Western Regional 2024

The event will take place in the Gifford Pinchot national forest near Mt St Helen’s, on its southern slopes.

The area is only 1 hour away from Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, WA, and only a few minutes away from Cougar, WA where there are multiple camping options if needed. You can even wild camp in the area.

Food options are only 30 minutes away in Woodland, WA as well.

The lava field is surrounded by a lush, old growth rain forest, and makes accessing the caves even more interesting.

While Known mostly for the 1980 eruption, Mt ST Helen’s is host to a very diverse cave selection. Not only are there amazing lava tubes, but it also holds several of the worlds longest Erosional caves. On top of that, the area contains hundreds of tree molds and tree mold cave complexes, as well as deep vertical crack caves that require expert rope skills.

Since the last regional in the area, dozens of new, significant caves have been discovered, and offer even more unique experiences to the already great inventory of caves.

The Gauntlet

The Gauntlet is a Volunteer run Metric (Alpine) Single Rope Technique Course with the goal of helping cavers to learn, expand and refine vertical skills.

The Gauntlet Website