No injured cavers recorded.
On 10 January at 4:30 p.m. five boys, all inexperienced and not affiliated with any caving club, entered Dead Deer Cave. Permission from the owner had not been obtained nor was anyone told of their plans. Dead Deer is a pit cave, the first 30 feet of which is easily climbed. At the 30 foot level is a large. extremely muddy room beyond which climbing equipment is necessary. All five boys descended to this room. Three of them. Steve Cartwright (16). Mike Bowman (17) and Tommy Nairn (16) slid or climbed hand-over-hand down a manila rope to a ledge 35 feet below. The other two, Larry Gaskin (16) and Tommy Rohrbach remained above. Below the ledge the wall can be climbed without equipment to get into a large room. After some exploration the boys attempted to climb the rope but found it too slick with mud. The two above also attempted to pull one of the boys out: again. the rope was too slick. At 7:30 p.m., Gaskin left the cave for help; Rohrbach stayed to keep the three trapped boys company. The Sheriff's department was notified at 8:15 p.m., who in turn notified a Civil Defense unit, who notified Alamo Grotto (NSS) at 8:30 p.m. The rescue group rigged a rope and three cable ladders. Butch Summar descended to instruct the boys in ladder climbing; Dick White and Courtney Pennington remained at the top to belay and assist. Everyone was out of the cave by 11:15 p.m.
Source: Luther Bundrant
Analysis:
The boys were trapped because of bad judgement due to inexperience. This has happened before in the same cave, and will probably happen again because the cave is so close to San Antonio,
This record was last updated on 27th Apr 2024 at 23:11 UTC.