Man hurt at famed Totem Pole Climber rescued in 12-hour drama
AN injured rockclimber spent nearly 12 hours dangling over the ocean and rugged sea cliffs as highly trained rescuers hauled him to safety.
The rescue mission on the Tasman Peninsula was yesterday described as “out of the box”.
Marine and Rescue Service police and paramedics responded to a report of a climber who had injured himself about 8pm on Monday.
Senior Constable Chris Williams said the 26-year-old local man suffered a spinal injury after hitting a rock face while using a traverse line to cross from the Totem Pole sea stack back to Cape Hauy.
“Due to the remote location of the injured man, the Westpac Rescue Helicopter winched a paramedic and police rescue crewmen to the patient,” he said.
“An assessment was conducted by the crew and the safest option to retrieve the patient was with a team of search and rescue roping specialists.”
Senior Constable Williams said the roping specialists worked through the night hauling the injured man 45m from his location to a ledge.
He was then carried 200m over “rough steep scrubby exposed cliff top” to the Cape Hauy lookout where he was winched to the helicopter.
“The height of the cliffs, strong winds and darkness made this a very challenging and technical rescue with 18 winches conducted to insert crew to the location and retrieve the man up the cliff and into the Westpac Rescue Helicopter,” Senior Constable Williams said.
“We do some pretty extreme rescues down here in Tassie because we’ve got some fantastic coastline and some beautiful mountains but that one was out of the box.”
Two experienced female international climbers remained with the man until he was transported to the Royal Hobart Hospital in a stable condition.
Rescue crews returned to their Hobart base about 7.30am yesterday.
Well-known rock climber Paul Pritchard nearly died trying to tackle the Totem Pole in 1998 when a TV-sized boulder fell and struck him in the head. The injury left Mr Pritchard with only limited movement in his right side.