| Name | Age | Sex | Injuries | Injured areas |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wright, Win | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| Trexler, Carol | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| Keller, Ben | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| Balister, Philip | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| Koerschner, Bill | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| Miller, Tom | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded |
On a Sunday night in December, 1981 Win Wright, Carol Trexler, Ben Keller, Philip Balister, and Bill Koerschner arrived at the Roppel Cave fieldhouse near Mammoth Cave National Park in central Kentucky. There they encountered Tom Miller, who was spending a week at the fieldhouse. The weather was cold with freezing rain.
The following morning Miller entered first, on a solo recon and the group entered an hour later, as heavy rain began. Both went in the new Weller Entrance.
The group became lost looking for their survey objective and spent hours in a maze area. Once on the route the effect of the rains was made obvious at the Lower Black River where "Foaming torrents of muddy ice water gushed in from every available side passage." At the climb up into the BWOB Passage, now a waterfall, they encountered Miller. They climbed an alternate route and Miller headed out.
At Fairyland they found their path blocked by a sump. They began their retreat. About 1/2 hour from the Weller Entrance they ran into a wet and possibly worried Tom Miller who reported the Weller Entrance to be sumped. This was not good.
The group had been on the go for 12 hours and was getting tired. They would now have to head for the Main Entrance, four hours away, and find the bypass to the 35 foot drop which had been free climbed before by others.
When they reached Coalition Chasm, they found two 70 foot waterfalls plunging down. Wright began making up a prussik rig while others looked for the bypass. In an hour of exploring various levels they arrived at the top of the rope. Miller headed for the entrance to try that climb while the rest tried to contact those below over the roar of the falls. Miller climbed the entrance drop and lowered a cable ladder.
Vertical gear was obtained at the fieldhouse and everyone was soon out.
The group felt that without Miller's report on the Weller Entrance, they might have been too tired to make it out. Miller reportedly admitted that without the groups' knowledge of the Coalition Chasm bypass, they might not have gotten out.
A group of cavers got stranded due to unexpected flooding and were forced to use a less known bypass and some rope work to exit the cave safely.