A cave explorer experienced a nightmare situation after he got jammed in a slim crevice in New York. The cave explorer was stuck for seven hours.
Speaking with the New York Post, Aidan Kaminer described exactly what happened. He said he was just 400 feet from leaving Merlin's Cave when he got stuck.
"The funniest part is we were basically done. We'd been in the cave exploring for five hours, and then we're maybe ten minutes from the exit ... and my foot slips," Kaminer said. "I was trying to free myself, but I just ended up sliding down more and getting more stuck. By the time I realized that it was a serious stick, it was a little bit too late."
Merlin's Cave has a reputation for being difficult. It has a lot of tight squeezes.
Cave Explorer Gets Jammed
"Merlin's cave is definitely more technical. The first few hundred feet, you're crawling flat on your stomach, getting through twisting caverns, and then after that, you come to a mini waterfall that you have to boulder down carefully," explained Kaminer. "I wasn't being as careful."
Stuck between two rocks, the cave explorer had to depend on others to rescue him. Sadly, the rocks refused to give, even with a pickax. It took a rescue team using hammers and a pulley system to try to free him. Ultimately, they had to use a rock drill to free him.
The cave explorer thanked his fellow explorers for their quick actions, contacting help and giving him blankets to keep him warm.
"It's embarrassing to get stuck there because it's like, 'Dang, now I'm inconveniencing all my friends and the people who are with me, and they have to make this whole big hoopla about getting me out of the cave,'" Kaminer recalled. "I wanted to let others feel more at ease. Because it's a tense situation ... I didn't at any point think like, 'Man, I'm going to die in this cave.' I wanted to make sure that everyone else felt the same way as much as possible."
