Arduous Rescue of Explorer in Cave Nears End

Cave explorer Emily Davis Mobley neared the end of her arduous journey out of Lechuguilla Cave on Wednesday, her spirits still high despite the discomfort of a broken leg.

Mobley, the subject of a massive 3 1/2-day effort to rescue her from a rock chamber about 1,000 feet underground in the nation’s deepest cave, was ferried across a series of deep pits while strapped to a special litter.

The tricky effort was accomplished at the foot of a technically difficult section of the cave that still lies some 3,500 feet from the cave entrance and 700 feet underground, according to Rick Bridges, president of the Lechuguilla Cave Project.

Nevertheless, Bridges said, the 18 veteran cavers who were maneuvering Mobley out of the cave were ahead of schedule.

“They are whipping her out of there,” Bridges said. “If they keep that up, she may be out late (Wednesday) or early (this) morning.”

More than 150 rescue workers and support personnel from as far away as New York, California and Puerto Rico have labored since Sunday to extract Mobley from the cave, which is four miles northwest of Carlsbad Caverns.

On Wednesday morning, Mobley told reporters via radio-telephone that she was in excellent spirits and vowed to return to caving as soon as her leg heals, which she hopes will be by this summer.

“There’s no way this is going to slow me down at all,” Mobley said.

The 40-year-old Schoharie, N.Y., resident, who said she has been caving since 1969 and who has participated in numerous cave rescues, had only praise for her rescuers.

“This cave rescue couldn’t be run better,” she said. “I’m not being treated like a package. I’ve been treated like a person.”

Mobley was part of a five-person team surveying a portion of the cave 1 1/2 miles from the entrance when a rock weighing 80 to 100 pounds broke loose and smashed into her left leg Sunday.

A physician in the survey party put an air splint on her leg and gave her painkillers while accompanying her on the journey out of the cave.

The cave, so far measured at 1,565 feet in depth and more than 55 miles in length, is the nation’s deepest and fourth longest. Due to the fragility of its feathery gypsum formation, the only people allowed inside are scientists and volunteers from the Lechuguilla Cave Project, who have been mapping it since it was discovered in 1986.