Johann Westhauser: 12 Days to Carry One Man Out of Germany's Deepest Cave | 5 Minute Strange

In June two thousand and fourteen, German cave researcher Johann Westhauser was struck by falling rock more than one thousand metres underground in the Riesending cave system in the Bavarian Alps — Germany's deepest cave. He suffered serious head and chest injuries and could not climb out. Before rescue could even begin, one of his companions had to spend over ten hours climbing to the surface just to raise the alarm. What followed was one of the most technically complex cave rescues in European history.In this episode of 5 Minute Strange, we cover the eleven-day operation that brought Westhauser back to the surface — the hundreds of rescuers from across Europe who descended in shifts, the underground bivouacs where teams handed over the stretcher in the dark, the narrow passages and vertical climbs that had to be navigated with an injured man who could not move freely, and the moment on June nineteenth when daylight finally reached him again after nearly twelve days underground.Subscribe to 5 Minute Strange for a new true story every weekday. One mystery. Five minutes. No explanation.#5MinuteStrange #JohannWesthauser #TrueCrime #MysteryPodcast #CaveRescue #TrueStoriesYouNeverKnew #RiesendingCave #Bavaria #DeepCaveRescue #StrangeButTrueJohann Westhauser cave rescue, Riesending cave rescue Germany, deepest cave rescue Germany 2014, cave rescue Bavaria Alps, Johann Westhauser twelve days underground, European cave rescue operation, injured caver one kilometre underground, Riesending Hoehle rescue, true crime podcast, mystery podcast, cave rescue stories, 5 minute strange, short mystery podcast, strange true stories, Dark Whisper Studios