He’s not taking anything for granite ever again.
The Brooklyn man who was “jammed” in a slim crevice of an upstate cave for seven hours last month in a harrowing situation similar to the film “147 Hours” said the terrifying ordeal came down to one tiny slip-up.
Aidan Kirsch — who revealed himself to The Post as the mystery caver — said he was just 400 feet from exiting Merlin’s Cave in Columbia County when he lost his footing and wedged himself between two tight rocks, he told The Post Tuesday.
“The funniest part is we were basically done. We’d been in the cave exploring for five hours, and then we’re maybe ten minutes from the exit … and my foot slips,” Kirsch, 26, recalled of the incident, which occurred while he was bellycrawling through a slippery stretch known as the bear trap.
“I was trying to free myself, but I just ended up sliding down more and getting more stuck. By the time I realized that it was a serious stick, it was a little bit too late.”
Kirsch, of Bushick, had been exploring the grotto as part of a caving weekend extravaganza hosted by the regional National Speleological Society.
The non-profit worker had already visited a series of other larger caves over the previous days, and planned to cap off the exhilarating weekend by scouring the underground waterfalls and stalagmites that make Merlin’s Cave notorious.
It also marked a serious intensity escalation for Kirsch, who has been caving for just two seasons.
Merlin’s Cave is so treacherous that a minimum group of three cavers is required for excursions and all must be equipped with a helmet, three sources of light and knee pads, according to the Northeastern Cave Conservancy (NCC).
“Merlin’s cave is definitely more technical. The first few hundred feet, you’re crawling flat on your stomach, getting through twisting caverns, and then after that, you come to a mini waterfall that you have to boulder down carefully,” explained Kirsch, originally of Connecticut, adding that the cave also involves layers of mud and even a small ravine.
The group of seven was on their way out of the five-hour exploration when the major slip-up occurred: a miscalculation he chalked up to exhaustion from the physically draining weekend.
“I wasn’t being as careful,” Kirsch admitted.
The Brooklynite was pinned between the two boulders at his chest and back in what rescuers say were “basically designed [to] the exact shape of him” — like a scene from the James Franco movie “147 Hours.”
But unlike Franco and real-life mountaineer Aron Ralston, Kirsch had plenty of quick-witted cavers to aid him.
The few that were behind him in the cave rushed to grab a pickax that the NCC keeps stashed in the cave for emergencies — but the rocks refused to be chipped away at.
The cavers — who were able to climb out over the wedged Kirsch — wrapped him in a “cocoon” of blankets to ward off the 50-degree temperatures and called 911 for help.
Nine different rescue crews used hammers and a pulley system to try and free Kirsch, but it wasn’t until a rock drill arrived on the scene that the stone finally gave way just after 1 a.m.
Despite the terrifying situation, Kirsch refused to let his cool slip and spent his hours with rescuers cracking jokes, munching on Reese’s peanut butter cups and making friends with a giant porcupine that watched the entire rescue from its nest.
The self-described “silly guy” was also trying to ward off the guilt he felt for creating the situation.
“It’s embarrassing to get stuck there because it’s like, ‘Dang, now I’m inconveniencing all my friends and the people who are with me, and they have to make this whole big hoopla about getting me out of the cave,’” Kirsch recalled.
“I wanted to let others feel more at ease because it’s a tense situation … I didn’t at any point think like, ‘Man, I’m going to die in this cave.’ I wanted to make sure that everyone else felt the same way as much as possible,” he continued.
Somehow, he escaped with nothing more than a few scraps and bruises and a minor case of hypothermia.
One of the kind-hearted fire rescuers at the scene insisted that Kirsch spend the night at his home rather than risk the three-hour drive back to Brooklyn — allowing the caver to take one of the “most satisfying showers of my life.”
