Worst Caving Decision Ever Made & Other Terrifying Disasters

Kind: captions Language: en The rescue team furiously worked to pump water from the cave tunnel as fast as they possibly could. Four young cavers had descended into a tiny water-filled hole in the cave floor, one barely big enough for an adult to squeeze into and never came back. [music] Now, each passing second potentially meant the difference between life and death. Though they were only about [music] 100 ft from the cave entrance, it might as well have been 100 miles. As the rescuers raced against time, [music] the families and loved ones of the missing waited and collectively held their breath, praying for a miracle. Would they be able to save the young missing cavers, or were they already too late? This is the story of what unfolded that day in the depths of what was known to many as Gollum's Cave. But it had another name as well, the cave of death. Located just a couple of miles from downtown Provo is Y Mountain, [music] named for the large white Y on the mountain side. Just south of the Y lies the entrance to Gollum's cave, [music] named for the famous Lord of the Rings character. No one's exactly sure who first called the cave this, but it's likely because the eerie narrow passages and water-filled tunnels are similar to how JRR Tolken described where Gollum [music] lived in the depths of the Misty Mountains. Gollum's Cave had a notorious reputation among locals due to its hazardous conditions and potential for danger and even death, which explains the other nickname the locals had given it, the cave of death. Caves are inherently dangerous places. [music] Tight passages, slippery rocks, and a lack of outside light means it's often not a case of if, but when an accident will occur. Yet, despite these risks, the caves keep drawing people to come to explore these underground worlds. Such was the case in the early morning hours of August 18th, 2005 when a [music] group made the short hike up into the foothills below Y Mountain and just above what is now the Seven Peaks Waterpark. Their destination, Gollum's Cave. The group consisted of five [music] friends, Scott Macdonald, Blake Donner, Jennifer Galbre, Ariel Singer, and Joseph Ferguson. Although Gollum's Cave isn't on any official maps, several [music] in the group were from the area, and all of them had caving experience. So, it's not surprising that they knew where to find it. [music] But none of them had actually been there before. A sixth friend who had actually been there before was planning to join them, but ended up not going. So, it was going to be a completely new experience for all involved. And they reached the entrance to Gollum's Cave sometime around 3:00 a.m. But whether you want to call it Gollum's Cave or the Cave of Death, there is something very important to know. Gollum's Cave isn't actually a cave at all. You see, the area around Provo, especially Y Mountain, has a long history of mining activity, dating back to the 19th century, miners have been searching [music] for precious metals like gold, silver, copper, and lead. Numerous mine shafts and tunnels were dug in the area, and once all of the ore was extracted, or if it turned out to be too difficult or unprofitable to remove, the mine would be filled back in or collapsed. But more often, they were simply left abandoned. And that's exactly what happened with Gollum's Cave. [music] The one time mine was left open on the western face of Y Mountain, and instead of attracting miners hoping to strike it rich, it now called out to cavers looking for a new place to explore, [music] just as it did to the group of five friends that night. It probably took some effort in the black of night to find the small dark entrance to Gollum's cave. Since although it was a used mine, the entrance itself is a natural cave where early surveyors must have found promising signs and decided to dig deeper. Once the group had found the entrance, they were faced with their first challenge, actually getting in. In order to access the cave, you have to crawl through a small pool of water. But as we'll see, this group had come knowing that they'd have to get wet. On the other side of the shallow pool, the cave turns into a tight passage, which thankfully is at least dry. The tunnel doesn't go far, though, before it reaches a second obstacle, a fork in the [music] road. Here, cavers had a decision to make. Go left or right. To the right, the narrow tunnel continues, and here you would find evidence of its former life as a mine, with old support timbers still visible. This path down the southern fork is a short one, though, and it soon runs into a dead end, where it appears that the tunnel was caved in. Whether on purpose or by accident, though, is unclear. The group had to go left at the fork and take the northern path. Like the southern fork, this is also a narrow tunnel. But the northern path runs a bit longer, just 50 ft or so, before it too reaches its conclusion at a dead end with nothing to see. Or is there? Near the end of this tunnel on the floor of the cave is what appears to be another small pool of water just a couple of feet wide at most. But this isn't a puddle by any means. It's actually another tunnel entrance. And this is what the group had really come to the cave to find. This next section of the cave would be the most exciting, but also by far the most dangerous, since to get you through it, you have to gather up all of your courage and take a plunge, literally. Beneath the surface of the small, seemingly insignificant pool is the path to the next section of the cave. But to get through, cavers have to completely submerge themselves in the water and swim. The water-filled tunnel has a diameter of just 3 [music] to 4 feet, so only wide enough for a single person to swim through at once, and you must swim for about 15 ft before it opens up and you can finally surface. The tightness of the tunnel means it's essentially a one-way path. Once your head goes under the surface, and you commit to swimming [music] forward, you have to keep going in the dark until you reach the end and can surface to breathe once again. Once you finally do emerge on the other side, you're treated to the climax of Gollum's Cave. Another small chamber, little more than an air pocket, really. It's unclear if this was a natural cave that the miners discovered or dug it out themselves, but it provides enough room for a small group to stand up out of the water and more importantly breathe. After that, it's simply a matter of making the whole journey in reverse, swimming back out the way you came and then up and out of the hole in the northern forks floor. This was the plan for the group that night. They'd swim through the underwater passage, reach the grotto on the other side, and then come back to complete their exploration of Gollum's cave. And so now each member of the group slipped into the water-filled hole, took one last deep breath, and submerged themselves to swim through the dark, narrow tunnel. There's one small advantage in this water-filled passage, though, a rope placed by previous explorers that stretches from one end of the submerged tunnel to the other. As you swim through the dark, you can keep one hand on the rope to guide you to the end. The rope can also be used to signal your progress. A tug on the rope once you reached the other side would indicate that you were through and the tunnel was now clear. The friends started their journey through the tunnel. Well, all except one. For whatever reason, at the last moment, one member of the group, Joseph Ferguson, got cold feet. Perhaps the reality of what it would take to reach the cave of the other end was too much for him. Or maybe something else was making him feel uneasy about the trek. But regardless of the reason why, he decided not to join his friends and would instead wait for them at the entrance to the water-filled passage. Joseph would have watched as his friends disappeared into the tunnel, probably shining his flashlight on the water as the bubbles from their breath no longer broke the surface and watching for a tug on the rope to indicate that they had made it safely to the other side. And then after the last had gone in, Joseph was left all alone with nothing to do but wait and wait and wait. 5 minutes passed. then 15, then half an hour. Sitting alone in the dark with nothing but a flashlight, Joseph began to worry about his friends. What could they be doing in there? Was there more to the cave than they were aware of? None of them had ever been in there before, and this cave wasn't well mapped, so perhaps they found another area that they didn't know about, and they were now taking their time to explore it. After nearly an hour had passed, though, with no sign from his friends, Joseph began to worry in earnest. This [music] wasn't like them. Something must have happened. Something must have gone wrong. Joseph decided he needed to get help, even if his friends were fine and just taking their time exploring the cave. If there was a chance that they were hurt or needed help, he couldn't risk waiting any longer. And so, at 6:25 a.m., after about an hour of waiting for them, Joseph made his way back out of Gollum's cave, and he called the police. The response from the authorities was swift. Upon receiving the call, the Provo police quickly mobilized. And since this was a situation involving missing cavers, they enlisted the help of Utah County Search and Rescue. Once they were on the scene, rescuers faced their first challenge that they knew nothing about the cave itself. [music] Neither Gollum's cave nor the cave of death appeared on any official maps. So, the rescuers were going in completely blind. But after learning of the situation from Joseph that his friends had gone down into the submerged tunnel [music] and never came back out, the rescue team started formulating their plan. Dawning wet suits and equipped with sensors that could detect oxygen or other more dangerous gases, they inspected the hole that Joseph's friends had disappeared into. One rescuer remarked that the water didn't [music] seem especially cold, so it was unlikely they had developed hypothermia or that the cold was somehow keeping them trapped. But since they didn't know exactly what they were dealing with, the rescuers were hesitant to simply dive into the same water-filled tunnel to search for the missing group. So instead, they came up with a plan to one, get the water in the tunnel out, and two, [music] get in some more air in case the oxygen levels were dropping in the small cave at the other end. So rescuers brought in pumps and got to work doing both. Hopefully soon they'd be able to pump enough water out that they'd be able to reach the missing [music] cavers, or that they could even simply crawl back out themselves. They had no idea what happened on the other end of that tunnel. All they could do was hope. But what had happened that night in Gollum's cave? What transpired once the last of the group slipped beneath the water and into the small tunnel? [music] One at a time, Ariel, Jennifer, Blake, and Scott all entered the tunnel at the end of the North Passage. After fully submerging, they swam forward in the darkness. Each followed the rope the full 15 ft to the other end, where they emerged into a small chamber. And it was truly the end of Gollum's cave. There were no other passages, no additional tunnels to explore, just a small space barely big enough for a small group [music] with just enough room to stand up and catch your breath, or at least try to catch your breath. You see, in order to [music] understand what happened in Gollum's cave, we have to look at what's known as oxygen concentration. The Earth's atmosphere [music] is composed of a mixture of different gases. About 78% nitrogen and 21% [music] oxygen with the rest from small amounts of other gases like argon, carbon dioxide, helium, and methane. Your body has evolved to rely on this specific composition. And if that balance is disrupted, it can quickly lead to negative effects. Reduced oxygen levels can lead to what's known as hypoxia. And it doesn't take much of a change. A reduction from 21% oxygen to just 19 1.5% can [music] start to impact both judgment and coordination while also causing increased heart and breathing rates. Once the oxygen level gets below 16%, headaches, dizziness, and fatigue [music] all set in as well. If the oxygen dips below 12%, you'll have significant cognitive and motor [music] impairment as well as nausea and vomiting. And once it's under 10%, [music] you'll experience a loss of consciousness and then finally death if exposed to a low oxygen concentration [music] level for too long. This means that it was smart of the rescuers to pump air into the tunnel while also pumping water out. They knew that if the air had gone bad in the grotto and the oxygen concentration was too low, then the group could [music] have passed out and were slowly suffocating at the other end. However, a sensor later revealed that the oxygen concentration of the small room at the [music] water-filled tunnel was 19%. Below the normal 21% of our regular [music] atmosphere, not enough to kill you or even make you pass out, but low enough to cause some serious issues with [music] judgment and overall coordination and importantly increase both your breathing and heart rate. But if the oxygen level wasn't enough to incapacitate them, then what was going on? Why did they not come back? After the group of four were all standing in the cave, though there wasn't much to see, they probably spent some time celebrating and enjoying the fact that they had all made it all the way to the end of the cave. Perhaps as they talked and laughed, they didn't realize they were feeling a slight shortness of breath. Or maybe they just attributed it to the swim they just made. Or maybe they never noticed at all. But it doesn't take long in a low oxygen environment for it to start having an effect. And regardless of whether they knew they were impacted or not, at some point it [music] was time for Ariel, Jennifer, Blake, and Scott to head back to where Joseph was waiting for them. One of the young women was the first to [music] go. Just like the journey to the grotto, she would have taken a deep breath and gone back under the water and then used the rope to start guiding her back. There must have been a problem, though. First, that last breath of air that she would have taken before going underwater wouldn't have been as effective as the one she took on the other side. The low oxygen concentration also means a diminished breath capacity. Even though it was only at most a 30-se secondond swim the first time through, this time with [music] weakness and slight disorientation caused by the lack of oxygen in the grotto, she was probably going much slower. Before she reached the other side, she was likely already feeling a burning in her lungs from not breathing. This could lead her to panic. And in that state, she might have let go of the rope and tried [music] to swim even faster toward the exit. But that's where another danger with this cave comes in. The underwater [music] tunnel doesn't actually end at the hole that leads back up to the surface. No, this flooded tunnel actually runs several feet [music] past it. That means that if you lose the rope and you swim past it, you'll find yourself at a dead end, surrounded by rock on all sides [music] with no room to turn around. All you can do is push yourself backwards and try to find the hole that leads to the surface. This is exactly what happened to a previous visitor to the cave, Brian Lamprey. He described how when visiting Gollum's cave by himself, he had mistakenly swam past the hole on his trip back out, when people swim through the tunnel on the way to the grotto, they kick up lots of dirt that hangs in the water and makes it virtually impossible to see, even with a flashlight. So, if you lose the rope, there's a good chance you won't be able to find your way back out. Luckily for Brian, he was able to push himself back out of the dead end and pull himself out of the hole. But he was actually lucky that he had been there alone that day since it meant [music] that when he was in the grotto, there had only been one person breathing up the small amount of available air. So he likely wasn't as oxygen- deprived as the group of cavers were and could keep his wits about him and find his way out. But on this day, the group wasn't as lucky. After the first young woman had gone back into the water, the rest of the group probably waited for her to signal with the rope that she had made it back. But as the minutes wore on without any movement on the rope, and they could likely now start to feel the effects of the slight oxygen deprivation, they were left with no other [music] option. Someone else would have to go. The other woman in the group was next, so she would have repeated the process as well, taking a final breath, dropping down into the water [music] and swimming forward through the tunnel. At this point, the visibility would have essentially been zero with [music] even more dirt and debris kicked up from her friend swimming ahead. As she followed her way along with the rope, she wouldn't have been able to see [music] anything at all until she ran into something, her friend. By this point, the woman ahead was likely either drowning or had already died, and [music] her body would have been blocking the narrow tunnel, making it impossible to go around and get to the exit, and the oxygen she so badly needed. She may have tried pushing her friend, but she was likely weak and unable to push her friend forward, nor squeeze past her. The two men would have been waiting in [music] the grotto, growing increasingly more confused and frightened as the women gave no signal that they had made it to the other side. And sadly, the same fate would have met the next one to go, as he too would have swam into the tunnel to find that there was a body blocking his path. Finally, the man who went last at this point, probably feeling desperate to get out [music] of this cave, and with a lack of oxygen probably having a noticeable effect, would have had no choice but to follow his friends. He stood no chance at [music] all as he would have swam right into the line of bodies ahead of him that now clogged the tunnel with no room to move forward or [music] turn around. Lungs aching from lack of air and dust swirling around from each person who had panicked before him. As the rescue team pumped water out of the cave [music] and fresh air in, they continued to hope and pray that they would find the group of missing cavers alive. But instead, once the water level was lowered, this is how they found them. In a line in the tunnel, first the two women, followed by the two men, [music] all of them facing the same direction. All of them drowned. The bodies of Ariel Singer, Jennifer Galbrath, Blake Donner, and Scott Macdonald were removed from the cave, and officials made the decision to seal the cave to ensure that no one could meet the same fate again. With a memorial plaque placed [music] at the entrance, an effort has been made to identify and seal off other abandoned mines like Gollum's Cave to prevent accidents like these. But in Utah alone, there are still likely hundreds, many of which are unmapped and just waiting for another unlucky explorer to fall victim. In the pitch black belly of [music] the world's deepest cave, Robbie Shown's life flashes before his eyes as the ground trembles beneath him, cold and slick with water. Just seconds ago, he was eating breakfast in his tent. Now he [music] is paralyzed with terror as a white torrent of flood water crashes toward him, filling the air with a deafening roar. He can't even hear his own screams or those of his fellow cavers. [music] Only the roar of water and the