| Name | Age | Sex | Injuries | Injured areas |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fabry, Dave | 28 | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| Pyle, Victor | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded |
On February 11, a group of thirteen cavers was on the Spade Cattle Company lease in Oklahoma, to visit Wild Woman Cave. At around noon they found the upper entrance to Bitter Enders Cave. This involves a thirty foot drop down a slightly rough, sloping wall. A rope was tied to a nearby 6 inch tree. Cavers began to descend, unbelayed. Most wore hardhats.
At 1:15 p.m., Dave Fabry (28), without a hard hat and the heaviest of the group, began his descent. As soon as he put tension on the rope, it untied from the tree. He fell feet first until his chin hit a ledge ten feet down, causing him to flip. He hit the bottom on his right side and buttocks. He was bleeding from a cut on his forehead and a smaller one on his shoulder. A shirt was torn up to bandage the bleeding while Victor Pyle set up a new rope and rigging to evacuate the victim. Fabry was hauled out at 1:40 p.m. The victim had lost some blood but was in good spirits. He proved to have an additional head cut but no other injuries.
It is not clear if the victim was rappelling or using the rope as a handline. In any case, as Kolstad points out, the situation was begging for an accident. When the pit was rigged, the experienced personnel were not on hand and did not check the rigging (already in use) when they arrived. The victim was in charge and thus able to resist using a hard hat. In a group of this sort (a youth group combined with four grotto members and two other experienced cavers) it is essential to give some specific orders regarding the rigging of the pit and the descent. The group had split up to find the entrance and it should have been made clear that no one was to descend until experienced people checked the rigging. Leadership also requires the setting of a good example which the victim failed to do, not wearing a hard hat himself.
Improperly rigged descent injures caver without a hard hat.