Going deep on cave rescues

Going deep on cave rescues

Rescue missions to reach people trapped inside caves have been in the news lately, with a crew in the Southeast Asian country of Laos racing against the clock to save villagers who’ve been stuck deep inside one for just over 2 weeks. The operation is one of a number of highly risky rescue missions that happen across the world every year. So in this Squiz Shortcut, we’ll look at:

• what attracts people into cave systems

• who rescues them if they get into trouble

• and what’s involved…

🙋🏻‍♀️ This newsletter was written by Larissa Huntington and Sophie Felice

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Squiz the Shortcut

Let’s start on the surface… What exactly is a cave system?
It’s essentially a network of underground passages and chambers that have formed naturally over thousands or even millions of years. Some are relatively small, but others can stretch for hundreds of kilometres underneath the ground - and they’re found all over the world. 

Do we have many in Australia?
Heaps - too many to mention all of them, but some famous ones you might’ve heard of are the Jenolan Caves near the Blue Mountains, the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Naracoorte Caves in South Oz with their fossilised remains of ancient animals, and Lakes and Mammoth Caves in Western Oz which have mirror-like underground waters. Because they’re rare and beautiful, people naturally are drawn to see them, and that happens the world over.

Do we know much about them?
While we might know where a lot of cave systems are around the world, we’ve still got a lot to learn about them. So, we know that some of them have been carved out by flowing water forcing its way underground and others have been formed by volcanic activity. But many of the world’s cave systems are still being mapped, so we don’t know exactly where all the tunnels lead - or what’s in them.

Now that you mention it, what might be inside?
You might find anything from underground rivers and lakes, and maybe waterfalls - all lovely... But you could also find that the passages get super complex and narrow, or there could be wild animals in there (anyone scared of bats, maybe give caving a miss…), and in some cases, caves can hold mines… 

What sort of mines?
One of the big reasons people venture deep into caves in third world countries is to search for gold or valuable minerals to mine for money. That’s what the villagers in Laos were searching for when they became trapped…

Let’s say I missed this - catch me up…
There’s a rescue mission underway after 7 villagers went into a cave system in central Laos to mine gold and minerals. But heavy rain triggered flash flooding and landslides, trapping them underground. Five of the men were found alive after spending more than a week underground, and several international caving experts, including South Australian cave diver Josh Richards, were brought in to help with the rescue…

How did they get out?
The rescuers were able to pump water out of the cave system, which allowed the water level to drop enough for the men to get themselves out. But 2 more men are still in there - there’s an air chamber inside where they’re thought to be, and rescuers are trying to get to that… But this incident is the most recent reminder of just how dangerous caves can be. 

What are some of the risks?
The most obvious one is getting lost inside. Because there’s no natural light, they’re dark, and even if you have a torch or a headlamp, the tunnels can branch off in multiple directions which can get you muddled quickly… The next biggest danger is flooding. A cave that looks perfectly safe from the outside can rapidly fill with water after heavy rain, which can cut off the exits. And there’s something else: the deeper you go in, the worse the air quality gets. 

Tell me more about that…
So some caves have very low levels of oxygen, and some contain harmful gases like high levels of carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulphide from thermal pools, and ammonia from bat droppings - all not great for humans to breathe in… Add in slippery surfaces, falling rocks and extremely tight spaces, and it’s not a big leap to understand why sometimes even experienced cavers can find themselves in trouble. 

Who carries out the rescues?
Cave rescues often need specialist teams to help out - we’ll get to their skills in a moment, but one of the most famous examples of a rescue crew in action was in the 2018 rescue of a young soccer team in Thailand. You might remember this: 12 boys and their coach became trapped inside the Tham Luang cave system after monsoonal rains flooded the tunnels behind them. 

They got out, right?
They did… It was incredible - some of them were stuck in there for 18 days. Specialist cave divers and experts from around the world worked on the mission, including more than 20 Aussies. But it was anesthetist and expert cave diver Dr Richard ‘Harry’ Harris and his dive partner Dr Craig Challen that were the lynchpin of the operation. 

Remind me about their part in it…
Because the boys couldn’t swim and the underwater visibility was zero, Harris made the critical and high-risk decision to sedate the children with anaesthetics so they wouldn't panic during the hours-long journey through the flooded tunnels. Assisted by Challen, he stayed inside the cave system to assess the boys and was reportedly the last person to leave. They were jointly named 2019 Australians of the Year and awarded the Star of Courage for their bravery. 

Is the Laos rescue being compared to the Thai one?
It’s drawn some comparisons, and some of the same rescuers are involved, including Finnish diver and cave expert Mikko Paasi. But cave rescues don’t always have happy endings… Another recent story in the news was about 5 experienced Italian divers who died while exploring an underwater cave system. Authorities are still investigating what happened there, but it’s a reminder that things can go wrong even for experienced people. 

What are some of the challenges in reaching people stuck inside caves?
The rescue missions are rarely straightforward. Rescuers have to go through the same dangerous conditions that trapped people in the first place. In Laos for example, the team had to crawl for hundreds of metres through flooded sections of the cave - and some of the tunnels are just 60cm wide… Water is a recurring theme here - as well as cutting off exits, it reduces oxygen levels in the available air and it turns the tunnels into underwater passages. All of which means time becomes critical.

Let’s talk about those rescue crews…
For starters, they have specialised skills. Usually they’re expert cave divers - it’s a niche skill. Cave diving is considered one of the most technically demanding forms of diving because you can’t simply swim straight to the surface if something goes wrong. You have to navigate back through those narrow passageways, and even if you’ve got a headlamp, the visibility is often really bad.

How bad?
Josh Richards, the Aussie diver who was helping in Laos earlier in the week said the conditions there were like “diving in coffee” because the water was so muddy.

Tell me more about Josh…
He left the rescue team after the diving part was over, but he was brought in because he’s the leader of the Soggy Wombats cave diving team in South Oz. He’s actually claustrophobic, but not in water, which he puts down to weightlessness. He says he has to force himself through the dry caves to get to the water. And it’s there that he can make a real difference because he says he’s got a small build and can wiggle in and out of narrow spaces. But he and the other rescuers have been specifically trained for those conditions. 

What else is involved in the rescues?
They use guide ropes to get around the low visibility, as well as specialised breathing equipment, and they make sure they’ve got communication systems. Another thing they do is map out the caves before the actual rescue so they can move safely in and back out... Over in Laos though, the focus has shifted to trying to reach the 2 trapped men by shimmying down vertical shafts from a hill above the cave. Several of those have led to tunnels that have been blocked by landfalls, but there are others still to try. 

Any updates yet?
As we publish this, there haven’t been any signs of life from the villagers inside. But Paasi says he and his rescue team aren’t giving up on finding the men, saying on his instagram stories “as long as there is rope, there is hope.” 

Onto our Recommendations

Watching: This Four Corners story on Dr Richard ‘Harry’ Harris and that incredible rescue of the soccer team in Thailand back in 2018. 

Reading: This story from The Guardian which looks at the conditions inside the cave in Laos and what rescuers are up against.

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