Be careful out there, ya hear?

When this year's issue of American Caving Accidents (NSS News) arrived in my mailbox, we were frantically packing for our move to Houston, so we packed it away, and I got around to reading it yesterday. I love to read that issue, because sometimes I know the people involved, and often I know about the caves where accidents occurred, but mainly I love to be amazed by the decisions people make sometimes.

OK, I'll admit that I have taken risks in my long caving career (caving since the summer of 1979). I usually weigh the risks against where I want to go, and once in a while I'll do something a bit hazardous. But I think about it first, and that's the point.

I won't go into the cave diving fatalities, except that there were very few in 2006, which is the year covered by this issue. There were four accidents or incidents that especially got my attention this time. The countdown:

4) July 2, Airman's Cave, Texas. 1,000 feet into the cave, a woman "can't or won't" come back out. Now, Airman's cave is not a hazardous cave. It's long and crawly, mostly featureless, and they let just about anybody go in. So the other cavers go out and call 911, and the rescuers go in, and then she is "motivated," and comes out on her own. It sounds to me like she wanted some attention, and then got a bit more than she counted on.

3) September 18, Fitton Cave, Arkansas. I like this one because I know the cave. A guy in the Tennari Room makes the four foot jump into the room and breaks his tibia. He crawls and hops back to the Manhole entrance. With some help from his friends, he climbs out the Manhole on a rope ladder. Friends, I had trouble getting out of the Manhole, and my legs were both fine. Hats off to Jeff Holt.

2) December 9, Hoya de Guaguas, San Luis Potosí, Mexico (above photo). Alejandro Vera Morales was the senior instructor in a technical caving course. Now, understand what the Sótano Guaguas is. The entrance drop for Sótano Guaguas is 490 feet - nearly a tenth of a mile - just so you have the scale. Now, Alejandro is the last one in, and he forgets to lock his carabiner. His rope comes unattached, and he falls to his death, with plenty of time to think about his fatal mistake. Now, we'd all like to think that we would never make that mistake. But the thing to remember is that yes, we could, if we don't take the time to double, triple check everything when it really matters.

And now the best:

1) December 29, Antonia Pit, Missouri. Dave Wiegand, age 45, decides to go down a narrow pit he knows nothing about to look for arrowheads. He ties a rope to a nearby fence post. His wife and three friends are with him, watching. He goes down into the manhole sized pit, hand-over-hand, with no helmet, no light of any kind, and no idea how deep the pit may be. It happened to be 71 feet to the first ledge, then another 30 feet after that. Now, this is a very bad idea on several levels. You never go into a cave without light or helmet, because you need to see where you're going and you need to be prepared for rocks falling if on rope. You never hand-over-hand down a rope for any appreciable distance, because nobody has the strength to come back that way - try it sometime, I don't care if they do it in the movies. You never start down a rope unless you know it will reach the bottom, even if you have rappel gear, unless you tie a knot on the end and happen to be really good at changing directions while on rope. It took several fire departments to recover the body that afternoon. The comment in the article: "Need it be said that people should not hand-over-hand down a rope without a light where they can not see the bottom?" The amazing thing to me is that among his wife and three friends, nobody tried to stop him.

I suppose that the Accidents issue is the only sick, morbid recreation I allow myself. So cut me some slack, OK?