Lost caver or not? Poor caving rescue availability.

Last night at about 20:00, I received a call from one of my students. He relayed a message from the mother of another student saying that the second student had gone to Cushman Blowing Cave, and was overdue. I told the first student to wait another half of an hour, and let me know whether or not the second student had arrived. After hanging up the telephone, I realized that I didn't have any contact information for either of the students, or for the mother of the supposedly lost student. Hindsight is always 20/20.

Anyway, I told my son, Ian, to get his caving gear ready, and called Don O. (another caver) to ask him whether he was willing to help. He answered in the affirmative, and I told him that I'd call back when I knew more. The biggest problem was that the most experienced cavers in the area were all college students on Christmas break. I didn't have many people on which to call. My daughter, Rachael, has considerable experience in Cushman Blowing Cave, but she was working at the local theater.

By 21:00, I hadn't heard anything from the family/friends of the "lost caver" so I called Don, and told him to meet Ian and me at Lyon College, where I would pick up my caving gear. From there, we proceeded to the cave, only to find that no vehicles were in the parking area. We assumed that the "lost" person had come out and went home.

On the way home, Don and I discussed the lack of available cave rescue in the area. Several members of the Little Rock Grotto have cave rescue training, but they are two hours or more away. Also, to my knowledge, there is no organized response protocol if they were needed. While I used to be a paramedic, and have search and rescue experience, those skills are insufficient for effective cave rescue. We really need people in this area to be trained in cave rescue. I need to find an opportunity to discuss this with local police and fire department authorities.

This morning, I saw that the caver in question had been online, and had commented on one of my cave photos. A little later, I was contacted by his mother, who said that she had become worried a little prematurely. All's well that end's well, but this episode emphasizes the need for better coordinated cave rescue in our area.

Here I am!

Well, I finally entered the blogosphere. With any luck, I'll be better about putting stuff in here than I am at keeping a journal.

Primarily, this will be a log of my adventures above and below ground. I do a lot of caving in the Ozarks for both scientific and recreational purposes. I also enjoy hiking and similar activities on the surface.