Spanish climber Beatriz Flamini spent 500 days in a cave 70 meters deep, devoid of natural light, contact with the outside world and references to the passage of time, in an unprecedented experiment tracked by scientists that ended this Friday.
The 500 days that Beatriz Flamini, considered an “elite athlete”, spent in a cave in southern Spain are also a new world record, surpassing all previously known cases, however, in which the isolation has never been so extreme and there was at least one clock in the cave, that is, there was a reference to the passage of time.
Beatriz Flamini’s experience is therefore considered unprecedented, due to the extreme conditions of isolation, according to the Andalusian Federation of Speleology, which supported the climber before and during her time in the cave.
The federation prepared the interior of the well before Beatriz Flamini entered, on November 20, 2022, with surveillance cameras installed.
An “exchange zone” was also created, where a support team left food, water, and other items, and where Beatriz Flamini left the garbage she produced, memory cards from a camcorder, and written notes, usually with some requests.
During this period, Beatriz Flamini never saw or spoke to anyone else.
As she said at a press conference this Friday, a few hours after leaving the cave, she also didn’t speak out loud on her own and made sure to only raise her voice when she was recording in front of a camera.
At the press conference, the sportswoman apologized for choking and justified that she had not spoken to anyone for almost a year and a half.
The idea for this experience, which Beatriz Flamini insisted this Friday was “an activity” of “an extreme athlete”, came from the climber himself, who suggested it to a documentary filmmaker.
Beatriz Flamini has dedicated herself to solo expeditions in the highest mountains in the world and is considered an expert in self-sufficiency in extreme conditions.
This experience was and is also followed from its preparation by teams of researchers from two Spanish universities, in Granada and Almeria, from areas related to health (physical and mental) and various social sciences.
Scientists observed Beatriz Flamini’s behavior and body changes in the cave, in the images collected by the cameras, and analyzed the notes she wrote and the recordings she made and left on the exchange platform.
The climber is now under further surveillance by investigators and was subjected to a medical examination as soon as she left the cave this Friday, with the initial diagnosis showing she was in apparently good general health.
In her own words, of all that scientists and doctors told her in advance that could happen to her in the cave, after a long time of isolation, she had only auditory hallucinations.
Without any sense of the time that had passed, this Friday morning Beatriz Flamini saw two cavers and a psychologist enter the room where she lived for 500 days, “when she slept”.
“I thought they were coming to tell me to leave because something happened”she said, confessing that she knows nothing about what happened in the world in these 500 days, because she was “at anchor on November 20, 2022” and felt that she had entered the cave “a while ago”.
“When I saw the light [ao sair da cova] I felt nothing because for me it had been a while since I came in”he added, without going into too much detail, as a documentary and a book about the experience are in preparation.
In addition to shooting in front of a camera, being filmed and writing, Beatriz Flamini read 60 books and drew during this period.
Support teams provided more than 1,000 liters of water and 1.5 tons of food and other equipment.
Beatriz Flamini never pressed the panic button installed in the cave, where she entered at the age of 48 and left at the age of 50.
The secret to keeping herself so balanced, apparently, was to focus “on the here and now,” she said herself, explaining that she ate when she was hungry or looked thin, slept when she was sleepy, and that she got up when she woke up. up, to read, draw or play sports, always responding to what he felt like.
Source: DN
