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Emergency Call-out Reports Stranded mountain climbers at Wilgepoort 28 March, 2001 Early in the evening of Sunday, 28 March, A81 Andrew alerted W97 Dagan to a developing situation in the Wilgepoort Mountains near Bronkhorstspruit in Mpumalanga. A group of Mountain Club of South Africa hikers had spent the weekend in the area but had run into a potential problem after finishing a route too late in the evening to egress safely to the car park. At 18h37 a Code Yellow was issued advising that four vehicles were required to assist the Mountain Search and Rescue team and at 18h44, a Code Orange went out for Team 1 consisting of T68 Simon (Filed Team Leader); W97 Dagan; T81 Ian; Q75 Bev; V75 Johan and M95 Chris. Instructions were to rendezvous with MSAR members at Lonehill Fire Station. At 18h46 the Code Red was sent and by 19h15 all vehicles were at the RV, and the convoy departed for the scene at 19h30. The team arrived on scene at 21h25 and began setting up JOC, and preparing kit for the mission. The team was briefed by MSAR members Mike and Fish, both of whom had been with the MCSA group for the weekend, and at 22h20 MSAR members Dean (V93), Andrew (A81), Mike, Roeloff and Fish, accompanied by ORRU members M95 Chris; V75 Johan and T81 Ian left JOC to begin the extraction. T81, V75 and M95 were tasked with accompanying the MSAR team as far as the river, our thinking being that they would then know the ingress route should the need arise for ORRU to walk in and assist, and they could also act as relay should radio comms fail in the mountainous area. From the river, the MSAR team would set up a traverse on a sheer rock face, cross a gully, then ascend to the stranded hikers and assist them to get back to JOC. T68 Simon, Q75 Bev and W97 Dagan remained to run JOC and to have refreshments ready for when the team returned. Forty minutes after departing JOC, the team arrived at the swollen river and began planning the traverse. M95 Chris accompanied MSAR whilst T81 and V75 waited at the river. To give an indication of the terrain the team was covering - at one point they covered a distance of just 51m in two hours! Radio comms were working well. T68 had erected a six-metre mast and working on cross-band repeat could communicate with all team members on handheld. JOC was also in contact with the stranded party via cell phone SMS. T81 and V75 returned to JOC at 00h35 as relay was not necessary. By 01h40, mist had rolled in, we could hear occasional thunder and the ascent to the hikers was becoming slippery and dangerous, so A81 Andrew made the decision for the team to dig-in for the night and resume at first light. This message was relayed to the hikers above on a ledge, who reported that they were fine and all OK to spend the night. By now the team was running low on water and radio and cell phone batteries needed to be conserved so all parties switched off and would be checking in every hour, unless an emergency occurred. At 02h10, T81 and V75 again left JOC to RV with M95 - taking more water and spare batteries for the team. Mike and Fish had business commitments on Monday, as did V75 and T81, so at 02h20 Mike and Fish began the hike back to JOC. T81 and V75 would drop the supplies with M95 and return immediately to drive home in convoy. The route was now marked with chemical light sticks, making navigation much easier and T81 and V75 made the trip to the traverse in half the time it had originally taken. Mike, Fish, T81 and the '75's departed for home at 04h10 and were all home safely by 07h30. At 06h10, the rescue resumed and by 06h44 V93 Dean reported that he could see and hear the stranded party. At 06h49 V93 arrived on the ledge and met Ursula, Allan and Tinus, and at 07h05 the extraction process began. By 08h30, all climbers had made the abseil off the ledge and by 09h12 they were ready to begin the traverse. The rescue team and the three relieved hikers were back at JOC by 10h45 and coffee and biscuits were enjoyed by all. A debriefing was held, JOC dismantled, and after inflating a flat tyre, and jump-starting both of the hikers' vehicles, we departed at noon for home. W97 and M95 took MSAR personnel back to their vehicles at Lone Hill Fire Station, and the Code Green was issued at 15h04, once all members were safely home. Another successful mission working with MSAR! My thanks and well done to all concerned. T68 Simon The MSAR Technical Report Three climbers (a very experienced traditional leader but who was unfamiliar with the crag, along with two less experienced climbers - one of which has never abseiled before) on a MCSA meet climbed a 16-ish multi-pitch traditional route at Wilgepoort. They finished the route very late and were overcome by rain, thunder and darkness without decent gear on the "normal descend route" (the words route and normal are used in their most general sense as it is a wide ramp with numerous ledges, slabs, trees, loose rock and dirt/mud parts). The climbers had one cell phone between them. Mike and Fish who were climbing there as part of the MCSA meet raised the alarm. An unplanned bivvy is as much a part of mountaineering as is smelly boots and hence the urgency was rather low as the situation was stable. Nevertheless, the South African Air Force was informed and it was decided that a team of two MSAR members (to supplement Mike and Fish who was there already) supported by several ORRU vehicles would respond via road, leaving from Lone Hill to meet up with Dean on his way from a day of climbing at Grootkloof. The exact location of the party was not known but the climbers wisely decided to sit tight and wait for us or the next morning (after having abseiled two rope lengths down the descend route). Arriving on scene at 21h25 ORRU took charge of the base whilst a team of five MSAR members and three ORRU members started making their way on foot to the crag at night (heavily laden with 100m rope, rack and all the usual trimmings but minus some other stuff - see debrief notes). The swollen river meant a different access route was taken which included a rather exposed grass and rock traverse which the heavy rain turned into a slip-and-slide with potential for a rather nasty ride down to the dammed up river below. The path was marked with numerous cyalume sticks. Having done it earlier (and dry) in the day, Mike led the traverse on (personal) dynamic rope and traditional gear and placed protection as he went leaving the rope in situ for the rest who followed the "2-pitch" traverse on Prussics. M95 Chris (ORRU) stayed at the traverse from where he had a clear (moonlit) view of the climbers as well as the route the rescuers would take and from where he could help with directions if needed. Crossing the bottom slopes and slabs of the crag Roelof took a rather spectacular wipe-out and the team (wisely) decided to call it quits at around 01h40 the morning and wait for first light (underneath the huge boulder that those who have been part of the previous Wilgepoort rescue will remember). Two MSAR and two ORRU members returned to base. At this stage cell comms with the stuck party also dried up to SMSes due to falling battery power and we changed to a regime of scheduled contacts on SMS only - leaving the cell turned off at other times (the stuck party used the light from the cell to indicate their position - very useful indeed). At first light A81 Andrew and Dean tried to avoid the slimy and moss-covered rock by leading one pitch up the descend route to meet the stuck party who by that stage had abseiled another pitch. That was just in time as the climbers were intending to abseil down the wrong part of the descend route down a sheer face which probably would have been too high for their ropes and a potential little rescue problem. From there on things went fairly smoothly and two abseils later the climbers were reunited with their torches, rain gear, water and the like. The whole group reversed the route including the now slightly better-behaved traverse (but still using Prussics) and got back to the base / parking area at 10h45 - a nice 24 hour round trip for the climbers. Murphy had the last say in ensuring that BOTH the climber's vehicles had dead batteries which gave ORRU the honours to complete the rescue in good style. Some things that worked well:
Some of the lessons learnt / debrief points
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