No injured cavers recorded.
West Virginia, Snedegar-Crookshank Cave
Saturday, 30 August 1975
Five people from Pennsylvania including three men, Bill Kent, Bob Andrews and Jay Sidman, and two boys, Scott McIntosh and Bruce Widdows, descended the Crookshank Pit. It is a 100-foot vertical waterfall entrance to the Snedegar-Crookshank System. They planned to make the connection between the two sections of the cave and leave by the Saltpeter Miners Entrance although no one in the party had made the connection before. Andrews and Sidman became soaked in the Rick's Siphon passage and ascended the rope out of the cave. Kent and the boys were unable to find the connection and returned to the pit. The waterfall had increased in size because of rain on the surface.
Kent was able to climb out through the waterfall but decided the ascent was too difficult for the boys. Andrews left to find someone who could descend the pit and lead the boys out another entrance. Meanwhile five cavers from the Met Grotto had entered by the saltpeter entrance and by chance had discovered the boys at the bottom of the Crookshank Entrance. Both boys were suffering from the initial stages of hypothermia and one boy was unable to move his fingers because of the cold. Knowing that any attempt to remove the boys by the pit would involve a wait of at least one hour, it was decided to take them out through the connection to Snedegar's. This involved carrying them through some of the deep pools to prevent further loss of body heat. The exit was completed without major difficulty.
Analysis: "The entire party was under-experienced and under-equipped for this cave. The adult leaders had been told this in at least three separate discussions with different individuals before they made their attempt. In one of these discussions they stated that they 'didn't have time' to become involved with a regular grotto. The party was unfamiliar with such basic terms as belay and carabiner (though they had some). When told that a belay was a safety rope they said they would tie a safety around their chest. No safety was used. The party had only one rope. No padding was used under the rope at the edge of the pit. No method of communication had been worked out between top and bottom. The boys had no idea of what was happening. No one in the party had made the connection to Snedegar's before. No one in the party was familiar with the conditions and effects of exposure. After the boys were out of the cave, some two hours after we found them, we found the adults waiting for someone experienced to show up. Both boys could have been dead by this time. Failing to find an experienced person, no attempt had been made to alert the county authorities. The boys were ill equipped for even regular caving; only one had a headlamp, the other a large six-volt flashlight. It is only through the most fortuitous of circumstances that a fatal accident was avoided. Any one of the errors made could have been disastrous." (Greene)
Sources: Greene, Barry. (1975) "Rescue at Crookshank Cave." Met Grotto News. Vol. 25, No. 4, pp.33-34. Dyas, Mike. (1975)
"Three More West Virginia Cave Rescues Chronicled." D.C. Speleograph. December issue, p.12. Florida, Peacock Sough