Two climbers die onTable Mountain

TWO of three climbers who got into difficulties on Monday on Table Mountain’s Arrow Final‚ beneath the upper cableway station‚ were declared dead by paramedics, who lowered them from a cable car. They were a man and a woman.

The survivor‚ a woman‚ was winched into the cable car and taken to hospital.

Their names have not yet been released but it is known that the two women are foreign nationals.

About 800 tourists were stranded on the mountain until the early hours yesterday when the cable car was halted for the rescue.

A Wilderness Search and Rescue paramedic, known only as Marais, said the alarm had been raised around 5pm on Monday when cable car passengers reported seeing climbers “hanging on ropes” on Arrow Final‚ a face first climbed in 1897 and graded 11 on a scale of difficulty that ranges from 5 to 38.

“One report said one of the climbers was administering CPR [cardio-pulmonary resuscitation] on one of the others‚” said Marais.

“The Skymed helicopter was authorised to try and rescue the climbers but it was withdrawn after reporting that it could not access the climbers. The crew’s assessment was that the best way to rescue the climbers was to abseil from the cable car.”

Marais said the rescuers’ first task was to ascertain which of the climbers was alive and needed assistance. “Each of them was on their own rope and two of them were together‚” he said.

“Paramedics were lowered and we ascertained that two of the three were dead.

“We then decided that we would only continue to rescue the survivor‚ so that the cable car could be used to take all the waiting people down.”

The two bodies were secured and by 2am yesterday the cable car was available to retrieve the bodies‚ he said.

Marais was not able to comment on the nature of the climbers’ injuries and whether they were experienced or adequately equipped.

But, he said, had the climbers not been on ropes‚ they could have fallen some 300 metres.

According to the South Africa Mountain Accidents Database‚ at least 131 people have died on Table Mountain since 1980. In 2009, 15 people were killed.

Wilderness Search and Rescue technical experts were called in yesterday to rescue a dog trapped on Lion’s Head. — DDC