South Pittsburg Pit TN Rescue

[Brian Roebuck]

A caver rappelling South Pittsburg Pit had to be rescued today after becoming inverted about 80 feet off the floor. Apparently the first caver down discovered the rope did not reach the floor and attempted a changeover. He became inverted and unable to right himself hanging by his foot harness. His buddy called 911, other cavers, etc and the stranded caver was apparently rescued in about an hour with no ill effects.

[Brad Tipton]

I am assuming the party must have performed a self rescue considering we were told to stand down less than 15 minutes after the call went out. Where did you learn of this incident so quickly?

[Brian Roebuck]

bradtipton said:

I am assuming the party must have performed a self rescue considering we were told to stand down less than 15 minutes after the call went out. Where did you learn of this incident so quickly?

Learned about it through one of our grotto caving lists at about 12:30 PM today. Apparently the news media was there as well from what we heard. I don't know any other details at this time.

[Sharon Faulkner]

Has anyone heard more details on this situation? I haven't seen anything in the mainstream media.

[Brad Tipton]

I talked to Brain, Tim and Dennis the day of the CCCP and from what we gathered the guy short roped himself 80 feet above the floor and became inverted. One of his caving buddies called Jim Wilbanks, Jim told them to call 911. I think Jim then called Buddy, because Buddy was aware of the problem before Marion Co was dispatched. At some point during all of this the reporting party figured it out for themselves I guess. I am sure Buddy has the whole story, I haven't talked to him since that incident. I will find out more when I see him. Tim White might know more. They were discussing it when I arrived on Saturday.

[Sharon Faulkner]

Thanks for the update Brad. I'm glad the group was able to work the problem out, the outcome could have been much worse.

[Brian Roebuck]

I'm still trying to find out exactly what happened as well. I talked to someone that knows them and he or someone else was on the phone with the guy at the top of the pit suggesting he drop another rope to help the stranded climber get upright. That could be what happened but for now it is just speculation. All's well that ends well. I understand they are all going to seek out more vertical training as soon as possible to prevent a recurrence of this event!

[tncaveres]

Sounds like they need to try out NCRC training.

[L Roebuck]

I ran across this Marion County News article today concerning this December rescue.

Mountain Rescue

Dangling 75 feet from the bottom of a hole is not how one spelunker imagined his afternoon would end.

Experienced cavers Fred Maynor of Murfreesboro and Rob Davidson of Woodbury, Tenn. went spelunking into a vertical cave on top of South Pittsburg Mountain. The cave, which is up the mountain from Contour Avenue, is very popular for cavers. Maynor and Davidson said they have scaled this cave many times.

Davidson was the first in the hole and he soon found himself in a predicament. The rope that kept him vertical slipped out of his harness and Davidson was flipped upside down and he could not get back out of the cave.

Maynor saw that his friend was in trouble and quickly called for help.

Full Article

[Brian Roebuck]

Good follow up article on this Lynn.

We recently got to talk to the caver at the top of the pit and asked some questions about the incident. We were told that the stranded caver wore his backpack normally instead of slung below his harness on a tether etc to keep his center of gravity lower. He rappelled about halfway down and discovered the rope was too short. While he was changing over to climbing gear the weight of the heavy pack on his shoulders suddenly inverted him and he couldn't get upright. All of that happened unexpectedly since he had trained above ground doing change-overs but never wore a heavy pack during training. I am sure that his disoriented him etc making self rescue that much more difficult. I have read (On Rope etc) that you only get a chance or two to right yourself in such a situation before the muscles are too weak to continue. It was described to me that he was hanging from his seat harness attached to some of his climbing rig but the weight of the pack kept him inverted. I was told that panic ensued and he did not have presence of mind to ditch the pack to get upright. I am sure that many of us would have trouble focusing when suddenly flipped upside down and not knowing why or what to do after using up all strength in a reflex action to get upright. Fear and panic can be your enemy in such situations! His friend lowered another rope to attempt to rappel down to help him but the victim tangled himself in it making it impossible to get to him. Communicating with someone who has been hanging upside down for awhile and is becoming increasingly upset is difficult at best and the victim may have thought the second rope was being lowered to allow him to pull himself upright. Luckily his friend was able to get help to pull him out still inverted from the pit.

These two cavers did many things correctly - they wore climbing gear on the first man down, thay had practiced and performed change-overs many times, they tied a knot in the end of the rope, they researched the depth of the pit and thought they had a long enough rope, and they went caving as a team to be able to help each other. The second caver tried some quick rescue options that could have worked but when they failed he wisely called for help. In the end nobody got hurt and they all lived to cave another day. I am told both of these cavers are actively practicing vertical techniques, especially change-overs, to assure they never have this sort of problem again. We can all learn from their experiences.

[tncaveres]

Good to hear that all was well in the end.

I wanted to talk to Frank about it the other day while we were in Raus cave but never got a chance .

I don't think you ever practice to much when it comes to change overs & self rescue tech.