Daring duo films spine-tingling descent into America’s deepest underground pit

Peering into the vast, shadowy mouth of a cave, its depths disappearing into darkness, is enough to send shivers down most people’s spines. But for a pair of daring explorers, it’s just another day of adventure. The @ActionAdventureTwins, a YouTube duo known for their adrenaline-fueled exploits, recently dropped a GoPro into one of the deepest caves in the United States. The resulting video has gone viral, leaving audiences both captivated and unsettled.

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The footage, shared by James and Edward of @ActionAdventureTwins, has garnered over 362,000 views and nearly a thousand comments. Joining them on this adventure were Nate and Ben, identical twins from Pennsylvania who run their own exploration channel, @DeepFreedom.

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“We took a GoPro down into the deepest pit in the U.S, and are the first people to drop it down to the bottom of this cave,” the team wrote in the video’s caption. It’s worth noting, however, that the cave has been explored and mapped by numerous speleologists over the years. The location in question is the Fantastic Pit in Ellison’s Cave, situated in Walker County on Pigeon Mountain in Georgia’s Appalachian Plateaus. At 586 feet deep, it’s the deepest unobstructed underground pit in the country. Ellison’s Cave itself stretches 12 miles long and reaches a depth of 1,063 feet, ranking it as the 12th deepest cave in the United States.

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At the start of the video, one of the twins explains, "We're gonna rappel down like, 128 feet, and we're gonna see the deepest cave in America, and we're gonna drop a GoPro down it." The scene is set at the rugged entrance of the pit, surrounded by dirt, tangled vines, and dense foliage.

The team lowers the GoPro into the cave’s gaping opening, sending it plummeting into the darkness. The first drop takes the camera about 125 feet down, followed by a second descent into a pit measuring roughly 586 feet deep. The footage captures swirling dust particles and the faint sound of dripping water as the camera dangles from its rope, navigating jagged rock formations and craggy walls.

Representative photo by francesco ungaro via Pexels

At one point, the explorers spot a waterfall. “That’s cool,” they remark. As the camera delves deeper, the audio grows muffled, and the rotating lens reveals towering limestone formations and fractured gypsum rocks. Eventually, the GoPro reaches the cave’s bedrock, littered with stones and pebbles, now 714 feet below the Earth’s surface.

Retrieving the camera proves to be a challenge. As they pull the rope back up, the GoPro nearly gets stuck in the drill’s axle. “I don’t know what this footage looks like, but I am just surprised we got the GoPro back,” one of the twins admits at the end of the clip.

Image Source: YouTube | @kennethprice5628

The eerie visuals of the shadowy chasm have left many viewers on edge. “I’m not going to lie, when it got to the bottom I was anxious for a second. I saw one of those white rocks and was like... omg is that a ghost,” commented @bombud1. Another viewer, @trilfiger448, added, “The muffled descending sound was terrifying! And the spinning...I was just waiting for something to jump-scare me.”

Image Source: YouTube | @sk8ordie725

@waya420 speculated, “Honestly surprised the bottom wasn’t full of water. It must drain out somewhere even deeper. It would be fun to explore it with a drone if you could.”

Image Source: YouTube | @paulmillard1973

The video was also shared on Instagram, where it amassed 371,000 views and over 10,000 likes.

For those who thought the GoPro drop was nerve-wracking, the twins took their adventure a step further in November 2023 by rappelling into the pit themselves. Spending 12 hours inside the cave, they reflected on the experience in their caption: “We can't believe we finally managed to drop down the pit after planning this for a long time. We will be back to this cave to see where it goes down there!”