Injured hiker and rescue team airlifted out of Wit Els River Gorge

An injured female hiker‚ her escort and an eight-member rescue team who were forced to spend the night in the Wit Els River Gorge in Wolseley in the Western Cape after rescue attempts had to be abandoned on Friday owing to difficult conditions were successfully airlifted out of the kloof on Saturday morning.

A rescue helicopter operated by the Western Cape Department of Health’s Air Mercy Service (AMS) was dispatched to the area at about 11am on Friday after the woman injured herself while hiking the kloofing trail.

The helicopter searched the searched the area for more than one hour trying to locate the woman and her escort who initially made contact with emergency services to call for help. A technical rescuer who is also a medical doctor was deployed by the rescue helicopter into the river gorge to search for them. A ground rescue team was also engaged in the search.

“When the patient was found by the technical rescuer and ground team‚ due to the position where the patient was located the patient could not be hoisted‚” AMS said.

“The medical doctor/technical rescuer confirmed that the patient was in a stable condition and the team will attempt to walk to a position where the helicopter could extract the patient‚” it added.

However‚ a joint decision was made by the ground rescue manager and the aero-medical rescue team for the rescue helicopter to return to base due to the following factors: high temperatures‚ the width of the canyon was too narrow for the helicopter to attempt to do the extrication and the possibility of running out of fuel.

Radio communication with the team was also very difficult due to the location.

“The helicopter had to fly high up from the staging area on the ground to communicate with the team‚ thus ensuring the patient and rescue team was safe and medically the patient was stable enough to be walked out of the current position.

“Upon returning to the base to refuel the Western Cape Department of Health EMS/ AMS rescue helicopter was dispatched to Wupperthal in the Cederberg mountains for a motor vehicle accident (mva) involving a truck. One patient was transported to Citrusdal Provincial Hospital. Due to fading daylight the rescue helicopter was unable to return to Wit Els to extricate the patient and rescue team‚” AMS said.

The rescue team spent the night with the woman and her escort on the mountain. At first daylight on Saturday they were all hoisted off the Wit Els mountain‚ it added.