No injured cavers recorded.
December 1, 1979 On Saturday, December 1, 1979, two students from VPI rappelled into the 120 foot entrance pit of Pig Hole Cave in Giles County, Virginia. They were equipped only with flashlights and had not brought ascending gear. They planned to exit through a drain pipe entrance at the back of the cave. The only flaw in this plan was that they did not know the route between the two entrances and had only two flashlights. Pushing on regardless, they explored their way as far as the Mud Bridge before one dropped his flashlight which rolled down into Hess' Hollow. With only one remaining flashlight and two spare batteries they realized the danger of continuing to explore their way along and returned to the entrance pit to await rescue. That night a caver who had left his gloves in Pig Hole on an earlier trip returned to the area. He apparently heard the stranded cavers yelling and called the Sheriff. The Giles County Rescue Squad was called in and, from the description of the area, correctly presumed the site to be Pig Hole. The stranded cavers were quickly ascertained to be uninjured and not hypothermic. The rope was not trusted by the rescue squad so they went to the back (drain pipe) entrance, reached the stranded cavers and led them out the same back way.
ANALYSIS: Let's face it, when looking for adventure an inexperienced person can conceive of things which turn out to be quite unreasonable. How simple this situation would have been if only the group had had ascending gear or the knowledge of how to make some. As Haw points out, a really knowledgeable caver would have cut off the excess rope at the entrance pit and made himself a rig using, for example, helical knots, which work quite well even when the slings are the same diameter as the main line. But, ascending gear or not, the trip was ill-conceived. Why not explore in from the back entrance first to be sure of the route? Why no extra lights? Yet another example of cavers outside the organized caving community equipping themselves in a way no organized caver would think proper.