Nutty Putty Cave
 

I read a little tonight about John Jones and his ordeal of getting stuck and passing away in a crevice of the Nutty Putty Cave. I could not really picture how you could get stuck upside down in a crevice without a fall!? This is how I imagined caving:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...5-04-24.km.jpg

But then I saw pictures of the Nutty Putty Cave ... :eek:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_0Fk38hK8G1...DSC_0071+C.jpg


Here more:
http://utahcaves.blogspot.com/2008/06/nutty-putty.html

I am not shy of taking some risk in my spare time activities, neither am I claustrophobic, but you'd have to pay me money to go in there!

What do you think? Any cavers on PPOT?

Cheers,

George

Guess I don't understand the allure of doing something so dangerous when you have young kids. If he was single and nobody depending on him it would be different. My brother was all hot to get a Harley until in a two week span two guys he knew were in accidents on bikes. One died and one had a very long recovery. Both had kids. He is not getting a bike until all are out of school.

It very sad and he made a choice to go into a very dangerous place...Wouldn't find me in a cave like that...

Sucks for the guys family, and i'm sure it's a terrible way to go. But the very idea of go through caves so narrow... just does not compute with me.
There's a reason why our species is not called "the earthworms".
It's quite simple, we aren't worms, we are designed to live on top of the earth, not in it.

Different strokes fellas. Mountain climbing, Ice climbing.scuba diving, BASE jumping ,car racing......all have risks.

It's all about risk/reward no way do I see that one as computing. It's like banging a fat married woman the math doesn't work.

Not all caves are that extreme. I went on a 4th grade field trip this Fall with my Daughter's class at Mt. St. Helens. We all toured "Ape Cave." Straight forward lava tube. It was tame.
Larry

I've been to Nutty Putty. I wouldn't go back. And I didn't try to go into anything you couldn't push a fridgerator box through.

If your trying to earthworm through small spaces like that... Someone should be like chasing your ass.

Feel sorry for the guy but to close it off forever also do not agree with. Get his body out of there and leave it open.

Not a big caver but like said above, if you cannot get a fridge through it, I aint going.

i believe they left him there because they deemed it to risky to get him out...
I suppose they can't start blasting just to get him out, that would defeat the purpose.

One of the best reasons I know for carrying around 20 or 30 extra pounds.... you ain't bloody likely to get stuck in no caves 'cause you ain't got the energy it takes to be a spelunker!
Have a few friends that have been or are coal miners. At one point or another when I was younger they've tried to get me to work with them. No way, thank you. Don't care what the money is like.
I'll keep my thrills above the earth, thank you.

The opening of the cave sure lends itself to a couple of concrete trucks backing up and filling it. ;)

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_0Fk38hK8G1...0/DSC_0090.JPG

I don't think shutting it down is a good idea. Sounds like this cave kept the search and rescue team pretty busy. OTOH there were thousands of visitors every year. A compromise would have been to seal the dangerous areas, including the one with the body, but keep the easier stuff open and continue to control access. Now the adventure seekers will go elsewhere and keep some other S&R team busy ...

George

The earthworms will take care of that.

Not that it's someplace high on my list of places to visit, but I'm surprised that they are sealing it off.

I went into a cave in Northern Iowa many decades ago with three other guys. First stupid thing we did is that we didn't tell anyone where we were going. The entrance looked a bit like the one above...just some rocks and a hole in the middle of a field. To get down into the cave itself we had to literally wriggle ourselves one by one down an angled tunnel about 30' long. We did have a rope to hang on to and to pull ourselves back up. The cave was pretty cool but when I think of what we did, and didn't do, I almost get a panic attack. Totally stupid and I would NEVER do such a thing again.

There are countless dangerous places out west where you can get yourself killed and never rescued or even found. They shouldn't close this place.

And if you do get stuck you may live long enough to shed some of those pounds and get unstuck.

I've done much much worse.............now try putting caving underwater along with scuba gear on and you're way back in the cave.... Now THAT is a rush!

Interestest some of the comments here, but better to die doing something you love than pusssy out and sit in a rocking chair in the living room.........where you could still rock backwards to far and bonk your head and die........all while knitting a sweater.

pansies. lifes short, live it to the extreme.

Don't have an issue with doing dangerous and absurdly dangerous like this was. I get a rush out of going to the track and pushing it hard and my odds of getting hurt there are about as low(very low possibility) as his were high (very high possibility) of not coming home. I have four kids and 3 grand kids that seem to really like me being around yet. My comfort level for danger is not that high due to really wanting to experience everything I can with all of them. His kids will never get to experience those things with their dad due to bad decisions. High price for them. Telling them Dad died doing what he liked doesn't seem to cut it somehow.

We had a discussion a few years ago about passing on and the oldest daughter read me the riot act about needing me around for some time to come:eek:

How many more deaths before they close the cave if they would have not done it now. Seems the people from the area are not that sad to see it happen with all the trouble they have had keeping it safe.

One man's rush is another man's phobia:cool:

I have and do interesting things, but it will never include a journey below the surface of the earth.

And this is coming from a guy who used to make a living flying onto aircraft carriers!