| Name | Age | Sex | Injuries | Injured areas |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suarez, Mauricio | 22 | Male | Rope burns, lacerations, knee injury | Not recorded |
Texas, unnamed cave
Sunday, 3 November 1974
Mauricio Saurez (22), Nacho Urias and Juan Hinojos thought they had discovered a cave containing a treasure of gold. They attempted to enter the nearly vertical shaft using only a handline composed of various lengths of assorted rope tied together. By 2:00 p.m. the group had gotten several hundred feet below the entrance when Suarez tried the next descent. He slipped but grabbed the rope and stopped himself after a fall of 30 to 50 feet. He was on a 1 by 10-foot ledge about 80 feet down the pit but still 100 feet from the floor. Saurez had severe rope burns and cuts on his hands and had injured his knee. Saurez's companions went for help. The Culberson County (Texas) Sheriff's office failed on two rescue attempts. They then notified the Eddy County (New Mexico) Rescue Squad, which has in its membership several members of the Guadalupe Grotto. Nineteen rescue squad and grotto members travelled to the west Texas cave. When the rescue team reached Saurez, he had been standing on the small ledge for 11 hours without food or water and with very little light. Besides having badly cut hands and a sore knee, he was starting to show the first signs of hypothermia. The victim spoke Spanish but no English, while all the rescuers spoke only English. So the victim was rigged in vertical gear and given repeated demonstrations on how to use the inchworm ascent system. The victim reached the surface about 5 hours after the rescuers had reached him.
Analysis: The victim had no knowledge of vertical caving techniques. The belief that he had discovered a cache of gold undoubtedly affected his judgement.
Sources: Report by Frank Young Young, Frank (1975) "Thar's No Gold in Them Thar Caves." Southwestern Caver. Vol. 12, No. 5. Various other newspaper clippings.
This record was last updated on 27th Apr 2024 at 23:11 UTC.