National Park Morning Report June 27.
Buffalo National Scenic River (AR) Rangers Conduct Technical Rescue Of Trapped Caver Late on the night of June 22nd, the Searcy County Sheriff's Office called the park and asked for assistance with the rescue of a man trapped at the bottom of a 30-foot pit a quarter-mile inside of Kristin's Cave, not far from the park boundary near Cozahome. Rangers/technical rescue technicians Dale Johannsen, Mark Miller, Melissa Moses and Kevin Moses joined a Marshall Police Department officer and a Searcy County deputy and worked their way to the man's location to assess the situation, an effort that required negotiating several vertical obstacles along the way and conducting a severity probability exposure (SPE) risk analysis to help mitigate hazards. After locating and making voice contact with the man, who was an experienced caver and a member of a caving club out of Little Rock, they determined that he was thirsty, hungry and cold but otherwise okay and capable of ascending under his own power. The cause of his becoming stranded was that his equipment, including his rope, had been rendered useless by a heavy accumulation of thick, sticky, stubborn cave mud. Miller rappelled into the pit and provided the caver with water, food, a thermal layer and clean ascending equipment. Belayed from above, the caver was then able to ascend most of the pit on a new rope under his own power, though rescuers used a raising system to assist him with the last ten feet or so. Miller then followed, bringing with him a fused wad of metal, nylon, and mud that had at one point been the victim's original ascending system. The rescue party emerged from the cave four-and-a-half hours after they entered; because this particular mission occurred during nighttime hours, the rescuers were forced to conduct the entire operation by headlamp. By the time they emerged, the victim had been underground for 17 hours. Kevin Moses served as incident commander. [Submitted by Jason Flood, Lower Buffalo District Ranger]
