| Name | Age | Sex | Injuries | Injured areas |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ortiz, Keith | Not recorded | Not recorded | Broken bone, bitten tongue, bruised posterior | Not recorded |
On April 23 four cavers entered the Fischer Ridge Cave System near Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. Past the Historic Entrance, at the tricky traverse, they split up into two crews. Bob Anderson and Keith Ortiz proceeded to their push site. After some exploration, they came to a climb up. This involved standing on the edge of a 'house-sized' block, with the continuation another ten feet up the wall of a dome. Ortiz gave it a try and found 'handholds numerous, footholds scanty.'
He stepped onto a shale ledge with one foot. It held so he moved the other foot onto the same ledge. That part crumbled so he tried to step back to the breakdown block but missed and fell the 15 feet to the floor. Ortiz did not have his chinstrap on so on the first blow to his head, the helmet was knocked off. Fortunately, there was no second blow.
Ortiz had a possibly broken middle finger, a bitten tongue and a bruised posterior. He remained sitting to recuperate while Anderson recarbided Ortiz's lamp on a car-sized rock above Ortiz. Suddenly this started to move and Ortiz had to jump and run, Anderson barely saving himself. The injuries were not serious so they continued their survey, Ortiz eventually leaving the cave under his own power, although he crawled through some stoopways because of the pain.
One of those things that happens in exploration. To be as safe as possible one would use protection and a belay, but far into a difficult cave, cavers will not usually have such equipment. A chinstrap should always be used, however. In climbing one should kick, pull and pound on holds to determine their stability.
Keith Ortiz fell from a ledge while climbing due to crumbly rock, resulting in minor injuries.