http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=8810404

Follow this link to a story about a caver who, despite taking every precaution died

Mike

Horrific!


The 6-foot-tall, 190-pound spelunker got stuck with his head at an angle below his feet about 9 p.m. MST Tuesday. At times more than 50 rescuers were involved in trying to free him.

The crevice was about 150 feet below ground in an L-shaped area of the cave known as "Bob's Push," which is only about 18 inches wide and 10 inches high,

"18 inches wide and 10 inches high,"

I`ll pass.

Rule of thumb for the minimum space needed to squeeze through is to spread you hand wide, getting the tip of your thumb as far away as possible from the tip of your little finger. That is a hand-span. Two hand-spans wide and one tall describes the rectangular or ovoid hole you can get through. I have made it through spots slightly larger than 8" high by 16" wide.

Turns, particularly turns that bend you backward, will cause you to need more room. Vertical holes, particularly if taken head-down, are particularly hazardous. Unexplored routes can be extremely hazardous.

I know one cave there the guy who first explored it nearly died when a long downward squeeze opened abruptly into a room where the floor was better than thirty feet below and the walls were smooth. Luckily he had used a length of webbing as a belt and was able to stop himself and use the webbing to form a stirrup hung from a protrusion in the squeeze so he could hang over the precipice and reverse direction.

I am an amateur geologist, and claustrophobic. I haven't put it to the test yet, but I'm quite sure my claustrophobia would win out over my geologic curiosity. It gave me the heebie jeebies when I watched a video of underwater spelunking, and they went through cracks small enough where they had to take their tanks off and push them ahead to fit through. NO THANK YOU!!

Are you saying the caver took every precaution?
He voluntarilly crawled into into a 10" x 14" tunnel.

Here's another write-up from the same souirce: http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=8820

Precaution would involve not getting in farther than you can get out.

Here's a site that comes to mind:
http://www.darwinawards.com/darwin/

I don't know about Darwin, but it does seem to define operating with 0 margin for error. A sad story.

Ha Ha Morlocks, I like this Izzy.


adventureboy

I heard on the news that they plan of sealing off the cave. A sad overreaction IMO. One guy does something stupid and offs himself and they remove a perfectly good cave for everyone. Talk about your nanny state and Nurfing things to cater to the lowest common denominator. The cave has been there for thousands of years but some schmuck gets himself into a fatal bind and they start pouring concrete. Baaaa.

The account I read stated that they decided not to retrieve the body but to seal the cave, or parts thereof, to complete the burial. No details were given on precisely where and how the burial would be completed.

Not to worry. There are plenty of dangerous caves left - especially in Florida, with its many submerged caverns. "Open air" caving compared to cave diving is blissfully safe.