| Name | Age | Sex | Injuries | Injured areas |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| White, Brent | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| Whitaker, Kelvin | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded |
On January 27, Brent White and Kelvin Whitaker prepared to enter Indian Cliff Cave in Pulaski County, Kentucky. This requires a 60 foot rappel down a cliff face to where a horizontal passage leads off, 20 feet above the base of the cliff. At 4:30 p.m. White started down the cliff. They were planning on camping in the cave so he had a 30 pound pack in addition to a 10 pound pack of cave gear. As he went down, he was able to remain upright as long as his feet were on the wall. To miss a rock sticking out, he kicked out and was soon pulled upside-down by the weight of his backpack. He didn't have sufficient strength to right himself but was able to continue his rappel, slowly, to the base of the cliff.
White points out that they could have lowered the packs separately or used a chest harness to hold the rappeller upright during the rappel (I've seen use of a link from the main line above the rappel gear to the chest harness). One can also put packs on a tether attached to the rappel gear or seat harness, allowing the packs to hang just below the rappeller.
Caver became inverted during rappel due to the weight of packs, managed to descend slowly to base of cliff.