| Name | Age | Sex | Injuries | Injured areas |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paterno, Bob | Not recorded | Male | Break | Wrist |
During the Fall of 1980 there was a Windy City Grotto trip to Middle Cave at Henderson Park, Washington County, Indiana. The trip included some 20 cavers. Bob Paterno and Joe Podge negotiated the tricky climb of the second waterfall to rig a cable ladder at the top and belay the others up. They felt the ladder was mainly to speed up the flow of people at this point and shorten the wait for turns in the cold water below. When two companions made it up they relieved Paterno and Podge who took a look at the rest of the cave. Everyone else made it up and continued exploring. A little later they began exiting and soon all but two had passed Paterno and Podge and been belayed down. They waited for the two for an hour, searched briefly, then proceeded, assuming correctly that the last two would come out on their own later.
After de-rigging, Paterno carefully started down, leaving his pack for Podge to toss down. "I eased myself into the alcove, found two good footholds, which turned out to be not SO good. found one good handhold, and was searching for another. It was then, due to the slippery conditions or the holds breaking off (I'm not sure which) that my feet slipped out from under (1). He grabbed unsuccessfully for a handhold, became inverted, and fell head first. The fall was 10 to 12 feet and the force was caught partly with at least one arm.
Podge descended to find Paterno lying with his face in the water. Pulling him upright, he shook him and yelled, asking if he were OK. Paterno came around quickly, checked himself and found that one wrist seemed to be broken. When Paterno no longer felt stunned they left the cave. The wrist was treated at a hospital.
ANALYSIS: Paterno says he will insist on a belay on this climb in the future. "But if I came across a similar climb, with good handholds and footholds and SO on, in a different cave, I would not hesitate to try and climb it without a belay. There has got to be a limit on how far you will go for safety. "(1) I don't mean to pick on Paterno with this quote, since he represents many cavers with this sentiment. But is it really necessary to have this attitude? Certainly any caver will come to situations, especially in original exploration where he chooses to violate good safety rules to push on. But in a grotto trip like that described here I don't think deliberate danger is necessary. Let me explain with a situation like the one above.
A group reaches a vertical pitch and wants to go up. It looks climbable but tricky. Coming back down is always more difficult than climbing up so the best climber of the groups climbs, using a belay and pitons, chocks or bolts if the pitch is more than 15 to 20 feet. With an upper belay the rest ascend, and later are either belayed back down or a rappel is set up. For the last man to go down, either a bolt, piton, or chock is wasted or a natural anchor is found and a piece of sling is tied around it. A descending ring or chain repair link is attached to the anchor and the rope is doubled through it so that the rope can be pulled down. The last man then either rappels or receives a belay from below and climbs down. The rope is pulled down. If you are not clear about this process, check any good mountaineering manual.