Fire

After a lengthy and fruitless web search I turn to you- I am looking for any info on historical cases of expeditions into caves getting lost or vanishing without a trace- with it being so popular a topic in film and books, it seems to be something that almost does not ever happen- and perhaps that makes sense, being as how its not a light undertaking or unplanned, but I was actually suprised that after about three hours of googling, not a damn thing popped up..........so if any of you can point me to some well documented cases, that would be great, and be an interesting thing to discuss as well.....

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Thought the harder, Heart the bolder,
Mood the more as our might lessens

wocidej

Perhaps in your search you came across Ted's Caving Page. Its a complete work of fiction, but an interesting read none-the-less. It gets boring a point, but its fun when you get into it. At least I always assumed it was fiction, perhaps it can help lead you to some sort of truth that is based on or something like that.
[Edited for typos]

weapon26

Awesome story. I saved it to my hard drive just to make sure I could read it again. Very suspensful and reminded me of H.P. Lovecraft.

Locobot

When I was at Mammoth caves in Kentucky I remember a story from one of the tour guides about a man whose was spelunking alone when his light source failed. When the rescue team found him a few days later he was banging two rocks together over and over. The rescuers told him what a good idea this had been and how it helped them find him. The man replied that he hadn't thought of that, he was just doing it so he'd have something to listen to. Apparently with a complete lack of stimulus your brain starts filling in the empty spaces.

Ganggreen

there's a movie called "touching the void", its a true story of a mountain climber who falls into a fischer. don't want to spoil the story for ya, but its a must see...kind of a pseudo-documentary. special features on dvd covers experiences with the actual people involved too...like i said..great film, hard to watch, but fantastic.

hrandani

Yeah that story you linked is extremely creepy to read at night alone in the dark.

Shiver.

AndTylerToo

Hahahaha, yeah! I read that story maybe a year or so ago, and it was probably around 2am and I was all alone. I was SO SCARED. All the lights were off, and I didn't want to turn around. I remained freaked out by stuff like this for a good 2 weeks or so. Definately a great story.

dtheriault

I have some friends who went to UC Santa Cruz. They have some really cool large caves under the redwoods near the campus. (For those of you who have never seen the campus it's in the middle of a forest overlooking the pacific ocean... maybe the most beautiful locale for a campus ever)

anyways they would go in these caves almost daily. they were really spooky. When the big recent SF/Santa Cruz earthquake hit about 14 years ago the earth shifted so much that many of the cave just disappeared... it wasn't just covered with rocks or debris, they were gone. They still get spooked just thinking about how lucky they were that they weren't in the caves at the time.

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"Remember, it takes two to lie. One to lie and one to listen." -Homer

Unless you are the freakin Highlander, what is the point in learning how to fight with a sword?

Martian

Just so we're clear, that story was supposed to end with a 404, right? As if they never came back?

I don't think that's really a big spoiler, but I'll mask it if requested.

Not that great a yarn, it just didn't bother me that much. More, it frustrates my sense of curiosity in not knowing what the source of the whole mystery was.

__________________
I wake up in the morning more tired than before I slept
I get through cryin' and I'm sadder than before I wept
I get through thinkin' now, and the thoughts have left my head
I get through speakin' and I can't remember, not a word that I said

- Ben Harper, Show Me A Little Shame

wocidej

I really not sure if the 404 is intended or not. If you look around you can find versions that contain one or two more pages. If I remember correctly they basicly consist of a sister(or someone) adding to the site in the hopes that someone reading will be able to find the guy. I think this part might have been added later by someone else, but I'm not sure.

Ambiguity

Damn. That was an awsome story. Make's you want more...

AndTylerToo

I definately think that it was intended to be a 404. He died or he went crazy or SOMETHING happened to make him not be able to update, and we have no idea what.

Fire

sadly, or perhaps happily, it seems that almost no one impetiously goes off into a cave and then is never seen again- as common a plot device as it is, and as many of us have fondly done it in D and D games, you would think someone would have the courtesey to do it for real..... but so far, havent found a one.....

__________________
Thought the harder, Heart the bolder,
Mood the more as our might lessens

Grasshopper Green

The closest I've got is four young adults who went into an underground cavern this summer and were found dead. There was a stretch that was underwater and they all drowned...they easily could have been lost except they told a friend where they were going...and when they didn't show up they searched there. Pretty sad.

__________________
"They say that patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings; steal a little and they throw you in jail, steal a lot and they make you king"

Formerly Medusa

shakran

And an expedition into carlsbad had similar results - they lost their lights (back in the days when they explored with oil lamps) and had to find their way back in the dark. You can even get into the spot where this happened if you sign up for a lantern tour (call far in advance for this)