Ouch
Eh, I decided to type into here again, since I'm able to type relatively fast again.
Basically, my hand got crushed while caving underground by a big rock/small boulder. I made a silly mistake of following someone too closely (about 10 feet away) up a hill of loose rocks. I heard Mike scream out "ROCK!", but by the time I saw it, this huge thing about twice the size of my head had rolled down, so I tried to catch it with my hands.
So first off, my hands were kind of numb, so I took off my gloves to see. I wasn't really expecting to see the massive amount of blood there, nor the large laceration. Unfortunately, there were a few things that were kind of bad about this situation. First off, we had left the first aid kit in the car. So Mike had to bring me to the entrance, climb up himself, run to the car and get the kit, and descend.
Second, once I was patched up, the cave was vertical. The entrance was about 30-35 feet, and I was short one hand for ascending... Plus it was my first vertical experience also.
At any rate, my fellow cavers hooked up my vertical gear since I believed I would be able to make it up. I made it up until the ledge, and got stuck. Without a second hand, I wasn't able to move the ascender off the ledge and get up, even kicking off the wall and such. After about 5-7 minutes, Chris came down the rope to try to lift the rope for me with his body. He made it down around 12-15 minutes, although Mike was ready to call for 911 around then, since I had been hanging with no way down for about that long. Chris made it down, and I was able to start moving up.
Another bad thing happened for me then, which was that my left ascender came off my foot, so I was climbing with a safety harness and my right ascender, which was ridiculously exhausting towards the top. I felt like I was going to tip and fall a few times while nearly at the top, but I barely mustered my strength to reach it.
Unfortunately, I had to get 9 stitches, and I've lost my sense of touch on half of my left middle finger, although it may come back in time, depending on how it heals (it looks like my nerves are being drawn back in, to describe it in less disgusting words).
I went caving the next day anyway in an intermediate level cave, and someone got hurt in another boulder accident... Long story short, I was at the top of this sketchy ladder and getting ready to go down, and hear RUMBLE...RUMBLE... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. Someone pulled on a rock and it dropped on his foot.
Well, at least it wasn't... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.. RUMBLE RUMBLE.
Basically, my hand got crushed while caving underground by a big rock/small boulder. I made a silly mistake of following someone too closely (about 10 feet away) up a hill of loose rocks. I heard Mike scream out "ROCK!", but by the time I saw it, this huge thing about twice the size of my head had rolled down, so I tried to catch it with my hands.
So first off, my hands were kind of numb, so I took off my gloves to see. I wasn't really expecting to see the massive amount of blood there, nor the large laceration. Unfortunately, there were a few things that were kind of bad about this situation. First off, we had left the first aid kit in the car. So Mike had to bring me to the entrance, climb up himself, run to the car and get the kit, and descend.
Second, once I was patched up, the cave was vertical. The entrance was about 30-35 feet, and I was short one hand for ascending... Plus it was my first vertical experience also.
At any rate, my fellow cavers hooked up my vertical gear since I believed I would be able to make it up. I made it up until the ledge, and got stuck. Without a second hand, I wasn't able to move the ascender off the ledge and get up, even kicking off the wall and such. After about 5-7 minutes, Chris came down the rope to try to lift the rope for me with his body. He made it down around 12-15 minutes, although Mike was ready to call for 911 around then, since I had been hanging with no way down for about that long. Chris made it down, and I was able to start moving up.
Another bad thing happened for me then, which was that my left ascender came off my foot, so I was climbing with a safety harness and my right ascender, which was ridiculously exhausting towards the top. I felt like I was going to tip and fall a few times while nearly at the top, but I barely mustered my strength to reach it.
Unfortunately, I had to get 9 stitches, and I've lost my sense of touch on half of my left middle finger, although it may come back in time, depending on how it heals (it looks like my nerves are being drawn back in, to describe it in less disgusting words).
I went caving the next day anyway in an intermediate level cave, and someone got hurt in another boulder accident... Long story short, I was at the top of this sketchy ladder and getting ready to go down, and hear RUMBLE...RUMBLE... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. Someone pulled on a rock and it dropped on his foot.
Well, at least it wasn't... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.. RUMBLE RUMBLE.