Nutty Putty Tragedy: The Rescue Begins

How did Jones' caving party respond to his situation?

"As Josh wound through the tunnel, crab-crawling feet first between the cramped, muddy walls, he felt a creeping apprehension. When he reached the corkscrew, he got stuck himself. By then he could see his brother, and dread settled in. 'Seeing his feet and seeing how swallowed he was by the rock, that’s when I knew it was serious.' Josh said. 'It was really serious.'

He wrapped his feet around John’s calves and pulled. John’s body inched up, but he had nothing to hold onto and slipped back into the crevice as soon as Josh released him. It was all backward for Josh. He felt powerless and overwhelmed. His older brother was helpless in a dark hole. 'I had to get out,' said Josh. He knew they needed search and rescue teams. Now. Josh crawled back up to the surface and called 911 while a friend went into the tunnel to stay with John."

"I was only able to see his two feet that were hanging there in the crevice, I wasn't able to see more because he was engulfed in the crevice itself."

— Josh Jones, Brother of Jones (Salt Lake Tribune)

"We didn't know he [Jones] was stuck for several minutes. Jessica and I waited for Josh to get out of the hole he was exploring. When he did we told him (without much thought) to go in and see if John needed help, meanwhile Jessica and I explored two other spots where the cave could have continued. The rest of the group joined us at this point. We could not find where it continued, so sat waiting near the area.

After about 15 minutes I hollered to Josh if things were okay. He came out in a mix of calm and panic and said he was going to go up and call for help and asked that I go in a comfort John and maybe try to help, because I was the only adult that would fit. So I crawled in above John (it was a very tight spot and I often would panic because it was difficult to move) and John and I tried several things to move him up. I did the best I could to keep him in good spirits by giving him little goals to reach.

Mike, John's brother, was outside of the tight spot talking to me, which I much appreciated because it helped keep my spirits up. But after an hour I was becoming tired and scraped up and started to get psychologically messed up. I crawled out and Josh crawled in to see what he could do."

— Joey Stocking, Caver with Jones (Personal Blog)

"Seeing that they were unable to free John, his family called for help at approximately 10:00 pm. Utah County SAR, including several members that are experienced cavers responded. Having rescued others from this cave, including the same spot where John was stuck, the rescuers were confident they would get him out. The fact that John was upside-down made this rescue more difficult than the previous ones. Another call for small cave rescuers went out at midnight."

— Andy Armstrong, Cave Rescue (Incident Report)

What was the initial assessment of rescue personnel?

"They traversed its chambers for about 30 minutes before reaching the 135-foot tunnel where John was stuck. Crawling on her belly, Susie Motola inched her way through a cramped limestone tunnel that wound through the earth like the path of a worm. This unmapped passage of Utah County’s Nutty Putty Cave was no wider than the opening of a washing machine, and Susie had ropes tied around her ankles so other rescuers could pull her out if she got stuck.

Twenty minutes passed before the beam of her headlamp fell upon a pair of navy-and-black running shoes sticking out of a narrow crevice at the tunnel’s end. He [Jones] was trapped nearly upside down, his 6-foot, 200-pound body seemingly swallowed by the rock. Above John, Susie‘s slight, 5-foot-3-inch frame was also encased. She couldn’t fully extend her arms and legs. He had been stuck for more than three hours, one arm bent underneath his chest, the other forced backward. His calves were free but useless."

— Lindsay Whitehurst (Salt Lake Tribune)

"Since he [Ryan Shurtz] was 4, he has spent most of his free time exploring caves and more than once acted as a trapped victim for Utah Cave Rescue, a group his father helped found. At 6-foot-1 he’s taller than most cavers, yet is whip-thin, flexible and seemingly immune to claustrophobia.

But when he reached the narrow crevice trapping 26-year-old John Jones in Utah County’s Nutty Putty Cave, he had to fight back tears. The simple geometry looked impossible. The crevice was at the end of a cramped tunnel, and rescuers had realized hours earlier that extracting John’s 6-foot, 200-pound body would likely break his legs."

— Lindsay Whitehurst (Salt Lake Tribune)

"By the time you go in through the twists and turns, and up and around there and where he had slipped down to- uh he got further than anybody we ever knew in that cave, in that passage. To get your body contorted around those turns and finally get up there, it would take you from the main passage to get there, about half an hour!"

— Michael Leavitt, Cave Access Manager (RadioWest Interview)

"The rescuers never saw much more than his feet and ankles. Jones' feet were sticking out, his head down, his body completely plugging a narrow tunnel 10 to 14 inches wide. Where he is trapped, he is on a bend. The lip [of rock at the bend] basically captured the center part of his body. So there's no way to really get a hold on him to be able to pull directly straight back."

— Sgt. Eldon Packer, Utah County Sheriff's Office (KSL News)

"Many people have a misconception that Jones was wedged in the hole. He was not. The sheriff, TV and newspapers reported that and I even posted such early in this thread. However, there was clearance all the way around his body, except for the surface he was lying on of course. This is why the rescuers rejected the frequent suggestion that muzzmining or microshaving would have freed the body"

— Dale Green, Nutty Putty Discoverer (Cavechat Forum)

"This 'formation' was not a speleothem, of which this cave is nearly devoid. It is the description by a non-caver member of the sheriff's group of a sharp ridge of rock at a bend in the passage that caused a lot of difficulty getting the victim pulled across. However, the sheriff's department spokesman said earlier that if there were speleothems they would not be spared if this action meant saving the man's life or cause injury to the rescuers."

— Dale Green, Nutty Putty Discoverer (Cavechat Forum)

"There is an undercut lip which juts out at roughly 90 degrees. Think of a number 7 now hollow that 7 out and try to lift a body through that... as Dale [Green] stated there is no room to do a lot of maneuvering, and again rescuers were barely able to fit through the passage themselves"

— Ralph E. Powers, Caver (Cavechat Forum)

"Around this time, Rob Stillmar, a wiry, strong, caver that had worked on previous Nutty Putty rescues went head-first into the passage to try and work with John’s legs. While going in head-first was risky, and exactly how John got into trouble, it was really the only way that anyone could do anything to assist John. Going in feet-first would only get the rescuer’s feet in proximity with John’s feet, accomplishing nothing. Rob went in head-first with webbing tied around him so that others could help haul him out."

"John was on his left shoulder with his left arm pinned under him. His body completely filled the passage, preventing all attempts to access any part of his body above the waist."

"John was really only about 10 minutes from the entrance"

— Andy Armstrong, Cave Rescue (Incident Report)

"Stuck at a 70-degree angle with 'a good portion of his waist and torso' pinched in an approximately 10-inch-wide space. His head was out and unsupported at one end, and his feet stuck out at the other end. After crews got him out of the crevice, they still would have had to pull him through the difficult stretch of cave behind him, which twisted and turned in 90-degree angles over uneven ground".

— Sgt. Spencer Cannon, Utah County Sheriff's Office (Nutty Putty Site)

"Entrapment is an immediate life emergency. It is also a very insidious one, because the person often seems at first to be in no immediate danger. "He's just stuck." But while he's stuck, he's dying. The ability to move is essential to life. Once you are in a passage like that, your body fills it up to the point where no one can get past your feet or lower legs. That situation places you at great risk if you become incapacitated in any way. Being head-down exacerbates an already bad situation."

— Bill Putnam, NSS Chairman (Cavechat Forum)

"Just six volunteers had been able to crawl through the tunnel to reach John, out of a total of 137 rescuers who responded."

— Lindsay Whitehurst (Salt Lake Tribune)

"The crevice is simply too small, and the passage too winding, for anyone to crawl inside and pull him out without being at risk themselves."

— John Valentine, State Senator and Cave Rescue (Nutty Putty Site)

"Only small cavers could actually get near John. He got himself into a truly horrible situation"

— Andy Armstrong, Cave Rescue (Cavechat Forum)

"The reality is, a crack and crevice entrapment is perhaps one of the most dangerous accidents that can occur on a cave."

— Greg Moore, NSS Caver (Cavechat Forum)

What early attempts were made to free Jones?

"Inside the tunnel, Susie tried every thing she could think of to free John. She helped string a rope from John back to the rest of the team in an open pit at the tunnel’s entrance. The team pulled, but didn’t have enough power to move John: the friction of the rope rubbing stone was too strong. Susie helped him shift positions, but she couldn’t lift him.

She stretched a water bottle down to his right arm, the one forced backward, so he could tip the bottle forward. The water lowed down his arm, and Susie hoped some of it might reach his mouth. She cut off his jeans to try to free up a few inches. After about two hours, Susie had tried everything she knew and crawled out for rest while another rescuer took her place."

— Lindsay Whitehurst (Salt Lake Tribune)

"Rob worked with John for a long time, but the valiant effort only succeeded in moving him a short distance. Rob became stuck on his way back up, and it took some time for him to free himself, with help from above. Around this time, webbing straps were placed around John’s legs in preparation for a haul system that was being built above him."

— Andy Armstrong, Cave Rescue (Incident Report)

"As a rescuer, by the time you get there- there's no room, it isn't like you can crawl up next to him, and nicely fit a harness around. You can barely get up to where his feet are, hoping that you can get back. The first dozen hours up there, were purely trying to get in there and get a rigging around him, where he could be helped backwards."

— Michael Leavitt, Cave Access Manager (RadioWest Interview)

"The craw space was 12 inches high so lifting him was difficult. The lip of rock lodged under his ribs acted like a fish-hook preventing him from being pulled out. The crevice was so tight that John lacked mobility of his arms and legs. Rescue workers were called. They worked diligently to get him out, but the task was extremely difficult due to his position and the narrow passage they had to work in."

— Bishop and Momma Pete, Jones in-laws (Cavechat Forum)

Who was called in for the ongoing rescue effort?

"Another call for small cave rescuers went out at about 3:00 am and again at 5:00 am on the 25th. By 8:00 am there were approximately 100 people on scene, including Utah County Sherriff personnel, SAR team members including Utah Cave SAR, many different area fire rescue crews, paramedics, National Park Service personnel, and volunteer cavers.

At least six rescuers with NCRC training were on hand, including a former national instructor, and others with higher than Level 1 training. The top of the hill where the entrance is located was a typical large-scale rescue circus, complete with fire trucks, ambulances, police vehicles, and caver rigs on the ground, and helicopters circling overhead. John had been stuck upside-down for nearly 12 hours, but was responsive and was helping the rescuers as much as he could.

At any given time, there were about 15 rescuers in the cave. Cavers were given operational control underground, with fire and sheriff’s office personnel rotated in and out on about a 2-3 hour schedule. Some cavers were underground for 12 hours at a time, with a few cavers that had arrived early in the rescue doing two twelve-hour shifts."

— Andy Armstrong, Cave Rescue (Incident Report)

"All rescue personnel working to actually remove the victim from start to finish were in fact cavers with cave rescue training from NCRC, including one EMT with much medical training, and several expert riggers. County Fire and Rescue people were on top providing equipment, service and moral support, not in-cave work except to transfer equipment. Most of them wouldn't fit in the tube, anyway. You aren't going to find cavers more qualified that what we have. Please withhold comments until those who were involved can post what the situation was."

"While there were many volunteers, most of the 100+ people at the site were paid employees. In addition, there were probably a couple dozen vehicles from various organizations involved including the huge rescue trucks from the fire departments and at least one helicopter."

— Dale Green, Nutty Putty Discoverer (Cavechat Forum)

"Lastly, our cave search and rescue team is 100% volunteer, and is of world class quality. They do an excellent job, and have successfully responded to many calls. If I were stuck in a cave I would want no other team to respond. I'm 100% confident that this rescue failure will be examined in minute detail, and if any changes to policy and procedures need to be made, they will be."

— RockMonkey, Cave Rescue Relative (RME4x4 Forum)

"That additional resources from out of state were not called or even put on standby-alert is on the shoulders of the IC. They probably felt with over 100 people on the scene (in and out of the cave) that they had all they needed. There were more than several NCRC trained personnel on the scene (this information I got personally via phone from one of the leaders of the cave rescue team out in Utah... with whom I had trained with previously)."

— Ralph E. Powers, Caver (Cavechat Forum)

"It is also unfair to second guess the rescuers. From what I have been able to determine, they definitely had appropriate equipment, training, skills, and organization. They did everything that their collective experience and expertise could come up with in the particular circumstances that existed at Nutty Putty Cave. That it was not enough to save John is not their fault, in my opinion, and I believe I have studied and worked in the field of cave rescue enough to be confident in that conclusion.

Cave rescue in America has come a long, long way in the last 20 years. While it is certainly true that there are many local rescue squads in cave-rich areas that do not include any cavers or do not have specific cave rescue training and equipment, the situation is still much, much better than it used to be. For example, there is greater cooperation and coordination among cavers, cave rescue teams, local rescue squads, and state or federal emergency management agencies. The Nutty Putty incident is a case in point - the local rescue squad as well as the regional cave rescue team (Utah Cave Search and Rescue) includes NCRC-trained people, as well as people with mountain rescue and technical rope rescue training. They also called upon local cavers and cavers from around the region, many of whom had NCRC training."

— Bill Putnam, NSS Chairman (Cavechat Forum)

"The 137 people who tried to free Jones are physically and mentally exhausted after the 27-hour effort, and will be offered critical stress counseling"