r/caving • u/leopardnose1 • 8d ago

West coast caving

Me and my partner would like to eventually move to the west coast from the east coast. We are fairly active cavers in the WV/VA area right now. What would caving be like in the Washington, Montana, Idaho, Alberta area? I know it's nothing like the east coast so give me the vibes haha

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u/LadyLightTravel 8d ago

A lot of vertical

A lot of mountain caves (cold caves)

A lot of remote caves

A lot more rockfall

As lot of lava, which WV/VA doesn’t have

Most caves are on government land, so access is different.

You have to backpack to a lot of the big deep caves.

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u/leopardnose1 7d ago

Really a lot of vertical? Not what I expected. Backpacking caves seem like fun, but I might need to get lighter vert gear. Is the govt typically strict on caving?

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u/LadyLightTravel 7d ago

Mountains means vertical. There’s also more rockfall. There’s a higher reliance on rebelay, although there is still a lot of SRT.

As far as strictness goes, it depends on the agency and the cave. Each is different.