Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 4, 1991 TAG: 9104040208
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CARLSBAD, N.M. LENGTH: Medium
Rescuers moved rapidly through the cave with Emily Davis Mobley after using ropes and pulleys to scoot her across a 100-foot-deep chasm.
The stepped-up momentum pushed forward expectations of Mobley's exit from Lechuguilla Cave in a remote area of Carlsbad Caverns National Park.
Previously, rescuers had said it could be as late as Friday before the rescue operation could be completed.
"They're moving Emily through the cave like lightning," said Rick Bridges, president of Lechuguilla Cave Project Inc.
Mobley broke her left leg early Sunday in a fall at a site about 1,000 feet beneath the surface and about two miles into the cave. The leg was splinted and she was moving toward the entrance with the help of some of the nation's top cave and cave rescue experts, hobbling when there was space to stand upright and being carried or slid on stretchers elsewhere.
Mobley, 40, spoke to reporters for the first time by telephone Wednesday via a line rescuers had stretched to her from the entrance.
"I'm feeling real good this morning. I'm being taken care of real well down here," said Mobley, a 22-year cave explorer and an expert cave rescuer.
Mobley, of Schoharie, N.Y., said she hopes her leg will heal by summer so she can resume exploring Lechuguilla Cave.
"There's no way this is going to slow me down at all," she said.
At the time of the news conference she was about to begin the treacherous journey through a boulder-strewn area with large holes called The Rift.
"This cave rescue couldn't be run better," Mobley said. "I'm comfortable at all times. . . . I'm not being treated like a package. I'm being treated like a person."
After The Rift, rescuers faced another formation known as Glacier Bay, which Dennis Curry of the Hamilton County Cave Rescue Team in Chattanooga, Tenn., described as very difficult.
"It's a giant glacier of gypsum that is very crumbly," Curry said. "It's very fluted."
Rescuers earlier Wednesday moved Mobley across a 40-foot-long chasm known as Freakout Traverse, the longest in the cave, said rescuer Mark Rosbrook.
Rosbrook said ropes were anchored to two large boulders. Mobley, who was on a stretcher attached to pulleys, was pulled across the chasm.
"There are a lot of vertical projections below you," Rosbrook said. "If you would slip you'd take a pretty substantial fall."
Rescuers used most of Tuesday to haul the 130-pound Mobley up a 250-foot slope known as The Great White Way. Mobley and the people with her, including a doctor, rested at the top of the slope overnight.
Mobley told reporters she had been exploring caves since 1969 when a friend at the University of Denver introduced her to spelunking.
"The first time I went caving I thought it was the most exciting thing I've ever done," she said. "Ever since then, caving has been a major part of my life."
Mobley said she's glad her rescuers are using routes and methods to minimize any damage to the sometimes fragile formations in the cave.
by CNB