| Name | Age | Sex | Injuries | Injured areas |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Troester, Joe | 21 | Male | Not recorded | Not recorded |
On Saturday morning, June 5, a party of four cavers went to survey a new stream passage in Rasdell Cave east of Bowling Green, Kentucky. The new passage was entered by descending two drops of 30 and 25 feet, the latter with eight feet of very narrow crevice at the top. The first was rigged with a rope and the second with a cable ladder.
After a long survey trip the group started out. Joe Troester (21) became stuck in the crevice of the lower drop. Struggling mightily he gradually made his way up. Two of the group then ascended the upper drop, but Troester, next in line, found he had expended the strength of his arms in the crevice and could neither use ascenders nor climb a ladder. Leaving Troester on a mud bank, the fourth caver ascended and conferred with the other two. It was decided that the simplest plan would be to get more manpower and haul Troester out. The group was one of two teams of cavers surveying caves for the Uplands Research Lab (NPS) so one caver exited the cave, drove 15 miles and, at 10:30 p.m., picked up the other crew of four. Troester was hauled up the drop and exited the cave at 1 a.m.
Analysis: Exhaustion in an exceptional circumstance cannot be foreseen. Becoming stuck can easily result in panic and panic can bring on exhaustion quickly in almost anyone.
Too exhaused to climb out. The Underground 19(3-4)
This record was last updated on 27th Apr 2024 at 23:11 UTC.