| Name | Age | Sex | Injuries | Injured areas |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steele, Bill | 32 | Male | Not recorded | Not recorded |
Bill Steele (32) and Bill Liebman (30) entered Meanderbelt Cave in the Silvertip Mountain Wilderness of Montana. Meanderbelt is an alpine cave with temperatures near the freezing point. Equipped with wet suits and a 50 foot, 9 mm perlon rope, they proceeded for five hours to the point of fur- thest exploration, through some very tight, hazardous, and difficult passage. The continuation was found to be similar, but the slot soon led out over a deep pit. Thrown rocks indicated a depth of over 100 feet. A three foot ledge 30 feet below looked reachable. The two were looking for a connection with Getout Cave and a U.S. depth record and so persisted. With Liebman holding the rope on belay and wedged in, Steele rappelled down to the ledge, with the rope being just long enough. A Jumar attached to his chest harness was then clipped into the rope and the rappel device was removed. The configuration of the pit still kept him from viewing the bottom for a possible recognition of Getout, so he traversed the wall to a flowstone mass with a top area the size of a chair seat. At the "seat" Steele brought the rope, now a belay, in front of him and unclipped the Jumar to straighten out the rope. As he did so, he accidently let go and the rope swung away to rest hanging below the ledge, quite out of reach. Bracing himself so as not to slip from his perch, Steele communicated with Liebman. After 25 minutes of effort, Liebman was finally able to swing the rope to Steele and belay him back to the ledge. They proceeded to exit the cave. On the way out Liebman, due to the numerous waits during exploration, nearly succumbed to hypothermia, but was "talked" out of the cave by Steele.
Analysis: In pursuing the frontiers of cave exploration it is perhaps justified to take chances and to find one's self in an extraordinary situa- tion. Hypothermia in very cold caves often occurs to the caver who waits while someone else pushes.
Alpine Karst, Summer 1978
This record was last updated on 27th Apr 2024 at 23:11 UTC.