#Nutty putty cave free#

The girl who asked Jasper the question had large eyes, wet with barely unspent tears, her hands clasped together in front of her so hard they were white. Half a dozen late teen and early twenty-somethings waited for him there, four girls and two boys. It took maybe five minutes for Jasper, an experienced cave explorer and rescue worker, to extricate himself back to the main cave from the branch Ben was in. The walls were far too narrow to turn around, and it would be nothing short of catastrophe if he got himself trapped too. Jasper carefully eased himself backwards through the cramped tunnel, one excruciatingly calculated movement after the next. Try as best you can not to move around, you’re like to just wedge yourself in even tighter.”īen’s foot waggled gently in what Jasper took as acknowledgment. “I’ll be back as soon as I can, Ben, just have to go call for some more help.

“Then why am I still here with you?” chuckled the phantom voice softly before falling silent. “That was years ago, John,” Jasper mumbled under his breath, “You’re just a memory. “You’re going to fail him,” the voice said, “I’m sure of that. I’m gonna get you out,” the rescuer spoke to the feet, ignoring the commentary. “ Really,” observed a voice that Jasper reminded himself was just in his head, “ it looks like the rock came alive and swallowed him. Jasper spent several long moments mentally willing a response before, at last, the boots kicked weakly.

He felt a thrill of fear at how very still the young man was. ('I Will Fail You' by Demon Hunter) and (Technical) Write a story where the ending is the beginning.Īll Jasper could see of the boy by the narrow beam of his helmet light was a pair of low-cut boots and maybe two inches of ankle. My challenges were (Thematic) Write a story based on a real-life piece of music. 'We're here to inform, teach and get people into caving safely.Author's note: This is my entry for Tewahway's Wheel of Misfortune 2022 story contest. 'That's why there are grottos of the National Speleological Society like ours all over the United States,' says Paulson. Paulson mourns the death of Jones, but insists that caving is a very safe activity, especially when it's done with the right equipment and with an experienced guide. When it became clear that Jones' remains couldn't be extricated from the cave, Nutty Putty was permanently closed and sealed as Jones' final resting place. He left behind his wife Emily, a young daughter and a baby boy on the way (he's named John).ĭowney says that many of the volunteer rescuers were traumatized by the experience and some haven't entered a cave since. Despite the heroic effort to save him, Jones died a few minutes before midnight, the day before Thanksgiving.

#Nutty putty cave free#

One rescuer was badly injured when a pulley ripped free and struck him in the face. Rescuers installed a system of 15 pulleys to try and free Jones, but the clay walls of the cave couldn't bear the weight.

'They told me, 'I need to get contact information for really skinny cavers.'' 'I was the Grotto secretary and I had all of the contact information for the local caving community,' says Downey. Analyses done on the clay in the 1960s found that it was composed of tiny particles of silicon dioxide (the main component of sand) roughly 3 microns (less than 0.0001 inches) in diameter. Like Silly Putty, the clay would change from a solid to an elastic fluid when lightly squeezed.ĭowney says that the clay was even 'sound active,' meaning that if you yelled at it, it would ooze and move. The most recognizable characteristic of the cave was the strangely viscous clay oozing from some of its walls, which the cave's first explorer, a man named Dale Green, compared to Nutty Putty, the original product name for Silly Putty. A survey conducted in 2003 was able to map 1,355 feet (413 meters) of cave to a depth of 145 feet (44 meters) from the surface. Perhaps because of its hydrothermal past, temperatures inside Nutty Putty stayed around 55 degrees Fahrenheit (12.7 degrees Celsius) year round. It was very characteristic of a hypogenic cave.' 'It had tight squeezes that opened up into a big room, then back to another tight squeeze. 'Traditionally, these types of caves are very complex and feature lots of domes and three-dimensional passages, which was true of Nutty Putty,' says Paulson.