| Name | Age | Sex | Injuries | Injured areas |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bently, Bill | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| Warton, Mike | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded |
At about 7 a.m. a group of 13 cavers entered H.T. Meyers Cave, on a ranch in Southwest Texas near Del Rio. The cave is almost totally vertical, with 7 drops. There were some very experienced cavers in the group and the rigging and descent went smoothly.
Shortly after 11:30 a.m. they began to exit. The first drop is 70 feet, a narrow crack which on the way out becomes tight near the top. Bill Bently suffered a light failure (Kohlen Wheat Lamp) 3/4 of the way up, reached for his spare light and found it to be missing. Light from cavers at the top or bottom cannot illuminate the drop SO he had to continue feeling his way in the dark.
For the rest of the ascent Bently was given a spare flashlight and a cylume was fixed to his helmet. He had no further problems.
The next drop is 80-90 feet. Mike Warton was 20 feet from the top when the webbing to one foot loop broke. He had extra webbing in his pack and was able to tie up a replacement and complete the climb. Another caver suffered a light failure (Minespot electric) but continued with light shown from above.
This kind of trip happens occasionally, when everything seems to go wrong. The incidents were well handled but a couple of points might be mentioned. First, webbing is woven-that is, all the fibers come to the surface to be abraided and the webbing weakened. Webbing that looks reasonably good can be quite weak. Better is a sheath rope (kernmantle) with a core that is protected. Second, anyone using an electric as a primary light source might consider carrying another primary source as a back-up. It is not possible to tell how much capacity is in a freshly charged, or new set of batteries. Rechargeable batteries with aging, damage or contamination will lose capacity and 'new' throw-away batteries can be old or defective. In any case, you won’t know until they fail. In the case here, the batteries reportedly were not allowed sufficient time on the charger.
During the exit from H.T. Meyers Cave, one caver experienced a light failure while ascending, and another had their foot loop webbing break. Both incidents were resolved without injury.