From Friday evening (09 August) to Sunday midday (11 August) a cave dive rescue exercise took place in the “Mühlbachquellhöhle” in Mühlbach near Dietfurt in the region of the Oberpfalz in Germany. The exercise was organized by the caving club “Karstgruppe Mühlbach”/ KGM, which is exploring this cave. The divers attending were from the caving club and other cave rescue organisations. Also the cave dive rescuers from the ECRA diving group were invited. Four polish divers and one Slovenian diver came via the ECRA network.
On Friday, a lot of equipment was transported in the cave to prepare the exercise on Saturday. After a briefing on Saturday morning, the divers and some supporters entered the cave and reached the spots for the exercises. Two groups were formed. One group trained how to deal with an injured wet diver: How to keep him warm, how to treat him, the handling of the diving-stretcher etc. The other group dived with the injured diver in the stretcher through sumps and tested the handling under water. Then the groups were swapped and trained again. In total, 20 cavers participated. After the debriefing on Saturday late afternoon, the evening ended with pizza and drinks. Sunday morning there was a workshop regarding medical treatment in the cave with focus on training for non-experts in the medical sector. This exercise was one of the biggest ever made in Germany regarding cave-diving-rescue and a fully success.
