CANAAN, N.Y. (May 24, 2026) — A Brooklyn man trapped nearly 400 feet inside Merlin’s Cave in the Town of Canaan, Columbia County, was rescued early May 18 after a six-hour ordeal that required forest rangers to use a hammer drill to chip away rock inches from his head before he could be freed.
Forest Ranger Lt. Gullen said the subject became stuck around 6 p.m. on May 17 when he slipped in a section of the cave known as the bear trap — a narrow passage where the rock is slippery — and slid into a crevice below. Each attempt to free himself wedged him further in.
“Just unlucky that the shape of that crevice is the shape of a human body,” Gullen said.
Members of the subject’s party who had exited the cave called 911 around 6:30 or 7 p.m. Gullen and other National Cave Rescue Commission team members entered the cave shortly after 9 p.m. The crawl to reach the subject — though only 400 feet — took about 20 minutes due to the extreme tightness of the passage.
Three of the subject’s companions had remained with him inside the cave for hours and were themselves hypothermic by the time rescuers arrived. Gullen said the companions had done “a phenomenal job” keeping the subject warm and calm, and had even chipped away at the surrounding rock using a hammer they found in the cave. Rescuers cleared the companions from the cave before beginning their extraction effort.
Gullen said the cave maintains a temperature of about 50 degrees at nearly 100 percent humidity — conditions that accelerate hypothermia, particularly when a subject cannot move. Because the man was surrounded on all sides by rock, rescuers were unable to use standard techniques such as placing foam padding between the patient and the ground.
“Thermia is a guarantee — it’s something that’s gonna be a factor,” Gullen said.
Gullen and Erik, a member of the Albany-area cave rescue team, worked for roughly an hour and a half using manual techniques and webbing, gaining only six to ten inches of movement. It became clear that a section of rock — a protruding nub pinning the subject’s ribcage and back — would have to be removed.
Two team members left the cave to retrieve a hammer drill. During the approximately hour-and-a-half wait, Gullen remained with the subject, using breathing techniques and reassurance to keep him calm.
“I’m just telling him we’re absolutely gonna get you out of this cave,” Gullen said. “He was giving me thumbs up. We were telling jokes. He did a great job keeping a positive attitude.”
Once the drill arrived — passed through the tight passage headfirst by team member Raymond — Gullen drilled for about 20 minutes, working inches from the subject’s head and back, then chipped away the loosened rock with a hammer. Freeing a single small piece of rock was enough.
“That was all it took,” Gullen said, “and then we were able to get the subject to shimmy his way up into — free from his entrapment.”
The subject exited the cave on his own power but remained hypothermic and required warm fluids and food before the group could make their way out. All resources were cleared at 2:18 a.m.
Gullen, who has trained in cave rescue for five years and helped write the pre-plan for Merlin’s Cave, said this was his first actual cave rescue. He noted that entrapments requiring rock modification have in some cases taken multiple days to resolve.
“I had even told my wife, ‘Hey, I’m not sure when I’m gonna be back — this could be a multiple-day event,’” he said.
Gullen credited the Northeast Cave Conservancy, which owns the cave, the National Cave Rescue Commission, and local volunteer cavers for making the rescue possible.
“Without their experience and expertise, this wouldn’t have been possible,” he said.
This article was prepared with the assistance of AI tools under the direction and editing of Robert Cox.
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