A hike in upstate New York turned into a six-hour-plus ordeal for a Brooklyn man who became wedged so tightly in a cave crevice that rescuers had to drill rock away inches from his body to free him, ABC News reports. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation says the man got stuck about 400 feet inside Merlin's Cave in the town of Canaan on May 17 while hiking with friends. Forest Ranger Lt. John Gullen, who led the effort, said in a video that the man's body was lodged in a crack "basically designed the exact shape of him" and that he was "really jammed in there more than I had expected." Per WRGB Albany, responders were dispatched at 6:39pm after the man had been stuck about an hour, and freed him around 1am.
Three friends who tried to pull him out were hypothermic when rescuers arrived, thanks to the cave's roughly 50-degree Fahrenheit temperature and near-total humidity. Gullen said the trapped hiker stayed upbeat, flashing thumbs-ups and trading jokes as a team used a rock drill to chip away stone just inches from his head and back until he could finally wriggle free. After warming up, the man was able to walk out of the cave on his own. Gullen later described the moment of success—marked by high-fives—as unlike any other feeling. Gothamist reports the man got stuck in a portion of the cave known as the "Bear Trap," which gets progressively narrower, and that he simply slipped on wet ground and ended up getting wedged in the crevice.
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