I'd just like to give a shout out to WSAR and AMS for helping rescue a friend of mine who took a nasty fall in Suicide Gorge on Sunday. Once the cloud cover lifted they were very quick to respond and saved my friend from what would likely have been an excruciating LONG stretcher carry out of the reserve. Luckily all that was wrong in the end was a dislocated shoulder but it could have been much much worse.

As the hike leader I had briefed everyone on safety measures and was carrying a full first aid kit - something which turned out to be very useful. Where I failed was to warn people that where accidents happen is when complacency sets in. My friend later told me that he had no idea that ground he was on was dangerous at all. All it took was a minor slip to see him spill over the edge of an 8-10m drop. Needless to say I will update my pre-hike briefing.

Just having space blankets to keep the guy warm while he started going into shock in the pouring rain was a big plus. I urge everyone who visits the mountains to go prepared and that includes having the phone numbers for WSAR.

Here are two videos taken from the actual evac. One taken by myself and the other by Craig who was also there.

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I don't think, therefore I'm Not

Phone number for WSAR in the Cape: 021 937 0300

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Happy climbing
Nic

Glad to hear everything turned out good.

See this page for Emergency numbers around the country - http://www.climbing.co.za/rescue-first-aid

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Climb ZA - Administrator

We were also in the kloof just in front of you.
Conditions weren't best in the kloof and the rocks were a bit more slippery than usual.
We heard the chopper and wondered what was going on.
One of our party members also took a real nasty spill on the biggest jump and had to exit the kloof and take the long walk back with 3 other members.
On hiking up the ridge the chopper spotted them bundu bashing and actually hovered above another team on the path above so they could see where to walk to.
So in actual fact they helped avoid another incident.
We had one of the WSAR dudes in our team and he told us some hairy stories of things gone wrong in Suicide Gorge.
It really goes to show how quick things can change for the worse, especially if you're not informed and prepared.
Big Up to all the rescue people, they do amazing stuff.

Hi.
The member of our party who had the spill on the big jump is my gf. I would like to make a donation towards WSAR as a way of saying thank you.
How/where would one do that?

Thanks

Hey sybaard,

We were actually in the kloof ahead of you. We were there at opening time (06:00) and at the kloof by 09:00. We had headed up to the pool to do the bum-slide where the accident happened. We heard you guys arrive and head straight down, we never go to actually do the kloof this time around. Amazingly several of the first timers are still keen to return to do it - I'm glad.

I'm also glad you guys got out okay.

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I don't think, therefore I'm Not

Aaaah, I understand now. Yes we decided to head straight down and skip the slide.
You guys arrived really early then!
Anyway, also glad to hear everything ended well.
Danie

http://wsar.org.za/contact.html

Otherwise drop me a line at nicholaslemaitre (at) gmail (dot) com

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Happy climbing
Nic

So why were they walking back up? FYI: From the last jump (the biggest one) the quickest way out is to take the path through the pine trees and continue to Junction Pool where Riversonderend joins Suicide Gorge. From there continue up Riviersonderend until the lefthand (facing upstream) bank dips down. A path then starts from the edge of the river (quite bushy initially) and continues up to pass the obvious huge boulder. From there it is about 20-30 min to the end of the jeep track.

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Happy climbing
Nic

Thanks Nick
We were all well aware of this as we are also very familiar with the kloof.
I was referring to the first initial big jump,where you can jump from several spots. Which meant we had to travel a bit more with more jumps which was not an option.
All the best
Danie

Ok, sorry I misunderstood you. No worries

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Happy climbing
Nic