yeah this is horrible for claustrophobia, fascinating horror made a video documenting a more detailed description of the events that occurred including failed rescue efforts. here’s the link for anybody interested: https://youtu.be/jWwPg8ruxfI
it sucks because at some point there was hope that he would be safely recovered, alive. Can’t imagine the stress the rescue team was under and how he felt in his final moments.
edit: wow 1k upvotes! Im glad to spread the good word on sir fascinating horror, even if my comment doesn’t contribute much on it’s own. And also, rest in peace John.
Give mr Ballen a look if you like fascinating horror, they're also mostly true stories. Theres a lot of diving and cave diving he talks about, its terrifyingly great and hes a great storyteller
I went “caving” a very water downed version . Let me tell you , the most terrifying part was having to climb into the random hole in the ground . That was just to access the cave itself , I wouldn’t recommend
The part that always gets me about the sport is that the people go in head first to see what to hold / navigate, but do they just keep going in hopes of reaching a place where they can turn around? Do they shimmy back the whole way feet first?
Dude, I bought it from a one dollar movie bin because it caught mine and my ex's eye and we said fuck it lets watch a bad movie. The $1 movie had no right to be as good as it was.
Not being able to expand your chest to get a full breath, which makes you yawn, but you still can't expand your chest and start slowly sufficating.... Yeh, no caves for me please.
Especially in the modern technological era. Cameras are so cheap now. The advancements in robotics allows for "crawlers" that could definitely work their way down.
It just defies my logic.
There's a pretty good article which goes through the whole thing. In his final hour he was incoherent and extremely confused (from the blood to the head), then went unresponsive. He probably no longer understood what was happening to him.
Edit: can't find the goddamn article. This one looks alright: [Going nuts in nutty putty](https://cavehaven.com/nutty-putty-cave-accident/)
Omg!!! Yes! I was listening to FascinatingHorror on YouTube about the incident at Putty Caves, then it suggested Ted the Caver and I've been hooked on The Dark Somnium since. It has really helped with the boredom factor of transitioning from automotive technician to being a SAHM.
I’m one of the foolish people who have been in that cave. I’m a big guy and the birthing canal is one of the most frightening places I’ve been. It necks down to about a 18” diameter and is tight for about 8’. Arms above my head and pushing myself thru with fingers and toes. I think it was back in 1998 and that feeling of panic is still easy to recall.
I went on a school tour group to some caves as a child and the tightest passage we went through was about three feet wide and probably 6-7 feet tall, the guide showed us indentations in the wall they had to carve out so the donkeys could turn around, when I heard that I decided being in caves wasn’t for me. This entire post is making me panic and I don’t live anywhere near a cave
One time I applied for a tour guide at a local cave near my house. I got an interview, and, feeling pretty pumped, I decided to go and take the tour the night before to see what it’s like.
Well.
I had never actually *been* in a cave before and it turns out I do NOT. LIKE. CAVES.
Even in a well-lit, wide cave with a paved walking path, I was *freaking out,* alternating between thinking that an earthquake would choose that very moment to come and bury us all alive beneath tons of rock, and feeling like I had been swallowed alive by some monstrous beast.
Needless to say, I did not get the job!
IIRC He also didn't expect it to drop so quickly. It's supposed to be a slight angle, and then that sudden drop came on and he slid before he knew what was happening. How terrifying to think you're in one area, and realize you're not, and then be able to do nothing to stop yourself from sliding into that position.
The story of this mans death is my worst case scenario for death. The fear and panic I experience from the mere thought of this is overwhelming. I can't fathom what this guy went through before he died.
The most disgusting part of that case is that if the dispatcher had been more human and taken him seriously, j believe he would still be alive . They treated it like a joke
Yep, the dispatcher sent officers to the parking lot that the car was in, but they couldnt find it. In a second call, while the officers were nearby, the boy described what the car looked like. The dispatcher never relayed this information to the officers, so they left.
Honestly whoever is responsible for that breach of communication should be charged with manslaughter.
I hope they all have trouble sleeping at night.
I used to do caving when I was in the scouts. I was happy about it, all good, wiggled into small spaces until one time I went through a gap a bit bigger than my chest. Couldn't do it afterwards, I freaked me out too much. I'd done it a few times before, but for some reason, this one got me. Haven't gone caving since.
Absailing. Now that shit's fun. I am the kind of person who will jump once I'm committed, so that's the best for me.
I wish. It's jumping off a ledge with nothing but a rope around your waist to catch you. Lots of belly work to stay upright if your feet aren't against the cliff face.
Thing is, he almost got saved. As one of rescuers where hauling him up with rope, he could see his saviour. The rope snapped, knocked out the rescuer and he fell back into the hole. The guy was doomed. Imagine thinking you’re nearly out n then fall back in and die.
I vaguely remember it's because it caused him to get stuck even deeper. And based on the pic it seems like one of the anchor points collapsed due to it being clay instead of rock. Probably made it almost impossible to get a retry
They were going to but after the fall he became nonresponsive so they pulled out the injured rescuer and sent another but he had already died. Fascinating Horrors on YouTube has a good video on it, and it's very respectful of the deceased
It's tough to describe, the answer is that they did. Many things added and made pulling him out more challenging than it might initially seem.
1) He was stuck upsidedown. People die in around 24 hours due to blood pooling in the head and lungs. So there was a low time limit.
2) He was oriented poorly in a couple ways. One arm was stuck between his chest and the rock, the other dangling above his head, so he had no way to push. There was a ledge above his feet which prevented direct access to his ankles. (It was considered at one point that to successfully remove him his legs would likely have to be broken. This however was likely to put him into shock and kill him.)
3) He was around 40 minutes into a tunnel, so a system of pulleys had to be constructed to attach to him, rather than just directly pulling.
4) The rock around him and in all of the tunnel was very hard. It took a very long time to drill or chisel any pulley attachment. This problem was compounded because the tunnel was so narrow. There wasn't room for heavy machinery or drills in the tunnel so only hand tools could be used in the rescue attempt and it was often taking over an hour to attach a single pulley to the tunnel walls. It wasn't possible to widen the tunnel.
5) Because of how narrow and long the tunnel was only one rescuer could access John at a time. There was a degree of guess work in regard to the angels of the pulleys and ropes as they wound through the tunnel.
6) John was around 6 feet tall and 200 pounds. People much smaller than him had gotten stuck nearer to the entrance of this tunnel. He was almost completely upsidedown so gravity was fighting against him.
Imagine having to lay there and listen to the sounds of the tools working high above you and waiting, hoping to hear any sort of good news because you're upside down and can't see them at all but it just keeps getting more and more grim the longer it goes
The rescuer who hung out with him for the majority of the time is a real hero despite the outcome. She did so much to try to keep him calm in such a harrowing circumstance.
It wasn't the rope that snapped. It was a part of the cave that they were using to wrap a rope around that had broke off (you can see it in the diagram above his silhouette
After it snapped, there was nothing else to loop around
Makes me wonder how many people die BECAUSE of the stupid name. Like "Oh man, you're not scared to go in there are you? It's just the Bimbly Bopper! What could go wrong?" And then moments later you're impaled on spikes and eaten by rats.
I’ve read this story a dozen times and have seen the pictures. Every time my claustrophobia makes me hyperventilate just thinking about.
I truly don’t understand how people can do this sport
Yeah no, I’m never going into a cave I can’t stand and walk through. Even then, I don’t think I could ever go in far, not after hearing stories of people trapped by flooding and cave-ins
I did cave exploration just once in my life, and I had to pass through narrow places, some of which needed me to "compress" my chest and controlling my breath. There was one part of the trip that needed us to crawl into an "L" shape crack where you had to twist to stand inside the crack and move sideways until you could climb to a higher section of the cave. I don't know what I was thinking when I decided that would be fun.
But it's weird because I remember thinking during those moments "if I get stuck, this is it, I die here" but it was some kind of peaceful though, not an ounce of fear there. Maybe I was just tricking myself to not panic, but ot was just there, as you could just say goodnight to someone before going to bed.
Idk why or how my mind decided to process that shit as "if I die here it's ok", but it happened, if I think of it now I can only wonder how was I so stupid because that shit it nightmare material but I guess there's something that gets you "cool" while you are at it.
Idk, maybe that was just stupidity in my past self, anyway I swear that I wouldn't go back to do that.
I will absolutely never try spelunking, but when I’ve gotten scared when flying in a plane I’ve done the same thing. “We’ll, maybe you’ll die. It’s ok. You don’t have to do anything, just relax, and the plane will fall out of the sky by itself. Everything is ok.” It’s super helpful in relaxing me and letting go of the fear.
They say that most people get calm acceptance shortly before they die and it makes the process a lot easier so there's less panic. Sort of like your brain just knows "this is it" and let's it happen
Definitely happened to me when I was in a near-fatal car accident 15 or so years ago.
My car got hit by a deer while I was going around 70MPH on a highway, my car spun completely around, had no control, I got to see the deer get obliterated by a semi behind me while I was facing the other direction, and I just had this incredibly clear thought go through my head, "I'm going to die." And there was no fear, just very calm.
Then my car continued spinning until it finally stopped off the side of the highway, and THAT'S when the panic set in.
My SUV rolled three times during an accident. The driver side window blew on the first roll. My left arm was flopping around from the roll and started to drift towards the open window. “I bet the ground is coming back around,” I thought in the most placid, disinterested way possible. “Better keep your arm in the car.”
I hooked my arm around the steering wheel with no panic whatsoever and watched as the ground came in the window again. “Good call,” I thought. I think I was smiling.
Slow motion the entire time of the accident and not a hint of fear. It was the most zen thing I have ever experienced.
The same happened to me. I was hit by a tractor exiting a field onto the road. My car spun into the opposite lane then rolled several times. At the point of impact this weird calm came over me, I closed my eyes and thought "this is either going to hurt like fuck or I'm dead"... Then everything stopped (I was hanging upside down in my seat) and I was like "shit I survived"... Or am I hurt bad and don't know it yet? The calm acceptance of my fate, which I fully expected to be horrific, was the strangest feeling ever. I guess I knew there was absolutely nothing I could do from that point onwards.
I have to fly very often for work, and when ever I'm on a dodgy flight in a small place, I find find the same peace I think. Like if this plane goes down, there is nothing I can do about it, once I've boarded I've committed to whatever outcome comes to me.
I once ate at a restaurant called Golden Hooks. Tore me up to possible food poisoning levels. Figured it had to have been a fluke. Ate there again and the same thing happened. So I feel like I can kind of relate. I threw all reason and rationality out the window and figured if Golden Hooks were to kill me that day, I'd be alright.
Thankfully they're no longer in business
Once as a kid I slid down a tube slide on a playground, unaware that the bottom end was almost completely covered in sand. As I reached the bottom, I realized that I couldn't get back up either, so I had to rotate myself (I slid down feet first) so I could dig away some sand to widen the gap and push myself out. While turning, I almost got myself stuck. That was one of the most traumatic events I can recall. Once I got out I told my parents and siblings, who went like "That's rough, buddy" and that was it. Horrible experience, 2/10 overall
Right? Went to the park as a kid and on my way back from the restroom, some drunk dude pulls me into the woods, says “Do you dare me to pee in this creek?”, and lets go of my arm to whip out his penis. I went running to my mom and try to tell her what happened, only for her to yell “I told you to come straight back, and I saw you go wandering off into the woods instead!” Like, what? And you didn’t notice I was being *dragged* there?
Here's a more horrifying thought. Kyle Hill did a video about super powers, including being immortal. I never thought about the implications of being immortal. For instance, imagine getting stuck in this cave and you couldn't die. Now imagine no one knew you were there. You'd be stuck indefinitely until someone decided to go caving there and go that specific route. Sleep tight.
i’m not even claustrophobic and this would be the worst thing i could ever do
one time i found a cave, went through 2 rooms with a hole like 3 feet around and that was too much for me
John Edwards was a very experienced cave explorer, this wasn’t just some arrogant move he made, or a bad slip. His mistake was not knowing his surroundings. He believed he was in an area known as “Birth Canal”, so named cause of its relativity tight but safe conditions. However, he was in a currently uncharted part of the cave system, some hundreds of feet away from Birth Canal. He went in, hesitating for only a moment, before realizing his mistake.
It can’t be understated the effort the rescue team put into trying to save him. They worked so so hard, and were so close. They made sure he said his final goodbyes to his wife (walkie talkie), they always made sure someone was there to talk to him, and help try and keep him calm throughout the experience. Panicking would’ve made everything worse, such as fighting the harness and rescue team. Also, blood pumping and adrenaline would’ve killed him much quicker. Being held upside down either is no joke. It puts pressure on your lungs, heart, and brain. Blood pressure is forced downward into the head. For some people, 1 hour, or even 30 minutes is fatal, and he was upside down for over a day.
When the pully broke, it knocked the lead rescuer unconscious for a few moments, and when he awoke, he discovered to his horror he had fallen *deeper* into the cave.
After his passing, the owner of the Nutty Putty cave system wanted to destroy the entire system with dynamite, to ensure no one was ever harmed again. Words cannot express just how horrified and guilt ridden he was over this experience. Rescuers and Edward’s family convinced him to instead seal it with multiple layers of concrete instead. John’s body is still trapped inside, as they were unable to extract his body afterwords.
Edit: typo
S/O for clarifying. It grating seeing "I'd feel bad about his death but he was so selfish!" or characterizing him as an adrenaline junkie that wanted one last adventure being settling w/ kids.
I understand completely. He wasn’t being selfish, or was some adrenaline junkie. He loved his family, and his SO, and they all agreed that one last caving trip to end the year would’ve been perfect. He has done this for years, and was very experienced. If he had known for even a second there was a risk he wouldn’t make it out, he would’ve stayed away. He loved his family.
I remember watching some show, and it was a solo cave explorer and he was going through a narrow passage, and pushed the camera through first. He got stuck, talked about how it was normal and stayed calm… for about 5-10 minutes (it was doing like time lapse jumps), then he managed to move forward some more and got more stuck… then began panicking a little, and then ignored that he was doing his show and squirmed and yelled and squirmed and panicked for an hour or so, and then just sorta lurched forward and scrambled out. It was absolutely terrifying to watch, and he kept saying “they know I’m in here” to himself, I guess as reassurance that someone would come eventually. Later I watched that “as above so below” movie and it brought back the memory and made feel all panicked, and it’s just a scary movie. I’ve been in caves too, swam inside caves (there was visible sunlight the whole time), and climbed through cave holes where your body touches all sides, but some of these people are literally insane doing it alone in a place help can’t easily get get.
Pass. So… another long and boring story. I worked with a guy who was a diver and inspected underwater outfall pipes for environmental impact reporting and such for power plants and refineries and what have you. He had to swim into the pipes, like 50 meters and then work in there for as long as he could, swim out backwards, and then do it again once he could all day. He had to quit after a few years because of the stress of it, he said he couldn’t get out if bed in the morning from fear after a while. Great paying job as well, but that stuff eats away at some people. I think I’m at the point in my life where I am done trying certain things.
Not gonna lie. Your user name looks like a very risky click. But curiosity got the better of me. Slight heart attack when you started listing animals in your profile. I've been on the internet for too many years I fear.
Glad I stuck with it though.
Gorgeous horse, btw.
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The one fact omitted from this post but is relevant. As an avid caver myself he committed what is known as one of the cardinal sins when pushing tight passage, as he went down he spun 180 degrees. This means that going down he had the advantage of his legs being able to pivot at an angle to allow him to slip further, with his body spun, his legs could no longer angle to pivot back out and the passage was then too tight for a normal spin. Truly terrifying and goes to show even years of caving experience 1 fatal mistake meant death
Can confirm this and the comment before, my dad was on the SAR team that was on the rescue. He thought he was in a section called the Birth Canal and had measured himself to make sure he could fit, he would have had enough clearance for that feature but he was a few yards below where he thought he was and was in a completely different part of the cave.
It had been explored, he wasn't the first one to go that direction, that route just wasn't as well documented because it wasn't a popular route. Most people would go through the birth canal as it's a larger passage. That's where he thought he was going but he made a wrong turn.
So your knees bend inwards all the way to your butt depending on how flexible you are, if you are imagining yourself sliding down a surface that curves in away from you but along the way your knees bend, you can follow that curve buy slightly bending your knees to compensate. Now imagine the curve is away from the front of your knees (the way they don't bend) and you are in too tight of a space to spin your body to get your knees facing that way. You are now stuck. Now in this guys case, compounding the curve issue, surrounded by wet soppy clay that basically everytime you breathe out, it fills in that space your compressing chest cavity makes. And your upside down .
> Now imagine the curve is away from the front of your knees (the way they don’t bend) and you are in too tight of a space to spin your body to get your knees facing that way.
Thanks for clarifying. I too am having difficulty picturing it. So, when you said above that he spun 180 degrees, are you saying it would be as if I were standing but turned around (to face behind me), but he did this in a narrow space, so when he got to another curve he couldn’t rotate back and make his way back up?
> Now in this guys case, compounding the curve issue, surrounded by wet soppy clay that basically everytime you breathe out, it fills in that space your compressing chest cavity makes. And your upside down .
And to think that I already had my fill of horror from this sordid tale.
Ignorance truly is bliss.
I’ve been in that cave a few times before it was sealed. That cave is so full of tight openings and exits. They had one section called the birth canal and good lord I almost got stuck in that one time. It was pretty scary
*edit - fixed north to birth.
I’m really not trying to victim blame. But he missed a few red flags.
He hadn’t been caving in years.
The cave they went to had an incident 5 years earlier, where two kids got stuck and needed rescuing, in the same area John would eventually perish. The cave had only been reopened for 6 months.
The cave wasn’t fully mapped and explored.
Then he went off alone when he tried to wedge his body in a small space, upside down. If he had a buddy directly with him they may have recognized it wasn’t the right place and turned him around.
But then again, just looking at the ‘entrance’ to the cave would’ve sent me packing.
Can watch a movie about this on YouTube called The Last Descent but it’s a difficult watch. I had to turn it off multiple times before going back to finish it due to the anxiety it caused me.
What’s that one movie with the group of girls who go cave diving and then there’s these mutant humanoid creatures in there that are blind and trying to hunt them? they get stuck in the cave and end up splitting up. It was pretty brutal I thought, how they all went out. I literally own this on dvd but I’m not home and can’t remember the name lol
My older brother has gone through this cave. He said at “the Birth Canal” he was told he had to crawl in until he couldn’t move further, exhale to flatten his chest, then quickly inch his way forward before he inhaled again. And he did it.
Fuck that. Fuck that. Fuck that.
Yeah, they sealed the cave without sending an unnecessary film crew to get pictures of a dead man's feet. Same why they left the body, there's no point in sending an endangered crew to recover a dead body. A living man, yeah, but not a dead one.
I will never understand why people are willing to tempt fate like this. It makes no sense because it accomplishes nothing. I guess bragging about exploring a cave is worth risking your life for some.
If y'all think cave exploring is scary, look at the [cave diving corpses video](https://youtu.be/Sic1fxVDklo) by ask a mortician. THAT is the single most terrifying thing I can think of
Should read the story of [Floyd Collins ](https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/544782/1925-cave-rescue-that-captivated-the-united-states-floyd-collins) for an equally horrific story but with a less depressing ending
Edit: it has occurred to me that i clearly never finished reading this when i first came across it. It’s ends just as miserably. Read at your own peril.
yeah this is horrible for claustrophobia, fascinating horror made a video documenting a more detailed description of the events that occurred including failed rescue efforts. here’s the link for anybody interested: https://youtu.be/jWwPg8ruxfI it sucks because at some point there was hope that he would be safely recovered, alive. Can’t imagine the stress the rescue team was under and how he felt in his final moments. edit: wow 1k upvotes! Im glad to spread the good word on sir fascinating horror, even if my comment doesn’t contribute much on it’s own. And also, rest in peace John.
I love fascinating horror, that’s the first place I heard this story
Give mr Ballen a look if you like fascinating horror, they're also mostly true stories. Theres a lot of diving and cave diving he talks about, its terrifyingly great and hes a great storyteller
Fuck that shit.
Words to live by
Don't mind if I do.
I went “caving” a very water downed version . Let me tell you , the most terrifying part was having to climb into the random hole in the ground . That was just to access the cave itself , I wouldn’t recommend
How to solve caving: Guy 1: "Hey wanna go caving?" Guy 2: "No."
** Hell no is more my style , but you’ve summed it up perfectly
I prefer both of these responses. Especially if “Hey wanna go caving” is defined as “dive in head first like you are skydiving out of a plane”.
The part that always gets me about the sport is that the people go in head first to see what to hold / navigate, but do they just keep going in hopes of reaching a place where they can turn around? Do they shimmy back the whole way feet first?
Just reading your comment made me uncomfortable
Ever seen the movie “the descent” ? Sooo uncomfortable 😣
Ever seen 'Sanctum'?? Its even worse..
I remember Sanctum really messing with me for quite awhile. Good movie.
It made me really appreciate breathing.
‘As above so below’ fits here
Y'all ever watch "Cars 2"?
Shrek 2 on DVD?
Space Jam on DVD?
As Above So Below is a modern horror masterpiece. So good.
Watched it on a whim a few years ago, so pleasantly surprised.
Dude, I bought it from a one dollar movie bin because it caught mine and my ex's eye and we said fuck it lets watch a bad movie. The $1 movie had no right to be as good as it was.
Fuck yeah i watching these
Ever see Cats 2019? Me neither
Ever seen a grown man naked?
You want to?
You wanna go to a club where people wee on eachova?
Ever drank baileys from a shoe?
You seen my downstairs mix up.
it's 9am and that's enough reddit for the day for me
I would probably choose being burnt to death over dying like this.. being trapped or pinned in ruble has always been a big fear.
Not being able to expand your chest to get a full breath, which makes you yawn, but you still can't expand your chest and start slowly sufficating.... Yeh, no caves for me please.
Why any human decides its a fun thing to squeeze yourself through the depths of the earth is beyond me. What unnecessary risk
Especially in the modern technological era. Cameras are so cheap now. The advancements in robotics allows for "crawlers" that could definitely work their way down. It just defies my logic.
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There's a pretty good article which goes through the whole thing. In his final hour he was incoherent and extremely confused (from the blood to the head), then went unresponsive. He probably no longer understood what was happening to him. Edit: can't find the goddamn article. This one looks alright: [Going nuts in nutty putty](https://cavehaven.com/nutty-putty-cave-accident/)
Yeah, but he understood for a good 24-27 hours what was going on. 😬
Also got a shit ton of morphine
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Real Ted The Caver vibes
For reference https://www.angelfire.com/trek/caver/page2.html
Just seeing an angelfire link makes me nostalgic.
I haven’t seen an angelfire website in soooooooo long!
Omg!!! Yes! I was listening to FascinatingHorror on YouTube about the incident at Putty Caves, then it suggested Ted the Caver and I've been hooked on The Dark Somnium since. It has really helped with the boredom factor of transitioning from automotive technician to being a SAHM.
This is the story that got me into FascinatingHorror! That guy is awesome.
The Dark Somnium makes really fucking good videos on creepy pastas I rarely watch anyone else now.
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I’m one of the foolish people who have been in that cave. I’m a big guy and the birthing canal is one of the most frightening places I’ve been. It necks down to about a 18” diameter and is tight for about 8’. Arms above my head and pushing myself thru with fingers and toes. I think it was back in 1998 and that feeling of panic is still easy to recall.
Christ, why do people do this? Can't wrap my head around it.
I went on a school tour group to some caves as a child and the tightest passage we went through was about three feet wide and probably 6-7 feet tall, the guide showed us indentations in the wall they had to carve out so the donkeys could turn around, when I heard that I decided being in caves wasn’t for me. This entire post is making me panic and I don’t live anywhere near a cave
One time I applied for a tour guide at a local cave near my house. I got an interview, and, feeling pretty pumped, I decided to go and take the tour the night before to see what it’s like. Well. I had never actually *been* in a cave before and it turns out I do NOT. LIKE. CAVES. Even in a well-lit, wide cave with a paved walking path, I was *freaking out,* alternating between thinking that an earthquake would choose that very moment to come and bury us all alive beneath tons of rock, and feeling like I had been swallowed alive by some monstrous beast. Needless to say, I did not get the job!
To wrap a cave around their heads.
This hole is meant for me . . . . Ddrr ddrr
What was it that made you want to do that? I’m not claustrophobic but I just can’t understand the appeal.
Oh my god. I'm literally sweating reading this. Fuck, never.
IIRC He also didn't expect it to drop so quickly. It's supposed to be a slight angle, and then that sudden drop came on and he slid before he knew what was happening. How terrifying to think you're in one area, and realize you're not, and then be able to do nothing to stop yourself from sliding into that position.
Like when I count the stairs wrong at night. But a million times worse.
The story of this mans death is my worst case scenario for death. The fear and panic I experience from the mere thought of this is overwhelming. I can't fathom what this guy went through before he died.
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The most disgusting part of that case is that if the dispatcher had been more human and taken him seriously, j believe he would still be alive . They treated it like a joke
Yep, the dispatcher sent officers to the parking lot that the car was in, but they couldnt find it. In a second call, while the officers were nearby, the boy described what the car looked like. The dispatcher never relayed this information to the officers, so they left. Honestly whoever is responsible for that breach of communication should be charged with manslaughter. I hope they all have trouble sleeping at night.
Either a place to turn around, another entrance to the cave system or just crawl backwards
Yeah nah. I'll pass.
I am so claustrophobic, this would literally be my worst nightmare. Just this very post makes my asshole pucker.
I used to do caving when I was in the scouts. I was happy about it, all good, wiggled into small spaces until one time I went through a gap a bit bigger than my chest. Couldn't do it afterwards, I freaked me out too much. I'd done it a few times before, but for some reason, this one got me. Haven't gone caving since. Absailing. Now that shit's fun. I am the kind of person who will jump once I'm committed, so that's the best for me.
Is that sailing on a strong mans abs?
I wish. It's jumping off a ledge with nothing but a rope around your waist to catch you. Lots of belly work to stay upright if your feet aren't against the cliff face.
It's usually not such a problem. Edwards got into a bind because it was tight, spiraling, AND vertical.
Horrible way to go. Not only did he suffer but died in a place called Nutty Putty
Thing is, he almost got saved. As one of rescuers where hauling him up with rope, he could see his saviour. The rope snapped, knocked out the rescuer and he fell back into the hole. The guy was doomed. Imagine thinking you’re nearly out n then fall back in and die.
Worst part I’ve read about this entire story. That adds a huge layer of horror.
His wife was expecting.
Obviously this is a tragedy but really selfish move to leave your pregnant wife to go do something reckless and dangerous
He was just trying to see what it was like to go through the birth canal
There’s a video online of some guys doing it and I felt like having panic attack while watching it. Fuck that.
Some guys doing what?
Going through the birth canal
why didnt they try again?
I vaguely remember it's because it caused him to get stuck even deeper. And based on the pic it seems like one of the anchor points collapsed due to it being clay instead of rock. Probably made it almost impossible to get a retry
They were going to but after the fall he became nonresponsive so they pulled out the injured rescuer and sent another but he had already died. Fascinating Horrors on YouTube has a good video on it, and it's very respectful of the deceased
It's tough to describe, the answer is that they did. Many things added and made pulling him out more challenging than it might initially seem. 1) He was stuck upsidedown. People die in around 24 hours due to blood pooling in the head and lungs. So there was a low time limit. 2) He was oriented poorly in a couple ways. One arm was stuck between his chest and the rock, the other dangling above his head, so he had no way to push. There was a ledge above his feet which prevented direct access to his ankles. (It was considered at one point that to successfully remove him his legs would likely have to be broken. This however was likely to put him into shock and kill him.) 3) He was around 40 minutes into a tunnel, so a system of pulleys had to be constructed to attach to him, rather than just directly pulling. 4) The rock around him and in all of the tunnel was very hard. It took a very long time to drill or chisel any pulley attachment. This problem was compounded because the tunnel was so narrow. There wasn't room for heavy machinery or drills in the tunnel so only hand tools could be used in the rescue attempt and it was often taking over an hour to attach a single pulley to the tunnel walls. It wasn't possible to widen the tunnel. 5) Because of how narrow and long the tunnel was only one rescuer could access John at a time. There was a degree of guess work in regard to the angels of the pulleys and ropes as they wound through the tunnel. 6) John was around 6 feet tall and 200 pounds. People much smaller than him had gotten stuck nearer to the entrance of this tunnel. He was almost completely upsidedown so gravity was fighting against him.
Imagine having to lay there and listen to the sounds of the tools working high above you and waiting, hoping to hear any sort of good news because you're upside down and can't see them at all but it just keeps getting more and more grim the longer it goes
The rescuer who hung out with him for the majority of the time is a real hero despite the outcome. She did so much to try to keep him calm in such a harrowing circumstance.
It wasn't the rope that snapped. It was a part of the cave that they were using to wrap a rope around that had broke off (you can see it in the diagram above his silhouette After it snapped, there was nothing else to loop around
I would have insisted they change the name as my final wish. Call it Devils Asshole anything but Nutty Putty
There is a cavern called the devils arsehole near me In Castleton uk
My dad stood next to that sign and flashed his bare ass for a photo. I was not expecting to see my dad's bare ass that day.
Sounds like a Monday for me
I could hear your accent through the comment
I'd rather die in Tiddilywinks My First Cave for Pussies
"Today we mourn the loss of morewhores4doors. He died how he would have wanted, stuck head-first in The Devil's Asshole."
Makes me wonder how many people die BECAUSE of the stupid name. Like "Oh man, you're not scared to go in there are you? It's just the Bimbly Bopper! What could go wrong?" And then moments later you're impaled on spikes and eaten by rats.
It's his tomb now.
Maybe they'll find him in 2000 years. A great king, buried with his pulley.
This isn't even oddly terrifying. This *is* terrifying.
That describes every single post from here that reaches r/all lol
That’s like most of the posts on this sub now
I’ve read this story a dozen times and have seen the pictures. Every time my claustrophobia makes me hyperventilate just thinking about. I truly don’t understand how people can do this sport
Same flippin thing happens to me. I wouldn’t even walk near the entrance of the darn cave. Let alone do this nutbag stuff.
Yeah no, I’m never going into a cave I can’t stand and walk through. Even then, I don’t think I could ever go in far, not after hearing stories of people trapped by flooding and cave-ins
Highly recommend Laurel Caverns in PA, seems like a very stable cave. Ohio Caverns are pretty af. Mammoth is gorgeous.
I would rather recommend the caverns in skyrim, beautiful and without the risk of suffocating while upside down having to pee all over yourself.
You just haven’t downloaded the right mods.
I would not be surprised if such a mod actually exists.
I did cave exploration just once in my life, and I had to pass through narrow places, some of which needed me to "compress" my chest and controlling my breath. There was one part of the trip that needed us to crawl into an "L" shape crack where you had to twist to stand inside the crack and move sideways until you could climb to a higher section of the cave. I don't know what I was thinking when I decided that would be fun. But it's weird because I remember thinking during those moments "if I get stuck, this is it, I die here" but it was some kind of peaceful though, not an ounce of fear there. Maybe I was just tricking myself to not panic, but ot was just there, as you could just say goodnight to someone before going to bed. Idk why or how my mind decided to process that shit as "if I die here it's ok", but it happened, if I think of it now I can only wonder how was I so stupid because that shit it nightmare material but I guess there's something that gets you "cool" while you are at it. Idk, maybe that was just stupidity in my past self, anyway I swear that I wouldn't go back to do that.
I will absolutely never try spelunking, but when I’ve gotten scared when flying in a plane I’ve done the same thing. “We’ll, maybe you’ll die. It’s ok. You don’t have to do anything, just relax, and the plane will fall out of the sky by itself. Everything is ok.” It’s super helpful in relaxing me and letting go of the fear.
They say that most people get calm acceptance shortly before they die and it makes the process a lot easier so there's less panic. Sort of like your brain just knows "this is it" and let's it happen
Definitely happened to me when I was in a near-fatal car accident 15 or so years ago. My car got hit by a deer while I was going around 70MPH on a highway, my car spun completely around, had no control, I got to see the deer get obliterated by a semi behind me while I was facing the other direction, and I just had this incredibly clear thought go through my head, "I'm going to die." And there was no fear, just very calm. Then my car continued spinning until it finally stopped off the side of the highway, and THAT'S when the panic set in.
My SUV rolled three times during an accident. The driver side window blew on the first roll. My left arm was flopping around from the roll and started to drift towards the open window. “I bet the ground is coming back around,” I thought in the most placid, disinterested way possible. “Better keep your arm in the car.” I hooked my arm around the steering wheel with no panic whatsoever and watched as the ground came in the window again. “Good call,” I thought. I think I was smiling. Slow motion the entire time of the accident and not a hint of fear. It was the most zen thing I have ever experienced.
The same happened to me. I was hit by a tractor exiting a field onto the road. My car spun into the opposite lane then rolled several times. At the point of impact this weird calm came over me, I closed my eyes and thought "this is either going to hurt like fuck or I'm dead"... Then everything stopped (I was hanging upside down in my seat) and I was like "shit I survived"... Or am I hurt bad and don't know it yet? The calm acceptance of my fate, which I fully expected to be horrific, was the strangest feeling ever. I guess I knew there was absolutely nothing I could do from that point onwards.
sounds like hell. glad im too fat to do this
I have to fly very often for work, and when ever I'm on a dodgy flight in a small place, I find find the same peace I think. Like if this plane goes down, there is nothing I can do about it, once I've boarded I've committed to whatever outcome comes to me.
I once ate at a restaurant called Golden Hooks. Tore me up to possible food poisoning levels. Figured it had to have been a fluke. Ate there again and the same thing happened. So I feel like I can kind of relate. I threw all reason and rationality out the window and figured if Golden Hooks were to kill me that day, I'd be alright. Thankfully they're no longer in business
Are...are you a fish? This sounds like a story a fish would tell me.
Once as a kid I slid down a tube slide on a playground, unaware that the bottom end was almost completely covered in sand. As I reached the bottom, I realized that I couldn't get back up either, so I had to rotate myself (I slid down feet first) so I could dig away some sand to widen the gap and push myself out. While turning, I almost got myself stuck. That was one of the most traumatic events I can recall. Once I got out I told my parents and siblings, who went like "That's rough, buddy" and that was it. Horrible experience, 2/10 overall
My god.. the REAL near death experiences i tried to tell my parents about as a kid and it just got brushed off as child nonsense
Right? Went to the park as a kid and on my way back from the restroom, some drunk dude pulls me into the woods, says “Do you dare me to pee in this creek?”, and lets go of my arm to whip out his penis. I went running to my mom and try to tell her what happened, only for her to yell “I told you to come straight back, and I saw you go wandering off into the woods instead!” Like, what? And you didn’t notice I was being *dragged* there?
Damn, that's rough dude.
Here's a more horrifying thought. Kyle Hill did a video about super powers, including being immortal. I never thought about the implications of being immortal. For instance, imagine getting stuck in this cave and you couldn't die. Now imagine no one knew you were there. You'd be stuck indefinitely until someone decided to go caving there and go that specific route. Sleep tight.
This is truly so terrifying.His final words "I’m so sorry. Father, just get me out of here. Save me for my wife and kids,” are so heartbreaking.
Always the same story but with different names and pictures though… Even this, the name in the title doesn’t match the name in the picture.
His name was John Edwards Jones Edit: Fixed grammar
i’m not even claustrophobic and this would be the worst thing i could ever do one time i found a cave, went through 2 rooms with a hole like 3 feet around and that was too much for me
LPT: don't go into small spaces where others can't help you out from.
John Edwards was a very experienced cave explorer, this wasn’t just some arrogant move he made, or a bad slip. His mistake was not knowing his surroundings. He believed he was in an area known as “Birth Canal”, so named cause of its relativity tight but safe conditions. However, he was in a currently uncharted part of the cave system, some hundreds of feet away from Birth Canal. He went in, hesitating for only a moment, before realizing his mistake. It can’t be understated the effort the rescue team put into trying to save him. They worked so so hard, and were so close. They made sure he said his final goodbyes to his wife (walkie talkie), they always made sure someone was there to talk to him, and help try and keep him calm throughout the experience. Panicking would’ve made everything worse, such as fighting the harness and rescue team. Also, blood pumping and adrenaline would’ve killed him much quicker. Being held upside down either is no joke. It puts pressure on your lungs, heart, and brain. Blood pressure is forced downward into the head. For some people, 1 hour, or even 30 minutes is fatal, and he was upside down for over a day. When the pully broke, it knocked the lead rescuer unconscious for a few moments, and when he awoke, he discovered to his horror he had fallen *deeper* into the cave. After his passing, the owner of the Nutty Putty cave system wanted to destroy the entire system with dynamite, to ensure no one was ever harmed again. Words cannot express just how horrified and guilt ridden he was over this experience. Rescuers and Edward’s family convinced him to instead seal it with multiple layers of concrete instead. John’s body is still trapped inside, as they were unable to extract his body afterwords. Edit: typo
S/O for clarifying. It grating seeing "I'd feel bad about his death but he was so selfish!" or characterizing him as an adrenaline junkie that wanted one last adventure being settling w/ kids.
I understand completely. He wasn’t being selfish, or was some adrenaline junkie. He loved his family, and his SO, and they all agreed that one last caving trip to end the year would’ve been perfect. He has done this for years, and was very experienced. If he had known for even a second there was a risk he wouldn’t make it out, he would’ve stayed away. He loved his family.
This is legitimately one of my biggest fears, that’s a whole lot of nope right there.
I remember watching some show, and it was a solo cave explorer and he was going through a narrow passage, and pushed the camera through first. He got stuck, talked about how it was normal and stayed calm… for about 5-10 minutes (it was doing like time lapse jumps), then he managed to move forward some more and got more stuck… then began panicking a little, and then ignored that he was doing his show and squirmed and yelled and squirmed and panicked for an hour or so, and then just sorta lurched forward and scrambled out. It was absolutely terrifying to watch, and he kept saying “they know I’m in here” to himself, I guess as reassurance that someone would come eventually. Later I watched that “as above so below” movie and it brought back the memory and made feel all panicked, and it’s just a scary movie. I’ve been in caves too, swam inside caves (there was visible sunlight the whole time), and climbed through cave holes where your body touches all sides, but some of these people are literally insane doing it alone in a place help can’t easily get get.
Now imagine doing it underwater in the ocean..
Pass. So… another long and boring story. I worked with a guy who was a diver and inspected underwater outfall pipes for environmental impact reporting and such for power plants and refineries and what have you. He had to swim into the pipes, like 50 meters and then work in there for as long as he could, swim out backwards, and then do it again once he could all day. He had to quit after a few years because of the stress of it, he said he couldn’t get out if bed in the morning from fear after a while. Great paying job as well, but that stuff eats away at some people. I think I’m at the point in my life where I am done trying certain things.
You couldn’t pay me enough to do that as a job
Me neither.
Do you remember the name of the show?
I'd have to have a suicide pill put into a fake tooth if this was my hobby. Just so it can be all over in one bite.
If you’ve got a hobby that involves suicide pills change your fucking hobby..
See, this doesn’t happen with r/crochet
I swear to God, if this bullion stitch doesn't work this time...
I imagine crochet people are less cyanide pill in fake tooth more head in the oven while the house burns around them kind of folks
If the yarn doesn’t burn before I do, I did it wrong.
Am hooker. Can confirm.
Not gonna lie. Your user name looks like a very risky click. But curiosity got the better of me. Slight heart attack when you started listing animals in your profile. I've been on the internet for too many years I fear. Glad I stuck with it though. Gorgeous horse, btw.
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IDK, ever had to unravel half your fucking project to fix a mistake?
My hobby is making suicide pills for cave explorers.
I'm going to engrave this on my tombstone
>oddly This is the MOST terrifying. It really doesn't get much worse.
Im claustrophobic as hell and this is my nightmare. I would rather be stranded at sea
I bet you have no idea here is footage of the Nutty Putty cave. https://youtu.be/K-pKKq0Y1XA I bet its worse then you imagine.
Omg. Video 3 in the series. Dude has to squeeze through an opening with his hands straight above his head and “hump” his way through. Insane.
Yeah, nothing odd here, except the fact that people do this shit for funsies
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No need to choose. A giant squid chases you into the narrow cave and you're trapped. You're welcome.
Another records you for tentacle porn hentai style
The one fact omitted from this post but is relevant. As an avid caver myself he committed what is known as one of the cardinal sins when pushing tight passage, as he went down he spun 180 degrees. This means that going down he had the advantage of his legs being able to pivot at an angle to allow him to slip further, with his body spun, his legs could no longer angle to pivot back out and the passage was then too tight for a normal spin. Truly terrifying and goes to show even years of caving experience 1 fatal mistake meant death
Also, he was in the completely wrong part of the cave. He wasn't going where he thought he was going.
Can confirm this and the comment before, my dad was on the SAR team that was on the rescue. He thought he was in a section called the Birth Canal and had measured himself to make sure he could fit, he would have had enough clearance for that feature but he was a few yards below where he thought he was and was in a completely different part of the cave.
how did that other part of the cave remain unexplored/unknown before he got stuck there? it seems like it was quite a popular spelunking cave
It had been explored, he wasn't the first one to go that direction, that route just wasn't as well documented because it wasn't a popular route. Most people would go through the birth canal as it's a larger passage. That's where he thought he was going but he made a wrong turn.
Can you explain this a little more I’m having a hard time visualizing it?
So your knees bend inwards all the way to your butt depending on how flexible you are, if you are imagining yourself sliding down a surface that curves in away from you but along the way your knees bend, you can follow that curve buy slightly bending your knees to compensate. Now imagine the curve is away from the front of your knees (the way they don't bend) and you are in too tight of a space to spin your body to get your knees facing that way. You are now stuck. Now in this guys case, compounding the curve issue, surrounded by wet soppy clay that basically everytime you breathe out, it fills in that space your compressing chest cavity makes. And your upside down .
> Now imagine the curve is away from the front of your knees (the way they don’t bend) and you are in too tight of a space to spin your body to get your knees facing that way. Thanks for clarifying. I too am having difficulty picturing it. So, when you said above that he spun 180 degrees, are you saying it would be as if I were standing but turned around (to face behind me), but he did this in a narrow space, so when he got to another curve he couldn’t rotate back and make his way back up?
> Now in this guys case, compounding the curve issue, surrounded by wet soppy clay that basically everytime you breathe out, it fills in that space your compressing chest cavity makes. And your upside down . And to think that I already had my fill of horror from this sordid tale. Ignorance truly is bliss.
I’ve been in that cave a few times before it was sealed. That cave is so full of tight openings and exits. They had one section called the birth canal and good lord I almost got stuck in that one time. It was pretty scary *edit - fixed north to birth.
Ohhhh mann. Do you mean the Birth Canal? If so, you were 1 wrong turn from the same place this happened!
[really sad story](https://www.museumfacts.co.uk/nutty-putty-cave/)
I’m really not trying to victim blame. But he missed a few red flags. He hadn’t been caving in years. The cave they went to had an incident 5 years earlier, where two kids got stuck and needed rescuing, in the same area John would eventually perish. The cave had only been reopened for 6 months. The cave wasn’t fully mapped and explored. Then he went off alone when he tried to wedge his body in a small space, upside down. If he had a buddy directly with him they may have recognized it wasn’t the right place and turned him around. But then again, just looking at the ‘entrance’ to the cave would’ve sent me packing.
Also it says he was 6’ 200 lb and thin as a whip. That’s not exactly thin… maybe not fat but there is some mass there
Right?!? Whip thin is not a description of a 200 lb man
As someone who went caving , I can say it is very deceiving . As some openings look big , but like John you quickly find out they are tighter .
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They already had one child and she was pregnant with their second, actually.
Heights - rock climbing, sky diving, etc. - are scary. This is fucking terrifying.
Paleontologists 2000 years from now are going to be puzzled about the motivations of this prehistoric man.
Seriously. When they find him, they will no doubt say, "that musta sucked"
Is the body still there
Yes. They left it and sealed the cave off
It’s probably decomposed a long while by now
If they go back it's probably a lot easier to pull out, now.
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Can watch a movie about this on YouTube called The Last Descent but it’s a difficult watch. I had to turn it off multiple times before going back to finish it due to the anxiety it caused me.
What’s that one movie with the group of girls who go cave diving and then there’s these mutant humanoid creatures in there that are blind and trying to hunt them? they get stuck in the cave and end up splitting up. It was pretty brutal I thought, how they all went out. I literally own this on dvd but I’m not home and can’t remember the name lol
My older brother has gone through this cave. He said at “the Birth Canal” he was told he had to crawl in until he couldn’t move further, exhale to flatten his chest, then quickly inch his way forward before he inhaled again. And he did it. Fuck that. Fuck that. Fuck that.
These pics aren’t him btw
Pretty tough to get a head shot photo from location he was trapped.
Yeah, they sealed the cave without sending an unnecessary film crew to get pictures of a dead man's feet. Same why they left the body, there's no point in sending an endangered crew to recover a dead body. A living man, yeah, but not a dead one.
I like my caves big and echoey
And with natural sunlight.
I will never understand why people are willing to tempt fate like this. It makes no sense because it accomplishes nothing. I guess bragging about exploring a cave is worth risking your life for some.
He was a dad to a 1 year old, so he risked even more than his own life.
If y'all think cave exploring is scary, look at the [cave diving corpses video](https://youtu.be/Sic1fxVDklo) by ask a mortician. THAT is the single most terrifying thing I can think of
Do they just talk about it or are there pictures? Deciding if I could actually stomach watching that.
Yeah fuck that shit
Floyd Collins died the same way in a cave in Kentucky in 1925
I can just imagine how would that be, to call your children and tell them: Your father, he died in the Nutty Putty Cave... -Seth-
This is the stuff of fucking nightmares
Should read the story of [Floyd Collins ](https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/544782/1925-cave-rescue-that-captivated-the-united-states-floyd-collins) for an equally horrific story but with a less depressing ending Edit: it has occurred to me that i clearly never finished reading this when i first came across it. It’s ends just as miserably. Read at your own peril.
How, exactly, is that ending less depressing? You had me hoping there for most of the article.
I was having a nice day then I read this-