This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2010, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
In August 2004, Brock Clark got stuck in the same tunnel of Nutty Putty Cave that trapped John Jones five years later.
Clark, then 16, had been inside the cave before and returned with a group of friends for one last adventure before school began.
"I was headfirst, worming my way through these tiny passages bec ause I wanted to see what was in there.
I was having such a good time, I kept going and going, tighter and tighter," the now 22-year-old college student said.
Clark decided to turn around when he came to the end of a level area, before the tunnel dropped back down.
But as he drew his legs beneath him to move them behind his body, he discovered he didn't have enough room.
He found himself folded nearly in half, with one leg stuck underneath the other and his torso semi-suspended over the hole. He had to flex his body to stay up, otherwise his ribs ground into his hips.
He tried for an hour to free himself, but only wedged himself farther. He started to panic.
"Ever hear the story of a wolf that gets caught in a trap, and is so desperate that it gnaws its own leg off? In this case, that's what it felt like,” he said.
Then he felt his body start to go numb, first his legs, then his arm. Search-and-rescue crews worked all night to free the teen. They tossed Clark a webbed rope and he managed to wrap it a round his body. Rescuers pulled.
When tha t only banged Clark against the walls of the cave, he suggested they rig a pulley system to pull him up and over the hole, with his feet behind him.
They did, and he finally emerged about 16 hours after he got stuck.
“I wanted to walk out just to prove to myself I was still alive,” Clark said.
But he had to be carried.
Lactic acid had built up in his muscles after hours of holding his body up and had taken its toll. He spent three days in a hospital recovering and suffered nerve damage in his leg and arm. Doctors told him the only other time they'd seen that much builtup acid was in lightning strike victims.