incident at Hennigh Cave

Date
26th Jan 1982
Publication
ACA 1982 p. 256
Cave
Hennigh Cave
State
Pennsylvania
County
Centre County
Country
United States of America
Category
Cave
Incident type
Stuck
Group type
Novice cavers
Group size
Unknown
Aid type
Surface aid
Source
Third party
Incident flags
   

Injured cavers

No injured cavers recorded.

Incident report

At p.m. on Tuesday, January 26, Gary Kuhn, a juvenile caver, part of a school caving trip, became trapped in the entrance of Hennigh Cave near Park Forest Junior High School near University Park, Pennsylvania. The campus patrol called Will White at the University and at 3:30 p.m. he got a few cavers to investigate. Meanwhile a school bus driver had involved himself and the Spring Mills Fire Dept. had been called.

Hennigh Cave has two entrances, one a steep-sided sink 8 feet deep with a 20 foot free drop at the bottom, and the other a small, steeply sloping crawl to the bottom of the 20 foot drop.

When the cave rescuers arrived, they found Kuhn in the sink with the school bus driver positioned between him and the 20 foot drop. The two were tied together with a one inch manila rope also attached to a tree. One caver from the university climbed into the sink with a belay. He untied the manila rope and tied a haul line to Kuhn with an "equalizing harness." At 4:30 p.m. Kuhn was hauled out followed by the bus driver. Kuhn was cold but uninjured.

Incident analysis

Not much of an emergency. Kuhn was 5 feet tall weighing 250 pounds-this may have been why he was unable to make the ascent.

Summary

Juvenile caver Gary Kuhn became trapped in the entrance of Hennigh Cave, was tied with an improvised harness, and had to be hauled out by rescuers.

References

  1. Art Petit 'The Great Hennigh Cave Rescue' Nittany Grotto News 29:1 Winter, 1981 pp 3-4.
  2. Laurie Fedon 'Boy Rescued from Cave' Centre Daily Times (State College, PA) Thursday, January 28, 1982
This record was last updated on 27th Apr 2024 at 23:11 UTC. The data was processed and input using AI.