20-Year-Old Hiker Saved After Spending Terrifying Night Stranded on Table Mountain

• A 20-year-old hiker became stranded on a steep cliff high above Newlands on Table Mountain after losing the trail as darkness fell
• Wilderness Search and Rescue teams used a drone to locate the trapped man and speak to him while he waited alone in the dark
• A technical rescue team abseiled nearly 200 metres down the cliff face to reach the hiker after spending hours setting up a rope system

CAPE TOWN - A 20-year-old hiker spent a terrifying night trapped on a sheer cliff on Table Mountain before emergency teams pulled off a dramatic rescue that lasted 14 hours.

According to IOL, the young man had been hiking alone above Newlands on Sunday afternoon when he lost his bearings and wandered off the trail. As the light faded, he found himself on a steep and exposed section of the mountain with no safe way to move up or down. With his phone battery nearly dead, he made the call for help just in time.

Drone speaks to stranded hiker in the dark

Wilderness Search and Rescue (WSAR) teams were dispatched to the mountain, with rope rescue personnel starting their approach from the upper station of the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway. The Western Cape Government Health and Wellness EMS Drone Unit was also brought in to support the operation.

The drone proved essential, scanning the dark mountain terrain to pinpoint exactly where the hiker was and then guiding ground teams towards him. More remarkably, rescuers used it to talk directly to the frightened young man while he waited alone in the dark. WSAR said the hiker was so disoriented and exhausted that he initially thought he might be imagining the voice coming from above him before realising that help was genuinely on its way.

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Rescuers abseil 200 metres to reach him

Once teams reached the top of the cliff, a smaller technical unit rigged up a rope system and abseiled nearly 200 metres down the cliff face to reach the stranded hiker. He had not sustained any injuries during his ordeal.

Rescuers secured him into the rope system and brought him up safely. He was given food and water once he reached the top before being escorted off the mountain.

The operation did not end there. All rescue personnel still had to climb back to the upper cable station and dismantle the technical equipment before the team could leave. They caught the first cable car down on Monday morning. The entire operation wrapped up just after 7am, roughly 14 hours after the emergency call first went out.

Hiker rescued from Drakensberg mountains

Briefly News also reported that a hiker was found alive in the southern Drakensberg after vanishing in the mountains during one of the region's most brutal winter spells. The man went missing on Monday while hiking through the Garden Castle Nature Reserve, setting off an urgent overnight search operation in freezing conditions. Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife mobilised conservation teams on Monday evening after the alarm was raised. Those teams worked through the night in snow and sub-zero temperatures, searching for any sign of the missing man.

Source: Briefly News