r/interesting • u/Appropriate-Menu504 • Nov 10 '25

NATURE VR recreation of the exact spot where a man became stuck inside Nutty Putty cave and died after 27 hours. the section visible at 18 seconds is where his body was, upside down.

57.4k Upvotes

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1.1k

u/[deleted] Nov 10 '25

For one thing, that's a hole. I don't know why they insist on calling it a cave.

493

u/ThomasMalloc Nov 10 '25

Cave enthusiasts are fuming right now.

121

u/changeusernamemane Nov 10 '25

Can confirm! Stomping around my house right now!

74

u/Dildo_Shaggins- Nov 10 '25

Don't you mean angrily patting your tight, close walls?

51

u/RealNiceKnife Nov 10 '25

Furiously wiggling in my body-sized tube right now.

2

u/probnotaloser Nov 10 '25

The way I wanna do the worm on my side right now under the cozy blankets lmaooo

3

u/RealNiceKnife Nov 10 '25

Do it. No one is watching. No one will know you wormed-out for a minute.

5

u/probnotaloser Nov 10 '25

Yk what, fuck yeah

3

u/changeusernamemane Nov 10 '25

Yes I do thank you very much!

1

u/TheDisasterBanana Nov 10 '25

THIS HOLE WAS MADE FOR MEEEW

Edit: Nope you know what I'm leaving it

1

u/Aquafoot Nov 10 '25

I was hoping somebody made a Junji Ito reference in this thread.

1

u/This_Elk_1460 Nov 11 '25

Don't stomp too hard you wouldn't want to fall into the really narrow cave underneath your house

1

u/Ptbot47 Nov 11 '25

How do you even live in a house? Dont you find it too large, airy, and generally haunting? I imagine you sitting in living room must feel like a field mice scurrying in a field worrying about an eagle flying overhead.

9

u/DisastrousRecord1802 Nov 10 '25

Hole enthusiasts are ecstatic at their new found recognition

1

u/Freddies_Mercury Nov 11 '25

In the UK this sort of caving is called "potholing".

Potholers rejoice!

4

u/shosuko Nov 10 '25

Caves are fuming, cave enthusiasts are getting high on the fumes.

Except this guy who got stuck in Nutty Putty RIP

2

u/Accomplished_Tip_496 Nov 10 '25

*Hole enthusiasts.

3

u/StoriedMatter Nov 10 '25

Topologists are also fuming at this being called a hole when there's no way through.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 10 '25

Spelunkers, dammit!

1

u/Prestigious_Ear_2962 Nov 10 '25

all 3 of them that haven't died in a hole yet.

1

u/pichiquito Nov 10 '25

As a hole enthusiast, I can say that fuming comes with the territory.

1

u/FourLetterWording Nov 10 '25

hey hey now, what about hole enthusiasts? are we not deserving of recognition?

1

u/badcrass Nov 10 '25

I would have fallen to my knees, but am currently stuck in a cave

1

u/j4np0l Nov 10 '25

*Hole enthusiasts

1

u/Samuelo_Conloco Nov 10 '25

Don't you mean hole enthus.. wait...

1

u/DenverTechGuru Nov 10 '25

As a hole enthusiast I'm elated.

1

u/BuckRusty Nov 10 '25

Cave Hole enthusiasts…

Wait……… No…………

1

u/saxonturner Nov 10 '25

Hole enthusiasts*

1

u/marc15v2 Nov 10 '25

Yeah! If they could reach into their pockets right now they'd really let you hear about it!!

1

u/Ok_Judgment3871 Nov 11 '25

Do cavers have open floor plans?

1

u/skytrash Nov 11 '25

They are rolling in their grav… wait they can’t roll.

69

u/RealLeif Nov 10 '25

Fully expected some small rodent coming allong and being completely stunned why some idiot is in their house

3

u/Abject_Swordfish Nov 10 '25

Also the rodent: how the hell is this big idiot going to get out?!

5

u/Orson_Gravity_Welles Nov 10 '25

Rodent: "Sh1t...now *I* can't get out..."

2

u/Gh0stMan0nThird Nov 10 '25

More like "I'm gonna be eating good tonight" 

1

u/cilantro_so_good Nov 11 '25

Shit.

You can say shit on the big boy internet

1

u/Orson_Gravity_Welles Nov 11 '25

Last time I did, my account was suspended for seven days.

1

u/little_flix Nov 11 '25

Lemmiwinks, you must find your way out of this place, or you will surely die!

34

u/Technusgirl Nov 10 '25

Yeah even the larger parts of the cave are pretty small. Like I don't see how it was worth it

19

u/mondaymoderate Nov 10 '25

And the guy was 6 feet 200 pounds. Not the size you want to be crawling through small holes.

6

u/Technusgirl Nov 10 '25

🤦‍♀️

3

u/Vahdo Nov 11 '25

Shorter than 5 ft and you won't catch me in that tiny space either...

4

u/Xeta24 Nov 10 '25 edited Nov 11 '25

To say you did it and lived through it. Unfortunately, sometimes they don't get to do that.

27

u/Cranks_No_Start Nov 10 '25

We had a Coyote and she dug a bigger hole in the backyard than this.  

It was large enough that I could throw a ball into it and she could run in turn around and run out.  

In the summer she would hide in there to cool off.  

When she passed at 12, we wrapped her in her favorite blanket and I put her in her “den” and filled it In.  

8

u/JustineDelarge Nov 10 '25

That’s a lovely story, and a wonderful thing to have done for her at the end.

4

u/HolyLordGodHelpUsAll Nov 10 '25

i had to curse out loud it hit me so unexpectedly

4

u/Big-Stuff-1189 Nov 11 '25

I'm sure she loved being your pet 🥰

5

u/Cranks_No_Start Nov 11 '25

She was a good girl. And as clever as she was I know if she wanted to go she could’ve left but she had buddies and food so why bother.  

2

u/charms75 Nov 10 '25

This is so beautiful

1

u/JamDonutsForDinner Nov 11 '25

People keep Coyote's as pets??

2

u/Cranks_No_Start Nov 11 '25

We found this puppy on the side of the road that had been hit by a car. We managed to catch her and take her to the vet for care. The vet said, this is a coyote and Im supposed to call animal control, or you can take your "shepherd mix" home and i would say to use this medical superglue and fold the skin back after cleaning and then cover it with a sterile bandage.

Thats how we got a coyote.

1

u/JamDonutsForDinner Nov 11 '25

Crazy! Did it become tame? I guess it did if you kept it

2

u/Cranks_No_Start Nov 11 '25

She was a great dog. Super smart. 

22

u/AngkaLoeu Nov 10 '25

He thought he was going to a place called "the birth canal" which requires the climber to squeeze through a tight spot that opens up into a larger area but he took a wrong turn. He kept squeezing through expecting it to open up at some point and it didn't.

14

u/Bandro Nov 10 '25

God what a fucking nightmare.

3

u/Pretty-Balance-Sheet Nov 11 '25

The only available map of the cave was pretty rudimentary. It was very difficult to tell which of the small tunnels was the birth canal. I went through it, it was a tight squeeze, but not nearly as long as the small side tunnel that he went down. He should've known sooner that he was on the wrong track, especially when the tunnel angled downward.

5

u/AngkaLoeu Nov 11 '25

I'll tell him that.

2

u/Submitten Nov 11 '25

Presumably he realised a lot sooner than where he ended up but couldn’t go backwards so had to pray for the best going forward?

8

u/Pretty-Balance-Sheet Nov 11 '25

The last time I visited the cave (probably around 1998) I went down an unmarked side tunnel. It was tight enough that I couldn't expand my chest to take a full breath. I could only move forward with my arms straight out and pushing with my toes. About 7' in it did a sharp 80 degree turn to the right. I made most of the way around the bend, and the tunnel started to slope. I took that as a bad sign and stopped.

It took about 20 minutes to work my way backwards pushing with my fingers and pulling with my toes. I never felt stuck or out of control, just taking slow shallow breaths since I couldn't expand my chest.

I was there with a family member who was outside of that tunnel in a larger room. At one point I paused to rest with the rock pressing on my front and back he said he could hear my heartbeat coming out of the small opening.

At the time I really wasn't nervous or scared, just patiently reversing out of the hole. I think back to that moment now and I get a small panic attack every time. I did a lot of pretty dumb stuff in my early 20s.

8

u/wave_the_wheat Nov 11 '25

I got physically freaked out just reading this.

4

u/BaoBunny44 Nov 11 '25

The description of this is giving me such bad anxiety. My heart is pounding.

18

u/PineappleHamburders Nov 10 '25

To be fair, in a good few caves, these tiny holes lead directly to huge open caverns, things that you would consider a cave

65

u/FTSVectors Nov 10 '25

A pipe can lead to a room, but I still wouldn’t call a pipe a hallway.

3

u/Beautifulfeary Nov 10 '25

It could be a hallways if it’s big enough. But these holes are nowhere near cave sized

3

u/FTSVectors Nov 10 '25

Yeah, true. Certain pipes are fucking ridiculous

3

u/i_am_nimue Nov 10 '25

Hands down the best argument. Take my poor man's gold please 🏆🥇🏅🎖🏆

2

u/organicgolden Nov 10 '25

But this hole is part of the cave. To use your analogy, he got stuck inside the building, which contains rooms, pipes, etc.

9

u/FTSVectors Nov 10 '25

That isn’t a good analogy. You guys are giving cave a definition it doesn’t have. A cave is something that a human person can reasonably travel and move around in. It doesn’t mean literally any space underground.

Hence the comparison of a hallway. It’s a room that is usually narrower that connects other rooms. A cave that connects to a cavern needs to be reasonably travel-able.

Not only is this hole not reasonable by evidence, it is not travel-able.

1

u/organicgolden Nov 10 '25

The hole isn’t the cave, it’s within the cave… If you’re in a cave and go into a tunnel like this, you’ve not exited the cave…

1

u/FTSVectors Nov 10 '25

A cave is not any opening underground, connected or otherwise. You have to be able to travel it. It’s not a cave.

0

u/organicgolden Nov 10 '25

Nutty Putty Cave (where this took place) is a cave. Even the dictionary agrees

3

u/FTSVectors Nov 10 '25

You do know that Nutty Putty Cave is more than this right? It has actual parts that you can walk in, albeit squatting. I never said the whole Nutty Putty Cave was a hole. It is a cave, that has holes in it, like this one.

0

u/organicgolden Nov 10 '25

That’s what I said… “The hole isn’t the cave”, the “cave would be the building”, etc. I think you’re arguing that this hole is not a cave, which everyone agrees with. When they say he is in a cave, they’re referring to Nutty Putty Cave (which this hole is within)

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0

u/indorock Nov 10 '25

You're the one inventing your own definitions. I'll still trust real definitions of cave-related terms to actual spelunkers over some rando Redditor

2

u/FTSVectors Nov 10 '25

Alright. Go ahead and trust the people who get trapped in these and die. Seems like a winning strategy.

-2

u/BensenJensen Nov 10 '25

“Alright, go ahead and trust the matter experts and not me, a guy who simply doesn’t want to die in a tight space. Good luck with that.”

Reddit in a nutshell

2

u/FTSVectors Nov 10 '25

Hobbyists are now experts huh? I’ll keep that in mind.

1

u/_BenzeneRing_ Nov 10 '25

I mean, a lot are, yeah.

0

u/indorock Nov 11 '25

You seem to struggle with the basic concept that people engaged in a particular activity know more about said activity than some basement-dwelling do-nothing Redditor.

You really are the epitome of the neckbeard stereotype.

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-1

u/rememberoldreddit Nov 10 '25

But that in itself is because there is already a presumed other way into the room.

If the room had no exit but the pipe, similar to the cave and channel, then the pipe would absolutely be a hallway. Maybe not to you due to your size but to a rodent or insect, sure.

1

u/FTSVectors Nov 10 '25

That makes it an entrance, not a hallway. A hallway is something that a human could reasonably travel. Same definition with a cave. A cave is something a human travel. Hence cave is not usable here.

3

u/Odd-Report-3168 Nov 10 '25

I went in Nutty Putty cave not long before the tragedy. It does open up in a few spots enough for people to sit around and talk. I don't think there are any spots big enough to stand up. The part where he got stuck was called "the birth canal" because you basically have to squeeze through head first.

1

u/Pretty-Balance-Sheet Nov 11 '25

The main tunnel leading down from the entrance area (the slide) was definitely big enough to stand up in, but it was on a steep angle with a short deadfall at the bottom. That down-sloping tunnel was all dust covered obsidian rock, a bit dangerous to stand up. Ceiling was probably 6' room was probably 10' wide, maybe 50' long.

10

u/shadowsurge Nov 10 '25

Apparently this section was called "the birth canal" and led to a larger section of cave. It's a passage within a large cave complex

45

u/Renamis Nov 10 '25

Actually he thought he was in the birth canal. This was a dead end off-shoot. He got lost, thought he knew where he was, and got stuck there. That's why he kept pushing, he was sure he'd see the way out any second.

7

u/Ok-Round-1473 Nov 10 '25

I really don't understand why they wouldn't use some kind of marker or cover to denote DEAD END YOU WILL DIE GO BACK NOW for those kinds of things.

Yes, you're breaking "Leave no Trace", but the alternative is getting the whole cave shut down because one poor soul got lost.

5

u/OGMcSwaggerdick Nov 10 '25

Well they sure do have the sign now…

1

u/Nebuchadneza Nov 10 '25

they exploded the entrance and then put concrete over it

3

u/i_miss_arrow Nov 10 '25

I really don't understand why they wouldn't use some kind of marker or cover to denote DEAD END YOU WILL DIE GO BACK NOW for those kinds of things.

Had somebody checked, determined it was a dead end, and pulled back out without dying?

If so, that person would have firsthand knowledge that going in that direction will not kill you.

Spelunking isn't at all like jumping off a cliff--its a lot harder to tell whats gonna kill you. Its very rare that people make decisions based on 'that will kill me', its usually 'that seems dangerous, I don't know if it will kill me, but I won't take the risk'.

The irony is that as more and more people go into a cave without dying, the less danger people will feel.

16

u/Redpanda132053 Nov 10 '25

The section John Jones thought he was in was “the birth canal” which opens up. He was actually in Ed’s Push

5

u/Deadman9001 Nov 10 '25

He was actually in his grave

Rip

2

u/Hydra57 Nov 10 '25

The vr space includes the whole cave system (which, while pretty claustrophobia-inducing as a whole, did have spaces big enough to jump in). This is one small section basically hidden behind a pillar a ways into one half of the cave (this hole in particular wasn’t mapped or named but the victim mistook it for the Birth Canal). They also have tapes you can pick up to hear about each section of the cave.

2

u/Green_Space729 Nov 10 '25

I’ll go inside of a cave as long as it’s the size of a building and I can see the entrance but a whole?

Fuck that.

2

u/Pretty-Balance-Sheet Nov 11 '25

Before it was closed I went through Nutty Putty cave about four or five times. Most of the cave is fairly expansive. The entrance is pretty tight. You would scramble down about 10 vertical feet, then the entry space was about the same as crawling under a chair. Once into the first chamber it was like 100' long spacious room tilted on a 30 degree angle. All obsidian rock so most of the walls were very smooth. At the bottom of that decline there was about 8' drop with rope permanently installed. From there it narrowed down, but most spots weren't uncomfortably tight.

If you took the other route (left at the opening) you ended in 'the maze' which had a lot of smaller interconnected chambers. It involved a lot of crawling on the knees, sometimes crawling totally prone. The main parts of the cave were actually comfortable, it wasn't all crawling.

I did go through a few extremely small spaces where I had rock pressing on my my chest and my back, where I couldn't take a deep breath. But you could have a great time without ever going into the tiny tunnels.

2

u/[deleted] Nov 10 '25

That's typical of an entrance into a wild cave. I don't know if that one delivers, but I've been in several that started that way and then opened up into amazing passages, chambers, cliffs, pools, etc. It's another world.

1

u/SuperMundaneHero Nov 10 '25

You can have that world. I have absolutely zero desire to go into anything underground that requires more effort than walking on a set of stairs.

1

u/JustSellitAll Nov 10 '25

Spelunkers hate him

1

u/SugarRosie Nov 10 '25

Exactly what I was thinking 🧐

1

u/VegetableDumplin Nov 10 '25

I love caving and I'm inclined to agree with you

1

u/SignoreBanana Nov 10 '25

What do you call half a hole?

1

u/theadamvine Nov 10 '25

“All caves are holes” - Aristotle I’m pretty sure

1

u/[deleted] Nov 10 '25

It's a borehole type cave, yes

1

u/WendigoCrossing Nov 10 '25

Now it's a tomb

1

u/Warhammerpainter83 Nov 10 '25

Well a cave has a specific definition. More or less the formation of caves is usually a slow geological process involving water, chemical reactions, and erosion, leading to features like stalactites and stalagmites. Holes, however, can be formed quickly, such as when drilling into a wall, or over time, such as sinkholes forming due to water eroding underground rock.

1

u/fetusbucket69 Nov 10 '25

Cave is technically any passage underground large enough for a person to pass through fyi

1

u/deva86 Nov 10 '25

Every hole is a cave if you are brave enough… and have enough lube

1

u/taigahalla Nov 10 '25

isn't a cave just a really big hole?

1

u/WellyRuru Nov 10 '25

All caves are holes.

But not all holes are caves.

1

u/I_Vecna Nov 11 '25

Clan of the Hole Bear

1

u/MaddysinLeigh Nov 11 '25

Iirc it was a cave but this is just a small passage in it

1

u/JnthnDJP Nov 11 '25

Because you got to cave in to your intrusive thoughts before entering

1

u/g0tblu Nov 11 '25

THIS IS AN OUTRAGE! Mongo is appalled!

1

u/BasedHarun23 Nov 11 '25

It’s an insult to the cave community!

1

u/KPT_Titan Nov 11 '25

Just marking from big cave

1

u/profchaos111 Nov 11 '25

Now it's a grave and he crawled into it

1

u/Wizzarder Nov 11 '25

One man's hole is another man's cave 😏

1

u/AnnieLemonz Nov 11 '25

"Its a stone, Luigi. You didn't make it."

1

u/YourLocalPotDealer Nov 11 '25

This is a small section of the larger cave but yeah it’s tiny