| Name | Age | Sex | Injuries | Injured areas |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zurn, David | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| Crawford, Samuel | 21 | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| Hanebaum, Michael | 20 | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded |
On Sunday, June 10, a total of 18 cavers visited Valhalla Pit, Jackson County, Alabama. This trip was in conjunction with the Southeast Regional Association Summer Cave Carnival. The pit is 50 to 60 feet across, and from the usual low-side rigging point is 227 feet to a large talus pile. The first 50 feet is against the wall, then the drop is free with a considerable belling out at the bottom. The pit is on a steep hillside with a cliff above the pit on the uphill side and a stream bed coming down around one edge of the cliff and up to the edge of the pit at one end. This conducts water only in times of flood. At the bottom, on the downhill side, there is an alcove, a concave undercut. The pit has been described as the most impressive open air pit in the State if not the entire Southeast.
Three Georgia Tech students, David Zurn, Samuel Crawford (21) and Michael Hanebaum (20), rigged in the usual low-side spot. They were the last of the 18 that had done the pit that day. The last of the others had left at p.m., while the Georgia Tech students were exploring passages off the bottom. Shortly before 7:30 p.m. Zurn started up. The other two were sheltering in the alcove at the bottom, a common practice for waiting cavers. A register had been placed there at one time. When Zurn was about 100 feet up he suddenly heard a terrible sound. 'It was incredible like an earthquake.' When it stopped he shouted down to his companions. For several minutes he hung there and yelled. There was no response. Zurn finished his climb, ran to Hanebaum's vehicle and drove to the first house where he telephoned for help.
When rescuers arrived they discovered that a 30 by 30 foot section of the wall behind Hanebaum and Crawford had fallen over, splitting in two as it did so, and killing both cavers instantly. One caver could be seen from the shoulder blades up and the other was under the center of one slab. The bodies were recovered by digging beneath the slab which was estimated at between 50 and 250 tons.
At the bottom of a pit one selects what looks like the safest spot and waits there. If there is no such spot, one must go into an adjacent passage. One cannot fault Hanebaum and Crawford for being where they were. One can look for hazards, as one caves, so as to avoid them - loose rocks above, a shattered and thus unstable wall, footholds that may be friable - but one will still not see all of them. We must face the fact that caves are never totally free of hazard.
A body recovery is the grimmest of all jobs for a rescuer - there can be no happy ending. Still, in this case numerous agencies, the news media and cavers worked smoothly and well together.
Two cavers killed by rockfall while sheltering in alcove at bottom of pit.