A Brooklyn resident became trapped Sunday evening inside Merlin's Cave in Canaan, about 45 minutes from Albany. He was exploring with a group and attempted to navigate the Bear Trap, a tight crawlway that narrows progressively and has a stream running underneath. The rock was very slippery, and he slipped in the wrong spot, fell, and continued sliding until he wedged further down. He was immobilized despite being only about 400 feet from the entrance, though the route takes roughly 20 minutes due to tight quarters. After the group called 911, rescuers reached him around 9 p.m. and used a hammer to chip away rock while working for nearly two hours to free him.
"The Brooklyn resident got trapped Sunday evening in a small opening between rocks inside a cavernous marble structure known as Merlin's Cave in the small town of Canaan, about 45 minutes from Albany, on the Massachusetts border."
""The rock is very slippery, and he just had a slip in the wrong spot and then fell in," Gullen said in a video released by the conservation department. "And as he was falling, he just kept sliding a little bit further, and then as he was trying to get out, it was just making him wedge further down until the point where he was completely immobilized.""
""It was like his full body was stuck in a crevice that was basically designed the exact shape as him," the ranger continued."
"After some members of his party exited the cave and called 911, a rescue team was able to reach the man around 9 p.m. By that point, three other members of the party who stayed behind with the man had found a hammer in the cave and were able to chip away some of the rock. Gullen said he and a member of the Albany-Schoharie Cave Rescue Team worked for nearly two hours to free the man"
Read at Gothamist
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