Rescue in Thunder Canyon Cave

On Sunday, May 2, I was finishing dinner when my teammate, Tad Gallistel, called me to tell of a phone call that he had just received about a stuck caver in Thunder Canyon Cave. A member of the party was stuck in the squeeze at the end, and after several unsuccessful attempts to get him out, decided that further assistance was required. The reporting party called the San Diego Sheriff then called Tad to explain the situation. I quickly called our coordinator, Dan Whitten,  and the VFU on-call person, Marion Browne, to explain the situation and to tell them to expect a call from CalEMA. In the meantime, a message was sent to the team advising them of the situation, but to hold until we get confirmation through the proper channels. Amazing for a bureaucracy, the call came about 15 minutes later, and we were able to roll the team.

Thunder Canyon Cave is in eastern San Diego County, north of I-8. After a few miles on a dirt road, one must hike another 2 miles on a trail to reach the cave. At the end of the trail there is a fair amount of scrambling to reach the various entrances. The cave normally has a bit of water flowing through it, but with the recent rains, there was significant flow. This squeeze is at the bottom entrance. Fortunately, it is only a few minutes from the lower entrance of the cave.

A San Diego deputy arrived on scene at the cave to talk to those members of the party who had exited the cave. Immediately the party began to explain the situation and the danger of hypothermia. One thing that folks don't often understand is the The squeezeextreme danger of hypothermia in cases such as this. The caver is stuck in a crack that is the length of his body and about 11 inches wide. Most of his body is now in contact with rock that is many degrees below body temperature, and he is unable to move to assist in warming. You can survive a night with 70 degree temperatures, you cannot survive long when you are wedged between two 70 degree rocks. You will eventually reach a temperature of 70 degrees. You will be dead long before that happens.

Mark Kinsey, Tad Gallistel, and I arrived at the trail head a couple of hours after the original call to find a command post, San Diego Sheriff personnel, Border Patrol, and BLM representatives. On the way in, we developed a plan with the resources that we knew were available. Knowing the cave, we asked Whitten to see if they had ATVs or a helicopter to help us make the trek in, and he assured us that we would have both. After talking to Sgt. Don Parker, San Diego Sheriff's SAR coordinator, Kinsey and I prepared our gear, while Gallistel interviewed the reporting party and began the planning from the CP.

Kinsey, Lehman, and Norman boarded the ASTREA helicopter for the trip to the top of the drainage where the cave is located. We were carrying a lot of gear: water aAnchors high in the cracknd food for the patient, climbing pro, ropes, and an assortment of other extrication equipment. The pilot mentioned that we were very heavy. Good thing we weren't going to 10,000 feet! At the LZ we collected our gear and began the search for the cave. We had all been there before, and had good coordinates, but this is a boulder talus cave, and it is difficult to find in the daylight. After a few minutes, the helicopter brought two more team members and a Border Patrol, BORSTAR, member.

At the lower entrance to the cave, another BORSTAR member was present as well as the rest of the caving party. It took us an hour or more to reach this location. Their headlamps made it much easier to find. Upon arrival, we made our way to the patient to assess the situation. The first order of business is to warm the patient as much as possible. He has been stuck for about 10 hours, and is in need of as much warmth and comfort that we can provide. We placed heat packs around his body and gave a bit of electrolyte drink. We had the stuck caver, and another member of the party behind him. Both were hypothermic and ready to be done with the whole thing.

There were several things that I immediately had to start evaluating.

• Were we going to be able to get him out on this end of the cave, or will he need to be extricated from the uphill side? If it was to be the uphill side, then we will have a larger manpower Mark Binder of the Cave & Tech Rescue Team rigging anchors above. The feet of the stuck caver can be seen below Mark.requirement and a longer time frame.
• Will he be ambulatory when he is extricated? Am I going to need a SKED to complete the rescue?
• Where is the middle entrance? I have been in and out of this entrance twice, but finding it in the dark a few years removed will be nearly impossible.
• Aside from the hypothermia, is there any risk of "compartment syndrome"?
• Will the caver behind the stuck person want to come through the crack, or will he prefer to ascend to the surface the way he came (more than an hour of travel time)?

John Norman, Paul Stovall, and Mark Binder immediately began working on the extrication/patient care from the lower side. One member of the caving party took Mark Kinsey and Robert Hill to the middle entrance so that Mark and Robert could begin the trip to the upper side of the squeeze.

Many years ago a board was placed at the bottom of this squeeze to help stop people from slipping further into the crack if they were to get stuck. It turned out that this board was key to the extrication. The crew on the lower side rigged a few anchors high in the crack and attached the ropes to the boards. The thought was to raise the boards and our stuck caver at the same time. This process was helped along with a tent pole and assistance, from Jim, the caver on the uphill side of Brent, the stuck caver. The tent pole was used to pass equipment, and food for Jim, to the other side of the crack. This allowed for the rescue to continue while the other group was making their way from the middle entrance.

Initial attempts to move the board did not work, so the team added a bit of mechanical advantage. About this same time, they determined that a car jack may be helpful as well as a 6-8 foot piece of stout lumber. Fortunately we brought our own lumber and saw (to the surprise of the non-cave rescuers), and the CP was able to find a bottle jack. The jack arrived via hoist on the helicopter, but the lumber took a bit of work to get aboard the helicopter, so it was on the next scheduled flight.
Jim, who was behind the stuck caver, Brent
Once in the cave, the jack was not deemed useful, so the team gave another pull on the mechanical advantage system and was successful in moving the patient about 3 inches, at which point John Norman began wiggling him. This really got the ball rolling, and they decided that since something had changed, they would try pulling on his legs again. The crew removed all of his blankets, and pulled like crazy and slowly worked the stuck caver free. At the entrance I was busy sorting through the arrival of two more team members and the piece of lumber when I suddenly heard that the patient was free, and that the person behind him had made it through the squeeze. They were all ambulatory and able to make it out on their own. Everything happened so quickly!

Right about the time that the stuck caver was freed, the crew coming from the middle entrance appeared. In just a few minutes, all parties made their way through the squeeze, and were at the surface. San Diego Fire's rescue helicopter, Copter 1, hoisted both cavers, and we began the gear removal process.

We scrambled up the drainage to a waiting helicopter, and were air lifted back to the trailhead just as dawn broke. In all, a total of 10 members of the Cave Team were on hand for this rescue. Two members of BORSTAR assisted the team with in-cave duties and a San Diego Sheriff's SAR member assisted with communications at the cave entrance.

The rescue was about as smooth as a cave rescue can be. Everything that could have gone wrong, Rescued caver, Brent (L) and John Norman of the Cave & Technical Rescue Teamdidn't. The fact that we had trained as a team in this cave greatly simplified our planning efforts, as we knew exactly where this squeeze was, and what we were up against. From the operations side, working with San Diego County was very smooth. We arrived, and they quickly briefed us with what they knew, and offered any assistance that they could provide.

San Diego Union-Tribune article on this rescue.