In this video, we're gonna go over three stories
about cave exploring that went horrifyingly wrong. There's something that happens in the final story that demonstrates that no matter how prepared you are, sometimes things happen that are
entirely out of your control. As a warning, if you're claustrophobic,
you might want to skip this one. And as always, viewer discretion is advised. [intro music] Before we get into today's video, I want to introduce you
to today's sponsor, Endel. I spend a ton of time researching and writing scripts
for Scary Interesting, and inevitably, as I'm sure many of you understand, there are times
when it's just impossible to focus. I've tried music to help me combat this,
but I find song lyrics distracting, and having to constantly choose just the
right song only wastes more time. Thankfully, the brilliant people at Endel
have come up with a better solution. Using cutting-edge AI technology, Endel generates
personalized soundscapes in real time based on things like your location, weather, the activity
you're doing, and even your heart rate. So if you need to focus like I do, you just
choose Focus on the app, and then Endel will generate sounds to
help boost your productivity. If you want to relax, Endel can generate sounds
to calm and comfort you. Endel can even generate sounds to help
soothe you to sleep, which is perfect if you like to fall asleep to white noise. And these are all completely seamless, meaning
you won't have to waste time switching songs. They can also all be changed or adapted for whatever
mood you're in and whatever platform you're on. In fact, the soundscape you're hearing right now
is one that Endel generated just for me. So if you feel like Endel would be perfect for you, click the link in the description or scan
the QR code on screen now, because the first 100 people to download Endel
will get a free week of audio experiences like the one you're hearing now,
but completely customized just for you. If you ever take a trip to Indiana's Spring Mill State Park, you'll find an overground path between
the entrance to two beautiful caves known as Bronson Cave and Donaldson Cave. If you follow the half-mile trail above ground
to get from one to the other, you might not realize it, but the two are
actually connected underground by a two-mile stretch of cracks and openings. This underground connection is popular among cavers because it's fairly easily accessible from
the park's entrance. However, not anyone could just walk through it. These days, you have to get explicit permission
to enter it which is only granted if you've completed
several safety certifications and you have all the necessary equipment. Park staff will even stop you and ban you
if you don't follow these rules. And there are two reasons why they're so big on safety. First is the water. The cave system is
always filled with cold water that you have to wade through
and sometimes even swim through. That water also creates a lot of white noise
which can be disorienting. The second reason is that back in 1985,
access to the caves wasn't as strictly controlled, and this led to some terrifying incidents. At around 10 AM on Monday, July 1st, 1985, Mike and Roman set off from the nearby parking lot
to the mouth of Bronson Cave. The two of them had walked through the
cave system a few times before, and it was a relatively straightforward route
compared to some of the other caves they'd explored. The water had also only been little more
than knee-deep whenever they'd been there. That day, Mike was wearing shorts and a T-shirt,
and Roman was only wearing a bathing suit. Other than that, all they had with them was a single
flashlight each so they could see in the dark. Even in 1985 though, science recommended
you don't go into the cave without a guide, but Mike and Roman didn't think they needed one
because they'd been there before. And at first, it didn't seem too different
from the times they'd been there before, but they did notice a waterfall over the cave entrance. They'd never seen that before and joked about not
going in because it had been raining overnight. But they figured the water would only be a little deeper or they'd just have to swim a little bit,
which wasn't a big deal to them. What they didn't know was that just half an hour
after they entered the caves, a heavy downpour began. And this was so intense that a boat trip
to the nearby Twin Caves had to be cancelled due to flash flooding. After about 90 minutes, Mike and Roman
were about halfway in. That's when they encountered the first set of rapids. These were only waist-deep, but already very powerful. Eventually, they even got to a section
where there were no dry spots and they had to actually hop in the water
if they wanted to continue. It also seemed like the water was getting
more powerful by the second. They realized that getting in the water was a bad idea. So instead, they found a ledge to sit on
to wait for the water to proceed. Then to Mike's horror, Roman went to readjust and slipped right off the ledge, and was
immediately pulled out of the water. Roman was then swept through the current and
reached out desperately for anything to grab onto. Luckily, he happened to go by an outcropping and managed to grab a hold of it to keep himself
from being pulled any further. Then he started calling out to Mike
to let him know he was okay, but because of how loud the water was, Mike could only hear that he was shouting,
not what he was saying. Mike didn't know what condition he was in
and figured he probably needed help. So after about 30 minutes of listening to Roman call out, Mike worked up the courage to hop into
the water to try to get to them. This was a terrible idea.
As soon as he slipped into the water, he was immediately sucked under the surface
by the force of the current and slammed against the rocks along the cave walls. Roman then watched as Mike shot past him and then
out of view somewhere deeper in the cave. Afterward, the cave just kept filling with water. All Roman could do was hang on for dear life and hope that the water would stop before
there was no space for air. But it kept on coming up, inch by inch, and soon the water was getting close
to the roof of the cave. Thankfully, once it was high enough, Roman
was able to climb up to a little ledge that had barely enough room for him to balance on. All he could do at that point was wait and hope
the water would leave as quickly as it came, while also wondering if Mike could somehow
survive being swept away by the water. He also had to hope that it receded fast enough
or they found him quickly enough because the cold water was rapidly chilling him
to the point that he was already shivering. Sometime earlier, Mike had been pushed through
the caves by the water and slammed into boulder after boulder,
and at about midday, he was ejected through the entrance to Donaldson Cave, 300 feet from where the water had picked him up. He managed to reach out and grab one of the
wooden handrails near the entrance and used it to pull himself out of the water. Then he crawled 400 yards up the steep bank
between the cave entrance and the parking lot. About an hour later, a park employee came across him
exhausted and covered in blood. An ambulance eventually took Mike to a hospital
and he spent two nights recovering. He had a badly damaged elbow, and his body
was covered in bruises and scrapes, but luckily, he hadn't hit his head. He just had a gash in his forehead where he
scraped it against the wall. Over the next day, the water receded, but nowhere
near enough for them to attempt a rescue. At first, they didn't even know if Roman
was still in the cave. He might have been flushed out of the cave just
like Mike but had gone much further. So while they waited, they posted men around rivers,
lakes, and water outlets to watch for his body. While they did that, 12 people from the
American Spelunkers Association tried to get through the cave to see if
they could find Roman, and it took them 3 hours just to get
100 feet into the system. The water was still 8 to 10 feet deep, meaning where there was any or at all,
it was only about 6 inches or so. Some suggested they go in with air tanks, but the experts at the time explained that
this would be a death sentence. The caves were far too small and the pressure
of the water was way too great. The next morning, the water had dropped just enough
for the rescue team to get further in. They made it from the entrance, through a
flooded area roughly 60 feet long, into another chamber that was dry because
it was at a slightly higher elevation. By that time, a fair amount of mud
and silt had also built up, so the rescuers started trying to dig it out, hoping
it would make it easier to progress. Then at 8:52 AM, one of the team heard something.
It sounded like a human voice. They listened for a moment, and there it was again. The team then shouted back and realized
it was Roman. He was still alive. While the rescue team had been waiting
for the water to recede, Roman started making his own way toward the entrance and managed to get within 150 feet from the water. But the same thing blocking the rescuers from getting in
was stopping him from getting any further. So he found a small crevice in the rock
and wedged himself into it. That's when he heard what he thought was scraping
and voices, and he decided to yell out for them. They was still a wall of water between them
but the rescuers started to make plans. By then, Roman was hungry and worn down by the cold, and what worried the rescue team
was that he seemed exhausted. By then, he barely had the strength to talk to them, managing a little more than a "yes" or "no"
to the questions they asked him. The rescuers tried all they could for the next
10 hours to free Roman. First, they thought about drilling from above, but there was 75 feet of rock between him
and the surface. And it would mean not only drilling
but blasting through the dynamite. That was obviously too dangerous. Then they thought about drilling him out
from a dry chamber. But even if it were possible to get him out that way,
they were worried it could cause a cave-in. So unfortunately, the safest thing to do was
to wait until the water got low enough for the divers to go through and rescue him. Meanwhile, Roman was still clinging to the rock
above a raging torrent of water, and he was starting to wonder if he could even hold on. The rescuers managed to communicate to him
that Mike had made it and was back at the cave entrance,
trying to help in any way he could. Roman then thought that maybe Mike had
been swept out, that all he needed to do was drop into the water below and get
pushed through to where the rescuers were. However, if he'd done that, it probably
would have killed him. It's hard to overstate just how lucky Mike had been. By then, the rescue team was making good progress. They managed to move some big rocks out of the way, freeing up space, making it easier for divers
to get through. Finally, Roman saw movement, and then
a light coming out of the water. Before he knew it, a couple of divers were passing him
a helmet, a wetsuit, and a flotation device. Roman then used what little strength
he had and slipped on the equipment. From the time that he appeared in the mouth of the cave
to when he was put in an ambulance, his friends and family and Mike gave him
a round of applause. At that point, he'd been trapped for 54 hours. Roman had previously been a Marine, and it may well
have been his Marine training that saved his life. But the man on that stretcher
didn't look like a tough Marine. He was wrapped in a blanket, he was pale
and covered in cuts and bruises, and shivering from hypothermia. At first, he could barely even open his eyes properly. He'd been trapped for so long in the dark that
the bright light outside was too painful. Thankfully, both Mike and Roman
would go in to make full recoveries. Weybridge Cave is the largest in Vermont
and the second biggest in all of New England. If you look at the cave though, you'd never think so.
It's so tiny and unimpressive that most people would probably just walk by
and not give it a second thought. It's also not really easy to get to. There's no parking lot,
signs, or special paths leading you there. The closest road is unnamed, and according
to others who'd been there, your best bet is to follow the trail of garbage
and beer cans left by other people. Where the beer cans end is a 30-foot depression,
and at the bottom of that, if you look carefully, you'll see a tiny opening about three feet wide. If you manage to find this entrance though, going inside
is not for the faint-hearted. First, you have to squeeze through the tiny entrance,
and then from there, you have to climb down two vertical drops,
a total of 55 feet. Apparently, once you're in though, it's worth it. The cave system is filled with rooms of various sizes. The largest is 30 feet wide and just as high, while the smallest is so tight you can't turn around. In some spots, you can see leaves stuck to the ceilings
from when the caves fill with water in winter. The water also leaves mud on the floor
and under the walls, which is helpful for when you want to slide through
a passage with a low ceiling but dangerous when you're close to a drop. Because of all these features,
despite being hard to find, the cave is so impressive that the whole area
is named after it, which is the Weybridge Cave Natural Area State Park. On August 6th, 2013, two men in their 20s
turned up to explore Weybridge Cave. They had heard how extensive it was and that the main part
of the cave was flat after a bit of a climb. For cavers, this sounded like a nice
leisurely day underground. Rumor had it that the entrance was tricky
because of the vertical drops, but they were strong climbers, so they thought they could
tackle it without bringing ropes and harnesses. So at about 5:30, they squeezed sideways
through the small entrance one at a time, and immediately, they were surprised at
how steep and wet it was. All they could see was water pouring over the walls
that formed the cave and into the darkness below. They had to be careful not to lose footing and fall down
the first of the two vertical passageways. And this wasn't easy, not just because it was wet,
but also because it became pitch-black as soon as they got in and through the narrow crack
that led to the surface. They had helmets and headlights which helped, but it was so tight they couldn't see
much even with those. Once they were both through the entranceway,
they began to freeclimb down the 20 feet of an area known as Nuisance Drop. After descending, they found themselves on a
relatively long and steep passageway. Again, the water flowed down with them
and they had to take their time so they didn't slip and fall down the next steep drop. Soon enough, they saw the floor disappearing
down again into the 40-foot main drop. In the dark, it was hard to see the bottom,
and the two men realized why the first drop was thought of as
little more than a nuisance. Eventually, they found some grip holes in the wet rock and began to descend the 40 feet to the cave floor. It was slow-going and hard to keep hold
of the rock face through the wet mud, but eventually, they reached the main part of the cave. Once they were on flat ground again, the two men
started exploring the system and sliding through the tunnels in the mud,
while admiring the glittering walls and large rooms. After an hour or so, they decided it was time to leave, and obviously the only way out
was the way they came in, which meant climbing back up the way they came down. The first man managed to get about
15 feet from the bottom when a damp rock slipped through his fingers,
and he fell backwards to the hard stone floor. He tried to break his fall by landing on his feet, but he felt his ankle snap underneath him as he did. Then a split second later, he felt the full force
of the drop on his tailbone. Right away, the other man ran over to check on him and saw that his friend's foot was facing
the wrong direction. He'd also cut his head open, but worst of all, he couldn't
feel anything from his tailbone down. Obviously, the man needed medical attention right away, but there was no way he was going to be able
to climb out on his own anymore. Luckily, the other man managed to scale
the walls more carefully, so he managed to get to the surface and call
911 at around 7 PM. The first people to get there were the
Weybridge Fire Department, but as soon as they got there, they knew it was
something they weren't trained for, so they called in anybody from the area that
they thought might be able to help. This included Steve Hazelton of the
Vermont Cave Rescue Network. Steve immediately packed all of his gear
and set off to the site, while his wife made calls to the best cavers in the area. One of the first to arrive at the scene
tied a rope to an old dead tree and sent it down the drops to the floor below. Steve then used this climb down to the man,
along with a hard-wired telephone so you could communicate with the surface team. Soon after, more cavers turned up
and they attached a more secure rope and a belay line so they could climb in
and out of the cave more easily. Next they went inside and replaced
the weak anchor points that were already there with 4
much stronger anchor points. These taken together would be strong enough to take the weight of a man being lifted out of the cave. But there was still another issue. At the top of the
main drop and the bottom of the Nuisance Drop, there were points where the cave narrowed to
as little as 14 inches. There was no way to get through there
while he was immobilized. They had to cut away some of the rock. One of the rescue teams then brought out
an air chisel with them that ran off the same breathing apparatus
scuba divers used. The top of the main drop was narrow and S-shaped
so it took more time to cut away. They decided to focus the air chisel on that area,
but Nuisance Drop was still a problem. To save time, one of the men then grabbed a
sledgehammer, secured himself so he wouldn't fall, and smashed the rock at the bottom until it was
wide enough to get the man through. Once the two pinch points had been widened out,
they lowered a stretcher down. Steve then put the caver's broken ankle into a field brace
and attached the stretcher to the line. Then the team began to raise the injured man up, but they had to take their time because he
screamed in pain every time they moved. They also couldn't risk further damaging his spine. Before long, they got him to the first of two tight sections. Then they unhooked him from the line and laid him
flat to give him a short break. Then they hooked him in again and asked the people
up top to start pulling again. 10 inches at a time, he made his way to the entrance. Unfortunately, the entrance tunnel was the
most difficult problem in the entire rescue. First, they tried twisting the stretcher to push him up
on his injured side through the hole, but the people underneath couldn't push him
through far enough before they couldn't reach him anymore. Before long, he was jammed in the entranceway. The pressure on the man's tailbone
during this time was so great, he screamed in agony again, forcing them to pull him
back out into the flat part. There was just no getting around it.
They had to make the hole bigger if they were gonna get him out of there. Once again, they went at it with air chisels and then
attempted to pull him through again. It was slow-going, but the man remained patient,
even when he couldn't help but scream in pain. Sometimes they had to stop altogether
to modify the ropes and change direction, but eventually, at 6:30 AM on August 7th,
they managed to haul him out. By then, he had been lying injured on his back
for more than 12 hours. An ambulance worker assessed him, moved him
onto a specialized stretcher designed for people with back injuries,
and then placed him in the back of a pickup truck to drive him
to a waiting ambulance. Unfortunately, eventually it was determined
that the man had a spinal fracture. We don't know much more about him
because he remained anonymous, but the local rescue service often use
this story as a warning not to go into caves unless you know what you're doing, and certainly not without ropes and harnesses. It's not clear if the caver lost his ability to walk, so hopefully they left that detail out
because he fully recovered. Unfortunately though, not every rescue is so lucky. Tank Cave is a vast underwater labyrinth
of submerged tunnels and passageways between Mount Gambier in Millicent in Victoria, Australia. To get to it, you need to travel to a small town
called Tantanoola, where you'll find a small field owned by the
Cave Divers Association of Australia. In the past, the small opening in the ground
was covered by a water tank. But now you'll find a metal trapdoor
covered in dirt and rust. If you give the Cave Divers Association a call
and provide your certifications to them, they'll unlock it for you and let you drop
into the cave using a long ladder. At the bottom of this ladder is a beautiful underground
waterhole, but that's just the beginning. If you swim into that pond, you'll find the
entrance to a cave system with over four miles of passages discovered so far. These then branch out like a spider's web in all directions. It's obviously easy to get lost in this network
of tunnels, so before you're allowed to dive there, you have to go through a course familiarizing yourself
with all the main passageways. Most of these have fixed gold ropes
to help new divers find their way back, but it's still a challenging dive, even if you stick
to the mapped-out routes. Then once you're familiar with those main tunnels,
you can head off through some of the smaller, sometimes
never explored passageways. But crucially, you always have to be extremely careful. Even if you know what you're doing, it can still be deadly. Agnes Milowka was one of those cavers
who knew exactly what she was doing. Apparently, she said she even dreamed about caves.
That's how obsessed she was with the sport. Agnes was born in Poland, but her family
moved to Australia when she was young. After school, she wanted to get three separate degrees. One in Maritime Archaeology,
one in Business Marketing, and another in History and Australian Studies. While she was in college, she was always a member of
the underwater clubs at every school she attended. She was even president of the Melbourne University
Underwater Club from 2003 to 2005. One year, while on a trip with this club to pick
in any ponds for some diving, she spotted a hole at the bottom and wanted
to know where it led. This is what sparked her interest in cave diving. Later in 2007, she moved to Florida for an internship, and while she was there, she spent lots of time
exploring shipwrecks off the coast. Then after returning to Australia, she was employed
to explore Elk River cave system. During this time, she set a record for the
longest dive by an Australian woman. Because of this and because of her education, she started to make a name for herself
in the cave diving community. Soon, she went to work with some of the biggest
publications in the space, and was even hired to work as a stunt double
and diving instructor on several movies. By 2011, she'd dived more than 500 times
and had tons of experience. During that time as well, she had almost
everything go wrong that can go wrong. She'd gotten stuck more than once and was
only able to free herself by staying calm. Her exact words were, "If you panic, you die."
but to Agnes, the risk was worth it. The rush and the thrill of exploration
were just too much not to do it. Thankfully, she was also obsessed with her safety,
following the old diver saying, "If you need it, take two."
every time she went on a dive. Over the years, there was one place Agnes
loved to dive more than anywhere else. It was a place back home in Victoria
known as Tank Cave. She first dived Tank Cave in 2010, helping to set
new lines and further map out the system. On one particular dive, she and her
diving buddy found a passageway heading away from the main tunnels,
so they swam back to check it out. Agnes could see that the tunnel was small,
but it still went somewhere. And obviously, she wanted to find out where. Her diving buddy was a bit too big
to get through the small opening, so she signaled she was gonna go ahead quickly
and see where it led. This wasn't uncommon because
she was frequently small enough to squeeze through passages other divers couldn't. After signaling to him, she pulled off her tanks
and squeezed through the small opening in the wall. There were a few more sections like it
after that first one, and it was also hard to see in this new passage. The roof was soft so whenever Agnes breathed,
the air bubbles would dislodge chunks of rock and silt would rain down on her and cloud the water. Still, she continued on, moving slowly and carefully. About a thousand feet into this new passageway,
it eventually opened up into a much larger chamber. At about that time, Agnes decided
she had gone far enough and returned to meet her buddy at the small entranceway,
excited to tell him what she'd found. This newly discovered chamber could have
miles more passages to explore. On February 27th, 2011,
Agnes went back into Tank Cave with one of her main goals being to explore
some of those unmapped tunnels. She and her buddy diver then dropped into the main pool and made their way up one of the main passageways, and like before, she noticed a tiny opening
just 2,000 feet into the system. She wanted to see where it went
so she removed her gas tank, waved at her friend, and disappeared to the tight space. This route was like some of the other ones
she'd found before, and so the soft roof came off easily, filling the water
with silt and making visibility close to zero. This time though, after swimming for a while, she got lost in the silt and couldn't figure out
how to get back. As she made her way to where she thought
her friend was, she took a wrong turn and found herself
in a small crack, too small to even move. This meant she was now in zero visibility
and completely stuck. But incredibly, Agnes didn't panic.
She slowly moved one limb at a time, shifting her head and her body to try
to free herself from the rock. But no matter what she did, she couldn't get
any further or push herself back. As her air started to run out,
she kept trying to free herself, slowly and calmly drawing deep on her
training and experience. Every time she stopped moving, all she could hear
was her own breathing. Finally and miraculously, she managed
to wiggle around just enough to free herself and then started backtracking
to where she thought the exit was. Then she reached another tight spot at
1,800 feet from the cave entrance, but by then, it was too late. She took in her last breath and then passed out. Her gas had run out just before she managed
to find her way back. Her diving buddy waited, eventually getting
worried as time went on, but eventually, he knew he had to get out
because he was also low on gas. And if he was, it meant so was she. He then contacted
authorities, and a search was officially started. It didn't take long before a good friend of hers
spotted her body submerged at a depth of 65 feet. They then spent the next week trying to figure out
the best way to get her body out of the cave. At first, they thought about drilling down to rescue her, but the divers managed to persuade the rescue teams that they could get her out by filming themselves
dive into where she was. This would ensure they knew the exact route
and no one would get lost like she had. So finally, over the next two days, they slowly inched Agnes's body through
the system and up to the surface. Later that year, a 40-year-old man from Melbourne ran out
of air not far from the entrance to the cave. Like Agnes, he'd been in Tank Cave many times before
and knew the dangers. Like her as well, he had nearly a decade of experience
and the highest possible diving certification. Maybe the saddest part of all is that as many as
800 people visit Tank Cave every year, but only two people have died there so far. Agnes and the other man. They just happened
to die in the same year. If you made it this far, I just wanted to thank you for watching. We now have a Scary Interesting podcast
with brand-new stories just like these wherever you listen to podcasts. If you have a story suggestion, feel free to email it
to me or let me know down in the comments. And a huge shout out to Endel for sponsoring this video. Make sure to check them out.
He's in the link in the description.
