500 days in a cave without knowing the passage of time, challenge of an athlete

The elite Spanish athlete, mountaineer and climber, Beatriz Flamini, left this Friday the cave in which she remained alone for 500 days at a depth of 70 meters, without being able to determine the passage of time, a challenge that she defined as “excellent and second to none”.

Sometimes dazed and always smiling, Flamini appeared, without sunglasses, before the press shortly after to recount this challenge, now a world record, which has given him moments “difficult and very beautiful” for more than sixteen months, in which he never found a way to find out the passing of the days.

The athlete acknowledged that during the time she was underground she experienced complicated moments such as an invasion of flies or auditory hallucinations, but that the “trick” to face extreme situations is to focus “in the here and now”.

Not yet knowing what happened in the world during this time –”I am anchored on November 21, 2021″, the date on which it entered- said, this elite athlete assured that she never thought of leaving, “In fact, I didn’t want to go out.”

Flamini acknowledged that she knew before entering the risks, especially psychological ones, that she faced, but nothing that the psychologists wrote down has happened to her, except “auditory hallucinations because you are silent and the brain invents them”.

He did need to have the journalists’ questions repeated on occasion about the loss of short-term memory that these situations create, which will serve as mental strength training for other projects he has in mind.

The athlete, who entered a cave in the Granada town of Motril (south) at the age of 48, came out with her 50th birthday. Throughout this time she had the support of the speleologist Francisco Hoyos, coordinator of the assistance who has cared for her at the shade.

Early today two speleologists and a psychologist went down to the cave to provide coverage for the athlete on her way out, which lasted about 40 minutes.

At the exit, he thanked the professionalism of the group of psychologists, speleologists and physical trainers involved in the project because without them it would not have been possible, he said.

During all this time, she was leaving video cards that she recorded in an area of ​​the cave programmed with speleologists, where food delivery and garbage removal also took place, without any communication.

This experience is part of the project “Timecave”, It began two years ago, when this passionate about solo expeditions to the highest peaks in the world and an expert in self-sufficiency contacted the producer Dokumalia to challenge her to remain alone and without outside contact in a cave for 500 days.

The producer recorded her daily life 70 meters underground, which research groups from the universities of Granada and Almería have closely followed to study how social isolation and extreme temporal disorientation affect the perception of time.

In addition to the neuropsychological changes that this tremendous challenge has entailed in the face of loneliness, the absence of natural light and cognitive and social isolation.

Source: EFE