Stranded. In a cave. You will need to sedate me.
You probably saw this on TV news a couple weeks ago. I got a cold chill that didn’t go away for hours after seeing the story on TV news of five people who were stranded over 200-feet underground at Grand Canyon Caverns when the elevator malfunctioned, and they could not get out. The group was stuck down in the caverns for about 30 hours.
I am not kidding... I would have needed sedation. Or a couple bottles of wine.
Besides being, well... a cave, it was very cold with a bone-chilling draft coming down the elevator shaft.
The broken elevator meant the only way out was to climb up 20 flights of a narrow stairway, with a railing only on the cave wall side, open to the empty elevator shaft. In the group were two disabled seniors and a mother with two young children—a two-year-old and a five-month-old. The young mother had thought this would be a nice, easy thing to do with her in-laws and her two young children on a Sunday afternoon. Little did she know it would become her worst nightmare.
The saving grace in this story was an amenity that is like a made-for-TV prop. It’s called the Grand Canyon Caverns Hotel at the bottom of the caverns. Oh, and there also happens to be a restaurant down there. To book a night there runs $1,000 for two people. A photo with the news story showed two beds, so it was perfect for the stranded family. There they had a safe place, food, and beds with (hopefully) lots of blankets. Ironically, the news story doesn’t say how many staff members were also in the cave. Could be that they are able and experienced in using the stairway.
On Monday at about 10:30 in the morning, the sheriff’s office received word that the elevator repairs were not successful, and the family was going to need rescue assistance. Jon Paxton, public information officer for the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office, said this is the first time he’s seen this type of rescue happen at the caverns.
Ten members of the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue Unit-Mountain Rescue Team, along with four members of the Flagstaff Fire Department Technical Rescue Team, responded to the Grand Canyon Caverns for the rescue.
Paxton described the family as “on edge.” Y’think? Teams were able to build a technical rope rescue system in the elevator shaft and made their way to the bottom of the cavern via the stairwell to teach the family how to strap on the device.
What I remember seeing on TV news was a harness system and the rope to hold on to as the teams on the ground pulled the rope/harness/person up and out of the elevator shaft. It took roughly 15 minutes per ascent. Again, I would have needed something to “take the edge off” of being pulled up that deep hole. One by one, the teams pulled the three adults up, and a couple of Rescue Team members brought up the small children. The rescue was complete by 6:00 p.m., 30 hours after they went into the caverns. All members of the family were found to be in good condition. None of them required medical treatment.
Hopefully they are all okay and doing fine. At least this wasn’t some “stupid act by stupid people doing stupid things” that put them in this situation, like we see frequently. It sounds like everyone involved worked hard to make sure the family would be safely rescued. Even so, that wasn’t stopping the young mother from threatening to file a law suit because they were down there so long. Instead, I hope she is indebted for the rest of her life and grateful for the professional rescue operation that took place to bring her family to safety.
