This fascinating cave is located exactly at an altitude of 3000 meters (hence the name) and this probably makes it the volcanic hypogeum currently located highest on Etna. The cavity is located on the eruption of the summer of 2014 that poured into the upper Valle del Leone and to reach it it is best to go up the tourist road from Piano Provenzana and at Piano delle Concazze head towards the eastern base of the North East Crater until you reach the eruptive vents of 2014, the one located furthest to the left in the direction of the South East crater, hosts the channel of cave 3000.

This is a very particular volcanic cave both for the environmental context in which it is located right at the base of the summit craters, where not many other caves are known, and for the fact that we have detected a considerable mass of ice on the bottom, probably perennial, in addition to a characteristic frozen lake. This is very unusual considering that it is a very young cave formed only 8 years ago. Another peculiarity is given by the fact that access to the cave is via a collapse of the vault that allows you to touch the bottom with a jump. Here you realize that the walking ground is actually a very large volume of snow accumulated in winter that forms a sort of pyramid whose sides divide the cavity into two parts, upstream and downstream. The same steep sides allow access - probably only in the warm months - to the two sections of the cave.

The upper part can be explored from a shaft access that necessarily requires rope, crampons and speleological equipment. However, we realized that there must be an access a few meters higher up and at the time of exploration it is still blocked by snow. This is because inside there is a conduit, located on a higher level of 4/5 meters, of snow that appears evidently brought in from an upper opening. This upper part of the cave appears as a spectacular atrium, a very large room, with the presence of ice stalactites and the enormous snow cone that from the entrance fills the access to the bottom, located about 10 meters lower.
In this large room, whose height reaches about 13/14 meters, there is also ice on the bottom that seems to obstruct the flow channel, preventing the continuation of the exploration. The development of this part of the cave is about 25 meters, but it has not yet been possible to explore the channel of the second level.

The downstream part of the cave has easier access, it does not require the use of a rope, but it is useful if not indispensable together with crampons to visit it to the bottom due to the presence of an icy bottom. After a few meters from the entrance you descend on large blocks that have collapsed from the vault, but stable and at the time of exploration completely covered by 20/30 cm of snow. A surreal scenario being inside a cavity, but evidently the position of the entrance exposed to W-NW allows accumulation thanks to the wind and storms.
Once you reach the bottom at about 20 meters of depth it branches into 2 channels, both with an icy bottom. The smaller of the two on the left, accessible by climbing a small wall of welded rocks of a couple of meters, has an icy bottom that forms a small lake. The main channel, on the other hand, is frozen starting from a steep area that forms an icy slide of about 4 meters, which then continues on the flat for 6/7 meters until the mass of ice completely blocks the continuation. This part of the cave has a development of about 40 meters.