| Name | Age | Sex | Injuries | Injured areas |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boice, Nancy | Not recorded | Female | Fracture | Ribs |
During a prolonged expedition to caves on Silvertip Mountain in the Scapegoat wilderness of Montana, a group was surveying a connection between Silvertip and Bell Caves. On the trip out of Bell afterwards they traversed a wide chimney. Nancy Boice (early 20's) found she couldn't make the stretch and fell about 25 feet. She was knocked unconscious for a short time and suffered broken ribs and a bruised knee. After a while she was able to make her exit, with some assistance from the others.
Analysis: Anderson feels they should have known the chimney was too wide for Boice, and given her a belay. Of course, one should ask for a belay in such a situation but the group apparently was anxious to proceed rapidly through the newly discovered easy way out. In such an atmosphere, less able cavers will try to keep up, moving faster than they should. In this wildnerness setting, the accident could have had serious consequences if Boice had been immobilized.