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General Climbing Discussion

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Arapiles Benightment 30-Sep-2010 At 6:35:31 PM another dave

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I know part of the story as I made the call.
Sorry about any hassels to you guys, you do a great job.

I am in Sydney and a bunch of my mates went to araps most are very experienced with knowing there way around araps. Anyway the two who got benighted had little to no knowledge of the area. They climbed Syrinx, I have no idea what time they started, if they had head torches, guide book, or shoes etc. I am also very aware that it can be difficult to find the way off Syrinx if you have never been there before in day light.
They called me at 2013 and asked me to alert a rescue and try to get in contact with the guys staying in the pines. Then the phone dropped out. We re-established contact twice more before dropping out before anything meaningful was said.
I then contacted 000 gave the directions as best I could. I alerted 000 that part of the party was staying in the pines.
Edit: I tried for close to 20mins trying to raise them again before calling 000. I also continued to try to contact them after calling 000.
I msged the guys in the pines in the hope a msg would get through. I was not expecting it to as I am aware of the poor reception in the area and the likely hood of the phones being off. The msgs got through. I know the guys headed up to look for the two missing. I recieved that msg at 2031.
I recieved another msg at 2106 in which they said they had been discovered at Missing link. At which point I contacted 000 again and alerted them that they where safe.
So I don't know what happened anytime after 2106.

I understand that the NSW 000 guys had to forward the msg on to the VIC 000 guys.

All I can say is thanks to the guys who got called out.

I feel I acted in the best way considering my knowledge of there experience and there knowledge of the area. I think it is a scenario that could very well have become a disaster.
I have never participated in a rescue so if you guys who do would like to add any information on what should have been done in regards to alerting emergency services please do.

>I'd be grateful if someone could enlighten me. I'm puzzled as to why there
>was such confusion as to the climbers location as they had phone contact
>with Police. Surely they had a good enough idea of their location to give
>us a more reliable indicator?
In answer to your question I guess it is because the call was made from Sydney.
I msged them and got no response. And I was unable to establish a connection.