No injured cavers recorded.
At dusk on September 5, Jerry Derbyshire, David Smith, Jim Blackfeather, Louis Alderman and R. C. Schroeder entered Rorie Cave, Stone County, Arkansas. Derbyshire is a journalist and was on assignment from an adventure magazine. Schroeder and Smith are experienced cavers and the last two able outdoorsmen and occasional cavers. This was to be a photo trip for the magazine photo essay. The cave is reported to be 300 feet long with two levels.
Some distance into the cave, Smith, seeking an easier route out of a room, attempted to climb to an obvious crawl lead about 20 feet up the wall of a room which also contained a pit. Smith had requested that Schroeder spot for him by bridging the pit. This proved to be impossible. Fifteen feet up, Smith lost his footing and fell backward, striking his head and shoulders on the edge of the pit. To the horror of those watching, he continued his fall into the 20 foot pit and after hitting the bottom, careened down a 25 foot talus slope to a pool of water. Schroeder quickly negotiated the difficult route to where the victim lay, at the bottom of the talus slope, partly in the water. He was breathing heavily but could not be aroused; his head had 5 or 6 two inch cuts that were bleeding profusely and his lips were badly torn and bleeding. A couple of minutes later Alderman and Blackfeather arrived. The latter is a licensed practical nurse and checked Smith for obvious broken bones, finding none. To guard against hypothermia, the victim was eased out of the water but there was really no safe or comfortable place for him.
Smith regained consciousness but was not coherent. Derbyshire and Schroeder went for help and blankets. At the nearest house they called for an ambulance and sent word to Richard Neidhardt and John Weaver to bring gear for a vertical rescue.
With Dave Webb, three blankets and a dacron sleeping bag, they returned to the scene of the accident. Deputy Sheriffs Kirk Hicks and Troy Haney arrived about 15 minutes later with two stretchers (flat board and aluminum frame canvas), a 30 foot rope lariat, and a first-aid kit. Compresses were applied to the victim's head and he was strapped to the board stretcher so that it would bend with him at the waist. Their choice was to take him out up the pit he had fallen down, with unstable talus to contend with, and through a passage with tight bends, or through a "corkscrew" crawl. The pit, which narrowed at the top, seemed best. At this point Dick Neidhardt and John Weaver arrived with vertical gear.
The first attempt to raise the victim was unsuccessful. It was too tight at the constriction. The victim was then taken out of the stretcher, a rope tied around him under the armpits and a second attempt was made. The victim had now recovered sufficiently to aid in his removal. Once up the pit, a safety line was attached and, with much assistance, he was walked out of the cave. In the process he was hoisted up two more climbs and down one at the entrance. Two men assisted him up the very steep trail from the cave to the ambulance. Besides the lacerations to the head and lips, Smith was found to have a mild concussion and a chipped vertebrae. He was hospitalized for a week.
In any dangerous sport one would like the freedom to endanger one's self as one pleases. But friends and society are unfortunately compelled to aid us in time of accidental injury. This fact should temper our judgement. To my way of thinking we should also temper judgement by the importance of what we are attempting. An exposed, difficult climb should always be belayed. In ordinary caving when one is faced with such without a rope, the safe thing to do is go home and get one.