586’ of freedom! TAG Caving

At around noon on Sunday, 18 October 2026, we at the Hungarian Cave Rescue Service received an emergency call reporting that a 30-year-old woman had suffered a shoulder injury at the ‘BETE Traverse’ in Mátyás-hegy Cave, Budapest.

Just 1 hour and 10 minutes after the cave guide's emergency call, our medical team had already reached the accident site. Our first priority was to protect the injured woman from further heat loss and prevent hypothermia. We placed heat packs against her body and erected a makeshift heated shelter, known as a "hot point", around her. The casualty had already spent an hour waiting in the cold, and the shelter protected her not only from draughts and dripping water, which can occur even in relatively dry caves, but also from dust stirred up by the arriving cave rescuers.

The portable ultrasound device used during the medical examination supported the cave guide's initial assessment: a dislocated shoulder. After checking the patient's vital signs, our doctors administered strong pain medication and successfully reduced the anterior shoulder dislocation on site. This intervention relieved the severe pain caused by even the slightest movement or touch and helped minimise the additional pain and trauma associated with transporting the casualty to the surface. The success of the procedure was demonstrated by the significant reduction in pain and the restoration of shoulder mobility, and was further confirmed by ultrasound imaging.

The ‘BETE Traverse’ takes its name from both a traversing manoeuvre performed a few metres above the floor of an inclined fissure and the ‘Budapesti Egyetemi Turista Egylet’ (Budapest University Tourist Association), whose members explored the cave in the 1940s and 1950s. This section is technically demanding, whether climbing up, descending or attempting the traverse itself. Beginners generally avoid the direct traverse. Instead, secured by the guide's safety rope, they descend one side of the fissure and climb back up the other, reducing the risk of a fall. However, the descent is challenging in its own right and, for most people, involves a movement requiring considerable upper-body strength while keeping the arms relatively far apart.

The accident occurred approximately 1300 feets from the cave entrance, at a depth of 120 feets. Even the easiest route to the surface involves moderately challenging cave terrain, including narrow passages and climbs of varying heights. Fortunately, from a caver's perspective, the crawling sections are neither particularly long nor especially complex. Nevertheless, rope systems were required at several points to secure the stretcher during vertical sections of the evacuation.

At the ‘Bastion Pit', just before the entrance passage, we installed a counterweighted hauling system alongside the ladder, together with a pulley system for the final inclined haul to the surface.

Following just over an hour of medical treatment and a further hour and a half of transportation through the cave, the casualty was safely brought to the surface.

We sincerely hope that, in time, this cave trip, originally planned as a birthday present, and the unexpected rescue operation will become nothing more than a memorable adventure for everyone involved. We look forward to welcoming the injured woman back to one of our caves soon, this time for a tour offering a more peaceful kind of excitement!

Video from the other day. Seeing this formation during the drop blew my mind. Probably one of my all time favorites.

Decided to post my reply here so the pics are visible. I was alone in this lava tube and about 30 minutes in. Of course, the rational part of my brain said “graffiti from some idiot!” But for a few moments, my amygdala was engaged: “Where are the CHUDs?!” [Best part is when I returned to the cave a few months later, the paint had been removed. Kudos to all who help maintain our natural resources.]

Felt a cool breeze and through a rock to see if it has a echo and it does so no idea looks man made but I could be wrong