Wow that is amazing, so the two guys made it out alive. That’s incredible I’ve ton my share of caving and it definitely makes my balls tingle. I can not imagine underwater caving where crap can really go bad quick
Yes. Nobody died on that trip.
If they had been directly behind us, they'd have drowned when the egress flooded shut. They saw a wall of water coming at them and ran. The problem was they ran in the wrong direction and ended up in a blind room above the entrance. When they figured out their mistake, they had to go back down through the flood water to get to the right passage. I know where they ended up. We marched through a section of dry cave at one point. It showed signs of being dry for 1,000 years or more.
One of the two guys had been flooded in 10 years earlier. He and a woman got into a tall room and the water rose and cut them off from leaving. They huddled up at the ceiling and watched the water rise for a day and a half before finally stopping and going back down. When they were rescued, the first thing they did was divorce their spouses and marry each other. That was the potential widow I was up with at the Jerry's.
I was tasked with writing an article on what happened, and it got published in the journal. I took a lot of heat. I asserted that I had seen thunder and lightning on the horizon as we were going into the cave. Some people claimed that would never have happened. The NSS would never conduct a trip with bad weather imminent. There were some reputations on the line, specifically the two older guys I was with. They'd been at it for decades. I was a relative newbie.
One funny thing from the trip. I was with these two older guys, way the hell back. This was still in the days of carbide lights. One fellow had his light go out and he turned to the other and said "Dave, give me a kiss."
When they turned and looked at me, I was plastered up against the wall with a frightened look on my face. I didn't know that meant to put two helmets together and get the other carbide lamp relit.
