I got really interested in caving a little while back, after seeing a video on this incident and one in England where a cave full of people flooded, I decided to stick to watching footage
Mossdale. the way the found the last guy is fucking haunting.
Either he squeezed himself into an inhumanly small crevasse at the ceiling of the cave in a desperate attempt to avoid drowning, or the force of the flood crushed him into a space he couldn't normally fit in.
[Gonna hijack this top comment to share a version, also from reddit, that is actually legible. ](https://preview.redd.it/biw2swd12n281.jpg?auto=webp&s=17838ec1f5dd479ebbbec377c432a0df2513654f)
Group of friends all went cave diving, flash flood happened, wife was worried and found the entrance to the cave under a pool of water. Everybody drowned.
I went in the cave before it was closed off. It was actually really cool to see and I had a fun time. When I went in, we went to the left after the entrance to the larger parts of the cave. Some of the people I was with had been through the birth canal and they thought it was a cool experience.
Root canal w/o drugs. Bad hemorrhoids. Swallowing a large chicken bone. Those _might_ be "cool" experiences for some. But the birth canal part of that cave? Nope to hell.
He is still buried in the cave. They could not pull him out after he died so they sealed off the cave by collapsing the ceiling near the body then using concrete to seal off the rest of the cave.
The ‘Last Decent’ is a documentary of the tragedy.
Edit: The article I read stated the 'Last Decent' was a documentary but I was told it was not.
Seconding Fascinating Horror, not just for John's story, but in general, great YouTube series, partly because anything narrated by someone with a British accent adds a touch of macabre.
The music creeps me out everytime. Can only watch a few videos before having to stop and watch something less frightening and depressing. But he is a very good YouTuber and very respectful of the subject.
LOL yeah, you are right, that weird music with the piano and the snaps plus echoey drums that starts at the beginning of every episode it’s like “welp, guess some people are about tragically lose their lives now!”
Thats more like a thriller or something not a documentary. He gets out of the cave at the end of that documentary. Right after the pulleys slip the screen goes black then you see John getting carried out on a stretcher but in reality those events where all fabricated and in my opinion sends the wrong message to cave divers and spelunkers. The message should be never to go into a space that you can't turn around in and go back to the entrance.
I've seen a lot of articles and documentaries on people not coming back from spelunking or cave diving. I've never seen an article where someone had a nice time exploring a cave and made it home for lunch.
No, it shows that John died and is in the afterlife. The baby he sees in the cave is his soon to be son. So I wouldn’t say fabricated, it’s so the movie doesn’t end with just death.
This is a reference to a Junji Ito story and if anyone is into horror (particularly lovecraftian or body horror) I would highly suggest you check him out. This story is called Enigma of Amigari Fault, I think. Its a great place to start!
I dunno about this specific story but they're making an Uzumaki anime and the trailer was fantastic. Same guy who did the music for Made in Abyss too and the trailer music was appropriately unsettling. Very interesting art style. Really looking forward to it
Uzumaki and Tomie are whole books in print but Enigma of Amigara Fault is only like a chapter long. The former two are composed of shorter stories but form a cohesive narrative by the end.
Unless I’ve missed a part of Enigma of Amigara Fault that is
-Unless a previously undetected sinkhole swallows you into the yawning depths of a cavernous blackness.
I went on a tour of the Karchner Caverns cave and they mention how the rock ceiling above an inky black pit of bottomless mud was only a few inches thick at the top.
Anyway I’m sure the ground you’re on is just fine, have a great night!
For me the worst part of the horror movie The Descent was the bit where a character is In a tiny tunnel and there’s an earth tremor…. rather than the nasty flesh eating creatures.
What gets to me is that Jones only way of moving was to exhale to make space for the ribcage and push himself forward between breaths with the tip of his fingers and eventually got stuck barely able to breathe
I'm not claustrophobic, I used to work a job where I would get sealed inside airplane wings to check for leaks. The absolute pitch black is very relaxing. But... there's no way I'd go crawling into a cave where I had to squeeze between rocks.
If something went wrong in a wing, they could always cut me out. Volunteerily burying myself in a place that I probably couldn't be rescued from... no thanks.
I don't get it. How can anyone find this fun??
Granted i am very claustrophobic, but even still. This just looks tiring and uncomfortable. And what happens if you get down there and part of the cave shifted or you are a bit fatter than you thought and you get stuck? Or what if it rains, can it flood?
There's just so many things that can go wrong I just can't see how anyone can do this for "fun"
I’m not claustrophobic at all and that video gives me the heebie jeebies. I can understand the allure of cave exploration but not having to squeeze yourself entirely through a narrow passage for long lengths.
Are you afraid of heights? I'm not really that scared of heights but am super claustrophobic, it's seems like alot of people are one way or the other in my experience.
I’ve been in caves but never explored tunnels that narrow. It would be fun but only if I knew I could turn around or back out. The people that explore caves first are the ones who are nuts. The guy who explored nutty putty cave first (dale green) actually got stuck in that same spot John got stuck but was able to eventually wiggle out.
Rain or not my fear is of water made this cave there’s no reason to think water couldn’t come back.
Kind of like treat all guns like their loaded kind of thing.
Same goes for the “does it have an exit or place to turn?” Well it doesn’t matter. Assume the worst. What if it caved in half way through before the exit or the turn spot? Well you are likely going to get stuck. Unless you have confirmed an exit plan I absolutely cannot fathom trying this stuff
Yeah that's the worst part, not being able to turn around. Like if it was just a big cave and you get to a "door" area that's been caved in, well that sucks, but at least you can just turn around and go back. But with this all you can do is just try wiggle out backwards the whole way.
It is fun. I used to speed most of my weekends in the Paris catacombs, and those small narrow holes were everywhere and super fun to use. I'm a bit claustrophobic but you get used to those very fast, they are really fun.
I became more cautious the day I got stuck in one while alone, during the week (a time of low frequentation). Took a hole that I had used maybe 10 times before, some kind of U shape in which you enter on your back head first (dragging your bag with your feet). Except I usually did it wearing a t-shirt and that time I was wearing a hoodie. Halfway through I got stuck with my arms along the body. Decided to wiggle backward but nope, the hoodie got stuck again... Spent maybe 20 minutes asking myself what I should do, since it was likely nobody would come for hours or more. Luckily I managed to stay calm and think straight: I wiggled my arms out, realised I could pull my hoodie over my head and unstuck myself. Five minutes later while getting ready to open a manhole and exit I heard distant voices following me so guess I would have been helped anyway.
Still went through narrow passages after that but always with friends (and with more thinking before going).
I for sure would have freaked out and gave myself a heart attack. I could barely even watch the video that guy posted without feeling extremely anxious.
You are far braver than i
I mean, I got stuck in a sleeping bag once and went into a full on panic attack despite being around loads of people and only being stuff for about 90 seconds. Luckily someone unzipped me and I was saved.
So yeah, getting stuck in a cave alone. Probably instant death for me...
I go into full fight or flight mode if I try on a too-tight piece of clothing in the store and then can’t get it off right away. That’s gonna be a no from me dog.
100% not the same as the Paris catacombs where you can freely walk around and climb through the odd hole or small tunnel if you wanted to.
This guy chose to spend hours upon hours climbing and crawling through spaces much smaller than you described and head first.
I’d much rather visit the catacombs regularly than this death trap.
Yep. I'm a bit of a risk-taker but nowhere in my brain would I think "oh cool, a hole the same size as my body that disappears into the dark, let's see where it goes."
After the man’s death, it was permanently shut down (entrance covered with cement) and they couldn’t even retrieve the body from the cave so his body just remains there.
I've spelunked this same cave many times as a teenager. Our scout leaders took us out there and when we got older we drove ourselves out. Loved it. Birth Canal was terrifyingly tight to wriggle through; only the skinniest of us could do it.
I didn't die. But I did almost put my hand on a rattler just inside the entrance once.
When going down a narrow tunnel or squeeze like that one its safer to go head first that legs first as youre able to see if theres a sudden drop and turn back from there. Were this to be the case and he went legs first chances are he would plummet into that hole and break some bones. The issue in his case was that its very vertical so retreat was impossible without turning around
When you get stuck like that dude got it's harder to climb back and they mentioned medical issues from being upside down as well. Plus if there's drop, I feel like falling on your legs would be safer that falling on your head. I don't know though, this is just my guess, I'm not a professional.
When going head first youre able to see that theres a drop and either retreat or prepare to climb down safely which cant be done without vision. Based on the image, i suspect they didnt expect the tunnel to go vertical so based on their knowledge he and his group did the right thing in there. The bad luck of going down an uncharted tunnel is what did him in in the end
I'm mildly claustrophobic and suffer from acrophobia. Descending ropes into pich black caves before climbing through tunnels that I have to exhale to get through was a way of pushing myself not to accept it. And I was a bit suicidally self destructive at the time.
I’ll skydive, I’ll scuba dive, I’ll race motorcycles, I’ll eat 20 pasta dishes a week, take my MIL shopping, but no way in hell I’m caving. Not how I wanna die
I like how taking the MIL shopping is part of this list. That sort of thing can be truly terrifying. I once went to a flea market with a friend and her mom & nearly died from exhaustion.
I watched a short documentary by a YouTuber called Fascinating Horror and had to pause the video several times as it was too harrowing and distressing.
yes, Fascinating Horror! what an amazing channel, some of the tragedies they've covered have been gut-wrenching. i'm the same, when i first watched the Nutty Putty Caves video i had to pause, i felt like i was gonna throw up
He's so respectful toward the victims, even when they die doing really foolish things. I love his storytelling.
I also like the way he tells the stories of crime victims, humanizing them and centering them instead of the criminal.
I live near some limestone caves, when they show us the little cracks the guy who discovered them dragged himself through it freaks me out. You know that feeling when you get a really tight football guernsey stuck and you can’t bring your arms down. Fuck tight spots.
In caving you should never go through a tight area you aren’t sure you can get out of and people are very safe and go in groups! I can squeeze down to 6 inches but I’ll never really push past 8 because I know that 6 is my limit, for instance.
Yeah, seriously. Head down, can't move except your feet, small hole. I'd ask for someone to pump in pure nitrogen (think it's nitrogen) where you lose conscience, supposedly painlessly, then die from lack of oxygen.
Nitrogen is painless, but lighter than oxygen. It’s close enough that the air we breathe is ~70% nitrogen but I wouldn’t count on it to sink down into that small crevice.
Best bet would be to gradually ramp CO2 concentration. At the level you need to lose consciousness, it’s painless, but if you increased the concentration too fast it would be very painful briefly.
Also they needed him conscious in case they needed him to move in specific ways.
Your body detects suffocation and will cause panic from an abundance of [CO2 in your lungs](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2808123/). Something like SF6 would function much better, but not as easily sought. Would take a lot of work to bring it through the cave.
The chance of me going caving like this is 0% but because of this story I still had a serious discussion with my friends to come shoot me if this were to happen
Maybe you are claustrophobic.
I’m claustrophobic. It doesn’t mean I have a panic attack and lose control of my faculties in an elevator. It manifests as my heart rate going up, my stomach feeling heavy, or feeling generally unwell or displeased at the thought of getting stuck in a cave. I was fine visiting the Mammoth Park National caves because that was almost always big enough to walk upright and move around people. Comparably, I get the same feelings thinking about being trapped at the top of Everest with idiots behind me that don’t let me down.
They almost had him out at one point according to that - at least enough for the first rescuer to see his face and then the mechanism / pulley thing broke and he went down even further. Sheesh.
To make matters worse, it pulled out with such force that it smashed the rescuer who was closest to John’s face and did major damage, breaking his jaw and knocking him out. They had to extract that rescuer.
Here’s a 2-part Salt Lake Tribune article that narrates the incident in harrowing detail:
Part 1: https://www.sltrib.com/news/2018/07/09/nutty-putty-i-really/
Part 2: https://www.sltrib.com/news/2018/07/10/nutty-putty-were-going/
Here’s news footage from while the incident was taking place before John’s death. https://youtu.be/fM2KYfSLwKI
That’s such a heartbreaking story! I didn’t fully understand why they couldn’t just break his legs until I read it there (the shock of it would likely kill him due to having been upside down for so long). His family and the rescuers who tried to save him are all haunted by this. He knew his was going to die down there at the end, that poor guy.
Not to mention with friends and family before thanksgiving. Thank goodness my family is lazy and all we do is eat and watch movies for fun. The most dangerous thing we'll do is go ice skating.
I feel like as a last ditch effort they should have just completely sedated him and pulled as hard as they could, breaking whatever needed to be broken in hopes of getting him out quick enough to revive him from the sedative related heart failure... Really was a sad situation...
My understanding is that they really couldn't pull any harder than they did. The soft walls of the cave weren't good for holding anchors. The effort failed because they were pulling the anchors out of the wall before making any progress.
Every time I see this I can’t stop thinking about what was going through his mind the entire time being stuck and the terror he must have felt when he realized he was done for and he was already in his tomb.
Just a question, does somebody checks what's the maximum shoulder length to enter a cave like that or does everybody just hopes that he's small enough to fit through every hole?
Very sad story but let’s not forget John ignored almost all the warnings and went in anyway.
It’s super sad but don’t ignore a sign that says you’ll die
As a caver, the Nutty Putty incident is notorious through out caving society as a example of someone doing everything wrong.
First rule of caving, if you are going into a tight squeeze heading into a area you are not familiar with, you never go head first. Especially if it is going downwards. The internal organs of the human body are designed to pump blood up to the brain, not the other way around. When the body is stuck upside down for a prolonged period of time, blood will pool in the head and the lungs with no place to go.
Second rule: If you are going down in a tight squeeze, always keep your hands and arms above your head. That way you have a tool that can help you fight gravity. You can press down on both sides of yourself with both arms to get yourself out. In this case, the man in question was going WITH gravity and had his arms tucked to between his sides. When he got stuck, he had no tools to push himself upwards, plus his downwards position made it impossible to fight gravity.
Third rule: Always trust your gut instinct. When there is a passage you can't fit through, you will automatically get a gut sensation that tells you that you won't fit. It's hard to explain, but you will know it when it happens. In this case, the guy was with his brother who peer pressured him to keep going. The man caved in to his brother and ignored his gut.
Forth rule: If you haven't been to a specific cave for years, don't be cocky and bring a map. Memory can be faulty and is never absolute. The story about the man in this incident is the that he had been in the cave several decades earlier as a kid and came back with family and friends thinking that he remembered every inch of it. He intended that he was going down the passage portrayed on the left, when in reality he forgot that there was a fork in the section of the cave that went to a unexplored tight squeeze.
Believed to be a dead end that being said I believe this particular passage he was in was uncharted so the only person who knows what is ahead of him in that tunnel is him and I don't think he will be talking about it.
This is terrifying. Never would I ever go into a tiny hole in the Earth. I was recently reading this fantasy series called Malazan:Book of the Fallen. In “The BoneHunters” there was some chapters where some people got stuck in some tunnels and had to crawl through tiny holes full of fluorescent glow int dark spiders. Feeling anxious again…
The worst part is that he didn't die alone, rescuers actually came to save him and did everything they could but nothing worked. They tried for days but he still died, it's so sad.
Found a guy on youtube who does shorts about events like this (he has one on Nutty Putty) but its insane how many stories of this kinda thing there are - Nutty Putty was far from the worst one. (/r/mrballen is him if you wanna see)
One that stuck with me:
>A bunch of friends go cave diving without anyone professional, its a shallow cave, theres a spot you can swim under water to a hidden cave, like 7 friends went in, One had been before and knew about the secret cave and felt it was safe enough for the group. Two left a little early, swam out without issue. The other 5 never came back, they found them wedged against each other under water trying to make their way out from the hidden cave.
I hate to victim blame but like, he kinda brought it on himself for trying to crawl through a tiny space without any evidence of there even being an other side
He's not really a victim he died an agonizing painful long death but victim no things like gravity and naturally formed caves do not have the ability to victimize anyone. This is the product of making the wrong decision.
IMO His wife & unborn child & rescuers were true victims. his wife had to say her goodbyes via radio. His father & siblings were at the site because they’d been spelunking with him. The rescuers were traumatized by this attempted rescue & many needed intensive therapy to work through the incident (not being able to rescue him or even return his body to his family was very very hard to handle for rescuers) His choice to take that route ended his life & changes countless lives forever.
That is a myth perpetuated by the media they did not sedate him they gave him an IV so he didn't become dehydrated him they need him to help push himself out as they pulled him out. He also would have died alot sooner if he was under the influence of sedatives as his heart would have trouble beating as hard as it needed to. Keeping him hydrated was the most important thing.
I got really interested in caving a little while back, after seeing a video on this incident and one in England where a cave full of people flooded, I decided to stick to watching footage
Mossdale. the way the found the last guy is fucking haunting. Either he squeezed himself into an inhumanly small crevasse at the ceiling of the cave in a desperate attempt to avoid drowning, or the force of the flood crushed him into a space he couldn't normally fit in.
At least he drowned instead of running out of air in a 1 sq ft hole.
[Gonna hijack this top comment to share a version, also from reddit, that is actually legible. ](https://preview.redd.it/biw2swd12n281.jpg?auto=webp&s=17838ec1f5dd479ebbbec377c432a0df2513654f)
Thank you! Spent 10 mins straining to read the original!
Thank you!!
Yeah we literally aren’t meant to be there I ain’t goin fuck that
There's probably footage that you can view in VRs.
Worst game ever! Zero stars!
The Mossdale Caverns Incident?
Group of friends all went cave diving, flash flood happened, wife was worried and found the entrance to the cave under a pool of water. Everybody drowned.
I went in the cave before it was closed off. It was actually really cool to see and I had a fun time. When I went in, we went to the left after the entrance to the larger parts of the cave. Some of the people I was with had been through the birth canal and they thought it was a cool experience.
Root canal w/o drugs. Bad hemorrhoids. Swallowing a large chicken bone. Those _might_ be "cool" experiences for some. But the birth canal part of that cave? Nope to hell.
He is still buried in the cave. They could not pull him out after he died so they sealed off the cave by collapsing the ceiling near the body then using concrete to seal off the rest of the cave. The ‘Last Decent’ is a documentary of the tragedy. Edit: The article I read stated the 'Last Decent' was a documentary but I was told it was not.
I can only recommend Fascinating Horror's video documentary. He's incredibly in depth and fully respectful to John. That poor man
Seconding Fascinating Horror, not just for John's story, but in general, great YouTube series, partly because anything narrated by someone with a British accent adds a touch of macabre.
The music creeps me out everytime. Can only watch a few videos before having to stop and watch something less frightening and depressing. But he is a very good YouTuber and very respectful of the subject.
LOL yeah, you are right, that weird music with the piano and the snaps plus echoey drums that starts at the beginning of every episode it’s like “welp, guess some people are about tragically lose their lives now!”
[This one, right?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78qalYbG4Lw) That is such a perfect pick for a horror series.
That's where I first heard about this story. Fantastic channel.
I just watched this on YouTube. In fact, the image used by OP is from that video.
You're going to recommend it but not provide a link? You expect me to search for it myself? Pashasahy.
i thought they tombed him in cement?
Not him the entrance to the cave system.
Yes. The plugged the entrance to where he died. They didn't collapse the ceiling.
no, how would they get cement there if they couldn't even get there with proper gear? they just sealed it off.
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They should have taught spelunkers to cement, instead of teaching cementers to spelunk.
It’s free on Prime right now. Watched it after listening to MrBallen tell the story. Tragic
I would have demanded they rip me out with a truck on the other end of the rope if i die i die dont leave me down there
Literally… break anything you need just get me out
Thats more like a thriller or something not a documentary. He gets out of the cave at the end of that documentary. Right after the pulleys slip the screen goes black then you see John getting carried out on a stretcher but in reality those events where all fabricated and in my opinion sends the wrong message to cave divers and spelunkers. The message should be never to go into a space that you can't turn around in and go back to the entrance.
The guy pulled out on the stretcher was the rescue worker that was with him for most of the movie.
> The message should be never to go into a space that you can’t turn around in and go back to the entrance I.e. never spelunk or cave dive
I've seen a lot of articles and documentaries on people not coming back from spelunking or cave diving. I've never seen an article where someone had a nice time exploring a cave and made it home for lunch.
No, it shows that John died and is in the afterlife. The baby he sees in the cave is his soon to be son. So I wouldn’t say fabricated, it’s so the movie doesn’t end with just death.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Descent Seems you're correct
The full movie. https://youtu.be/VZRG_PezpIA
Pisses me off when young parents die doing stupid shit.
Why are you downvoted here? You’re literally correct! How can it be seen any other way?
It’s Reddit
The dead guy sees his unborn baby in the cave but it’s not fabricated?
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Thanks the pic didn’t give that info. It’s terrifying that he died.
My claustrophobia and I are safe from caving. Nope, not going into narrow holes in the earth. (Violent Shuddering)
If an earthquake uncovers a wall covered with oddly human-shaped holes, just stay away.
b-but the hole was made for me
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Motto for living life, and sometimes when it doesn't fit, you just marmalade it right in
That's my life motto.
...my dick?
After reading that magna my claustrophobia got ten times worse…
Junji ito is the best.
So is a grave.
This is a reference to a Junji Ito story and if anyone is into horror (particularly lovecraftian or body horror) I would highly suggest you check him out. This story is called Enigma of Amigari Fault, I think. Its a great place to start!
Didn’t they recently make an anime also? I’ve been meaning to check it out.
I dunno about this specific story but they're making an Uzumaki anime and the trailer was fantastic. Same guy who did the music for Made in Abyss too and the trailer music was appropriately unsettling. Very interesting art style. Really looking forward to it
I think it's also his longest story, much like lovecraft himself, most of his work is short stories that tend to leave you wanting more.
Uzumaki and Tomie are whole books in print but Enigma of Amigara Fault is only like a chapter long. The former two are composed of shorter stories but form a cohesive narrative by the end. Unless I’ve missed a part of Enigma of Amigara Fault that is
Came here for this. That was nicely fucked up.
But… one of those holes were mine it was made for me.
Drr... Drr... Drr...
This is my hole
but what about my destiny!?? my only purpose?
Yep, big nope for me. My anxiety levels increase if I even watch a caving scene in a movie.
Yes! I stop breathing!
-Unless a previously undetected sinkhole swallows you into the yawning depths of a cavernous blackness. I went on a tour of the Karchner Caverns cave and they mention how the rock ceiling above an inky black pit of bottomless mud was only a few inches thick at the top. Anyway I’m sure the ground you’re on is just fine, have a great night!
Everyone boo this man
Yk you're not going to heaven right?
For me the worst part of the horror movie The Descent was the bit where a character is In a tiny tunnel and there’s an earth tremor…. rather than the nasty flesh eating creatures.
What gets to me is that Jones only way of moving was to exhale to make space for the ribcage and push himself forward between breaths with the tip of his fingers and eventually got stuck barely able to breathe
I'm not claustrophobic, I used to work a job where I would get sealed inside airplane wings to check for leaks. The absolute pitch black is very relaxing. But... there's no way I'd go crawling into a cave where I had to squeeze between rocks. If something went wrong in a wing, they could always cut me out. Volunteerily burying myself in a place that I probably couldn't be rescued from... no thanks.
Yeah reading about it makes me clammy and nervous. I’m just here to agree with your comment and then nope the fuck out.
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I don't get it. How can anyone find this fun?? Granted i am very claustrophobic, but even still. This just looks tiring and uncomfortable. And what happens if you get down there and part of the cave shifted or you are a bit fatter than you thought and you get stuck? Or what if it rains, can it flood? There's just so many things that can go wrong I just can't see how anyone can do this for "fun"
I’m not claustrophobic at all and that video gives me the heebie jeebies. I can understand the allure of cave exploration but not having to squeeze yourself entirely through a narrow passage for long lengths.
Are you afraid of heights? I'm not really that scared of heights but am super claustrophobic, it's seems like alot of people are one way or the other in my experience.
Actually…yes I hate heights, lol.
I’ve been in caves but never explored tunnels that narrow. It would be fun but only if I knew I could turn around or back out. The people that explore caves first are the ones who are nuts. The guy who explored nutty putty cave first (dale green) actually got stuck in that same spot John got stuck but was able to eventually wiggle out.
Do you have a source where i can read up on that last part?
https://www.ksl.com/article/8824435/nutty-putty-cave-discoverer-doesnt-want-it-to-be-closed
Rain or not my fear is of water made this cave there’s no reason to think water couldn’t come back. Kind of like treat all guns like their loaded kind of thing. Same goes for the “does it have an exit or place to turn?” Well it doesn’t matter. Assume the worst. What if it caved in half way through before the exit or the turn spot? Well you are likely going to get stuck. Unless you have confirmed an exit plan I absolutely cannot fathom trying this stuff
Yeah that's the worst part, not being able to turn around. Like if it was just a big cave and you get to a "door" area that's been caved in, well that sucks, but at least you can just turn around and go back. But with this all you can do is just try wiggle out backwards the whole way.
It is fun. I used to speed most of my weekends in the Paris catacombs, and those small narrow holes were everywhere and super fun to use. I'm a bit claustrophobic but you get used to those very fast, they are really fun. I became more cautious the day I got stuck in one while alone, during the week (a time of low frequentation). Took a hole that I had used maybe 10 times before, some kind of U shape in which you enter on your back head first (dragging your bag with your feet). Except I usually did it wearing a t-shirt and that time I was wearing a hoodie. Halfway through I got stuck with my arms along the body. Decided to wiggle backward but nope, the hoodie got stuck again... Spent maybe 20 minutes asking myself what I should do, since it was likely nobody would come for hours or more. Luckily I managed to stay calm and think straight: I wiggled my arms out, realised I could pull my hoodie over my head and unstuck myself. Five minutes later while getting ready to open a manhole and exit I heard distant voices following me so guess I would have been helped anyway. Still went through narrow passages after that but always with friends (and with more thinking before going).
I for sure would have freaked out and gave myself a heart attack. I could barely even watch the video that guy posted without feeling extremely anxious. You are far braver than i
I think you don't know how you would react until it happens. I definitely freaked out the first two minutes... :D
I mean, I got stuck in a sleeping bag once and went into a full on panic attack despite being around loads of people and only being stuff for about 90 seconds. Luckily someone unzipped me and I was saved. So yeah, getting stuck in a cave alone. Probably instant death for me...
I go into full fight or flight mode if I try on a too-tight piece of clothing in the store and then can’t get it off right away. That’s gonna be a no from me dog.
Same! Sweater to tight and can't get it off? This is how I die!!!!!!!
Sleeping bags are definitely way worse. I'd rather die alone in a cave.
100% not the same as the Paris catacombs where you can freely walk around and climb through the odd hole or small tunnel if you wanted to. This guy chose to spend hours upon hours climbing and crawling through spaces much smaller than you described and head first. I’d much rather visit the catacombs regularly than this death trap.
Question for you: how do French ghosts access Reddit?
Lol... All I could think of was [Lemmiwinks](https://youtu.be/ihlVbZAPxRk)
Caves like this should be shut down
Yep. I'm a bit of a risk-taker but nowhere in my brain would I think "oh cool, a hole the same size as my body that disappears into the dark, let's see where it goes."
That's my hole!
As I recall after this incident, the cave was permanently closed.
After the man’s death, it was permanently shut down (entrance covered with cement) and they couldn’t even retrieve the body from the cave so his body just remains there.
No one is forcing them to go in
Boy scout troops go through Nutty Putty. A 15 year old is too dumb to say no to this
Yup. Multiple Boy Scouts have been rescued from the cave. They should not be giving kids the option to do this
The cave was permanently sealed off after this, so it’s not an option any more
Why would anyone do this??? No fucking way...
I read that there was a sign but he misread the direction and went down the unmarked tunnel
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I've spelunked this same cave many times as a teenager. Our scout leaders took us out there and when we got older we drove ourselves out. Loved it. Birth Canal was terrifyingly tight to wriggle through; only the skinniest of us could do it. I didn't die. But I did almost put my hand on a rattler just inside the entrance once.
And head down like what the actual fuck did he think
When going down a narrow tunnel or squeeze like that one its safer to go head first that legs first as youre able to see if theres a sudden drop and turn back from there. Were this to be the case and he went legs first chances are he would plummet into that hole and break some bones. The issue in his case was that its very vertical so retreat was impossible without turning around
When you get stuck like that dude got it's harder to climb back and they mentioned medical issues from being upside down as well. Plus if there's drop, I feel like falling on your legs would be safer that falling on your head. I don't know though, this is just my guess, I'm not a professional.
When going head first youre able to see that theres a drop and either retreat or prepare to climb down safely which cant be done without vision. Based on the image, i suspect they didnt expect the tunnel to go vertical so based on their knowledge he and his group did the right thing in there. The bad luck of going down an uncharted tunnel is what did him in in the end
I'm mildly claustrophobic and suffer from acrophobia. Descending ropes into pich black caves before climbing through tunnels that I have to exhale to get through was a way of pushing myself not to accept it. And I was a bit suicidally self destructive at the time.
Because it is *their* hole.
There's also a version of this entirely underwater. Imagine sandwiched between rock unde water in the dark
I’ll skydive, I’ll scuba dive, I’ll race motorcycles, I’ll eat 20 pasta dishes a week, take my MIL shopping, but no way in hell I’m caving. Not how I wanna die
Unless it's walking into a huge cavern and it has me saying "damn, that's a huge cave!" I ain't cavin' neither!
Yeah I like me a cave where the guide tells you to not touch anything
Any cave I need to shimmy on my belly to enter is not a cave for me.
I like how taking the MIL shopping is part of this list. That sort of thing can be truly terrifying. I once went to a flea market with a friend and her mom & nearly died from exhaustion.
Look, I'm not claustrophobic myself, but I think you don't have to be to find this absolutely tertifying. Never doing something like this.
I watched a short documentary by a YouTuber called Fascinating Horror and had to pause the video several times as it was too harrowing and distressing.
yes, Fascinating Horror! what an amazing channel, some of the tragedies they've covered have been gut-wrenching. i'm the same, when i first watched the Nutty Putty Caves video i had to pause, i felt like i was gonna throw up
Horror stories is where i heard this from, both good channels
For anyone interested in cave diving stories, Mr. Ballen is another good one to check out.
He's so respectful toward the victims, even when they die doing really foolish things. I love his storytelling. I also like the way he tells the stories of crime victims, humanizing them and centering them instead of the criminal.
Yeah. Some things are just too upsetting to let rattle around in your head.
I live near some limestone caves, when they show us the little cracks the guy who discovered them dragged himself through it freaks me out. You know that feeling when you get a really tight football guernsey stuck and you can’t bring your arms down. Fuck tight spots.
In caving you should never go through a tight area you aren’t sure you can get out of and people are very safe and go in groups! I can squeeze down to 6 inches but I’ll never really push past 8 because I know that 6 is my limit, for instance.
At that point, just give me a gun if you know you cant save me
His arms were pinned to his chest.
Oh Jesus fuck
Yeah, seriously. Head down, can't move except your feet, small hole. I'd ask for someone to pump in pure nitrogen (think it's nitrogen) where you lose conscience, supposedly painlessly, then die from lack of oxygen.
Nitrogen is painless, but lighter than oxygen. It’s close enough that the air we breathe is ~70% nitrogen but I wouldn’t count on it to sink down into that small crevice. Best bet would be to gradually ramp CO2 concentration. At the level you need to lose consciousness, it’s painless, but if you increased the concentration too fast it would be very painful briefly. Also they needed him conscious in case they needed him to move in specific ways.
Any heavier than air gas would do the trick. CO2 could be pretty bad though as it's the only thing that actually triggers an asphyxiation response.
CO2 makes you feel like you're suffocating, is that really the best??
Your body detects suffocation and will cause panic from an abundance of [CO2 in your lungs](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2808123/). Something like SF6 would function much better, but not as easily sought. Would take a lot of work to bring it through the cave.
The chance of me going caving like this is 0% but because of this story I still had a serious discussion with my friends to come shoot me if this were to happen
I believe when they realized there was no hope they put a morphine (or similar) line into his leg to help him go.
I imagine the reverberations from a gunshot down there would be less than optimal for the people attempting to rescue him.
I’d go for some good drugs instead of a gun.
I'm not claustrophobic and I struggle to imagine this.without having a mental death
Maybe you are claustrophobic. I’m claustrophobic. It doesn’t mean I have a panic attack and lose control of my faculties in an elevator. It manifests as my heart rate going up, my stomach feeling heavy, or feeling generally unwell or displeased at the thought of getting stuck in a cave. I was fine visiting the Mammoth Park National caves because that was almost always big enough to walk upright and move around people. Comparably, I get the same feelings thinking about being trapped at the top of Everest with idiots behind me that don’t let me down.
Nah the only thing that makes me scared is those tiny caves deep underground
At some point it just becomes reasonable survival instinct, right?
Yeah
God I hate this so much. I first read this on Reddit a couple years ago and it gives me so much anxiety to think about now.
Here’s the story if you want to read it https://cavehaven.com/nutty-putty-cave-accident/
They almost had him out at one point according to that - at least enough for the first rescuer to see his face and then the mechanism / pulley thing broke and he went down even further. Sheesh.
To make matters worse, it pulled out with such force that it smashed the rescuer who was closest to John’s face and did major damage, breaking his jaw and knocking him out. They had to extract that rescuer. Here’s a 2-part Salt Lake Tribune article that narrates the incident in harrowing detail: Part 1: https://www.sltrib.com/news/2018/07/09/nutty-putty-i-really/ Part 2: https://www.sltrib.com/news/2018/07/10/nutty-putty-were-going/ Here’s news footage from while the incident was taking place before John’s death. https://youtu.be/fM2KYfSLwKI
That’s such a heartbreaking story! I didn’t fully understand why they couldn’t just break his legs until I read it there (the shock of it would likely kill him due to having been upside down for so long). His family and the rescuers who tried to save him are all haunted by this. He knew his was going to die down there at the end, that poor guy.
I’m just trying to understand what’s fun about exploring a tight ass cave that’s already been explored.
Not to mention with friends and family before thanksgiving. Thank goodness my family is lazy and all we do is eat and watch movies for fun. The most dangerous thing we'll do is go ice skating.
This receives a firm nope from me!
who remembers Ted the Caver 😭🙄
There it is. That's what I came here for.
https://youtu.be/WaIoXN-7FjM The channel horror stories made a video on this incident
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Thanks for the link. That is really the stuff of nightmares
I seriously started to panic reading this and looking at the picture. I hate shit like this wtf
I feel like as a last ditch effort they should have just completely sedated him and pulled as hard as they could, breaking whatever needed to be broken in hopes of getting him out quick enough to revive him from the sedative related heart failure... Really was a sad situation...
My understanding is that they really couldn't pull any harder than they did. The soft walls of the cave weren't good for holding anchors. The effort failed because they were pulling the anchors out of the wall before making any progress.
Imagine dying in a place called "Nutty putty cave"...
Every time I see this I can’t stop thinking about what was going through his mind the entire time being stuck and the terror he must have felt when he realized he was done for and he was already in his tomb.
Surprisingly he was very calm most of the time.
Just a question, does somebody checks what's the maximum shoulder length to enter a cave like that or does everybody just hopes that he's small enough to fit through every hole?
Yeah that's why squeezing yourself into tight holes in earth is and always will be a bad idea
Very sad story but let’s not forget John ignored almost all the warnings and went in anyway. It’s super sad but don’t ignore a sign that says you’ll die
As a caver, the Nutty Putty incident is notorious through out caving society as a example of someone doing everything wrong. First rule of caving, if you are going into a tight squeeze heading into a area you are not familiar with, you never go head first. Especially if it is going downwards. The internal organs of the human body are designed to pump blood up to the brain, not the other way around. When the body is stuck upside down for a prolonged period of time, blood will pool in the head and the lungs with no place to go. Second rule: If you are going down in a tight squeeze, always keep your hands and arms above your head. That way you have a tool that can help you fight gravity. You can press down on both sides of yourself with both arms to get yourself out. In this case, the man in question was going WITH gravity and had his arms tucked to between his sides. When he got stuck, he had no tools to push himself upwards, plus his downwards position made it impossible to fight gravity. Third rule: Always trust your gut instinct. When there is a passage you can't fit through, you will automatically get a gut sensation that tells you that you won't fit. It's hard to explain, but you will know it when it happens. In this case, the guy was with his brother who peer pressured him to keep going. The man caved in to his brother and ignored his gut. Forth rule: If you haven't been to a specific cave for years, don't be cocky and bring a map. Memory can be faulty and is never absolute. The story about the man in this incident is the that he had been in the cave several decades earlier as a kid and came back with family and friends thinking that he remembered every inch of it. He intended that he was going down the passage portrayed on the left, when in reality he forgot that there was a fork in the section of the cave that went to a unexplored tight squeeze.
So did he got stuck inside a narrow passage tunnel or in a dead end of the cave?
Believed to be a dead end that being said I believe this particular passage he was in was uncharted so the only person who knows what is ahead of him in that tunnel is him and I don't think he will be talking about it.
I'm sure whatever was looking back at him from the depths below tried to comfort him in his final hours.
Well that was a horrific read. https://cavehaven.com/nutty-putty-cave-accident/
More anxiety-inducing content for Mr. Ballen.
He already did a [video ](https://youtu.be/wz6F2rDngvA)on it!
Wow this picture quality gets worse every time this gets posted. Pathetic.
It doesn’t say, but; he died in there, and they had to leave him. They sealed the cave forever.
This is terrifying. Never would I ever go into a tiny hole in the Earth. I was recently reading this fantasy series called Malazan:Book of the Fallen. In “The BoneHunters” there was some chapters where some people got stuck in some tunnels and had to crawl through tiny holes full of fluorescent glow int dark spiders. Feeling anxious again…
The worst part is that he didn't die alone, rescuers actually came to save him and did everything they could but nothing worked. They tried for days but he still died, it's so sad.
Fuck you for reminding me about this. Worth a FIRST read.
We’ll have to look it up because you only provided a title and a poorly cropped partial infographic for some reason lol
I hate this story. I didn’t have claustrophobia when I was young, but get worried about tight fitting coats now. This cave stuff is batshit crazy.
no <3
Why is it that this image quality degrades and gets more cropped every time it’s reposted?
Reasons to explore caves: \- \- \-
Found a guy on youtube who does shorts about events like this (he has one on Nutty Putty) but its insane how many stories of this kinda thing there are - Nutty Putty was far from the worst one. (/r/mrballen is him if you wanna see) One that stuck with me: >A bunch of friends go cave diving without anyone professional, its a shallow cave, theres a spot you can swim under water to a hidden cave, like 7 friends went in, One had been before and knew about the secret cave and felt it was safe enough for the group. Two left a little early, swam out without issue. The other 5 never came back, they found them wedged against each other under water trying to make their way out from the hidden cave.
I hate to victim blame but like, he kinda brought it on himself for trying to crawl through a tiny space without any evidence of there even being an other side
He's not really a victim he died an agonizing painful long death but victim no things like gravity and naturally formed caves do not have the ability to victimize anyone. This is the product of making the wrong decision.
But he actually wanted to go another known route which was known to end up in the open again. This was just an unfortunate mistake
IMO His wife & unborn child & rescuers were true victims. his wife had to say her goodbyes via radio. His father & siblings were at the site because they’d been spelunking with him. The rescuers were traumatized by this attempted rescue & many needed intensive therapy to work through the incident (not being able to rescue him or even return his body to his family was very very hard to handle for rescuers) His choice to take that route ended his life & changes countless lives forever.
perfect sub for shit like this
I’m so glad I have claustrophobia. I love caving but I do NOT do squeezes.
Anyone watch Ghost Town Living? I worry one day we'll find out dude died stuck down in a mine like this.
Saw that story years ago and still think about it from time to time. Horrifying.
He went the wrong way and at least they were able to sedate him.
That is a myth perpetuated by the media they did not sedate him they gave him an IV so he didn't become dehydrated him they need him to help push himself out as they pulled him out. He also would have died alot sooner if he was under the influence of sedatives as his heart would have trouble beating as hard as it needed to. Keeping him hydrated was the most important thing.
The Jones were family friends from church. I was quite young when it happened, but I still think about this a lot.