Four young men who were trapped in Rainbow Falls Cave were rescued on the evening of Friday, March 21st. The foursome – Dustin Blakesley and Jake Layman, both 17, Garry Blakesley, 24, and Chris Smith, 20 – had set out to go caving around 10 p.m. on Thursday evening, with the intent of returning home by the early morning hours. Their descent into the cave went smoothly, but they realized that they’d become trapped when they attempted to climb back out. One of the ropes lead up an icy cold waterfall and they were so cold and exhausted that they lacked the strength to make the ascent. At that point, they retreated further into the cave until they found a dry spot where they could huddle together for warmth and await rescue. The park was notified of their failure to return from the expedition around 7:30 a.m. on Friday morning and immediately launched a rescue operation. Although there was some uncertainty as to which among several caves they’d entered, rangers found a pack belonging to one of the men at the entrance to Rainbow Falls Cave around 9 a.m. Park staff with caving experience and members of the Knoxville Cave Rescue Team entered the cave and extricated the four men. They were found to be in good condition. Only Garry Blakesley had any caving experience, and that was limited to some small caves in Oklahoma where he’d lived before moving to Tennessee. The men had four ropes and a single ascender with them and were clad mostly in cotton, which provides little warmth when wet.
