| Name | Age | Sex | Injuries | Injured areas |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weltner, Don | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded |
On Saturday, March 27, a group of boy scouts of Troop 116 of Millstone Township visited Crooked Swamp Cave in Sussex County, New Jersey. Their caving leader was Jim Ewin, a caver of 30 years experience, but Ewin was suffering from a bad cold and did not enter the cave. The bus driver and overall scout leader was Don Weltner (48) a New Jersey State Trooper. Weltner's caving experience was very limited-the only cave he was known to have visited before this trip was Shofer's Cave near Kurtztown, Pennsylvania. He was reported to be in excellent physical condition and was of average size-5 foot 11 inches, 160 pounds.
The group first looked at maps of the cave, discussing parts of the system, including "difficult areas or places to avoid." All but Ewin spent the morning in small groups, exploring the constricted passages. Two other adults accompanied the group but they had no caving experience. The 16 scouts ranged in age from 11 to 16 and about half had previous experience in Shofer's Cave.
Weltner was wearing a long-sleeved shirt and pants with rubber-soled boots. His helmet had a chin strap but no mounted light. His main light source was a hand-held flashlight.
The Crooked Swamp Cave has seven entrances but one is not enterable. It is basically "a horizontal network of passages a few feet below the six base entrances and fifteen feet below the sinkhole entrance." There is 1250 feet of surveyed passage, principally low crawlway with some very high but narrow vertical fissures. The traverse between some entrances is very difficult or impossible. Passage walls are very irregular with jagged projections. The cave is normally 55-57 degrees but its shallow nature and air movement coupled with cool weather and cold nights rendered it cooler at the time of the accident.
Lunch was eaten outside and at that time it was proposed to have a "manhunt" in the cave during the afternoon, with ice cream as the prize. Accordingly, three scouts went in first, in an entrance of their choice to get "lost" and evade the others. After ten minutes the others began the pursuit. Weltner with his two sons and another scout went in an entrance just south of Tree Root Cave, a part of the cave system that was connected on the map by dotted lines. Weltner was aware of this but tried to force the connection anyway. At perhaps 3 p.m. (the time is uncertain since Weltner first would not admit he was stuck) Weltner entered a narrow, body-sized crevice, with a small ledge making it wider at the top. He apparently slipped off this ledge and became wedged in the bottom of the keyhole. At that point the passage is only a couple feet high and 7-8 inches wide below the ledge. Weltner's head was downslope from his feet. For the coming rescue attempt, it was difficult to reach his feet and impossible to reach his head, except for a very small person, from the Tree Root Cave side.
Shortly after 3 p.m. all but Weltner's group had grown cold and left the cave. An adult, waiting on the surface entered at 3:20 and learned that the victim was stuck. A rope was obtained and one end looped around Weltner's feet. Pulling had no effect. At 4:50 one scout braced the victim's feet and he was able to move forward 9 to 12 inches, until his pants crotch snagged. The victim was already slipping into hypothermia as his speech had become slurred.
It was thought to lever him up to free him but no suitable board could be found. From 4:45 to 5:30, outside rescuers were contacted, including the Blue Ridge Rescue Squad and NCRC. The Rescue Squad notified the New Jersey State Police who were naturally very concerned and came in force.
At 7:30 p.m. Weltner had become somewhat incoherent and it was recommended that heat was needed. From that point, numerous attempts to warm the victim were made but none were successful. These included hot water bottles, gel packs (chemical heat), a sheet soaked in hot water, a portable electric heater, and a portable hot-air generator for telephone work in manholes.
By 1 a.m. Sunday, it became clear "that all attempts to stabilize Weltner's condition by application of heat had not arrested his slide into hypothermia." Yet another attempt at pulling him back yielded no result and at 3 a.m. there was no sign of life from the victim. At 6 a.m. a rescuer was able to get close enough to detect residual body heat at mid-thigh.
At 6 a.m. it was decided that ordinary extraction would not work and the go-ahead was given to use "extraordinary" means. This led to a 20 foot shaft being drilled to intercept the cave two feet from Weltner. Twelve hours later, it was found that the shaft intercepting the cave has missed the correct spot by 10-12 feet. From about 6:30 p.m. Sunday to midnight on Monday/Tuesday cavers worked to enlarge the passage from the shaft to Weltner. A jackhammer, hydraulic rock splitter, and explosives were used. Finally, early Monday evening, a harness was fitted around Weltner's chest and he was moved two feet toward the shaft. He could not be moved further, however, and at midnight it was decided to remove the victim by quarrying.
Quarrying commenced at 2 a.m. The work involved blasting, backhoe work and drilling and Weltner received a number of post-mortem injuries in the process. His body was recovered at 11:40 p.m. Tuesday.
When Weltner's body was finally removed, it was reported that a "piece of rock behind Weltner's right hip had acted as a keystone, thwarting efforts to move him." Even when quarrying removed the cave from 3/4 of his body a come-along was required to completely free him. It is obvious in hind-sight that all the attempts to pull him back from his entrapment were futile. At the same time, though some efforts were made to warm the victim, none were successful, and it seems from the reports that getting the victim free was foremost in people's minds. And why shouldn't it be? Yet it must be recognized that there are some rescue situations which are better served by maintaining the victim, then effecting his evacuation or extraction when the means are obtained or discovered. Thus, if at first Weltner's rescuers had decided that keeping him warm was to be the primary objective, and the means had been thus obtained-perhaps a very effecient forced hot air blower-Weltner might still be alive. This, of course, is hindsight and not meant to belittle the efforts of rescuers, merely to suggest procedures for the future.
The responsibility for this accident rests squarely on Weltner himself. He is characterized as venturesome and "daring." "In a cave he couldn't get his fill and tackled small passages or difficult spots without apparent fear or hesitation." Besides this, Jim Ewin suggests the following to have contributed to the situation: 1) The challange of the game of hide and seek they had devised, 2) a desire to redeem himself for having failed to get through a small passage that morning, 3) the impassable nature of the crawl, which he may have forgotten or been misled about by voices ahead, and 4) the great danger of tight passages, of which he was unaware.
To these I certainly agree. Indeed, the whole thrust of their outing was wrong, teaching the young scouts and potentially future cavers to be daring-that caves are places to play games in-instead of teaching them caution and good judgement. As with climbing, in caving one must learn one's limits. Forcing a tight passage may be heroic and noteworthy, but it can also be fatal. What goes in doesn't necessarily come back out.
Don Weltner, a troop leader with limited caving experience, became irretrievably stuck in a narrow passage in Crooked Swamp Cave, resulting in his death from hypothermia despite extensive rescue efforts.