It has been suggested that the accident happened because
they had rigged the pull-down with a stopper knot and the guy rigged
into the wrong side of the knot. In that case it wouldn't have
mattered whether or not there was a knot at the end of the short side
(if there was a short side), because his weight would have pulled
down the rope, same as if he rigged onto the wrong side if it were
tried off at the bottom on one side. Only if he rappelled with both
ropes in his rack would that not be an issue, but you can't do that
with a Micro Rack or a bobbin.
Mark Minton
At 10:52 PM 5/30/2011, Geary Schindel wrote:
Mark,
I just heard they got him out of the cave. Not sure of the cause of
the accident but Sinking Cove Cave is a classic multi-drop pull down
trip. Mostly short drops with a nice exit into a truck passage in
the bottom of the cave. The Boulder entrance is the one that he
entered and includes a 30 foot entrance down climb, a 50 foot
rappel, another 53 foot rappel, a 30 foot down climb, a 20 foot
rappel and another 20 foot rappel to about 100 feet of stream crawl
that is pretty tight. It appears that the accident happened at the
last 20 foot drop. Gerald Moni got stuck in the crawl below the
last 20 foot drop a couple of years ago and had to be hammered
out. I think it would be very difficult to bring someone though
this area in a stretcher. Taking someone in a sked up the drops and
through some tight crawls would also be very difficult. Then you
have to carry them down the mountain. I'm sure this was no easy
rescue but the cave rescue teams in the TAG area are the best and
most experienced in the US.
I understand the guy who was injured was on the Mt. Thor rappels and
has a lot of experience. It will probably take a couple of days to
hear the details.
Geary
Please reply to mmin...@caver.net
Permanent email address is mmin...@illinoisalumni.org
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