Cave Survival

Larry Leach, 35, lives in Portland, Oregon, and to regulate his depression after losing his job, he wants to go hiking alone in the foothills of Mount Hood in the Cascade Mountains, more than a hundred miles away. Before he left, he drew a hiking route map and gave it to his friends, the Bardicks ......

Falling into a cave by mistake

On Thursday night, after driving his truck off the state highway, he stopped and sat in the back seat and slept all night. After dawn, he hitched a ride back about 11 kilometers. He was scheduled to return to his mini-truck Monday afternoon.

The weather was unstable for the first two days, with snow one day and sun the next. Despite this, Larry was in a very good mood.

At noon on Sunday, Larry was walking up Whitleyber Canyon when black clouds suddenly rolled in from the north. He quickened his pace, but the ice-cold stream and huge rocks, some as big as houses, made it impossible for him to move fast. Snow began to fall at 2:00 p.m. and soon the fierce wind with heavy snow blocked his view. He had to feel his way forward step by step with his ski walking stick. "Don't panic, but look around." He admonished himself. The leather cords of his skid boots were frozen with snow and ice, making it difficult to walk. He had to support the cane to lift one foot, and then lift the other foot on the boot, after falling a little snow before taking a step forward. Suddenly, Larry fell backward into a dark crevice in the canyon area, his forehead hit the snow wall, because of the rebound force and backward out. Water splashed up, his back was hit, and for a moment he fainted. The cold water penetrated his clothes and his body was instantly cold.

Larry probed with his hand in his back pocket and drew out one of the five large candles placed inside. Fortunately, the matches in the pocket moisture-proof concealed pocket were not damp. He looked around by the light of the candle and found himself in a huge cave about three meters wide and four meters high, with a stream running under his feet, a zenith of snow and ice and rock far above his head, and a rectangular cave entrance about one meter wide and two meters long. He wanted to ascend the surrounding rock wall to that cave but simply could not find a place to stop and grab.

On the downstream side of the cave, the water seemed to seep out through the porous rock. Larry took a candle and walked towards it to check it out. He thought to himself: If you follow the upstream of the creek, it should lead to the slope. Suddenly, a stone fell from the zenith, the stone hit the rocks in the river and crushed them. In the blink of an eye, another stone fell, then another, followed by a pattering sound of mud with sand falling straight down.

About 60 meters into the darkness, Larry stood still, holding his breath as he watched the candle flame, which was bright and steady. He thought to himself, "Why is the fire not shaking?" The reason was simple there was no wind blowing into the cave. Therefore, there is no exit on this side.

Larry returned to the original place, the bright light coming in from the hole in the zenith had disappeared at some point, and it was dark. His clothes were soaked, and the cold kept burrowing into his heart. This will continue, and body temperature will gradually disappear, and if you eat some hot food that can be saved, he had to soak the beef jerky in water to make it soften and swallowed. He was 1.78 meters tall and weighed 68 kilograms, so with such a physique, it would take a lot of energy to resist the cold.

Tough to survive

In the dark, he leaned against the rock, his feet dipped in the water, and suddenly remembered that there were about 9 meters of climbing rope in his backpack. If he tied a rock to one end of the rope and threw it out of the cave, it might hang on to something. If so, climbing out along the rope, it might be able to get out. He threw it more than 20 times to one side of the cave, and then 20 times to the other side of the cave, all to no avail.

The sun began to sink. So he was ready to keep his feet out of the water again to sleep at night and spared no effort to pile up the rocks in the water. But the pile of rocks was very loose and slippery, so it was hard to pile up, and immediately collapsed when his body was slightly pressed up.

That night, he still leaned against the rock wall and dozed off a little. The next day, that is, Tuesday morning, he began to throw rocks again toward the cave entrance. The roped stone deviated from the cave entrance on the zenith and hit something on the cave wall with a dull sound. He stared, it was a section of roots. Root from the cave near the rock wall curved out about a meter, there is Larry arms so thick, because too far from the mouth of the cave, people still can not escape out. However, if you can hang a rope, you can hang by it, so that people do not soak in the water.

Throw the rocks tied to the rope, change the angle to the right and throw. The same action was done hundreds of times. Sometimes the stone came off the rope and flew away, so he looked for another stone to throw again, and he threw and threw tirelessly ......

In his 20s, Larry Leach used to be a salesman, when he was obsessed with visiting customers over and over again. So, there was always someone among them who paid for his stuff. It was late that afternoon when the stone finally got hung up on something. Larry pulled the rope close to his side and tried it, and it felt strong in his hand. He left a ski boot and ski walking stick at his feet when he fell into the cave and tied his backpack to the rope, and with his gloved hand firmly grasping the rope, he began to climb little by little toward the sunlight that penetrated the cave. He just felt his boots out of the water, his body hanging in mid-air, and suddenly, his body fell back into the cave. Ropes and rocks fell into the water and splashed. Larry clenched his fists, closed his eyes, and leaned his head helplessly against the rock wall, his body trembling, discouraged, and overwhelmed with sadness.

Forging the Will

Soon, he regained his composure and immediately threw stones again toward the angle where he might succeed. But it was all in vain. Finally, he concentrated on the roots of the tree sticking out of the zenith, and this time, with just one throw, the stone passed through the roots very accurately.

He picked up one end of the rope, tied the belt, and the belt from the shoulder to the crotch, draw tight, and the body will be lifted from the surface of the water about a meter. After he fixed the knot of the rope, the person was hanging like a stone. Although it can not be said to be a very comfortable position, this at least can no longer be submerged in the water. He listened to the annoying sound of water, tired, and soon fell asleep.

Finally woke up, but felt the pain in both feet like pins and needles. By now it was Thursday, and he had slept for 24 hours. Although too tired to move, he untied his body from the ropes. His feet were cramping and his body felt cold, "Energy must replenish energy!" He fished out a few pieces of raw bacon from his backpack and chewed them, then ate all the remaining dry food. It was dangerous to eat all the food, but he had a good idea.

There was only one way to be saved, and that was to keep throwing rocks. And for that, he had to keep enough strength.

"Bingo! It's hanging again!" The rope was suddenly taut and had a very strong feeling. The rope hung tightly at once. However, the moment the full weight was hung up, the rope was loose again, and the body once again bent and fell from the cave. "Be calm! Be calm!"

May not live to see the night! Uncertainty swept through Larry's mind. His body kept shaking. There is something more terrible than this, is the water. The water had unknowingly reached his calves and was rising to his knees. "It's rain! The amount of water is increasing. If we don't get out of here quickly, it's over!"

There were still rocks tied to one end of the rope. Larry recklessly threw them into the night air, not knowing how many times he had done so. Soon the rope was pulled tight again. "God, please bless me this time no matter what." He prayed, hanging on the rope, the rope did not move.

Successful self-rescue

After Larry tightened the rope, tied the belt, and hung his backpack and other things on the rope, he tried to climb again. But his hands could not use the strength. Because the gloves slipped, he took off his gloves and stuffed them in his pocket.

Larry climbed up a little with his bare hands, his arms were too sore to use force, so he bit the rope with his teeth to take a break, and then climb again. Little by little, little by little, he used his hands and teeth to shorten the distance to the cave mouth of the zenith. The raindrops hit his face, and the cold wind lashed his cheeks.

Near the ground, he bent his upper body as far as he could, stomped his right foot upward as far as he could, his foot went into the snow, he twisted his upper body, stuck his head out of the cave, and with his last strength, he tumbled onto the snow outside the cave in one go.

An indescribable sense of relief immediately pervaded his whole body. However, the cold raindrops were still stinging his skin. The whole body was still precipitated with fatigue as heavy as lead. A meter and a half away from the cave entrance was a dry pine tree with ropes firmly around its trunk. "The rocks have hit this tree a few times." Larry thought to himself. He staggered to pick up his backpack. He wanted to rest, but he had to encourage himself to move.

In the pouring rain, he dragged his heavy feet for 15 kilometers straight before he finally heard the sound of a truck in the distance. He saw the headlights of the car and raised his hands high. The "Volkswagen" stopped immediately. Larry leaned back into the warm seat of the car.

It turned out that during the interruption of Larry's message, the search was actively going on. However, because of the sound of running water at the bottom of the cave, the voices of people shouting could not be heard. On Tuesday evening, the Bardiks called the Bolandia police station to report that Larry had not returned by the scheduled time. The next day, Wednesday, Bolandia formed a search party and started searching in the mountains, then along Larry's route, and over the canyon. However, he could not be found. The Air Force also sent out two helicopters to search, but they had to stop soon after due to clouds and bad weather. By Thursday, the search was still going on. But it all ended in vain.

Later, when Larry talked to people about that difficult experience, he would always say with emotion, "If you can't do it the first time, you have to do it countless times." This statement has been firmly imprinted in his mind. This truth could not be simpler, but Larry was saved by it.