Hello all -
Here’s a hypothetical situation that might be familiar, either from recalling a TV show or that nightmare that won’t seem to go away.
Let’s say there’s a dry water well. By some unavoidable circumstance, Mr./Ms. Average falls in. Through some misfortune, the force of their landing (whattayaknow?!? they survived the fall) causes a crack in the hole and fresh water starts pouring in.
To me this sounds like an easy situation to handle. If I were to wait until the water gets a certain depth I could swim to the top for air. As needed, I’d swim up and down a couple times, taking big breaths each time I’d surface. If I’m lucky, there might be an old log to use as floatation.
All right, I’ll admit, I saw this in a TV show. Since, in this program, there were two people, they stood back to back, latched their arms together, and scaled up the well. Looked pretty grueling. Meanwhile, there was plenty of wood to grab - why not float or swim?
My past experience tells me that, when I’m getting into an elaborate question like this, I’m missing some obvious rule of physics and/or country life and am setting myself up for ridicule. Am I repeating history?
Could be the problem is: a) the water won’t reach the top of the well, or anything like, only a level where it can be reached with a bucket; and b) well water is probably kinda cold, and hypothermia would get you quicker than simple drowning.
In mountaineering the way to ascend a narrow passage like this is called a chimney climb–if the passage is narrow, you put your left hand and foot on one side, and your right hand and foot on the other, and work your way up. Some people like to put their back against one wall especially to rest, but you can’t actually climb up r down that way exactly. If the passage is too wide to do that usefully, then you back up against one wall, lean forward until your hands are on the opposite wall, and then (if you are leaned over most of the way) you can walk-backwards with your feet up the wall, moving your hands up as you go. Little kids do this a lot in doorways. Adult climbers can do it too but they tend towards the lean and fit body type. I’d bet many average-thin people could do it for a short distance, if the distances between the walls was just right for them (this depends on how tall you are, because how far you can extend your arms makes a big difference in the amount of strain this involves).
I have never ever heard of the “joining arms back to back” stuff. I suspect it’s Hollywood bullshit–a cute way for both people to get out at once, by co-operating. The writers probably never tried it before in their entire lives.
~
I might be making a similar error to the OP here, but my understanding was that people don’t usually drown just by being in water deeper than they can stand up in - floating is relatively common unless you are hindered in some way.
Unfortunately, ‘hindered’ covers a lot of fairly common circumstances:
[ul]
[li]Wearing heavy clothes/boots which reduce your boyancy so you cannot float[/li][li]panicking and trying to climb out, reducing floating ability[/li][li]Breathing difficulties caused by cold/stress/exertion[/li][li]Getting really hungry (and thirsty if the water is salty or dirty)[/li][li]Water being very choppy and sloshing into your nose/mouth[/li][li]stuff falling on you[/li][li]currents dragging you under[/li][/ul]
Then there’s hypothermia, which WILL get you in temperate climates and sunburn which can get you in the tropics.
So while falling down a well would not be a problem if it was nice and warm, you were ready for it, were dressed in speedos and goggles, and had an adequate supply of food, water and so on handy, and you could be certain someone was going to come along and help you out in the next few hours/days, I personally would not like to try it.
Self-rescue from a very deep hole part-full of water - I can’t imagine I would manage it, even though I am familiar with all the techniques in theory. Chimneying is damn hard work in my experience, even if you are not at the bottom of a wet slimy hole with no proper starting point.
[PSA]This is why wells should always be properly covered and clearly marked.[/PSA]
The water in the well is not going to rise any higher than the surrounding water table of the land. This may well be 10s of metres underground.
The well may be too wide to ‘chimney climb’. Doing it with two persons sounds extremely hard; you’d have to be very fit gymnasts or similar to maintain your braced position.
You will also be wet and probably not in the best of condition after your fall. Any climb is going to be slippy and hard work.
Either way, you’re going to get tired failrly quickly unless you have a flotation device. And then hypothermia is a risk.
Ah, I remember that episode of ‘Kung Fu.’ It was one of Carridine’s usual mind over fear / adverse situation deals. He and the other guy were digging the well and got trapped in a sudden downpour. The floating wood was from the rigging overhead that broke and fell in on them. Loved that show!
But that was one big-ass well as far as shaft diameter goes. Most wells I’ve seen are only 3 feet in diameter or so. Which means even if you could float all the way to the top (which isn’t going to happen for reasons pertaining to the water table already mentioned) you’ll have to do so by treading water. Treading water is a different skill from just swimming, or being able to lie on your back and float. I can do both of the latter but would probably be drowned if I had to tread water for any lenght of time.
