52 ways to die in a cave

Some upbeat reading for your coffee and donut time.

A couple of weeks ago, I read Blind Descent, a book about speleologists exploring the some of the deepest caves* on Earth. One of the things that struck me about the story was just how frequently potentially deadly accidents happened. Towards the end, it got to the point where somebody was cheating the Reaper every other page or so. But, really, that's kind of the whole deal with deep cave exploration—when the surface is a multi-day trek away, through constricting passages and up sheer cliffs, just about any injury can quickly become life-threatening.

In fact, author James Tabor was able to come up with a list of 52 different ways deep caving could kill you—and that's with lumping all "incapacitating injuries" into one entry.

*"Deep" in this case means depth from top to bottom of the cave, not depth below sea level. These were journeys into the Earth, but they tended to start up a mountain and end at the bottom of a river valley, rather than in the land of the mole-people. That distinction confused me through the first few chapters, and left me still wanting to know about caves that go deep below the surface of the Earth, as opposed to caves that are just deep.

• [ackpht]

  Rappel rack nut falls off

  All the more reason to properly torque your rappel rack nuts prior to spelunking.

• [jerwin]

  [elguapostrikes]

  Scarier than spelunking? Cave diving. I once got nitrogen narcosis 90 ft down a florida cave and lost my flashlight- of course I had a buddy with me and was fine, but that shit is crazy.

• [TimDrew]

  as some of these items are not specific to caves (“rabid bat bite”, for instance), I’m surpised at how short the list is (ie. no “stabbed by homocidal fellow spelunker”, or “choking on clif bar” ?)

  However, main point taken though: caving can be pretti nasti

• [Anonymous]

  I am given to understand that spelunking with Nikolai Hel can be hazardous to your health.

• [jerwin]

  I see that my link does not work. Ahem.

  Dispatches from a 2004 expedition into Cheve Cave

• [Anonymous]

  I wouldn’t know really, but cave diving is pretty dangerous too…

• [Felix Mitchell]

  People have died from a locked gate? Surely any now-locked gate that you used to come into the cave is going to be opened again pretty soon.

  • [klossner]

    The scenario is: the local grotto borrowed the key from the land manager, opened the gate, and are exploring inside. You don’t know about them. You read about the cave in an old magazine article published before it was gated. You arrive, pass through the open gate, and explore down another passage. The grotto group exits and locks the gate. There are no plans for another grotto trip.

    • [OldRipbeak]

      I guess if you’re spelunking a cave that has a lockable gate, you might want to make sure you have a copy of the key then. Or at least leave a note saying something to the effect of “Please don’t make me an example of #43 on the list of 52 ways to die in a cave.”

• [botulf2000]

  I think “rocktopi” is missing from that list.

• [dotytron]

  Gee thanks…this article really is just a long weird definition of the idea of “dangerous”…that when performing some actions the the consequences of making a mistake are unusually harsh…sudden and violent death being a common consequence to doing something wrong or having bad luck.

  I am partner in a wireless communications company and since I would never ask someone that works for me to do anything I wouldn’t do, I spend a lot of time working on communications towers. The most dangerous job in the U.S. (I am also a sales person and average about 75K miles on the road every year, coming in 10th on the list of most dangerous jobs BTW)

  Anyways, I understand where he is coming from but I think it’s kind of cheezy to glorify the danger of what he does…lots of people do dangerous things.

  One thing that does bother me about my work is that I have a lot of clients that are in public safety, police officers and firemen. I get kind of sick of their “I’m a hero because I risk my life all the time” when in fact, I am 20X more likely to die doing my job than a police officer and nearly 100X more likely to die doing my job than a fireman. Yet, I don’t strut around demanding deference from everyone. That’s stupid. It’s just a job…

• [Anonymous]

  Cave diving certainly requires special training. Described as an extreme sport, cave diving is not for everybody. It is estimated that only 2 – 3 percent of the U.S. population poses a dive certification (from beginner to Instructor). Only about 1 – 2 percent of certified divers progress to a technical diving level, which includes cave diving.

  Usually, these divers have conducted hundreds of dives before they even consider additional training to become mixed gas or full cave certified, for example.

  Cave divers help humanity to explore the earth uncharted territory. They help to push the boundaries of exploration, in a way similar to astronauts that explore space. Cave divers prepare and plan for hours before they embark on a dive. It is simply not correct that well trained cave divers die frequently while exploring the unknown.

  Most accidents happen if divers untrained or not sufficiently trained enter caves. Quite often, these divers include experienced open water divers or instructors. They simply do not know that water filled caves require special techniques, specialized equipment, and special planning.

  Using sensational headlines like “52 ways to die in a cave” simply show a rudimentary understanding of the complexity of cave diving. Personally, I would like to know how James Tabor came up with the number 52. After hundreds of cave dives, I could certainly point to hundreds of mistakes divers could make and die in the process.

  Does this mean that we should stop exploring the unknown? I hope not! Otherwise, we would still live in the Stone Age and I would be afraid driving to the next unexplored cave on my list. Getting there could be more dangerous could be more dangerous than exploring the cave since I have to watch out for others, not just myself.

  • [breals]

    Cave diving isn’t that dangerous if you are trained, I’m sure the same applies to dry caving.

• [Anonymous]

  If caves interest you, you must read “The Longest Cave” by Roger W. Brucker & Richard A. Watson.

  Plenty of fascinating dangerous cave stories there…

• [mitechka]

  Seems like most reasons he lists are derivative. Debilitating injury is the real reason, and falling down is not by itself fatal, it is the injuries you acquire when you land that kill you :) So he lists a lot of ways to GET debilitating injuries and than lists debilitating injuries as a separate item. I call list inflation :)

• [Anonymous]

  “Blind Descent” is also the title of a mystery novel by Nevada Barr, set in Lechuguilla cave. Of course, it adds another another way to die in a cave: homicide.

  That list of 52 ways to meet your maker also left out “getting stuck”, which is popular in the tight, narrow caves common in the northeast US.

• [hassenpfeffer]

  Thanks, Maggie. I think I’ll head to the ER now for some IV Valium–that might, just might, dispel the squidged-out claustrophobia attack I’m now having.

  Can’t sleep, cave will eat me, can’t sleep, cave will eat me…

• [mdh]

  You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike

  • [Glenn Fleishman]

    Where’s the “plus plus” button for this remark? “Would read comments by this poster again.”

  • [dculberson]

    A hollow voice says “Plugh.”

• [len]

  Can’t ever read about caves without thinking about Floyd Collins and the book “Trapped”.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floyd_Collins

• [Matt Staggs]

  I got 52 problems, but a cave ain’t one.

• [Anonymous]

  Cool!

  Not sure whether it strictly qualifies as a cave, but I have another one:

  54. Falling into streams of arsenic laden battery acid.

  We’ve been studying a phenomenon known as “acid mine drainage” in abandoned iron mines. (Well, “we” in the general sense – I just do some of the analysis, never set foot in them myself.) The combination of iron ores exposed to oxygen, plus odd microbial communities oxidizing the iron ore, results in runoff from these mines that’s extremely acidic (pH 1 and lower!) and chock-full of heavy metals.

• [Matt Staggs]

  Oh, and with just a little bit of tweaking this list could really spice up our D&D game…

• [uricacid]

  is “fall while climbing up” substantially different from “fall while climbing down” to be categorized as a separate way to die?

• [jerwin]

  An excerpt

  The book opens up with a dilemma–how to haul a corpse out of a deep cave. I wonder if those morbid problems set the tone for the book.

• [angusm]

  No mention of “Eaten by hideous cave-dwelling monsters or mutated throwbacks to an earlier period of human evolution”. I understand from Hollywood that that can be a real problem.

• [amuderick]

  Sorry to burst your sensationalistic headline but…

  These are 52 ways you ‘could’ die in a cave but they are not very likely. Acetylene explosion? I’ve used an acetylene caving light for years and explosions are incredibly rare…I’ve never seen one.

  Adding vertical gear does create a lot more failure points but nonetheless caving (even extreme caving) is a pretty safe endeavour.

  The vast vast majority of fatalities come from people with no experience and no equipment doing very dumb things. And even then, you are looking at maybe 2 deaths a year in North America.

  • [Paul Coleman]

    Agreed on the acetylene explosion. Worst I ever did with one was burn my hand while climbing a fixed ladder.

    And yeah, if one takes care then there’s very little danger. Reminds me of those stoned teenagers that sheepishly asked us how to get out of a cave just after hiding while we passed them.

• [Pantograph]

  Somehow this is a very comforting list for me. Probably because I’m nowhere near a cave or a cliff.

• [UberMitch]

  Nits! I must pick them! Number 44 is “Poisonous snakes and insects.” Unless he is talking about dying as a result of ingestion of certain snakes and insects, I believe he meant to say “Venomous snakes and insects.” Of course, I know nothing of caving. Perhaps the ingestion of snakes and insects is part of the process, and he is indeed correct.

• [KremlinLaptop]

  Huh, for some reason I’m reminded of Dwarf Fortress…

  • [mitechka]

    Yes! A fellow DF enthusiast :)

• [Anonymous]

  C.H.U.D.

  That is all.

• [toxonix]

  Rope recoils out of reach
  Drop rope

  These are palm to forehead moments.

  Rappel off end of rope
  You hope that every rope has a figure 8 tied tightly into the end of it. But once you hit these a few times you begin to wonder when your luck will run out.

• [Anonymous]

  While there may be many ways to die in a cave, I find this all much over-dramatized, perhaps to sell books. Caves are, from a human perspective, relatively static and predictable environments. We know loose rocks fall, so don’t stand on them or under them. When it rains, caves flood, so don’t go in them in the rain. It is dark in there, so bring plenty of backup lights – we are visual animals. Most cave passages, however, have been virtually unchanged for thousands of years – essentially making them static for human purposes.

  In stark contrast is a much more dangerous activity which we commonly undertake whilst texting, talking on the phone, painting our nails, and reading the newspaper. It is driving on the interstate. Interstates exist for only a few 10s of years, and regularly require maintenance to keep them functioning. You are in a dynamic environment, where many things around you are moving, and weigh in at several tons. Other drivers can be drunk, drugged, angry, depressed, having a stroke, sleeping, texting, etc. – these heavy missiles are zipping all around you at high rates of speed, completely out of your control. On a per hour of time spent in the environment, interstates are much, much more dangerous than caves. Caves are very safe places compared to where we so cavalierly go on a regular basis. Please consider assessing risks based on probabilities, not fear of things that are unfamiliar.

• [Anonymous]

  “Eaten by a grue” is missing from the list.

• [berpi]

  amuderick #9 is right: the outside of the mountain claims many more lives than the inside.

• [No Imagination]

  @mdh, @dculberson: They all throw knives at you! They all hit you! Nice to know Adventure is still around after >30 years.

• [ottocrat]

  53. Eaten by Grue

  • [Crispy Critter]

    I think grues fall under #39 (out of light).

• [sayeth]

  The newt hits! You die.
  Do you want your possessions identified (y/n/q)

  • [mdh]

    YASD FTW!!

• [jerwin]

  At cheve cave, the expedition discovered that their ropes had been removed (possibly by human scavengers)– luckily, they weren’t down in the caves at the time.

• [elondaits]

  Just fall through a crack, Jack
  Meet a cave man, Stan
  Find a bear to annoy, Roy
  Just listen to me
  Breathe poison gas, Gus
  You don’t need to distrust maps
  Fall and fracture your knee, Lee
  And get yourself free

  • [Gtmac]

    Darn it, beat me to the reference! ;)

• [Gtmac]

  There must be 52 ways to die in a cave

  Just slip on a rock, Brock
  Get bit by a snake, Jake
  Prusik knots won’t grip, Skip
  Be careful down there

  Entrapped by a flood, Jud
  Just Asphyxiate, Nate
  Unwanted rappel shunt activation, Sebastian
  And watch your darn hair

• [climbingrocks]

  6, 10, 20, 22, 23, 24, 31, and 33 could all be lumped together as “Rappel error or failure”

  Also, getting your hair caught in your rappel device (#32) does not always result in instant death.

• [jerwin]

  Apparently, in the caving community,

  A “spelunker” is someone who enters a cave with a flashlight, and possibly a bic lighter for backup, and doesn’t care one whit about touching the formations

  A “caver” is someone who enters a cave with a headlamp, helmet, backup flashlight, glowsticks, buddies, and a backup plan.

  A “speleologist” is a caver who studies caves scientifically.

• [ultranaut]

  I’ve always wanted to be a spelunker. As a kid I was in a few caves on public tours and remember it being awesome. I’d want to sneak off from the tour group and go explore, fortunately I was smart enough to know that this is a really bad idea.

  I think it was in Mammoth cave where the tour guide was telling us stories about the people who had explored the cave and how they occasionally just never came back, and that even still the cave system wasn’t full explored. It created such a sense of mystery and wonder at just what was out there in the dark…. giant underground lakes, ancient bones, strange animals evolved by millennia of black isolation. A world where maps hadn’t yet reached. As strange as it sounds, it really was inspiring. It also made me feel kind of badass because the other people on the tour were scared and got increasingly nervous as the tour went on, and they kept asking dumb questions. I think this was the first time as a child where I felt a sense of superiority over adults. I knew more than grown ups! I was braver than grown ups!
  I don’t think I’ve been in a cave since my late teens now, and the last one I was in was full of lights to show off the formations of speleothems killed by the idiot tourists touching them. It was depressing.

• [Cochituate]

  Tip of the hat to all the Paul Simon references (fresher than Colossal Cave Adventure references). Xyzzy indeed!

  I live in the Twin Cities, and it’s never dawned on me to go caving in the miles of passages under the cities. Pigs Eye Parrant first settled St. Paul by setting up his liquor business in one of the caves that fronted the Missississippippi River. My wife is from suburban Detroit, and that area has been carved out by man, bringing up the salt that underlays most of lower Michigan, but beyond my wanting to play tourist in the salt mines, I don’t think either of us has thought to explore those caves either.

• [Felton]

  I could add a couple I learned from watching The Descent, but it might spoil the movie for someone.