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Real Survival Stories

Underground Flood: Climbing Through Caves

Real Survival Stories

NOISER

Society & Culture, Documentary, Sports, Wilderness, History

4.81.2K Ratings

🗓️ 27 March 2025

⏱️ 48 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

An expedition to the deepest known cave in the world goes suddenly wrong. In 1977, British caver Dick Willis and his companions descend into the dark heart of the French Pyrenees. But with the three friends thousands of feet underground, an electrical storm breaks out on the surface - sending torrents of rain cascading into the caves. As the water level rises around their feet, the race to escape is on… A Noiser production, written by Nicole Edmunds. For ad-free listening, bonus material and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+. Click the Noiser+ banner to get started. Or, if you’re on Spotify or Android, go to noiser.com/subscriptions If you have an amazing survival story of your own that you’d like to put forward for the show, let us know. Drop us an email at [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

As a small business owner, my favourite thing about posting a job on LinkedIn is that when I hit send, I clock out and LinkedIn clocks in.

0:07.0

LinkedIn makes it easy to post your job for free. Get qualified candidates and manage them all in one place.

0:12.9

Plus, LinkedIn extends the reach of your job posts by allowing you to share it with your network.

0:17.7

And hiring managers that add a hiring frame to their LinkedIn profiles receive

0:22.1

two times more qualified applicants go to linkton.com slash agree to post your job for free terms and

0:28.4

conditions apply it's early morning on august the 7th in 1977 on the verdant slopes of the French Pyrenees, not far from

0:40.8

the Spanish border, the sun's first rays are starting to glow. Pale streams of yellow

0:48.0

break through moody storm clouds, lighting up the mountain sides to reveal a blanket of greenery,

0:53.3

scattered with puddles and rocks.

0:56.0

The warmth of the day seems to bring everything on the earth's surface to life.

1:03.0

But hundreds of meters underground, there is a cavernous world where sunlight is a stranger.

1:14.7

Deep beneath the Pyrenees lies an elaborate cave system known as the Goufri de la Pierre Saint-Mattain. Winding for more than 50 miles, its limestone walls

1:23.1

are jagged and angular. Its passageways twist and turn like a coiled snake.

1:30.3

Winds blow through every crevice, water seeps in from neighboring streams, and everywhere

1:35.8

you look, you're greeted by darkness.

1:39.8

Far inside this subterranean labyrinth, 24-year-old caver Dick Willis is climbing.

1:49.7

He's moving slowly upwards, trying to escape an increasingly alarming situation.

1:58.1

Dick's gloved hands, rigid and numb with cold, claw around in the pitch black, tracing indentations on the wet rocks.

2:07.6

His feet slip and slide as he tries to balance his weight.

2:12.6

All around him, underground waterfalls cascade down, pelting in with sharp icy torrents.

2:22.3

Dick's friends, Andy and Paul, are climbing somewhere below him.

2:26.3

The roar of the water makes communication between the trio impossible, and the cave's gloom

...

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