re: As far as worst ways to go..getting stuck in a cave has to be up there

Worse is becoming a tourist attraction. LINK

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The Collins family owned Crystal Cave, a tourist cave in the same general area as the Mammoth Caves. Although beautiful, Crystal Cave attracted a disappointingly low number of tourists because of its remote location. Collins hoped to find another entrance to the Mammoth Caves or possibly a new cave along the road to the Mammoth Caves and to draw some of the visitors to them. He made an agreement with three farmers who owned land closer to the main highway. If he found a cave with commercial potential on their land, the owners would pay to develop the cave, and Collins would share in the profits from operating it as a tourist attraction. Working alone over three weeks, he explored and expanded a hole that would later be named "Sand Cave" by news media.

On January 30, 1925, after several hours of work, Collins managed to squeeze through several narrow passageways; he claimed he had discovered a large chamber, though this was never verified. Because his lamp was dying, he had to leave quickly before exploring the chamber. He became trapped in a small passage on his way out. He accidentally knocked over his lamp, putting out the light, and in the dark he dislodged a rock from the ceiling, pinning his left leg. The rock weighed only 16 pounds (7.2 kg), but it was wedged in where neither he nor rescuers could reach it.

Collins was trapped just 150 feet (50 m) from the entrance. After being found the next day by friends, crackers were taken to him, and an electric light was run down the passage to provide him light and some warmth. Collins survived for over a week while rescue efforts were made. On February 4, the cave passage used to reach Collins collapsed in two places. Rescue leaders, chief among them being Henry St. George Tucker Carmichael, believing the cave impassable and too dangerous, began to dig a shaft to reach the chamber behind Collins. The 55-foot (18 m) shaft and subsequent lateral tunnel intersected the cave just above Collins, but when he was finally reached on February 17, he was already dead from exposure and hunger. As they did not reach him from the rear, the rescuers could not free his leg. The rescuers left his body where it lay and filled the shaft with debris. A doctor estimated he had died three or four days before he was reached, February 13 being the most likely.

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Newspaper reporter William Burke "Skeets" Miller of the Louisville, Ky., Courier-Journal reported on the rescue efforts from the scene. Miller, of small stature, was able to remove a lot of earth from around Collins. He also interviewed Collins in the cave, receiving a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage and playing a part in Collins' attempted rescue. Miller's reports were distributed by telegraph and were printed by newspapers around the country and abroad, and the rescue attempts were followed by regular news bulletins on the new medium of broadcast radio (the first broadcast radio station KDKA having been established in 1920). Shortly after the media arrived, the publicity drew crowds of tourists to the site, at one point numbering in the tens of thousands. Vendors set up stalls to sell food and souvenirs, creating to a circus-like atmosphere. The Sand Cave rescue attempt grew to become the third-biggest media event between the world wars. (The biggest media events of that time both involved Charles Lindbergh—the trans-Atlantic flight and his son's kidnapping—and Lindbergh actually had a minor role in the Sand Cave rescue, too, having been hired to fly photographic negatives from the scene for a newspaper.) Since the nearest telegraph station was in Cave City, some miles from the cave, two amateur radio operators with the callsigns 9BRK and 9CHG provided the link to pass messages for the authorities and the press

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Reminds me of this Louis CK bit.
I hate watching YouTube vids but this is well worth then4 min
LINK

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If I ever die that way (I won't, not a shot in hell), just leave my body there. Seriously.

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They did. Never got him out and sealed it at the request of his family.

This is my nightmare. I'm so claustrophobic that it you put a pillow over my face when I'm sleeping, you will get injured in the process of me waking up. It terrifies me and I will wake up swinging.

My brother learned this the hard way and still fricks me to this day

What's the point in caving? Is it for exercise purposes? Exploration?

Exploration brah. Think about how much of the underground world hasn't been seen. There's a lot still to discover about our planet from caves. Also it's just cool to be somewhere very few or no other human has ever seen before. Not a lot of places you can still say that. I've done my share of amateur caving and exploring old mines and shite but I would never go somewhere I have to squeeze through or thought I might mot be able to get back from

Caving is actually really cool. I went this weekend, and it wasn't a very big cave (at least the part I explored) but it's a huge rush navigating passageways and repelling down walls. Just make sure you have extra lights.. If you shut your lamp out, it will be pitch black.

spelunkers are .... select one (crazy, asking for it, playing with fire).

I will go with ALL THE ABOVE.

I have nightmares about being caught in tight places. No thanks.