Custer County Search and Rescue says a young man was stuck in a cave in the Black Hills for 18 hours before being rescued last weekend.
Officials say the man was part of a group of experienced cavers who were given permission by the owner to explore a small cave on private land.
They went in at 9:30 last Friday morning, but around noon one of them got stuck while crawling through a passage about 9” tall and 16” wide that had an S-bend.
He was finally able to reach a bigger area and turn around, but couldn’t get out.
The landowner called the National Speleological Society about 12:30 after not hearing from the group and a roughly 20-member rescue party was organized.
The group, which included part of the Search and Rescue team as well as members of the Black Hills cave exploring group Paha Sapa Grotto, arrived about 4:30.
They reached the passage after about 40-minutes, then used a rotary hammer drill and webbing to widen the passage. After 14-hours of work, the caver was able to emerge through the widened hole.
After being checked out and given time to recover, he was able to make his way to the entrance, where he received further medical treatment.
The cave rescue is believed to be the longest in the Black Hills since a woman was lost in Wind Cave for 37 hours in 1989.