2019harskut1On Monday evening, July 8, there was an accident in Hárskút Cave.During one of the tours of the ongoing research camp, one of our caver friend lost his step under his feet while climbing, suffered a shoulder injury below the surface at a depth of about 40 meters and a good 200 meters away from the entrance.

His hiking companions immediately notified the Bakonyi Cave Rescue Service, who arrived at the scene with 17 cave rescuers and experienced cavers. 

The injured caveman was found in a satisfactory condition with good and stable vital parameters, but they also determined that the narrow passages of the new parts of the cave could cause difficulties in getting to the surface.

2019pbjeno1Shortly after 16:00 on May 1 2019, we received a request that a 25 year old lady had suffered an ankle injury over Pilisborosjenő on the side of Kevély-hill. It was a beautiful spring day and a Hungarian bank holiday, so many went on a trip to Pilis.

Starting from Pilisborosjenő, the young people hiked up to Nagy-Kevély, then came back down the red square tourist sign. The terrain is not easy here on the hiking trail, it leads between dusty dolomite gravel and more or less rocky terrain stairs, in many places you can only hike in narrow passages, elsewhere vegetation hanging on the road and fallen trees make the terrain difficult.

They were only a little more than a kilometer from the village border when the injury occurred while taking a big step.

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On the evening of April 7, 2019, the Hungarian Cave Rescue Organization rescued a lost group from the Mátyáshegyi cave. Three young people started the cave-tour with an old caver guide at noon.

The tour began on the easy and popular “Great Circle” cave section, later they aimed at the underground lake that forms the deepest point of the cave.  However they got lost in the labyrinth part of the way to the lake, and they could not find the passage neither down to the lake or up that could be got through safely by this group.

According to Hungarian caving customs, all hiking groups have a surface watch, which alerts the cave rescuers if the group fails to reach the surface.

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On the afternoon of February 23, 2019, Zoltán B., a 34-year-old tourist, equipped with a headlamp, climbed into the Papp Ferenc Cave which is on the border of village Pilisborosjenő, on the side of hill named Ezüsthegy. He spent about four hours in the cave and then headed out.

He got lost in the infamous, clothesline rubble labyrinth formed in the sandstone beneath the entrance, being unable to find a way out.

This place is extremely deceptive, you can even hear his voice from the surface, there are places where you can see the light of his lamp between the stones, everything seems to be very close - but in the narrow gaps where the sound and light still come through, it is very difficult to find the only path to the surface where there is enough place to get out.

Gyülekező csoportokAn alarm arrived a few minutes before 4pm on October 15, 2018, that a lady member of a couple had suffered an ankle injury while hiking, somewhere around the top of the gorge named Rám-szakadék. They could not determine their exact position, nor was the signal strength sufficient for proper communication. They indicated that they would definitely ask for a rescue because they could not continue their tour or move back with the injured leg.

It could not be exactly determined whether they were close to the upper or lower endpoints. We issued the alert to the membership and went to the scene in two groups. Those who were in Northern Budapest (closer to the site) were directed to the site, who came from the south part, they went to the warehouse, where they collected equipment, and they continued to Dömös (a village near the lower end of the gorge).

On the afternoon of August 4, 2018, a man participating in a tourist cave tour in the Abaliget Stalactite Cave became ill and his circulation collapsed as he made his way up the stairs leading to the Great Hall at the end of the built-up part of the cave.

Accidentally, as a visitor to the tour, one of the doctors of our rescue service started an immediate resuscitation together with the arrived National Ambulance Service however the man's life could not be saved.

The corpse was transported to the surface by external members of the BMSz present and arriving at the site, on the stretcher of the territorial unit.

We must emphasize that the Abaligeti Cave - like the other visitor friendly, pre-built, sometimes wheelchair accessible, visitable caves in Hungary - can be visited in complete safety in street clothes, without any training. Unfortunately, the issue that happened can occur anywhere, on the street, or even at home. 

BMSz expresses its condolences to the relatives of the deceased.

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