Cavechat.org

Three youths rescued from cave
05/12/2007
by Brian Chasnoff
San Antonio Express-News

Equipped with just one yellow flashlight, six youths descended Friday around midnight into a vast system of caves inside Longhorn Quarry on Wurzbach Parkway near O'Connor Road.

Frightened, three of them quickly turned back. The other three, between the ages of 17 and 21, soon got disoriented in the pitch-blackness and became lost.

Rescue workers with the San Antonio Fire Department found them around 6:45 a.m. this morning about 1,000 feet inside the caves, which firefighters described as "swiss cheese," and pulled them to safety, said District Fire Chief Randy Jenkins.

One of the youths suffered minor injuries to his legs, and all three were "scared and dehydrated," Jenkins said. Emergency medical technicians treated them at the scene before police placed them in handcuffs and drove them away.

Authorities said the amateur spelunkers likely would be charged with trespassing.

Full story:
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/crime/stories/MYSA051207caverescue.E-N.60591ab8.html

And the last paragraph says:

Rescue workers had to cut through iron bars and tie together about six 250-foot rescue ropes before penetrating the caves. Three hours later, the youths were located in the darkness.

Well, it would be curious to know how the spelunkers got through the gate. But it's even more curious to know why the rescue workers needed 1500' of rope!

Is this actually a cave or a system of tunnels created by the quarry?

Squirrel Girl wrote:And the last paragraph says:

Rescue workers had to cut through iron bars and tie together about six 250-foot rescue ropes before penetrating the caves. Three hours later, the youths were located in the darkness.

Well, it would be curious to know how the spelunkers got through the gate. But it's even more curious to know why the rescue workers needed 1500' of rope!

My guess on the gate is perhaps they went in a different way and this was simply the fastest/easiest way to get them out.

As for 1500' of rope.. and rescue that requires rope... you might as well use as much as you can and have the most kick-ass looking rigging you can do! I mean all those hours of training and all that equipment sitting on the truck.

You'd look silly doing something as silly and practical as a Georgia when you can right a highline with a dozen backties that can be moved horizontally in two axis while picking a cherry off of sundae at the bottom of the pit.

I mean really.

Texascavers (email group) reports that the gate has been broken for years. This incident may result in it getting fixed tho.

The part of the story that seemed a bit strange to me was this part.

"Around 3:30 a.m., one of the youths still in the caves found a cell phone signal and called one of his friends who had decided against going deeper. That youth called firefighters."

That kind of "cave" is this anyhow? Cellphones in caves just seems to add a bit more perplexity to the story.

DementedCaver wrote:That kind of "cave" is this anyhow? Cellphones in caves just seems to add a bit more perplexity to the story.

We had an example of this before. There was a similar story reported in South Africa, I think it was.

Squirrel Girl wrote:

DementedCaver wrote:That kind of "cave" is this anyhow? Cellphones in caves just seems to add a bit more perplexity to the story.

We had an example of this before. There was a similar story reported in South Africa, I think it was.

Yes, but as I recall that story from South Africa simply got its facts wrong and the people used a wired phone (it was a commercial cave I believe.)

Now, I suppose it's possible that a mine would have landline phones in it and they used that or even some old wires acted as a waveguide. Or the reporter simply got the facts wrong.

Stridergdm wrote:Or the reporter simply got the facts wrong.

No!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Don't burst my bubble that a news report could be wrong!!!!!!

Squirrel Girl wrote:

Stridergdm wrote:Or the reporter simply got the facts wrong.

No!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Don't burst my bubble that a news report could be wrong!!!!!!

Yeah.. hate to break it to you.

Oh... and when guys measure.... their rulers are a bit exaggerated.

Stridergdm wrote:Oh... and when guys measure.... their rulers are a bit exaggerated.

You mean they read the centimeter scale?

word from TX is-
yes, cell phone call was true. cave system has many openings and runs close to a cliff/quarry wall so signal is possible in some areas
re: rope - cave is very maze-like, responders used rope to track their path.
info come from a reliable soure
k

Squirrel Girl wrote:

Stridergdm wrote:Oh... and when guys measure.... their rulers are a bit exaggerated.

You mean they read the centimeter scale?

Maybe more likely in the millimetre scale.