Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - Accidents & Injuries

Report Accidents and Injuries

Topic Date User

Narrow Neck abseiling accident 10-Jan-2007 At 2:18:04 PM BigMike

Message

Abseiler trapped seven hours after fall

A 25-year-old man lay seriously injured for seven hours at the bottom of a cliff in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, after a night abseiling accident.
Rescue services said the man, from Kingsford in Sydney's eastern suburbs, had been abseiling during the night with two friends at Devil's Hole, off the Narrow Neck plateau south of Katoomba, when he plummeted three metres from a ledge at 1am (AEDT).

The 25-year-old fell onto his chest, sustaining serious injuries, but remained conscious despite severe pain.

One of the man's companions stayed with him while the other walked out from the cliff base to call for help.

Two ambulance paramedics from Katoomba and three police rescue officers walked in to comfort the man.

Once dawn broke, an NRMA CareFlight helicopter was able to winch in a paramedic and trauma doctor to treat the man, spokesman Ian Badham said.

The man was airlifted to Nepean Hospital, Penrith, where he remained in a serious but stable condition, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Night abseiling is not uncommon and poses little more danger to an experienced abseiler than its daytime equivalent, according to local mountaineering school owner Glen Nash.

"Abseiling is just a technique, a rope technique,'' Mr Nash said.

"People do it in the dark in caves, they do it in the dark in canyons, they do it at night-time after they get off long climbs.''

AAP