Qualla: Hellhole https://qualla.com/hellhole-cave en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:07 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/z/s/hellhole-cave-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Hellhole https://qualla.com/hellhole-cave Hellhole: Introduction https://qualla.com/hellhole-cave/ Photo credit Dave Bunnell, CC BY-SA 4.0. The entrance to Hellhole is a funnel-shaped pit in the lower slope of North Fork Mountain. To get in, you tie off a rope and rappel 154 feet straight down into a vast chamber. From there, the cave opens into more than 42 miles of mapped passage - the seventh longest cave in the United States, the deepest cave in West Virginia at 737 feet, and one of the most consequential places in the world for endangered bats. Hellhole holds about 9,000 Virginia big-eared bats - roughly 45 percent of the entire global population. It holds another 9,000 endangered Indiana bats. It holds over 100,000 little brown bats. And the limestone walls that make Hellhole what it is sit next to an active quarry, separated by buffer zones that exist only because cavers managed to map enough cave to define them.

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Image: Dave Bunnell | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/z/s/hellhole-cave-wp/dnzs-hellhole-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Hellhole: Why Hellhole Is Cold https://qualla.com/hellhole-cave/ Photo credit Dave Bunnell, CC BY-SA 4.0. Most West Virginia caves sit at about 57 degrees Fahrenheit. Hellhole averages 47 degrees - ten degrees colder than its peers. That difference is what makes the cave a globally significant bat hibernaculum. Bats hibernating at temperatures too warm burn through their fat reserves...

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Image: Dave Bunnell | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/z/s/hellhole-cave-wp/dnzs-hellhole-why-hellhole-is-cold.mp3 0:06 2 full Hellhole: Where Caving Techniques Were Invented https://qualla.com/hellhole-cave/ Photo credit Dave Bunnell, CC BY-SA 4.0. Hellhole and the broader Germany Valley cave systems were central to the founding of the National Speleological Society in the early 1940s. Many of the techniques that modern cavers take for granted were developed or refined at Hellhole's 154-foot entrance drop. The single rope t...

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Image: Dave Bunnell | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/z/s/hellhole-cave-wp/dnzs-hellhole-where-caving-techniques-were-invented.mp3 0:06 3 full Hellhole: Krause Hall and the Hidden Cave https://qualla.com/hellhole-cave/ Photo credit Dave Bunnell, CC BY-SA 4.0. What happened between 1995 and 1997 changed everything. Limited mapping resumed, and cavers discovered Krause Hall in the extreme northwest portion of the system. In 1996, exploration reached more than 400 feet below the entrance elevation. In 1997, a breakthrough discovery exten...

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Image: Dave Bunnell | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/z/s/hellhole-cave-wp/dnzs-hellhole-krause-hall-and-the-hidden-cave.mp3 0:06 4 full Hellhole: The 16-Week Window https://qualla.com/hellhole-cave/ Photo credit Dave Bunnell, CC BY-SA 4.0. Because Virginia big-eared bats and Indiana bats are federally endangered, all survey work in Hellhole must happen within a 16-week summer window when the bats are not hibernating. Disturbing hibernating bats can cause them to use stored energy reserves and die before spring. Wit...

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Image: Dave Bunnell | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/z/s/hellhole-cave-wp/dnzs-hellhole-the-16-week-window.mp3 0:06 5 full Hellhole: White-Nose Syndrome and What Comes Next https://qualla.com/hellhole-cave/ Photo credit Dave Bunnell, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 2010, the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources documented white-nose syndrome in Hellhole - the fungal disease that has devastated bat populations across North America since the late 2000s. The survey that year counted 66,789 bats, a 40 percent decline from 2007. Most o...

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Image: Dave Bunnell | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/z/s/hellhole-cave-wp/dnzs-hellhole-white-nose-syndrome-and-what-comes-next.mp3 0:06 6 full