A woman was recovering Monday after spending about 16 hours pinned in a narrow rock passageway about 100 feet underground in a cave in southeastern San Diego County.
The woman was with friends, exploring an area known as Carrizo Gorge Wilderness near Boulevard, when she got wedged in a gap about a foot wide on Saturday afternoon, according to the San Diego County Sheriff's Department.
Her companions tried in vain to free her before making a 911 call shortly before 6 p.m., Lt. Jeffery Ford said.
Deputies, volunteers with the sheriff's Search and Rescue Division, personnel with the state Office of Emergency Services and a cave-rescue team with the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department responded to the emergency, launching a lengthy effort to free the victim.
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"It takes hours to hike into the caves, and rescuers had to inch their way into very narrow passages while slowly passing along their gear and equipment," Ford said.
The rescuers monitored the woman's condition and kept her warm with blankets to prevent hypothermia while using rope mechanisms to extricate her, finally getting her out of the cave about 10 a.m. Sunday, the lieutenant said.
A Cal Fire helicopter crew then airlifted the woman to a safe location, where medics treated her for scrapes, bruises and exhaustion.
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David Angel with the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department's Technical Rescue Team was closest to the cave sight — about 40 miles away — when the call for help went out.
"You find yourself stuck between a rock and hard place or two walls of the cave where it is so tight you can’t even turn your head to the side," Angel said describing the hiker's predicament.
By the time Angel got there, the hiker had already been stuck for two hours. Then he had a 90-minute hike to get to her.
"We were really concerned about hypothermia with the patient and so we got some heat packs on her," he said. "We tried to bring her up and out of it but it was too tight for her to go up. So we had to hall her sideways."
How the hiker got herself in that position is no surprise to Angel, who saud it could've happened to the most experienced cavers.
"It was a series of small mistakes, something any of us could have done," he said.
Angel said it took two more hours to free the hiker. She was so exhausted it took Angel and several other rescuers to bring herup.
"She wasn’t panicked, she was just trying to work the situation and get herself free," he said.
The hiker and the rescue team returned to the surface at 10 a.m. next morning. A Cal Fire helicopter airlifted the woman to a safe area where a waiting ambulance treated her for exhaustion, scrapes and bruises.
Angel, a cave rescue instructor with the National Cave Rescue Association, said the incident was an important teaching moment.
"I walked away with a lot more experience. I will be able to teach students better how to do rescue,' he said.
Compared to other adventure sports like hang gliding and motorcycle riding, caving is relatively safe, according to Angel. He said the majority of underground rescues in Southern California are in mines, not caves.
