The man was wedged in a crevice at Merlin’s Cave and experiencing hypothermia, forcing rescuers to drill through rock inches from his body.

A cave explorer got stuck in a narrow crevice and developed hypothermia. Rescuers brought him miniature Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups to keep his energy up.

On the afternoon of May 17, a group of five experienced cavers dropped into a craggy limestone hole in the ground known as Merlins Cave, a popular caving destination located in Canaan, New York, two miles from the Massachusetts border.

A permitted trip for experienced cavers turned into a confined space rescue in the town of Canaan on Sunday, May 17. It took first responders close to 6.5 hours to remove the man trapped in Merlins Cave.

Gullen said he and a member of the Albany-Schoharie Cave Rescue Team worked for nearly two hours to free the man and were able to move him 6 to 10 inches. At that point, they retrieved a hammer drill to chip away at the rock — drilling inches from the man’s head and following up with a hammer before they were finally after to extricate him.