Caving horror stories...

[Wayne Harrison]

This post by speloman got to me to thinking about caving horror stories. We all have them. Post your worst experiences...

We went to a cave where a group was in there before us they had a Homemeade steel cable ladder tied to a tree with Hemp rope A 15 ft extension ladder and the generator. They also had a Rope (like you would buy at a military surplus store with no belay device around a tree tied around their chest with some kinda knot (one of the people climbing the ladder was a little on the heavy side). Some people had difficulty getting up so we were getting ready for a rescue. We rigged up our gear and began to decend. After We had gotten Every one up safely we were Thanked by the greatefull and cussed by the ungratefull. Some didn't want help they thought they were doing it the safe way. One of the other group members said " Shoot we forgot the generator!!!" So we had to rig a z Rig to pull it out. I don't know how they would have done it them selves. There is alot more about this trip but there isn't enough space on this board to explain this colorful group. They werent with any caving group but were a branch from the family tree of the guy who discovered the cave Back in the days (who also got stuck in the cave).

[mikedowden]

I don't want to talk about it right now. Maybe in a couple of days.

I have a few trips I can talk about and a couple I can't.

[Grandpa Caver]

Many years ago I and several others were on our way to a small, fairly well known cave. On the way there, a quick look at a map of the cave revealed a pit with an old wooden bridge. I gave it no more thought at the time.

I was the last to cross the old bridge & forgot the "three points of contact" rule. With one hand bracing the wall and my left foot on the (very slick) bridge, I lifted my right foot.. I immediatly found myself in mid air, backside down.

My first thought was the glance I had of the map. Nope. no idea of the pit depth. In the other half of that split seconds thought; "Well you've done it now!" crossed my mind. I only fell about 6 feet and landed well. Just bruised and a little shaken.

That was my worst and best experience. Be it caving or a walk in the park, I'll never again fail to respect the enviroment I'm in.

[Ralph E. Powers]

My first thought was the glance I had of the map. Nope. no idea of the pit depth. In the other half of that split seconds thought; "Well you've done it now!" crossed my mind. I only fell about 6 feet and landed well. Just bruised and a little shaken.

Indeed you landed well after a six foot fall, as there is the incident of a (helmetless) scout-leader who likewise fell six feet and landed badly. He died on the spot.

In one cave I saw a neat little crawling passage to go explore for the heck of it. It was a belly crawl but still enough space to flip over on my back if so desired. I should've ignored the desire at that point when reaching the apparent dead-end. Flipped over my back to see what there was to see and a mere 4 inches away from my face on the ceiling, was this nice large brown spider who's body was at least as large as my palm and legs that were suitably proportioned. Two of those front legs were up in a classic defensive posture. .... ohh kay! Sorry to have bothered you...
Fastest (on my ) back crawling feet first, I've ever done I think...

[wendy]

I was climbing over some break down in a cave, and getting a hand up by a fellow caver, and our hands slipped apart due in part to a lot of guano stuff around. I feel maybe 5 feet, landed on a very hard rock and broke my tail bone. Walked out of the cave and down the mountain, got into my car, drive 5 hours to my parents house, my place was another 5 hours past that. When I got to my parent's house, I called my mom from the driveway and asked her to come hlep me out of the car, i coudn't stand up on my own.

The next year I went back to the same cave, 1. half my group couldn't make it at the last moment, 2. my car overheated on the way to the cave 3. my light was dim so i put in fresh batteries, heard a weird hissing sound, one of the new batteries was foaming in my helmet, switched to back up and left the cave, once outside the cave, I cleaned off the hisssing battery, put it in, light worked great!

Moral of the story, god does not want me in that particular cave, so I don't go in it anymore.

[speloman]

Wow I must say what a trip. That would be so weird I would probly have made the same decision. Wow 5 hr drive to with a broken tail bone. Ouch I am sure you were hurting too, and I am sure that 5 hr drive felt like it was never going to end. I have had drives like that, but not with a broken bone!! Glad you Were OK.

[caver53396]

I have a few trips I can talk about and a couple I can't.

Do any of them include water or scouts????

[filox1]

This is the account of an outing in which some peoples received some very serious injuries.

El pozo del Gavilan, is a sinkhole that I wanted to dive ever since I heard of it. You have to rappel 80m to get to the water.
In 2002 We had everything ready, we where five divers and other five where there also for the ride, we where to use this expedition to accomplish two objectives. Number one was off course the exploration dive into the sinkhole to find the entrance to the cave, go into the cavern area and use this info to plan the cave dive into this system on a latter day. Two, we where also planing to go again on the coming months to descend Golondrinas and Hoya de guaguas so this was a training trip for some of the guys and gals.

So we got there Saturday afternoon sleep well and early morning Sunday started to fix anchors and check equipment (SRT and SCUBA).

10:00 am Wen all was done and came my turn I put on my rack and fix on a 2m piece of webbing all my diving equipment including the 80cuft tank. Off course I was very confident on my skill. So I started to go down and everything was good and well until the first hundred ft went by, then I started to pick up speed and the only way to slow down, at list the only way that I could think of at that moment was to put a turn of rope on my leg. I did slow down all right and got to the bottom with a nice rope burn on my chin.

From the start you get captivated by the beauty of this place, the colour of the water is a kind of aquamarine blue, very beautiful and very strange, but when you get to the small beach at the bottom, that’s a real whoa!!! Moment, the blue of the water reflects on the cavern zone in an incredible kaleidoscope of colour.

12:00 am Any way, the dive went whit out incident, the cavern goes all the way to 50m and there is the entrance to the cave. We where as far as the entrance, I give the signal to turn around and we started a very slow and beautiful accent to the surface, every body got there whit at list 300 psi on the 80’s

So we got out of the water change to dry clothes and started packing preparing for the climb out. Here it got interesting.

2:00 p.m. A friend, less call him diver Number two. Started to climb first, He is a very skilful caver and very fast climber, he uses a walker system, so he went out first and I was to be the last out. The non-divers went next. I was finishing the preparations to start sending equipment up when I heard a terrible scream.

3:00pm There where 2 persons on top all ready, number two and less call the other one number three and 4 climbing tandem two on each rope of this four three where women. All four where immersed in a swamp of killer bees.

I immediately started to put on my wetsuit and indicated the others to do likewise, In the mean time number two hearing the screams went to the edge again to see what was happening.

After trying to give directions on what to do to the two top women from now W1 and W2 and at this time stating to receive also quite a few stings him self, he decided to rappel down some 8m to them to try to help and so he did, put a third rope went down quickly connect W1 to his system, cut the safety lines and climb up. He did this two time by the second time he started to vomit so after the second rescue he went into his SUV an X-terra and made a call for help (thank god we had cell signal).

In the mean time I was down there trying to instruct the two people remaining on the ropes how to changeover from the accending configuration to descending mode. One of them W3 was about 60m from the ground and the other M1 at about 40m up. They couldn’t move, every time they try something the bees will sting.

So I decided to climb up, I and a friend D2 started climbing the ropes, got to M1, I made the change from climb configuration to decent, connected him to my harness and D2 cut him away and down we went.

Fortunately one of the remaining diver on the bottom of the sink was a medical student. So he started to treat the anaphylactic shock from M1, I was making ready to start climbing again.

In the mean time number two got really sick and his desperation try to move the X-terra, by the way did I mention that the X-terra was our main anchor point, well it was. So number two in his shocked mind thought that he could just drive and pull the ropes whit people and all….. Wrong.

3:30pm I was about to do climb rescue number two when the ropes starting to dancing around and move up about 3 meters. Well that was it for the rescue attempt, I couldn’t trust the anchors and as hard as it felt, rule #1 is not to become victim #2.

So I walked back to try to help in the treatment of M1 and to occupy my self in order not to hear the sobs and pleads for help from W3 hanging 60m from the ground and in shock all ready.

Well M1 was non-responsive, started to shake, lost sphincter control and had abnormal breathing. We started ventilating, at about that time I heard the first ambulances and fire trucks.

4:00pm I was getting kind of mad because no body was even trying to communicate with us and was very very worried about W3 that was still hanging and looked unresponsive.

At about 4:15 things starting to happen real fast. I first hear and then saw the rescue helicopter from civil services arriving, now I knew we where in good hands.

I letter learn that on top the bees where attacking anything that moves whit in 100 meters of the sinkhole, a few minutes later about 4:20pm I saw some movement on the ropes and this time for real, unknown to me there where like 50 people between rurales, fireman and other pulling the rope to get to W3 to the top, lucky we didn’t put a rebelay on the line.

So finally W3 was up and I heard another ambulance going away (about 5:30) It was to be a long night yet.

By coincidence knew some of the rescuers including the guy in charge (There are just so many crazies in this parts so we know each other)

They send down a radio and I started to co-ordinate for them from the bottom.

About 2:30 am I am the last one coming out from El Pozo de el Gavilan, pulling with me the last tank, very tired and very worried, next stop the hospital (small town in northern Mexico about 30 min drive) to see about my friends.


Epilogue

Number two spend a night and a day in the hospital on anabolic treatment. Convalescent for about two weeks.

W1 over 600 bee stings 3 days in hospital

W2 latter I learn that she was the one who precipitated the attack over 1,000 bee stings and two weeks in the hospital

M1 about 400 bee stings 3 days in the hospital and two weeks convalescing

W3 1 week in intensive care, 2 weeks in hospital then again two more days in ICU due to a blood cloth and over 1,500 bee stings, still recovering to this day.

Me I am happy but I don’t like those little bees any more.


I post this because all though it could be some thing to learn from, bees are a present danger when doing sinkholes and also I learn a lot on this one. I hope it gives you some lessons on what not to do.

I will elaborate latter.

Cheers and safe caving all.

[bigalpha]

holy. crap.

[Uncle Muddy]

This is the account of an outing in which some peoples received some very serious injuries.

El pozo del Gavilan, is a sinkhole that I wanted to dive ever since I heard of it. You have to rappel 80m to get to the water.
In 2002 We had everything ready, we where five divers and other five where there also for the ride, we where to use this expedition to accomplish two objectives. Number one was off course the exploration dive into the sinkhole to find the entrance to the cave, go into the cavern area and use this info to plan the cave dive into this system on a latter day. Two, we where also planing to go again on the coming months to descend Golondrinas and Hoya de guaguas so this was a training trip for some of the guys and gals.

So we got there Saturday afternoon sleep well and early morning Sunday started to fix anchors and check equipment (SRT and SCUBA).

10:00 am Wen all was done and came my turn I put on my rack and fix on a 2m piece of webbing all my diving equipment including the 80cuft tank. Off course I was very confident on my skill. So I started to go down and everything was good and well until the first hundred ft went by, then I started to pick up speed and the only way to slow down, at list the only way that I could think of at that moment was to put a turn of rope on my leg. I did slow down all right and got to the bottom with a nice rope burn on my chin.

From the start you get captivated by the beauty of this place, the colour of the water is a kind of aquamarine blue, very beautiful and very strange, but when you get to the small beach at the bottom, that’s a real whoa!!! Moment, the blue of the water reflects on the cavern zone in an incredible kaleidoscope of colour.

12:00 am Any way, the dive went whit out incident, the cavern goes all the way to 50m and there is the entrance to the cave. We where as far as the entrance, I give the signal to turn around and we started a very slow and beautiful accent to the surface, every body got there whit at list 300 psi on the 80’s

So we got out of the water change to dry clothes and started packing preparing for the climb out. Here it got interesting.

2:00 p.m. A friend, less call him diver Number two. Started to climb first, He is a very skilful caver and very fast climber, he uses a walker system, so he went out first and I was to be the last out. The non-divers went next. I was finishing the preparations to start sending equipment up when I heard a terrible scream.

3:00pm There where 2 persons on top all ready, number two and less call the other one number three and 4 climbing tandem two on each rope of this four three where women. All four where immersed in a swamp of killer bees.

I immediately started to put on my wetsuit and indicated the others to do likewise, In the mean time number two hearing the screams went to the edge again to see what was happening.

After trying to give directions on what to do to the two top women from now W1 and W2 and at this time stating to receive also quite a few stings him self, he decided to rappel down some 8m to them to try to help and so he did, put a third rope went down quickly connect W1 to his system, cut the safety lines and climb up. He did this two time by the second time he started to vomit so after the second rescue he went into his SUV an X-terra and made a call for help (thank god we had cell signal).

In the mean time I was down there trying to instruct the two people remaining on the ropes how to changeover from the accending configuration to descending mode. One of them W3 was about 60m from the ground and the other M1 at about 40m up. They couldn’t move, every time they try something the bees will sting.

So I decided to climb up, I and a friend D2 started climbing the ropes, got to M1, I made the change from climb configuration to decent, connected him to my harness and D2 cut him away and down we went.

Fortunately one of the remaining diver on the bottom of the sink was a medical student. So he started to treat the anaphylactic shock from M1, I was making ready to start climbing again.

In the mean time number two got really sick and his desperation try to move the X-terra, by the way did I mention that the X-terra was our main anchor point, well it was. So number two in his shocked mind thought that he could just drive and pull the ropes whit people and all….. Wrong.

3:30pm I was about to do climb rescue number two when the ropes starting to dancing around and move up about 3 meters. Well that was it for the rescue attempt, I couldn’t trust the anchors and as hard as it felt, rule #1 is not to become victim #2.

So I walked back to try to help in the treatment of M1 and to occupy my self in order not to hear the sobs and pleads for help from W3 hanging 60m from the ground and in shock all ready.

Well M1 was non-responsive, started to shake, lost sphincter control and had abnormal breathing. We started ventilating, at about that time I heard the first ambulances and fire trucks.

4:00pm I was getting kind of mad because no body was even trying to communicate with us and was very very worried about W3 that was still hanging and looked unresponsive.

At about 4:15 things starting to happen real fast. I first hear and then saw the rescue helicopter from civil services arriving, now I knew we where in good hands.

I letter learn that on top the bees where attacking anything that moves whit in 100 meters of the sinkhole, a few minutes later about 4:20pm I saw some movement on the ropes and this time for real, unknown to me there where like 50 people between rurales, fireman and other pulling the rope to get to W3 to the top, lucky we didn’t put a rebelay on the line.

So finally W3 was up and I heard another ambulance going away (about 5:30) It was to be a long night yet.

By coincidence knew some of the rescuers including the guy in charge (There are just so many crazies in this parts so we know each other)

They send down a radio and I started to co-ordinate for them from the bottom.

About 2:30 am I am the last one coming out from El Pozo de el Gavilan, pulling with me the last tank, very tired and very worried, next stop the hospital (small town in northern Mexico about 30 min drive) to see about my friends.


Epilogue

Number two spend a night and a day in the hospital on anabolic treatment. Convalescent for about two weeks.

W1 over 600 bee stings 3 days in hospital

W2 latter I learn that she was the one who precipitated the attack over 1,000 bee stings and two weeks in the hospital

M1 about 400 bee stings 3 days in the hospital and two weeks convalescing

W3 1 week in intensive care, 2 weeks in hospital then again two more days in ICU due to a blood cloth and over 1,500 bee stings, still recovering to this day.

Me I am happy but I don’t like those little bees any more.


I post this because all though it could be some thing to learn from, bees are a present danger when doing sinkholes and also I learn a lot on this one. I hope it gives you some lessons on what not to do.

I will elaborate latter.

Cheers and safe caving all.

[Uncle Muddy]

Filox, you say that you learned later that one caver precipitated the bee attack. You didn't say how. Or more importantly, what can we do to prevent an attack?

[CKB69]

Wow! No killer bees here ,yet.
I do have a couple of "incidents" to share,however.

http://caves.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=276&start=0

Then there is the time I had to change over to another rope,in complete darkness,on a narrow ledge,with a Gibbs ropewalker. Some how the water dripper in my carbide became clogged with mud,and every one else were out of earshot! Backup lights? They were in my pack that was so coated in mud,that I couldn't figure out which end was which.
I now use electric.

Got my hair caught in my rack 30' below the lip of a TAG classic(now closed ),100'+ from the floor.
I keep my hair somewaht shorter,and,I keep my head away from my rappel device.

The time at Whiteside mountain,where I discover that my QAS was clipped to my beltloop,instead of my harness.
I now TRIPLE check my rigging.

Outracing a flood in Blowhole Cave.

Barely stopping a breakdown avalanche in Webb Cave.

The time my windshield wipers quit at TAG. Not a strict "caving" close call,but I was returning from a trip to Tumbling Rock Cave.
It was dark,pouring rain,and I was coming down Sand Mountain.
I managed to limp back to the campsite,driving slowly.
My passenger grabbed his gear and took off,thankfull for survival.
The pucker marks were still in the passengers side seat when I traded it!

The "lead",20' up a wall in Gross-Skeleton cave,that turned into a pile of loose boulders when I reached it...

The time I checked out a short dud cave on a solo ridgewalk.
The cave ended in short order,so I turned around to find a copperhead had come in behind me.
The entrance was a low crawl,and he really liked the very center of it.

There were no lose rocks to be had,so I had to wait several hours for the snake to vacate his favorite spot!

[Ralph E. Powers]

Gee... you must be a barrel of laughs to go caving with...

[hewhocaves]

I went caving with a fco-worker of Paul steward's (Tales of Dirt, Danger and Darkness). Paul didn't go btw. It was a dig trip and he and I were the only people digging in a certain area.

He had this weird look, sort of a "silence of the lambs" or "psycho" feel. He dug like a madman which was great. What wasn't so great was how he kept on about how it would be so cool to bury a body in a cave someday. He kept looking to me for encouragemnt (about the body thing) and when it wasn't enthusiasticaly forthcoming, he started eyeing me up like I was the body he was going to bury.

In the back of my head I could see him quickly doing away with me (he had the pick) and hunting down the other two cavers digging elsewhere. Did I mention he was bigger and more muscular than any of us?

The day ended with me locking my keys in the car. He volunteered to get them out by punching out my driver's side window. With his bare hand.

Needless to say I never saw him again.

John

[Sean Ryan]

John, look out! He's in your back seat!