No injured cavers recorded.
On April 25 there was a caving trip to Clover Hollow Cave in Virginia as part of places and the flexible blanket stretcher proved most effective. They reached the the spring Virginia Region meeting. A number of the cavers had little vertical vehicles about 12:30 p.m. experience and inadequate vertical gear. The exit from the cave, up a series of One vehicle was sent to the nearest phone to call for an ambulance while the drops, is slowed by the necessity to pass vertical gear up and down drops. To speed things up Roberta Swicegood left her vertical gear with the main party and free-climbed up several drops toward the entrance. At the 70 foot entrance drop she met a group of 13 cavers using that pit for vertical practice. There was no experienced caver with this group. As she watched, each person rappelled down secured by a top belay. One woman started down using a tied seat harness of one inch tubular webbing and a rack. "About seven feet down she suddenly slipped, slammed sideways agains the face and was held by the top belay. She tried to right herself and again slipped and fell against the face." This continued, the women rappelling sideways down the drop. The sear sling had beed tied wrong, allowing the rack to slip around, almost ti the small of her back. It took 2 1/2 hours to get the two groups up the drop. The 13 member group had learned caving from a book - they had no experienced caver in the area.
The group had been forced to learn caving from a book since there was no experienced caver known to them. The situation was perhaps not good but one learns by experience. At least they had the very good sense to use the upper belay while practicing. The only solution to this is for the NSS to seek a higher profile, making itself more accessible to interested cavers.