3 Most Horrific Caving Experiences
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00:00On February 6th, 2014, a team of Finnish cavers visited Norway to go cave diving through Plura
00:07Cave. What they didn't know was that their journey would end up becoming one of the most
00:11harrowing caving disasters in the country's history. However, what made this already tragic
00:16event even more devastating was the fact that one of the divers, 46-year-old Kai Konkonen,
00:21was all too familiar with the dangers of cave diving firsthand. He had lost his close friend
00:26and long-time diving partner during an exhibition through Montola Quarry in central Finland just a
00:32year earlier. Yet within months, he was back, preparing to dive into one of the most treacherous
00:36underwater cave systems in Europe. This time, he was joined by four other elite divers,
00:42including 42-year-old Patrick Gronkvist, 40-year-old Yari Huotarinen, 34-year-old Yari Usamaki,
00:49and the youngest, 33-year-old Vesa Rantanen. The plan was to enter through the submerged
00:54opening in the Plura River and exit through a second entrance, but pulling it off successfully
00:59wasn't going to be that simple, largely since Plura is the deepest known cave in Northern Europe.
01:04The connection between the two entrances was also discovered only recently,
01:08so there wasn't much information on how to navigate it successfully either.
01:12This newly discovered route descended over 130 meters into pitch-black icy water with brutal cold
01:18and tight squeezes, further adding to its extreme difficulty. Even if everything went according to
01:24plan, the dive would have still taken five hours to complete, and in such brutal, unpredictable
01:29conditions, the margin for error was nearly zero. Any deviation from the carefully planned route,
01:35equipment failure, or a single tear in a dry suit meant a slow, freezing death. With all this in mind,
01:42the group went to the starting location on the 6th of February and cut a triangular hole in the ice to
01:47start their descent, but instead of diving all at once, the team split into two groups. Yari H and
01:53Patrick went first, using underwater scooters to conserve energy, and the other three followed two
01:59hours later, giving the sediment time to settle for clearer visibility. This was a crucial precaution,
02:04since sunlight barely penetrated more than a few meters into the cave, so any loss in visibility could
02:10have proved fatal. Fortunately, things started off on the right note. After descending 34 meters over the
02:16first 500 meters, the divers eventually reached a partially flooded, air-filled chamber that was
02:21over 250 meters long, giving them a brief resting point before the steep and challenging descent ahead.
02:28But surprisingly, they encountered little resistance on their way to the deepest section of the Plura
02:32Cave, and for a brief moment, they allowed themselves to believe the entire mission might
02:37actually be this effortless. Unfortunately, they couldn't have been more wrong, something they came to
02:42realize after reaching a shockingly narrow section of the cave with a sharp turn. A fully-geared diver
02:48could barely squeeze through, but at this point, forward was the only way out, so Patrick decided to
02:53go first. However, as he was thinking of how he could navigate the turn, Yari H's flashlight suddenly
02:59went out, and then began flashing quickly. As Patrick turned back to see what was going on, he saw Yari
03:05begging for help. One of his bailout cylinders had gotten caught in the surrounding environment,
03:09preventing him from moving forward. Even worse was the fact that he was panicking,
03:14which, at that death, is practically a death sentence. Patrick tried to calm him down, but
03:19there wasn't much he could do in that situation. The space was too tight, and one wrong move could
03:23rupture the suit or damage his gear, so he decided to focus on the core issue at hand. He let go of his
03:29scooter and carefully swam back to shift the bailout cylinder a few meters forward, helping Yari free
03:34himself. But when he swam back to check on him, the situation had spiraled into something far worse.
03:40Yari's breathing regulator was somehow out of his mouth. Patrick put it back in as quickly as he could.
03:45Unfortunately, it was already too late. Yari's lungs were already full of water,
03:50ending his life in the process. With his friend's lifeless body floating in front of him,
03:55Patrick wanted to scream, but he couldn't. He had to stay calm, otherwise he was going to become the
04:00next victim of Plora's cold, indifferent depths. After taking some time to collect himself,
04:06Patrick checked his dive computer to see how long he'd have to stay submerged to avoid decompression
04:10sickness, and to his horror, it flashed 400 minutes. This was a haunting increase from the
04:16120 minutes he saw earlier. What was supposed to be a five-hour dive was now going to take as much as
04:22nine, and staying there any longer would only increase this time even further. So with no other
04:27option, Patrick turned away from his friend's body and began to swim towards the second entrance.
04:32Now, with no one else to keep him company, what he failed to realize was the second team was heading
04:37straight into the nightmare he'd left behind. Following the original plan, the remaining three
04:42divers set out exactly two hours after the first team, but as they descended to the deepest section,
04:47Vesa heard a distress signal coming from someone's diving equipment. Fearing the worst,
04:52he swam toward the sound, only to be greeted by the very outcome he was dreading.
04:56He saw his friend Yari's lifeless body blocking the narrow tunnel ahead. It was too much for him
05:01to even look at. Unfortunately, the narrow passage gave him no other choice. If he wanted to move
05:07forward, he had to face it head-on. Now, he could have turned back, but that meant spending up to 12
05:12hours underwater, with no guarantee their oxygen would last that long. Meanwhile, Yari Yu, who was just
05:18behind Vesa, came face to face with the same tragic situation. But unlike Vesa, he lost his composure
05:25almost immediately and began to panic. Kai, the last diver on their team, tried to calm Yari Yu down,
05:32but it didn't work. Panic underwater turned lethal in minutes. His breathing became extremely erratic,
05:38eventually resulting in Plura claiming the life of Yari Yu Samaki as well. Kai rushed to inform Vesa
05:43about what happened, only to find him violently kicking, trying to squeeze past Yari H's body. He urged
05:49Vesa to stop and turn back, but Vesa refused. With no other choice, Kai decided to go back the
05:55way he came, alone. By this point, he was convinced that Vesa would also die, just like the others.
06:01But by some miracle, Vesa managed to make it through not long after Kai turned back. At this
06:06point, three survivors were swimming alone, each believing he was the only one who made it out
06:10alive. Patrick and Vesa were heading toward the Stein-Ougla-Flaglet dry chamber, while Kai was
06:16slowly making his way back to the Plura entrance. And after eight and a half hours in the water,
06:21Patrick was the first one to reach the surface around 9 pm, with Vesa emerging just an hour later.
06:26On the other side of the cave, Kai broke through the thin ice covering the pond's entrance at around
06:311.30 am, and he dragged himself into the van they all originally came in. He didn't know if Patrick
06:36or Vesa were still alive, but he held on to hope and began waiting for them to arrive. Fortunately,
06:41he didn't have to wait long. The two reached the van around 2 am, marking the end of their horrific
06:46journey through the underwater cave. But as terrifying as Plura was, it was far from the
06:51only cave to test the limits of human endurance. The Varyovkina Cave Incident
06:57Just four years later, a descent into the world's deepest cave would also turn into a horrifying struggle
07:02to stay alive. One that made Plura look almost merciful. Varyovkina Cave, hidden deep in the
07:09mountains of Abkhazia, plunges over 2200 meters into the Earth, and fewer people have reached its
07:15bottom than have ever been to space. So in September 2018, a team of Russian cavers led by Pavel Demedov
07:22decided to face this challenge head-on for a second time. Because as it turns out, they had already
07:27accomplished this feat just months earlier, when they not only reached the cave's bottom,
07:32but also measured its record-breaking depth. The only difference was that this time,
07:36they were joined by two new faces, British cave photographer Robbie Schoen and his assistant
07:42Jeff Wade. They had two goals, photograph the cave's extraordinary terrain, and also collect samples of
07:47possibly new species of shrimp and scorpion, both of which would help them study how life was able to
07:52sustain itself somewhere with absolutely no sunlight. But exploring this cave required an extensive
07:58amount of preparation, each caver had to haul over 30 kilograms, or about 66 pounds of gear,
08:04while being wrapped in layers of thermal clothing to survive the cold, and the descent was just as
08:10brutal. To enter, they had to lower themselves through a narrow vertical shaft that dropped 32 meters
08:16straight down, and that was the easiest part, because the only way down from there was through thousands
08:21of meters of narrow, twisting tunnels. Reaching just the first camp, 600 meters deep, took around eight
08:27hours. Fortunately, this was also their first rest stop. You see, unlike most caves that can be explored
08:33in a single day, Varjavgana takes multiple days just to reach the bottom. So the previous cavers had to
08:39set up six underground camps, where explorers could dry off, eat, rest, and mentally prepare themselves for
08:46crawling through mud and water, squeezing their bodies through awfully narrow passages. All while
08:51risking hypothermia due to the cave's near freezing temperature. Luckily, things were on schedule for
08:56Pavel and his group, and after four days of brutal descent, they finally reached the deepest camp. The
09:02plan was to stay there for over a week, explore the deepest tunnels, and photograph the surreal turquoise
09:08lake at the cave's end. And that's exactly what they did for the first six days. They even managed to
09:13collect some samples of the tiny organisms living in that darkness. However, this calm and peaceful
09:19exploration came to a sudden, crashing halt on day seven, and the first ones to face this upcoming
09:24disaster were Roman and Natalia, two team members who had left just over a day earlier to catch a
09:30flight. After a deafening roar, thousands of liters of water came crashing into the cave, flooding it
09:35without warning. They immediately contacted the rest of the team at the bottom through a cable line
09:40that was installed earlier. However, Robbie and the others weren't as worried as they probably should
09:45have been. Flood pulses weren't rare in deep caves, and they usually passed quickly. The group at the bottom
09:51assumed that this would be no different, and went on with their activities. Tragically, they were dead
09:56wrong. A little while after the warning came in, water exploded from a chasm just meters from their
10:02camping spot and began filling the camp. They prayed for it to stop, but it didn't. By the time they realized the
10:09true gravity of the situation, the water level was already dangerously high. They had waited too long,
10:15and now, the entire chamber was about to end up underwater. But just when it seemed all hope was
10:20lost, Robbie sprang into action and quickly suited up in his caving gear. He then clipped himself to the
10:26rope leading out of the cave and started climbing. However, this climb was going to be a lot more
10:31difficult than he'd imagined. Water was beginning to fill up the routes they took during their descents.
10:36Facing impossible odds, Robbie clenched his jaw and pushed forward, ready to take on whatever lay
10:42ahead. The water pressure was strong enough to make it a struggle just to breathe, but he endured. He
10:48knew that he was in the lead, and if he failed here, everyone behind him might get trapped. After
10:53hours of struggle, he finally reached a relatively dry section of the cave where the water had diverted
10:58down a different path. He also found an anchor point, and for the first time in what likely felt like
11:03an eternity, he was able to get some rest. He was also able to breathe a sigh of relief,
11:09when just a few minutes later, Wade appeared there as well. Turns out, he'd been following just
11:15behind Robbie the entire time. However, while they were relieved to see each other alive,
11:20neither had any idea if the Russians had made it out. In any case, there was no time to wait. The water
11:26level was still rising, and if they waited for the rest of the group, they'd be trapped again. After
11:31several more hours of a slow and excruciatingly difficult climb through near-freezing water,
11:36Robbie and Wade managed to reach the camp at 1900 meters deep. Then, fifteen minutes later,
11:43they saw headlamps flicker in the distance, and to their surprise, the remaining five Russian cavers
11:48emerged from the darkness. They all had barely made it through as well. However, this was no time for
11:54happy reunions. Fortunately, after twenty long hours in the camp, they noticed the water starting to
11:59recede. This was the signal they needed to ascend their climb and finally reach the surface after
12:04four more days of walking and climbing. They had survived the impossible, escaping from a cave that
12:10could have just as easily become their tomb. That said, while the threat in Varyovkina was something
12:17tangible, rising water, the dangers faced by Ted the caver were far more mysterious, and possibly
12:23supernatural. The story began in 2001, when a man named Ted published a series of blogs detailing his
12:30experience with a bizarre cave. In his first entry, dated March 23rd, Ted described a caving expedition
12:36with a friend he referred to only as B. The trip, which took place in December of 2000, led them deep
12:42into a remote cave and to the discovery of something strange. Deep inside a small chamber, accessible only by
12:48descending over ledges and crawling through tight passages, they found a narrow hole just a few
12:53inches wide. This hole intrigued Ted because there was a steady, howling wind blowing from it, which
12:59made him believe there was an unexplored chamber just beyond it. And the thought of exploring that
13:04chamber, somewhere no human has stepped before, excited him to no end. After examining the hole,
13:10Ted and B determined that if they could open the hole somehow, there was just enough space for one of
13:14them to reach the other side. So they went back and returned a month later on January 27th, 2001,
13:20with the tools to widen the hole. But even with these tools, this was going to be a slow and
13:25exhausting process. The space around the hole was also too tight, forcing only one of them to work
13:30at a time. It took them two days to increase its size by just a couple more inches. However, they didn't
13:37let the slow progress discourage them from their ultimate goal. And that's when things started to get
13:41weird. Not only did the howling grow louder, it was now accompanied by a deep, rumbling sound that
13:46wasn't there before. They tried to convince themselves the rumbling was just trucks passing
13:51along a nearby mountain highway. But deep down, they knew that road wasn't nearly busy enough to
13:56create a sound so constant. Things became even more unsettling on February 10th, when they entered
14:02the cave with B's dog. She had explored caves with them before, and the two were hoping to put her
14:07into the tunnel behind the hole to see how far it went. But something immediately felt wrong.
14:12As soon as they approached the work site, the dog became agitated and refused to go anywhere near
14:17the hole. After several unsuccessful attempts to make her go through the hole, they went back to
14:22their original plan, widening the passage just enough for one of them to squeeze through. But as B was
14:28drilling near the hole, he heard yet another unexplainable noise. It sounded like someone grinding
14:33a rock against other rocks. From deep within the tunnel, Ted assumed B's ears were just ringing
14:38because of the drill and urged him to continue. By the end of the day, they had managed to carve out
14:43the hole just wide enough to fit a head through. But just as they were getting used to the strange
14:47noises, the two heard a loud, screeching scream echoing from within the hole on March 3rd. Ted
14:53described it as the most terrible scream I have ever heard. This terrified him enough to quickly
14:58seal the hole with rocks and wait in silence. But when several hours passed and nothing happened,
15:03the two went back to work. As much as it scared them, they wanted to know what was on the other
15:07side even more now. And as luck would have it, they were able to make the hole wide enough to
15:12fit Ted on their next visit. Though it was still an extremely tight squeeze, he could barely move
15:17forward with his arms pinned to the side. Still, he pushed on and eventually made it to the other side.
15:23He was determined to reach the end and find the answer to all the bizarre sounds.
15:27But what he found on the other side left him with even more questions than before.
15:31The hole opened up to a surprisingly roomy chamber with a large stone leaned against the wall. However,
15:37this stone was way too round to be something natural. Near this stone, he also spotted strange
15:43hieroglyphic-like markings on the wall, depicting a group of people surrounding a mysterious symbol.
15:48Now more confused than ever, Ted squeezed back through the hole and told B everything.
15:53The two decided to come back with someone else who could help them make sense of what Ted
15:57saw and returned with a friend named Joe on April 14th.
16:01Unfortunately, as Joe and Ted were about to crawl through, Ted slammed his head on the cave wall and
16:06got a concussion, leaving Joe with no other choice but to explore the new chamber alone.
16:11Joe entered the tunnel and didn't come out until much later, far longer than the trip should have
16:16taken. However, the more pressing issue was the condition he came back in. He was pale and shaking.
16:22When asked what happened, he said only, I don't feel good, and walked out of the cave.
16:29Even after they made it back outside, Joe never spoke to them again, leaving them to wonder what
16:34he could have seen in that tunnel that shook him so badly. Ted and B needed answers. So they returned
16:39again on April 28th, this time with proper equipment like a two-way cable phone and a camcorder to
16:45capture everything inside. Just like before, Ted went in alone and eventually reached the large
16:50room with a strange stone again, but as he was exploring the area, a grinding noise echoed from
16:55behind. He stood too fast from the shock and slammed his helmet into the rock ceiling, breaking his
17:01headlamp. Ted fumbled for glow sticks in his bag while fearing what their green glow might reveal.
17:07When he cracked one, however, the room was completely empty. He then reached for the phone. No
17:12response. The line was dead. He cracked another glow stick and threw it towards the stone,
17:17and that's when he noticed something that nearly had him screaming. The round stone had moved.
17:22It was now sitting on top of the phone wire, likely severing it in the process, which would explain why
17:27the phone wasn't working. But he had a bigger question in mind. Who or what moved that stone?
17:34That's when he felt something crawling behind him. He didn't have it in him to look back. All he could do
17:39was run back. However, as he crawled through the narrow tunnel, a rotting stench poured in behind
17:45him. It was thick, wet, and suffocating. He popped out of the hole, gasping for air. But before
17:52he could gather his thoughts, the two heard the scraping sounds coming from inside the hole once
17:56again. This sent them running for the exit. Ted ran after B, who had already begun climbing out.
18:02As they reached the cave's entrance, the rope they were climbing began to move. Something was pulling it
18:07back. Luckily, both of them made it to the top before whatever was chasing them could catch up.
18:12And without a second thought, B pulled out his knife and cut the rope, sending it falling back
18:16into the darkness below. However, that wasn't the end of Ted and B's story. Because a few weeks later,
18:22Ted posted another update to his blog, reading,
18:25For my family and friends who are reading this, I say, be at peace. I will conquer this cave. Then,
18:32I will return and update this website immediately. I will include any photos we take in the cave today.
18:38And if you stop by the house, I will show you the video I will have. I expect to be home later
18:42tonight or tomorrow at the latest. See all of you soon with a lot of answers. Love, Ted.
18:49This was the last thing Ted ever posted on the internet. Meanwhile, Ted's caving story spread
18:55like wildfire. People obsessed over what might have happened in that cave, and whether Ted made it out
19:00alive. Over the next two decades, different theories about what happened to Ted emerged across the
19:06internet. Some believed he and his friends were taken by a demonic creature lurking in that cave.
19:11Others claimed the opening behind the stone was a portal to another world. But all these theories
19:16were proven false when the YouTube channel Nick Boddick released an interview with Ted himself.
19:21And as it turned out, most of it was fake. While he did explore a creepy cave,
19:26the hole and the supernatural elements were entirely fictional. Created only to tell a chilling story,
19:32true or not, it remains one of the most unforgettable cave stories to ever grace the web.
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