Clipping a piece of webbing to the knot for a step, she stood up and connected her harness and belay device to the rope. Icy water rained down from the falls next to the rope, soaking us in minutes and numbing our hands. Jess climbed up on my shoulders to reach it and tied a slip knot into the worn nylon. We ate the last of our food and walked up to the rope once again. We’d dismissed it as unclimbable, but now I wanted to take another look.
We had to find our own way out.Īs the day wore on and we searched for an escape, I began to reconsider that rope hanging from a hole in the ceiling. We thought the cave was a straight shot, but what if we had made a wrong turn somewhere? In an underground maze like this, we couldn’t take rescue for granted. In theory, help should have been on the way. I saved only our rope, harnesses, and one pack. I started another fire, and desperation led me to burn my backpack, our extra hats and gloves, items from my wallet, even my knee brace. We’d both gotten wet again while exploring and, with no real chance to warm up and get dry, hypothermia started to seem inevitable. We shivered more than we slept.īy 5 a.m., we were back to searching, but we felt more and more trapped. We hoped resting might help us see something new in the morning. Wind had been sailing through the corridor until this chamber, but now it was still. Thin wisps of smoke curled through the beam of my headlamp, drifting straight up. I lit a trash fire from the contents of our packs, hoping it would give us warmth. We cuddled as close as possible on the frozen mud to try and share some body heat, calling out every so often into the dark. Tired, demoralized, and shivering, we stopped searching and I pulled a couple of energy bars out of my backpack. The rope was too slick to climb, the water too deep to wade through, and we couldn’t find a break in the rock. We searched the walls of the round room until midnight, but came up empty. We hadn’t read anything about a cul-de-sac there had to be a way out. Opposite the rope, a large pool of water lapped against the rock wall. The rocks surrounding it were frosted in ice.
At one end, a rope dangled from a small hole in the ceiling from which a waterfall poured. We dead-ended in the 50-foot-wide cavern.
Our only choice was to keep going, so we kept following the footprints we saw, until we couldn’t see the way forward anymore. Since we’d pulled the rope, we knew there was no turning back. We saw rappel anchors, footprints, and signs of other cavers, but as the darkness stretched on into the ninth hour, we couldn’t help but think we should have reached the exit. For more than four hours, we picked our way through thigh-deep water, narrow passages, and pitch-black caverns. So we took our time, stopping often to let our headlamps reveal the crystalline tunnels painted in glitter. What limited beta we’d found online didn’t mention offshoots from the main cave, which we assumed meant navigation would be straightforward. At the bottom, we pulled our rope and gathered our wits-the only way out was in.
#Into the lost caves series#
We rappelled a series of frozen waterfalls. We stepped out of 80☏ heat and into a freezer as we entered the ice cave around midday, expecting to spend three or four hours linking it with Wind Cave. We left our young daughter with Jess’s mom and told them to call for help if we didn’t return by midnight. We were both experienced climbers and campers and felt it was within our abilities. There wasn’t much information, but what we did find was consistent: a 2- to 3-mile underground cave, beginning with a series of rappels and featuring a couple of wades through frigid water. We’d done some caving before, and online videos of rappels over icy cliffs and shimmies through narrow passageways caught my attention. Every year, we pick an adventure to celebrate my birthday, and for this one, we selected the Darby Ice and Wind Caves, tucked into the western slope of the Tetons. I flicked my lighter to see which way the air was moving-in this cave, the wind blows from entrance to exit. Around 10 p.m., my wife Jess and I stood up in a circular chamber maybe 50 feet across. W e’d been wandering underground for hours.
#Into the lost caves full#
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