Marcel Loubens was being hoisted out of the 1,100-foot (335 m) deep shaft of La Verna Cave
when something went horrifyingly wrong.
This is his story.
[music]
As is the case with many of the explorers of the deep,
Marcel Loubens fell in love with caving at a young age.
Born on June 30th, 1923,
Marcel already wanted to meet the famous French cave explorer Norbert Casteret by the age of 13.
This wish would come true in 1940, and he would eventually go on numerous expeditions
alongside Norbert, who would become a mentor to Marcel.
In 1943 while on an expedition, Marcel was seriously injured by a falling boulder while assisting a fallen teammate.
The incident gave him a fractured shoulder and several broken ribs
and it would take 13 hours to rescue him from the cave.
Undeterred by this event, Marcel would go on to undertake increasingly grand and daring projects.
During the mid 20th Century, Marcel would lead a number of expeditions in the Pyrenees mountains
which are famous for their expansive cave systems.
These systems have been referred to as the Himalayas of the caving world for their massive size.
In 1951, Marcel made his first expedition to La Verna Cave system
to a section known as the Pierre Saint-Martin chasm.
Discovered just a year prior, the chasm was thought to be an entry point
to what was then thought to be the deepest cave system in the entire world.
The chasm itself is a shaft of smooth limestone that descends 1100 feet
into the mountain before opening up into a series of large chambers.
There's also an underground river that runs the entire length of the system
and snakes its way through the passages.
This river became the focus of the speleological world upon its discovery
for its potential to shed light on some of the connected cave systems in the Pyrenees mountains.
And so in 1952, the 29-year-old Marcel Loubens
set off on another expedition to La Verna Cave to continue the work that he had started the year prior.
The expedition started in a nearby French village and then traveled up to the entrance of the cave system
at an altitude of 5,700 feet (1,737 m).
That year, a winch system was devised and cemented to the opening of the chasm
to speed up the descent down the 1,100-foot shaft.
Marcel was actually the first person to use that system
and in August of that year, he clipped his harness to the winch hook and then backed himself
over the ledge into the 1,100-foot abyss below.
The men who would be joining him in the cave for this expedition were volcanologist Haroun Tazieff,
physicist Jacques Labeyrie and Giuseppe, also known as "Beppo", Occhialini
who was also a physicist.
On day one, Marcel and Haroun were lowered into the cave along with some equipment to set up their camp.
They chose a decently sized 16 foot by 16 foot (4.9 m x 4.9 m) outcropping
that was one of the only flat sections of the cave.
On day two, they spent almost the entire day waiting for phone contact with the surface
to coordinate the ascent and descent of a bunch of equipment
that they would need for their exploration of the cave.
Following the arrival of the equipment,
Jacques and Giuseppe were also lowered into the cave to join Marcel and Haroun.
On day three of the expedition, the men worked from 9:00 AM to 7:00 PM
prospecting a massive wall in the oval room of the cave.
Despite their efforts, they weren't able to find any new shafts or passageways
that might lead down to lower levels.
They tried following the river, which was a little more than a stream at this point in the year
all the way to where it threaded its way through the boulders at the end of the oval room
but the stream squeezed down to a point, making it impossible to survey any further due to its size.
At around 7:00 PM, just before they had to head back to camp for that evening,
they stumbled on a small entrance to a well.
They dropped stones into the opening and they heard a bounce.
Then a few seconds of silence before bouncing once again.
This indicated a potentially promising depth to an as of yet unexplored passage.
Despite this new development, the atmosphere in the group was pessimistic.
It had already been three days under a mountain and they had little to show for it.
The following morning, tired from the previous days' events, the men took their time leaving their warm sleeping bags
and slipped into their damp clothing.
They then made their way back to the room they had spent the day prior.
Three of the men carried over a hundred pounds (45 kg) of fluorescein between them
and Haroun carried about 40 pounds (18 kg) of camera equipment.
Their goal was to dump all of the fluorescein in the stream that ran through the cave
In hopes of determining where it reappeared on the surface.
The fluorescein they were carrying is a deep red powder that turns into an emerald color
when it's mixed with water.
It colors the water so intensely that even when it's extremely diluted,
it's still discernible, making it perfect for following the flow of water over long distances.
Sometime later in the afternoon, Beppo noticed another break in one of the walls of the cave.
Upon following it further, they could hear the roar of a torrent of water
indicating that there might be another way to traverse deeper into the cave.
The group finally felt like they were making some headway
and they were tempted to follow the passageway to the end,
but they were also tired and it was getting late in the day
so they decided it would best to leave the rest of the exploration to the following day.
And unfortunately, despite this new development, it was supposed to be Marcel's last day in the cave.
Although he was excited to continue, the following morning,
he was going to be replaced by another member of the team.
On day five, the men woke up at 8:00 AM,
except for Beppo who had spent the last seven months high the Alps for his research on cosmic rays
and so the other men let him rest.
The other three climbed up to the small platform where the winch cable was firmly anchored
and the men helped him into his waterproof suit and his pilot's helmet
with integrated earphones to radio the surface.
He clipped on his harness, checked the rest of his equipment and then radioed up to the surface
to let them know he was ready to ascend.
The cable then started to pull, and Marcel was lifted slowly along the wall of the room
with his equipment in tow towards the distant skylight 1100 feet above him.
The way that the cable was strung up and the way that the room was shaped
meant that he didn't ascend perfectly vertically at first, he sort of went up on an angle.
This meant that the men were able to climb slowly with him along the boulders at the start of the ascent.
They talked to him as he ascended and made sure to remind him about the supplies they needed.
Marcel would say, "Okay." and then all of a sudden, the cable came to a stop.
He called up to the surface and they told him that they were just checking the winch
and that it would take about five minutes to start again.
Shortly after that, the cable started to pull again and Marcel resumed his ascent up the horizontal wall of the cave.
In his left hand, he held a magnesium torch that he was going to light
once he was a few meters off the ground, so that Haroun could film his ascent all the way up the chasm.
Finally, Marcel left the ground and his dark silhouette rose slowly up the shaft.
The only thing visible now was the small lamp on his chest.
At about 30 feet (9.1 m) up, Marcel yelled, "Stop!" and the cable stopped.
He then lit a match and tried to light the torch, but the match went out.
He then lit another and then another, and then called out to the others
that between the water and the draft in the shaft, that he wouldn't be able to light the torch.
All the while, Haroun had his camera pointed at Marcel,
expecting any second to see the bright magnesium flare light up.
Then, all of a sudden, Marcel let out a short cry.
In the silence in the seconds after, Haroun saw the little light on Marcel's chest
drop rapidly from where it had stopped a second ago.
A second later, there was a horrible crash and Marcel bounced along the boulders
that he had just risen from.
It would take another 90 feet (27.4 m) of tumbling on the jagged boulders before he would finally come to a stop.
Haroun and Jacques ran to the now still body of Marcel
to find him lying flat on his stomach across a slope.
They anxiously pointed their flashlights at his face and saw that it was now covered in blood.
Blood was also coming out of his mouth and nose and the two hoped that he didn't have a skull fracture.
They yelled out for Beppo who was still asleep at camp at this point
and he ran over in just his socks along the wet and icy stone.
As Beppo made his way over, Haroun and Jacques discussed turning Marcel over,
but they didn't want to do any further damage in the case that he had a broken back.
Beppo arrived and stood there in shock, looking at the mangled body of Marcel
before abruptly telling them that he would go and get a tent.
In his unconscious state, Marcel was taking quick, deep, panting breaths
and with his eyes half-closed, he stared blankly.
Beppo returned a minute later with the tent and the men used it like a stretcher
to slowly carry Marcel back to the camp.
They painstakingly struggled their way over the moist boulders, carrying the large Marcel as carefully as possible
so they wouldn't cause him any more harm.
When they finally got him back to the camp, they laid him on a cot and covered him with a down blanket.
They then carefully pulled off the pilot's helmet and examined his skull for any visible damage.
They then examined the helmet and found two large impact points.
It seemed to have done its job, but the fall distance was just too much and Marcel was gravely injured.
Jacques then left the group to see if he could find the cable and try to figure out what had happened.
As he stepped away, all the men could hear were the loose rocks he dislodged as he walked
and the awful heavy breathing coming from Marcel.
He discovered that the bolt that held the metal looped cable together had slowly loosened over time
from the vibration and eventually, it slipped, causing Marcel to fall from the cable.
Jacques then took the telephone cable that was attached to a large winch cable
and plugged it into the headphones to radio the surface.
He told the surface team that Marcel had fallen about an hour prior and he was seriously injured.
They then passed the phone to the team doctor who asked a couple of questions about Marcel's condition.
Jacques relayed that Marcel had been unconscious since falling.
He was taking 58 breaths per minute, he was drooling and gurgling
and it looked as though his upper jaw was fractured.
The doctor told Jacques to keep him completely immobile and to keep him warm
and then told them that he would come down as soon as he could, once the cable was brought up and repaired.
And so the long wait began.
At around noon that day, the cable started to be pulled back to the surface.
When empty, the winch could pull the entire length of the cable in about an hour.
So between the repairs and the descent of the doctor afterward,
they figured they had at least a couple of hours before there would be any help for Marcel.
All the while, Marcel's frantic breathing continued as he struggled to stay alive.
At the same time, the men hoped that he wouldn't regain consciousness before the doctor arrived
so that he wouldn't have to suffer through all of his injuries without any painkillers.
Hours passed and there was no sight of the cable and with the telephone cable now detached from the winch cable,
the signal was poor and it was difficult to understand what was being said by both parties.
Then at 5:00 PM, the line went completely dead and so they sat there with no knowledge
of how much longer they would have to wait.
At 8:00 PM, three hours later, Marcel's violent panting started to cause foamy phlegm
to come out of his mouth and nostrils, and so the others used a damped cloth to wipe his mouth and nose.
At 9:00 PM, there was still no contact with the surface and the men decided to start resting in shifts
to conserve their energy.
Finally, 12 hours later at 9:30 AM the following morning,
the cable began to move and they heard André Mairey communicating with the surface
as he was lowered down into the shaft.
Eventually, they were able to see the small yellow circle of his lamp as he descended into view.
With him, he had a medical bag and a large metal stretcher attached to his harness.
They helped him to unhook as he touched down in the cave and for the first time since Marcel had fallen,
the men felt some hope of getting him out alive.
This was quickly shattered when André came over to Marcel.
He looked at the injured man very briefly, pouted his lips, nodded slightly and said, "No. He's lost."
Confused, the men asked André what he meant
and André would go on to explain that Marcel had both skull and spine fractures.
They previously thought that his helmet had spared him but in reality,
the blood that had come from his nose was a sign that he had fractured his skull in the fall.
Despite this awful news, the men pleaded with André to do everything he could to save Marcel.
And so André got to work and administered a number of syringes
and then began inspecting Marcel's body to see what could be done to help him.
The first thing he noticed was an open fracture on Marcel's left arm
and he thought it was best to cast it before Marcel was lifted out of the cave.
He then had Beppo hold onto Marcel's wrists and on three, they both pulled to set the bone back into place.
While he worked to create a cast, André would tell them about the events that transpired on the surface
that led to radio silence and why it took so long for them to finally hoist him down.
First at 5:00 PM, there was a plane that flew into the area to drop supplies
and everyone abandoned the winch to flag down the plane and retrieve what had been dropped.
At the same time, a storm had started that got progressively worse throughout the night
and at some point, the tent that was set up over the winch was ripped away in the rain and wind.
It wasn't until the following morning when conditions finally calmed down
that André was finally able to be lowered safely.
After casting Marcel's arm, the men discussed the next task
which would be lifting Marcel onto the stretcher.
Suddenly, there was a noise off the distance and the men recognized it to be the unmistakable sound
of rocks coming down into the shaft.
They quickly put their arms behind their heads and knelt forward over Marcel's body
and then the rock hit the boulders at the bottom of the shaft and exploded into fragments that whipped by them.
When they straightened up, André explained that the team on the surface
was likely beginning to fix ladders along the side of the shaft.
The surface team would attempt to get ladders as far down as possible into the shaft
to help the stretcher to get around narrow spots and overhangs.
But this would come at the cost of occasionally knocking rocks off of the wall
and tumbling down below.
The men then got to work on moving Marcel into the stretcher
that André had brought down with him.
All four of the men slowly lifted Marcel from the cot where he had laid since the day prior.
This was an incredibly difficult process because of his weight and the precision that they had to use
to make sure his spine moved as little as possible.
One wrong move, one slip, anything,
and Marcel might be paralyzed forever.
They would eventually manage to get him onto the stretcher and began fasting him in
to ensure that he didn't move once he was hoisted.
Thankfully, André had thought of just about everything before dis descending to the cave.
He brought a special harness to fasten Marcel in
and he had drilled holes near the head to fasten the helmet into place,
ensuring his head wouldn't sway as he moved.
Finally, Marcel was ready to be hoisted.
He would just need a final plasma infusion and then the hoisting could begin.
Above them, they could hear the whistles of the men on ladders as they got deeper and deeper into the chasm.
The plan was to have four teams evenly distributed across the length of the chasm to ensure a safe ascent.
The whistles of the men above them gave the team down below a renewed sense of hope and brotherhood.
They also felt a sense of gratitude that so many individuals would risk their lives to help them save Marcel.
Meanwhile, André gathered all of the tubes and syringes and laying them out before Marcel
in preparation for the transfusion.
Then, he grabbed Marcel's arm, stretched it out and started the transfusion.
Millimeter by millimeter, the plasma slowly drained into the injured Marcel.
When it was finally finished, André had a terrible realization.
He wasn't sure whether to hoist Marcel right side up or upside down due to the skull fracture.
Additionally, if they decided upside down was best,
how would they keep the phlegm that he was excreting from choking him as he ascended.
He radioed up to the surface to speak with one of the doctors.
He spoke first with a Spanish doctor who wasn't sure either.
He then spoke to a mounted doctor from a nearby village who gave no clear answer once again.
Finally, he spoke with a friend of Marcel's, a doctor who had flown in from France
to help in any way that he could.
The two men spoke for a few minutes and then André said, "Good. You can hoist him whenever you want."
They stood in silence for a second, and then Marcel made a very small moan,
and then a second, and then a third.
And then, horribly, the violent panting stopped
and Marcel exhaled for a final time.
Five minutes later, the phone rang on the surface and Jacques spoke and said,
"Marcel Loubens is dead. Yes. He died five minutes ago."
He then took the headphones off and looked at his watch and determined that Marcel had died
on August 14th at 10:15 PM, 36 hours after he had fallen.
The men decided that with Marcel now deceased,
they would sleep the night in the cave and figure out what to do the following morning.
They made one last contact of the surface and told them that they would be in contact at 9:00 AM the next day.
The following morning, the group decided that it no longer made sense to lift Marcel out of the cave.
It just wouldn't make sense to risk all of their lives in these subpar conditions.
When Marcel had been cling desperately to life, yes, but not anymore.
At some point down the road, with the right equipment, Marcel's body could be hoisted from the chasm
but for now, he would be buried in La Verna Cave.
André found a narrow crevice in the rock, a little ways away from the camp
and then the men brought the stretcher over and placed Marcel's body into the opening.
They then placed layers of gravel over the body, and then large rocks after that.
Finally, Jacques chiseled at a cross, a name and a date
to the left of where Marcel was buried.
The men would spend the next night in the cave as well after spending the day preparing
and burying the body of Marcel.
The first man to be hoisted out of the cave the following day was Jacques.
This time, the hoist had been checked and reinforced meticulously
to ensure no one else would suffer a similar fate.
Upon finally reaching the exit, the men felt an enormous sense of relief
because despite knowing that everything had been reinforced,
there was still a sense of anxiety from the ordeal they had endured in the past week.
The next to be lifted late that afternoon was Beppo.
He reached the spot right where Marcel had fallen and then the wind stopped.
But more than half an hour he was stuck there as they repaired something on the surface.
This was obviously nerve-wracking for the men below,
but eventually, he too was lifted from the chasm.
The group collectively decided that it would take one more day for the final two men
to be retrieved in the cave and so Haroun and André spent one final night 1,100 feet under a mountain.
The first man to be hoisted the following day was Haroun.
After clipping into the harness, he said goodbye to Marcel and to André
and then was lifted into the dark abyss.
As should be expected by now, the winch broke down once again,
trapping Haroun midway up the chasm in the path of a waterfall.
Thoroughly out of patience, Haroun screamed at the winch operators to get him out of there
but there was nothing they could do.
He would spend the next 2 hours and 20 minutes in the middle of a chasm
in almost complete darkness, hanging by an invisible thread.
Finally, the cable started moving again and Haroun escaped the awful abyss.
Unfortunately, due to the delay and more issues with the winch,
André had to spend one final night alone in La Vera Cave
with the dead body of Marcel Loubens.
His ascent would go smoothly and this was the end of the fateful expedition.
The following year in August of 1953,
a new expedition was led into La Vera Cave.
This time, an entirely new winch was manufactured and installed at the mouth of the chasm.
On the 8th of August, Marcel's childhood hero, Norbert,
descended with an aluminum container.
Two days later, Marcel's body was placed into the container and cremated
1,100 feet under the ground in La Vera Cave.
At the bottom of the chasm, near the camp of the fateful expedition,
burned into the rock, it says, "Here, Marcel Loubens lived the last days of his courageous life."
Hello, everyone and welcome to Scary Interesting.
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If you enjoyed this video, I hope you'll check out some of the other videos on my channel that are similar to this one.
This is part five of my ongoing series Cave Exploring Gone Wrong.
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