Icy Cliffhanger

Newcastle Herald

Monday November 22, 2004

By GREG WENDT

THREE Newcastle adventurers were winched to safety from a remote gorge in the Blue Mountains after they became trapped on a ledge in icy conditions during a weekend abseiling trip.

NRMA CareFlight helicopter crewman Graeme Fromberg, from Charlestown, said the men were dressed in light clothing and may not have survived the perilous conditions overnight.

"They were wet from spray from a waterfall and hypothermia [had] started to set in," Mr Fromberg said.

Temperatures in the area had plunged to eight degrees and would have fallen further overnight.

The helicopter crew and paramedics raced against time to find the men in the mist-shrouded valley on Saturday before they ran out of light for the difficult rescue operation.

Rescuers were alerted to the plight of the three men after one of them managed to text message an SOS to a friend on a mobile telephone.

The three men had been clinging to the two-metre wide ledge for about four hours.

Mr Fromberg, who has been with the rescue service for 14 years said the weather was beginning to close in when the crew spotted the men.

Pilot Jeff Konemann had to fly the rescue helicopter underneath the low cloud close to the valley walls before reaching Oronga Gorge, near the Mount Banks area of Grosse Valley.

"It's very typical Blue Mountains terrain, isolated and rugged," Mr Fromberg said.

He said paramedics were lowered by winch from the helicopter to assess the condition of the men while the helicopter hovered above the site.

NRMA CareFlight director Ian Badham said the helicopter crew found the men half way down the remote gorge about 7pm.

Mr Badham said the men, from Rankin Park and Cooks Hill, struck difficulty after they had completed a 45 metre abseil through a waterfall on Saturday morning.

He said the men were unable to recover enough of their rapelling ropes to descend the remaining 50metres into the Grosse Valley, and were unable to ascend the sheer cliff above.

"They became trapped on the ledge soaked by the spray of the waterfall," Mr Badham said. "There is simply no way they could have survived the night in light clothing on that ledge."

Oronga Gorge is listed in canyoning guides as a grade six, which is one of the sport's highest levels of difficulty.

Two Newcastle abseilers perished after they struck trouble in the Carra Beanga falls area of Kanangra Boyd National Park in June 2000.

DESCENT INTO HELL

Adventure publication Outside Online's description of a descent into Oronga canyon:

It started with a short rappel through overhanging vines, followed by a rap [rappel] from a limb into an abyss, a

dozen passageways as dark and dank as dungeons, four consecutive long rappels down overhanging rock, and an unbelievable bushwhack out, in which Rick's legs

were so severely gouged and scratched

that I could follow the drips of blood.