A doctor managed to reach the wounded man, but says his injuries are too
severe for him to be moved. All the time he remains underground he is at
risk from hypothermia.

The massive Riesending cave complex, which extends 3,766 feet at its deepest,
lies in the Bavarian Alps near Berchtesgaden, not far from the site of Adolf
Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest mountain retreat.

It was only discovered in 1995, and first explored in 2002. By a cruel irony,
according to local reports the injured man was a member of the team that
first discovered the cave.

He returned on Saturday with two experienced colleagues to explore the complex
further. They had been underground for hours when they were caught up in a
sudden rock fall, at around 1.30am on Sunday morning.

^{Members of the mountain rescue service leave a police helicopter in
Markt Schellenberg near Berchtesgaden, southern Germany (Kerstin Joensson/
AP)}

The trapped man suffered severe injuries to his head and torso. One of his
colleagues stayed with him while the other began the long climb out to get
help.

“The cave is very, very difficult,” the deputy chairman of Bavarian Mountain
Rescue, Stefan Schneider, told the Münchner Merkur newspaper’s website. The
descent presents “an extreme physical and mental challenge”, he said.

Rescuers have planned a long, slow ascent in stages, but the main difficulty
appears to be keeping the injured man in a lying position which doctors say
is essential because of his injuries.

The rescue effort is international, with cave rescue specialists from
Switzerland and Austria converging to help from across the Alps.