Tourists trapped in Grand Canyon Cave! Well, not so bad

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

CNN version of the story here.

When I saw the headlines, I expected something much more gruesome. I occasionally watch “Scary Interesting” videos on YouTube, and those are usually pretty horrifying stories of cavers wedged in impossibly tight spaces, lost cave divers running out of air, etc.

This story was nothing as horrific as that. An elevator broke down and thus the tourists are trapped in an underground hotel until the elevator gets fixed (unless they want to climb 21 flights of stairs).

My thoughts were: okay, that’s no fun. I hope the food supplies at the hotel are decent, and I hope it doesn’t take too long to fix the elevator. BUT ALSO:

  • I exempt anyone with an unavoidable physical disability from judgment, of course. You have a medical problem, a disability, any physical issue you can’t help - yeah, no one should ask you to climb 21 flights of steps. HOWEVER: for those who have no real excuse, why the hell not climb 21 flights of stairs if you really want out?

I’m 64, in moderately decent shape, and I guarantee you I’d be up those 21 flights in a few hours or less. I’d climb 2-4 flights, rest a while to let my muscles recover, then do a few more, and so on, until I was done.

This isn’t ill-informed speculation on my part; I know exactly what I’m talking about because within the past 10 years I worked in various high rise buildings on anywhere from the 11th to the 32nd floor. I took the stairs, up or down, whenever I could. So yeah, it should be doable for many people. (This is not to say I wouldn’t have painfully sore calves afterwards. I would, and I know this from real life experience.)

  • Second: I hope the food supplies have been planned for just such an event, and that all the people working in the hotel (who incidentally are just as important as the tourists; if they can’t leave, it sucks for them too) can have passable food to eat.

As a college sophomore, I was trapped at my college by the great 1978 New England Blizzard and even as a callow youth I was deeply impressed by how awesomely kitchen staff kept us fed despite the lack of any delivery of supplies. Did we eat an oddly large amount of food based on canned tomatoes, beans, and cling peach halves? Yes, we did - but we didn’t run out of food, and the meals remained amazingly edible despite the challenges the kitchens were facing.

Hopefully, the hotel where the tourists are trapped has the same level of planning and culinary expertise I still admire nearly 45 years later.

2

Can I just say that the Grand Canyon Caverns experience sounds like a wonderful idea that I’d love to do sometime? Whenever they can assure me that the elevator is well and truly fixed. My mother could never handle 21 flights of stairs, and I sure as hell am not carting my luggage up them, either.

3

It said that it was five people, so I am assuming that it was one party. If that’s true, they couldn’t leave anyway until everyone could ascend, so may as well stay together for company until the elevator is fixed.

4

Plus of course the number of stairs one can climb comfortably is much reduced while carrying all one’s luggage.

I too climb multiple floors of stairs all the time at home in a high rise. I also occasionally have to climb a flight of stairs at work carrying my wheeled suitcase and my laptop bag. Some 40 lbs worth of stuff. Effort-wise, one tall-ish flight of stairs with the luggage is the equivalent of about 5 regular flights unburdened.

If any of the folks in that party aren’t up to carrying their own luggage up 21 flights, then another of their party would be left doing so. Pretty quickly this gets unrealistic unless / until their lives are endangered by staying down there.

5

They could send correspondents down there for live reports from the scene, which undoubtedly rivals the Floyd Collins case for poignancy.

6

I’ve got to imagine they’re getting compensated for being “stuck” down there. 21 flights of stairs is not that much in the face of a genuine need to get out.

The other week I climbed the 500-whatever steps to get to the dome of St. Paul’s cathedral and I finished the climb in something like 20-25 minutes, including a couple stops for photos at the halfway and 3/4 marks.

I’m confident that even an older person in reasonable shape could make it up 21 standard flights with care, a bit of help, and plenty of rests.

7

That’s a good point about luggage - I wouldn’t be able to manage a big suitcase up 21 flights either, and I hadn’t thought of that.

Still, they could leave the luggage behind and have it delivered to them later.

8

I bet these folks could make it if the hotel put a buffet at each stair landing… They just need to motivate them. Unless one of them is wheelchair bound, this is just pathetic.

9

Jeez, read the story right there in the OP:

Also “with platforms and ladders” sounds like it’s trickier than just a simple staircase.

10

My mother in her last 6 months, on 6l of oxygen could have managed this climb given enough time. Staff could carry a paralyzed person up given enough time.

These people are not “trapped”. They are choosing to stay until it is easier and more comfortable to leave via an elevator.

11

I didn’t read the article (bad Johnny) and didn’t see the bit about platforms and ladders. That’s definitely different than 21 flights of stairs.

12

I don’t think the “platforms and ladders” bit was there when I first posted - stories get updated on line all the time, and what’s on CNN now looks a bit different than what I originally saw. (The teaser is definitely different). However, if it was there all along and I missed it, my bad.

13

My family took the cave tour in 1974. We used that elevator to get to the surface.

There’s a tourist shop in the cave. We bought slides of the Caverns.

It would suck for that elevator to break. The cave requires a lot of walking up and down a slippery sidewalk in the cave. I still remember being tired.

14

Ha, it just now changed to

15

For people that have been in the cave in the past 20 or so years.

Does it still start with the guided tour into the center of the cave? I remember clinging to the handrail in places because it got The tour ended near the tourist shop and elevator in 1974.

There wa a optional second cave room that was unguided. It was well marked and level. But very large. It took at least another hour to get back to the elevator.

My parents were sore for a couple days. :wink: I was 12 and wanted to go back the next day.

I’ve always dreamed of revisting Carlsbad. That was the best vacation of my childhood.

I hope it hasn’t changed very much.

16

I would run up the stairs after the beer ran out.

17

The original tours involved being lowered down on a rope, so 21 flights of stairs is definitely a step up (ha) from that! Seeing as how it costs $1000 to spend the night in the “suite” vs around $25 for the regular tour, I’d say those folks got quite a bargain. I’ve stayed at the above-ground hotel a couple of times before heading down to Havasu Canyon, it’s nothing to write home about.

Back in the 60s the cave was designated at a fallout shelter–the tour guides point out a stockpile of survival supplies in a back corner. I doubt any of the rations would be edible today.

18

200 feet is nothing for the people who could make it on their own: it all depends on how rough the actual “ladders” are I guess. (In addition to probably not having luggage since as I understand it they did not intend on staying at the hotel). On the other hand, if the elevator had been stuck in Carlsbad Caverns, it would have been a relative piece of cake to go out the natural entrance since there is a smooth ramp the whole way. For elderly people who are not fit, it would have taken longer and required more breaks, since it is an 750 foot difference, but the times I’ve gone up the natural entrance it did not feel like 750 feet at all since the trail was so well-graded. Plus there are a lot of benches to sit down and rest.

19

I have really bad knees and an injured leg. I could make it out, but it would take a looooooong time with lots of breaks. Not completely sure about the ladders, though. It gets iffy when I have to put all my weight on my bad leg.