Hoehlenrettung Baden-Württemberg e.V.

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On the 30.8.03 we tested the Ogofon in the Falkensteiner cave to see whether we could establish communication with the following locations in the cave:

1) First sump
2) Reutlinger Halle
3) Stuttgarter Block
4) Königshalle
5) Baenisch Halle
6) Eiseleversturz
7) Fourth sump

On the surface, both a 2 metre and a 1 metre diameter loop antenna was used and inside the cave a one metre loop. All these antennas worked well but the 2 metre antenna delivered a better signal.

To items 1, 2, 3 & 4

As with earlier tests, communication was good with these locations in the cave (the max. overburden is about 120 metres - at the first sump). In contrast with earlier tests, however, the earth electrode antenna did not improve communication. In fact it was marginally worse than with the loop antenna so that the earth electroddes were not tried out at any other locations.

To item 5

At the Baenish Halle only one way communication was possible. The reception in the cave was weak but clear wheras the communication to the surface was unintelligible.

There are probably 2 reasons for this:
a) The surface projection of the underground location was right at the edge but inside the village of Grabenstetten and hence there was a lot of interference from underground power lines etc.
b) The presence of buildings prevented the optimal point for communication to be set up (probably in someone's living room!!). It was decided to try another location near the Baenisch Halle but outside Grabenstetten next time.

To item 6

Here no communication was possible. Absolutely no signals were heard either inside or outside the cave. This was surprising as the overburden here was less than at the other locations where communication was possible. Also this location was outside the town of Grabenstetten and hence not subject to too much interference.

A possible explanation is that, as it took the caving group longer to reach this location than planned, only 15 minutes was available for setting up contact. Probably not enough time was spent in finding a good location on the surface.

To item 7

Unfortunately, time did not permit a test at this location.
Again, however, it is to be expected that communication here should be possible as the overburden is not so much as at other locations where communication is possible. It was decided to pospone this test until a later date.

So that these places can be reached quickly in an emergency, the GPS data for the locations where communication was possible was recorded.

Chris Ross

Did you know that there is a mailing list uniquely devoted to cave rescue matters. This mailing list has been opened by Alexander Maier to provide a forum for everyone involved or interested in aspects of cave rescue to discuss ideas, present their opinions, or exchange information. Currently, there are 145 members subscribed from over 20 countries.

Although this International Cave Rescue Mailing List has been set up in Germany, it is not limited to contributions in German. We wish to provide an international forum and hence appreciate contributions in English and other languages.

To benefit from this forum, it is essential to use it and to distribute information about it to the members of your cave rescue club or to others you may know who are interested in cave rescue matters.

We look forward to a fruitful, interesting and constructive exchange of ideas.

Three teenagers exploring the legendary Wabasha Street caves on St. Paul's West Side died Tuesday when they were overcome by deadly carbon monoxide fumes on an expedition with two other friends. One boy was rescued from the cave by firefighters and resuscitated on the way to Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, where he remains in critical condition today. The fifth friend made it out of the cave on his own and called firefighters to report the others were still in the cave in a bluff above the Minnesota Department of Agriculture building at 90 W. Plato Blvd.

"It was really smoky in there; I was feeling lightheaded," the young man later told KARE-TV. "One of the people who was in there was a girl. She passed out. I tried carrying her out on my shoulders. I couldn't make it. I was unconscious. I woke up. Tried finding some way to get out." "I stumbled around in the darkness for a while," he said. "I found some light that was peering through a hole. Thankfully, I got out."

Authorities didn't release the teenagers' names, but friends identified them. Jay Boucher, 19, of Savage, made it out of the cave and called 911. Justin Jensen was at Hennepin County Medical Center. Pat Dague, 17, of Burnsville, Natalie Vanvorst, 17, of Savage, and Nick Larson died. All were reportedly students at Cedar School in Eagan. It was the deadliest cave incident in St. Paul since two 17-year-old girls from Eagan and Lakeville died of carbon monoxide poisoning in September 1992
in the same system of caves. "Somebody else is going to go through what we went through 12 years ago, and it's got to stop," Connie Lietzau, the mother of victim Annie Marie Fries, told KARE-TV.

"It's a sad day in the history of the city," said St. Paul Fire Chief Doug Holton. "Tell your kids to stay out of those caves. They're very, very dangerous." The city's parks and recreation department was expected to seal off the entrance to the cave Tuesday night. Mayor Randy Kelly arrived at the scene and said he'll work to prevent future accidents. "Of course this is absolutely tragic," Kelly said. "I feel so sorry for the families of the young people. Police have told me extraordinary efforts have been made to try to close them (the caves) off, but we'll be certainly looking again at avoiding this in the future."

Marilyn Morgan, principal of Eagan's Cedar School, said all of the five teenagers in the cave were her students. Over the 25 years Morgan has been an educator in the district, she said she's known that the Wabasha Street caves were a hot spot for the kids. "I've heard that's been kind of a fascination for students," she said. "We've tried to warn students that they're not safe." Boucher reportedly made it out of the cave and called 911 at 4:21 p.m., saying his friends had collapsed, said Marty Ludden, deputy fire chief. Firefighters were there three minutes later and found Boucher "rather distraught, wandering around," Ludden said. He directed them to the cave's entrance and drew them a map. The unconscious teenagers were found about 600 feet inside the cave.

"They all succumbed to carbon monoxide, and we sent crews back inside," said Assistant Fire Chief Dave Pleasants. "They had to climb over obstacles and go deep down. It's tough to get up and around." Firefighters measured carbon monoxide inside the cave at 750 parts per million, which can kill a person within two hours with little warning. "Their level of consciousness slowly slipped away," Pleasants said. After the four were located, firefighters worked to resuscitate them while dragging them the 600 feet to the cave entrance. "We're working aggressively on them," Pleasants said as the drama unfolded. The efforts likely saved Jensen's life. The distance, terrain, and toxic conditions made it impossible for firefighters to work safely with the normal 30-minute air-supply bottles, so they called for tanks holding one hour of air. "It's very difficult," Steve Zaccard, fire investigator with the St. Paul Fire Department. "The floor is soft. It's hilly. It's dark." The victims were found within 50 yards of each other, Ludden said. Ludden said there was no sign of a recent fire or smoke, but people often set fires in the caves and the effects of a fire could linger for a week or so. Carbon monoxide levels would remain high because there would be nowhere for the gas to go, Holton said.

The cave was not marked with any signs, Holton said, who noted that its entrance is described on a Web site for explorers. Firefighters put out a fire in a nearby cave a week to a week-and-a-half ago, Holton said. It's unknown whether that fire could have been the source of the carbon monoxide, he said. It's difficult to keep people out of the caves, Holton said. Two entrances at the other cave were boarded after the fire. "Within two days, kids had already got in," he said. "Short of cementing them, I'm not sure what else we can do." Two firefighters were taken to the hospital for observation after exposure to high levels of carbon monoxide. Andrea Prat, 17, of Burnsville said she believed her friends were visiting the cave for the first time. "The best people ever," Prat said of her friends. "I hung out with them every single day of the week."

Nick Winger, 17, of Savage described himself as "best friends" with some of the teenagers. "Apparently they wanted to explore these new caves," he said outside Hennepin County Medical Center, where Justin Jensen was taken for treatment. In September 1992, Annie Marie Fries of Eagan and Jill Huntington of Lakeville were found dead about 20 feet from the entrance to a cave, which was only about 30 yards east of the cave where the three teenagers died Tuesday.

Over the years, the city has used concrete, stone and other measures to block access to the caves, Deputy Mayor Dennis Flaherty said. Signs also warn of hazards near the site where the girls died. "It doesn't really make any difference," Flaherty said. "There are people that for the adventure and the challenge want to explore and they really have no idea what lies ahead. They're not concerned, obviously. They go forward and something like this results.

"The exterior is limestone and, unfortunately, individuals are able to dig and gain access, despite our best efforts," Flaherty said. "Clearly from the city's perspective, our heart goes out to the families and the loved ones of these individuals. But where they went in was clearly by anybody's definition off limits, and it wouldn't have happened had they not wanted to explore and enter an area that they had to be aware had some dangerous perils." Karl Stoerzinger, 20, said he and a friend went inside the caves in mid-April and discovered that all but one of the entrances had been bulldozed over with dirt. He said the air smelled like "bad paint fumes" and there was thick smoke in the tunnels. He said he and his friend only made it about a third of the way into the cave before having to leave. Stoerzinger said he is a member of a group called Urban Exploration. It's made up of people who explore the caves in order to map them, take pictures of them and otherwise appreciate the historical elements of the man-made caves.

Rescued climber Helen Sinclaire says the group made some silly mistakes. "We all felt (like) dumb idiots, while we were lying there in the cave. We spent a lot of time thinking about it and we got very cold and we felt very silly." The five friends, all aged in their 20s from Auckland, Austria, the United States and Israel, set out on Saturday. They claim to be experienced climbers but did not have the right gear to tackle the climb down or the caves.

Rescuer Mike O'Brien says they should not have been underground with the equipment they had. "They didn't gather enough information and they also didn't have the right equipment." Police were first notified at 11am on Sunday after one of the team inched his way up fragile rope out of the hole. The thrill-seekers admit the complex caving system had them trapped. At 174 metres below the surface, Harwoods Hole is the deepest hole in the
Southern Hemisphere and considered a high risk adventure for highly experienced cavers.

Police say they had no choice but to deploy a helicopter and a team of expert cavers on the rescue mission. In fading light on Sunday, the rescue teams
dropped in at the top of the hole and abseiled down to find the climbers uninjured and unaware of the risks to rescuers. Sherp Tucker of Nelson Search and Rescue says the cave is "extreme adventure at the outside edge". "It's getting quite popular with people who really haven't got the experience and skills."

Rescue teams get called in to Harwoods Hole about twice a year. Police estimate it cost about $12,000 to rescue the group. Senior Sergeant
Grant Andrews of Motueka police says most of that was spent on the helicopter used in the rescue. He says he wants more information detailing the dangers of Harwoods Hole and its caves system. Department of Conservation's Golden Bay area manager John Mason agrees, and says he will be looking into erecting bigger, more detailed signs at the carpark and drawing up pamphlets for DOC and tourist offices as well.

The group apologised and promised a donation to the rescue team but say the experience has not put them off future high risk adventures.

ST. GEORGE -- A 17-year-old girl is dead after falling nearly 100 feet from a ledge inside caves on the southwest side of St. George.

Rescuers worked much of the day to bring Jaquays' body out of the extensive and narrow cave system. Smith said Jaquays' death is the first he knows about in the caves, although search and rescue workers rescued another fallen teen earlier this year.

A list of incidents can be obtained from the American Caving Accidents page of the NSS at the following link
www.caves.org/pub/aca

CROWSNEST PASS, ALTA. - Kody Johnson says being trapped overnight inside an icy mountain cave hasn't frightened him away from spelunking. But he might wait before heading underground again.

"It's not going to stop me," the 17-year-old Taber, Alta., student said. "I'd like to go, but it'll be a while."

Johnson, 17, hiked up Ptolemy Mountain on the Alberta-B.C. border on Saturday with seven other members of his high school cavers club, a teacher and a caving guide. Their plan was to explore the Gargantua Cave, one of Canada's largest. Five of the students and the guide entered the mouth of the cave at about noon, and hoped to meet their friends about eight hours later at another opening.

Things went well for much of the underground journey, only going wrong at the end, when the cavers discovered their planned exit – which is behind a waterfall – was blocked by ice. They couldn't break through it, and they couldn't go back. Their route had forced them to rappel down several five-to-eight-metre cliffs. Not expecting to have to go up, they hadn't brought climbing gear. They huddled together under a pair of blankets sharing their supplies of fruit cups and granola bars, walked to keep warm and sang songs to maintain their spirits. But doubts crept in, Johnson said.

"There were times where you were worried, disappointed discouraged and hungry," he said. "The time seemed to pass so slowly, it seemed like we were down there forever." It wasn't quite forever, but when the cavers were late for their rendezvous, their mates outside hiked down the mountain to get help. By 10:30 the next morning, a rescue team was in the cave, and the stranded crew was found at about 4 p.m. Early Sunday evening, they had made their way back out.

BRUSSELS, Belgium - Rescue workers struggled Monday to free a spelunker trapped in a narrow cave for almost 24 hours after she fell and injured her back 45 meters (150 feet) below ground. Doctors said the injuries to Christiane Dumoulin were not life-threatening, but said the 43-year-old could not get out of the hole on her own and needed to be carried on a stretcher.
Rescuers had to widen parts of a narrow 300-meter (980 feet) long tunnel so she could be brought to surface.

An experience spelunker, Dumoulin fell from an underground ledge Sunday afternoon while exploring a cave near the town of Chaudfontaine, 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of Brussels. Doctors were able to reach her and provide medication, food and drink.

Christiane was been lifted to the surface at 3.00 Tuesday morning, after a rescue operation of 35 hours. Her condition has been kept medically stable throughout the time, and even improved once a ventilator was blowing in some 30m3/min of fresh air. Due to her neck wounds after her fall of 10 metres, numerous teams had to widen the severe squeezes, before she was eventually brought out on a special flexible stretcher, which proved excellent performance by the over 35 strong Belgian cave resue team.

Overnight on Saturday night 16th March, a 15 year old patient was brought to the surface at Honeycomb Cave following a fall during a caving trip with Project Hahn. I was one of the SAR helpers.

At 7.15 pm on Saturday night the patient fell about 10m down a vertical shaft beside one of the many access points to this cave. Remarkably, the only significant injury sustained was a broken collar bone. His Petzl Zoom came off his helmet during the fall, and his companions were unable to reach him. The patient was several hours overdue for his bi-polar
medication.

MCCC members were able to quickly find a way to access the patient upon arrival at the scene, and prepared him for extraction. He was eventually brought to the surface by a vertical haul after careful rigging.

Police with vertical rescue training were involved, plus local SES and Tasmania Ambulance officers. The patient was back on the surface at 1.40 am Sunday morning, after 5 hours lying still on an unstable debris mound above a further drop.

A not very well experienced Hungarian cave diver Zsolt Szilagyi dived in the cave Rakoczi Saturday 26. 1. 2002 at 17.30 and did not return back from the sump. There was a vertical rope 5mm in diameter hanging from the roof above the sump down to the bottom at minus 20 m. It was spanned by the help of a piece of lead generally used in diving which was simply attached to the bottom with a knot.

Divers attached their own life line to this main line at -12 meters and entered a hole called "gate" leading to the underwater part of the cave called "Devil`s Beergarden". The retrurn path was in completely muddy water.

Zsolt was the last person and was coiling up his life line, but he did not realize that he was pulling it some meters through the gate. As he reached the main rope, he detached his own line but the main rope immediately disappeared in the muddy water as it was pulled down by the lead weight. The diver lost his orientation in the completely muddy water and could not find the way back.

After about two hours of searching, his companions were sure he was dead and started to alarm rescue divers and cave rescue to organize an action to find and transport the body out off the cave (according to normal procedure).

When they were calm for few seconds they heard somebody shouting. Zsolty had found a small air bubble about 1 x 2 meters, and 2 meters high, which was connected to the main chamber with a crack of about 1 cm and with good luck it was possible to manage voice communication to him.

At this stage a major rescue action was started. A lot of of divers tried to find the way into where Zsolty was. But without success. The underwater cave is extremely complicated and the max. visable distance was 10 cm.

During the whole action 233 people were involved in this rescue action, 143 dives were made and 283 sunks (Webmaster- I don't know what a sunk is ??) in the underground lake.

I was present from Sunday 27. 1. 2002, 05.30a.m, untill the end of the action and tried to help. 24 hours later, when divers did not succeed I tried to organize to dig an artificial tunnel to the victim, but I had problems getting permission from the rescue leader.

48 hours later on the 28. 1. 2002 at 18.00 I got permission and started with Slovak cavers to make a tunnel of triangular shape (base 60 cm, high 100 cm) with the help of pyropatrons. Our cavers were working continuously without any breaks.

Finally after 66 hours, on Tuesday 29. 1. 2002 at 11.45, the leading diver Laci Czako got to where Zsolti was sitting, but he was not able to dive through the sump. Zsolti was found at the last minute. Divers supplied him with warm drinks and later with food. They constructed a place for him to comfortably lie down where a diver doctor could take care of him.

My group, which was later increased by the best Czech rescuers, was working in three shifts, and finally on Thursday 31. 1. 2002 at 15.35 we entered the small room where Zsolti survived 118 hours. Within 70 hours we made a tunnel (60 x 100 cm) 10.9 meter long in very hard semimetamorfed trias limestone.

On the 7. 3. 2002 we and all the people who took part in the rescue action met for a banquet in the Hotel Avar in Spa Matrafured. This large reception will be financed by a Hungarian multimillionaire.

At about 7.30p.m. on the Saturday the 6th of May 2000 an alarm was raised by a cave diver who managed to find his way from the fourth sump out of the Wulfbach cave without any light and without his lead belt. He reported that his lamps and those of his friend failed as they were starting their return through the fourth sump after returning from having been further in the cave. They separated below the "Oropax", which is a small air filled room above the water level between the fourth and the fifth sump. At about 11.30 p.m. on Saturday evening, the rescue divers found him dead, in the opening to the Oropax above the water level, without his aqualung. It appears that he dropped his air cylinders in the sump (found later - one cylinder empty and one still full) and attempted to surface from the sump through the narrow Oropax opening into the air filled space above without them. It is understood that he had no light at this stage. What then happened is not clear, but there were obvious signs that he pulled himself through the small opening, but suffocated although the air was not contaminated. It is presumed that he had probably inhaled too much water.

1) The victim had inadequate equipment, e.g. only two simple lamps, with insufficient battery capacity for this dive.
2) Neither of the divers had informed themselves in sufficient detail about the cave e.g. that the double 10 litre air cylinders that they had are not suitable for squeezing through the narrow Oropax opening (although they had somehow achieved this on their way into the cave).
3) Both divers should have waited together in an air filled chamber as they knew that an alarm would be raised at 2.00 a.m. Sunday morning if they hadn't returned by then (they had arranged this beforehand).