Kuna man rescued from Tipanuk cave

The Elmore County Search and Rescue team freed a 31-year-old Kuna man trapped inside a cave near Tipanuk around 11 p.m. Sept. 9.

The man, Trevor Cook, was one of about eight people from Kuna who came to Smith's Crack specifically to explore the cave.

According to Jim Nolan, outgoing head of the county search and rescue team, the group of amateur explorers went into Smith's Crack earlier that afternoon. As they began to leave, the man became lodged in one of the tighter sections of the cave, located several hundred feet inside.

"There are some very tight spots in there, and bigger folks tend to have problems (at that one section)," Nolan said.

It was a "real cookie cutter" rescue, according to Nolan. Aside from the occasional injury, nearly every rescue inside that cave involves people who get stuck at the same point, he said.

Smith's Crack remains a popular destination for amateur and veteran spelunkers ­-- the official name for cave explorers -- with hundreds of people traveling from as far as the Boise valley to visit, Nolan said. Most caves in southern Idaho are lava tubes formed by volcanic activity approximately 17,000 years ago. Smith's Crack is actually a fissure -- a crack that opened when lava from the volcanoes cooled.