A Brooklyn man is sharing a harrowing first-hand account of the hours he spent trapped underground, after a weekend of caving in upstate New York went badly wrong. Aiden Kamineer, 26, was eventually pulled to safety, but only after spending roughly six hours wedged in a tight spot deep inside a cave, an ordeal that unfolded about two weeks ago.
Kamineer had set out to explore the caverns in upstate New York, descending well below the surface in what was meant to be a recreational trip. According to the account, he had made his way through the system and was just 15 minutes away from exiting the third cave when he suddenly found himself stuck, unable to move forward or back.
The problem, he said, was a particularly tight fit in the rock. He ended up lodged so firmly that he was stuck in the same position the entire time, unable to shift as the minutes stretched into hours. The narrow passage where he became trapped, he explained, even has a fitting nickname among those who know the cave.
That spot is known as the bear trap. Kamineer leaned into the grim irony of it, saying it is very possible to get through the section without getting stuck, and that the passage is called the bear trap, so he guessed that made him the bear. The dark humor underscored just how unforgiving the squeeze had proven to be.
He offered a vivid description of where it all went wrong. The route, he said, required crawling along a rock slab that was to the right of him, but the surface was a little bit slippery, and he admitted that he had underestimated just how tight the cavern squeeze actually was, a misjudgment that left him pinned in place.
Freeing him was a slow and physical job for rescuers. Crews worked at the surrounding rock, chipping away at it bit by bit until they had carved out enough space for Kamineer to finally squeeze his way out of the spot where he had been held fast. After hours underground, he emerged from the cave safely.
New details from his account underscore just how precarious his situation was. He had become trapped in Merlin's Cave, near Canaan in upstate New York, during what was known as the Northeast Regional Cave Fest. Kamineer said he was pinned horizontally and completely sideways, with rock pressing directly against his chest and his hips, and that he believed he would have broken his ribs had he tried to force his way through. He had to stay tensed up, holding himself in place to keep from sliding further down, while rescuers worked with a sledgehammer to break the rock, repeatedly asking him to try to pull out as he answered not yet, again and again.
When they had finally made just enough room, he wiggled out of the narrow gap inch by inch, as he put it, like a caterpillar, until he was free. His first words on emerging, he recalled, were a simple howdy folks, and the people gathered there clapped. He described it as an emotional moment, noting that every single person who had come to help that day stayed for the entire ordeal.
Perhaps most striking of all, the frightening experience does not appear to have dampened his enthusiasm for the pastime. Kamineer said the ordeal has not made him want to give up his hobby of exploring caves, suggesting that the man who became the bear in the bear trap fully intends to head back underground again.