Fyi. Sent from my Samsung Captivate(tm) on AT&T
Hi everyone, Below is a good summary of how things went down last night. While we mourn the loss of Tim McLain, we should celebrate his life, which was undeniably a life well-lived. And it was, in my opinion, one of the NSS's finest moments. I arrived at the cave about 10:45pm last night, and was on the litter party for the final 1000 feet of the recovery of Tim from the cave. And though Tim was gone at that point, we made a point of continuing to talk to him and treat him with the greatest level of respect. One member of the litter party actually laid face-down in a breakdown pocket, using his body as a ramp to facilitate the litter up and over a snag. The cave was Blowing Hole Cave, part of the larger Binkley's Cave System in Indiana, which also includes the newly-opened Indiana Caverns. Here is a video which basically shows most-all of the route where the recovery took place. Every one of the cavers you see in this first video was a major contributor to the rescue. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWU1yDkbe7w Most of us, considering the obstacles (most notably the waterfall), thought the recovery wouldn't finish until mid-day on Sunday. Tim was out of the cave by 4:15am. It was an extremely efficient and well-coordinated effort. Here's Bill Greenwald's account, and if you have any questions, just drop me a line. -Dean ======== Concerning the cave rescue down in Corydon last night in Binkley Blowing Hole Cave. Mainly to update those that couldn't make it down and to thank those that did. I got the initial call about 5:45 from Don Paquette to pull out the list and get cavers on stand-by up here. By 6pm it was an actual Rescue. CIG had 10-12cavers on the way down by 7:30pm. They asked for strong wet suit cavers. Unfortunately it turned into a body recovery. As of 2am it was confirmed that it was Tim McLain and that he died from what appeared to be either a heart attack or some other catastrophic cardiovascular event. Ironically, Tim was also the patient in the YouTube video “Caver Saver 2011” that was done in Eversole Cave. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgKLyLZiF8E I got the call that his body was out of the cave and that they were standing all the cavers down as of 5am this morning from Don Paquette. It was also interesting that it was a Chicago caver that Tim was with in the cave. Adam Haydock had emailed me about him coming down to dive a sump in the Binkley Cave system as he wanted to visit Eversole on Sunday. Adam was the one that gave Tim the CPR and came out of the cave and called in a rescue. There might be a little in the News but they had enough people and the recover went better than predicted. The media doesn't like to dwell on body recoveries. Tim was one of Indiana's best cavers and a great guy he will be missed by lot of people. Suspect the services will be in Spencer IN. “Please include Tim and all the cavers that helped in your Prayers this morning”. Have a Good Thanksgiving. Bill Greenwald
