Using the handline we crawled next to the pit and could hang our feet over the edge. The crawl opened up into the Balcony, we arrived around 10pm. “Rock!” A rock was thrown over the edge of the pit, over 7 seconds of silence followed before we heard a thunderous echoing crash at the bottom. The immensity of this pit was hard to comprehend.
Sam was the first to descend. Moments after she disappeared over the lip, we heard a loud whooshing noise and a crash, everyone’s hearts dropped until we heard a “CAKAW” and we gave a collective sigh of relief. None of us know what caused the noise. 5 minutes later we heard the 4 whistle blasts signaling she was off rope at the bottom. I was the next to drop the pit. Standing over the lip was looking into the black void was nerve-wracking to say the least. I could just barely see Sam’s tiny light looking up at me in the sea of blackness. I got below the lip and experienced the freeing feeling I had come to love about vertical caving, the feeling of suspension and the free fall below me. Around 200’ down the rope there began to be gusts of wind, followed by the massive waterfall spraying on me. The extreme rope weight variations caused by long rappels such as this require one to be really careful about how many bars to engage as to not lose control of the descent. By the time I reached the bottom my rack was steaming from the heat. I hit the ground, thankful to find out this pit truly had a bottom. Sam and I explored the hall next to the pit and set up the cake, which had miraculously survived. We went to the main chamber to watch the rest of the group descend. It was a strange place, a vast canyon completely confined hundreds of feet under a mountain. You can appreciate the view best watching someone on the rope look around themselves. I don’t think words will ever describe the size of the space and how tiny the people looked from the top, but I can say the National Geographic photo doesn’t do it justice. As the group descended they joined the penguin huddle/group hug to stay warm. We signed the log book at the bottom and ate cave cake. It was getting cold, so we quickly made a plan; the first three up the pit keep going till they get all the way to the top of Warmup, taking all the extra gear with them, the rest pull up and coil the long rope.
I was the first up in the latter, taking 40 minutes to ascend. To calm my nerves, I turned off my lights and went up the 510’ in the dark, looking up and seeing the light of my friends above me reflecting off the ceiling of the pit. About halfway up those lights disappeared, and I was truly alone suspended in the void. I turned my light on to check my surroundings and I had made it to the lip. I gracefully negotiated it and was finally off the rope, grateful to be back on solid ground. I sat on the balcony in the dark, occasionally cakawing in response to Sam. It was a long cold wait alone in the cave, so cold I had to use an emergency reflective blanket to stay warm. Eventually Sam and Ben got to the top and we began coiling the rope. It took a total of 5 hours from when Carrie, Noah, and Isaiah split off to when we met up again. I found the three of them in near hypothermic conditions at the top of the warmup pit but the emergency blanket quickly fixed that. We exited the cave, hiked down the trail, watched a meteor shower, ate a well-deserved dinner and clambered into the tent, exhausted from the 14 hour expedition.
The next day we drove to Tennessee, and set up camp at Falls Creek Falls State Park and visited the titular falls. Under cover of darkness we geared up and hiked to Camps Gulf Cave. The entrance was in the side of a rock face, and we crossed these large mud dunes in a huge tunnel. We found our way through a massive breakdown pile and emerged into the biggest room I’ve ever seen, nearly the size of Mackey arena. IT was a huge cylindrical chamber with a mountain of breakdown in the center. Even with all our headlamps on high it was hard to view the room in its entirety. WE did some exploring searching for more rooms and Carrie ended up stuck down a steep muddy slope over a river bank. We performed a professional cave rescue where I held onto a rock, Sam grabbed my hand, Isaiah grabbed hers, and then took off his belt for Carrie to pull herself out. We left the cave and headed to camp. The next morning we went rappelling off cliffs near Buzzards Roost in the state park. The cliffs were roughly 90’ high above the beautiful Tennessee valley. Being able to see so far and well while rappelling and ascending was a sharp contrast to the rappelling we do in caves, and a welcome change of pace.
The trip was truly fantastic. We had conquered the deepest pit in the continental U.S., and earned our BFC certifications
The Deepest Pit in the Continental US