| Name | Age | Sex | Injuries | Injured areas |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stanzel, Scott | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| Martino, Lou | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded |
On Sunday, February 24, Scott Stanzel and Lou Martino entered Bowden Cave, West Virginia. A 70 degree day outside had brought flooding from snow melt to the local streams and they soon found similar conditions underground. They passed upstream through 300 feet of passage six feet high by three feet wide with a three foot depth of raging water. Beyond, they spent time warming up, then took another two and a half hours searching for the second of three entrances to the cave. Though they had been in the cave before, their knowledge of it was apparently gained from a book on West Virginia caves and they thus were unaware that their second entrance had collapsed the year before. Meanwhile, their van, parked at the entrance, had been noticed and at one p.m. three cavers form the Parkersburg Grotto entered the cave to check out the situation. At the narrow stream passage they found a camera and guessed that the van cavers were beyond; the stream was now five feet deep. They exited and went around to the cave's third entrance which would afford access to the area where Stanzel and Martino presumably were. After several nasty crossings of the flooded Bickle Run, they entered the third entrance and proceeded to the second-largest room where they encountered Stanzel and Martino, getting ready to attempt the stream passage. They were led out in good order, but after retracing the Bickle Run crossings one rescuer had to be treated for hypothermia.
This kind of thing is a great adventure but try not to forget that your actions may cost the lives of rescuers.
Two cavers trapped by high water in Bowden Cave were rescued after a failed attempt to exit through a previously collapsed entrance.