Book Review: Blind Descent: The Quest To Discover The Deepest Place On Earth

"Blind Descent" by James Tabor is a must read for anyone interested in caving. It's the story of two great explorers who, in 2004 at opposite ends of the globe, attempt to find the world's deepest super cave. Bill Stone is an American exploring Cheve Cave in Mexico (his story accounts for 2/3rds of the book). Alexander Klimchouk is a Ukranian investigating Krubera in the Republic of Georgia. The psychological makeup of both men is outlined in an attempt to find out why they do what they do year after year.

Descending into a super cave has been compared to climbing Mount Everest except in reverse. Krubera is some 7000 vertical feet deep (7 miles). Cheve (which is L shaped) is 5000 feet vertically and 2500 feet horizontally.

Climbers are plunged into darkness for months at a time. Any slip or equipment failure will leave the helpless person plunging to his/her death. Explorers might be overcome by poisonous gases. Or they might experience "the rapture"-- an extreme reaction to being trapped in a cave. Suffers have described it as an anxiety attack while on meth. The deaths of several team members (both from falls and cave diving accidents) are discussed in the book. Advances in caving equipment and techniques are also added-- carbon dioxide rebreathers, caribeaners, etc.

An excerpt: Needing to relieve himself one night, Broad crept to the platform’s edge and let fly into the stream below. To conserve carbide and batteries, he left his lights off and edged cautiously back to his hammock in the dark. Thinking he had arrived, he sat down, but his dead reckoning was off. The hammock spun and tossed him out. His head smashed into the cave’s jagged wall. Stunned, flailing, he fell off the platform. In a move straight out of an Indiana Jones movie, he managed to grab one of the ropes on which the portaledge hung from the cave wall. Dangling there in the dark by one arm over the water ten feet below, Broad screamed for help, but the waterfall’s roar drowned out his cries. With his grip loosening, Broad realized that he would have to save himself, and quickly, or fall and be swept away into the void. He began swinging back and forth, waving his free hand around in the dark, and by sheer chance grabbed one of the other ropes from which the platform hung. With the last of his strength Broad dragged himself back up and flopped onto his belly, gasping and shaking, dizzy with pain, stunned by the fact that he had almost died in this supercave, not from diving but from falling out of bed.

Grade: 4 1/2 (out of 5). A very enjoyable book that I'd like to read again as time permits. It is both motivational and educational.