Two climbers marooned on a tiny ledge on a cliff face above Swellendam in the Western Cape were rescued in a daring airlift on Monday.
The men, trapped on the ledge since Sunday, were physically fit when they were brought down, said rescue organiser Kevin Tromp of Wilderness Search and Rescue.
But he added ”they would have been lucky to survive another night there: it was absolutely freezing”.
Tromp said the pair had tried to abseil down a 200 metre waterfall in Groote Kloof outside the town on Sunday, using a 50-metre rope.
After their second abseil, they reached a ledge at the very end of the rope.
Because of the elastic nature of the rope, when it was freed of their weight, it sprang out of reach, dangling ten metres above their heads. A South African Air Force Oryx helicopter was called in. A first attempt to lower a line to the men did not work, even though the helicopter was hovering with its rotors within three metres of the rock face and its winch line was fully extended, because the men
were under a small overhang.
A rescuer was then lowered from a fixed rope about 100 metres to the ledge.
As the light faded, another attempt was made with the helicopter and the rescuer managed to throw a rope around the winch hook and haul it to the ledge.
The two men were hoisted in separate lifts while the rescuer jumared back up his ropes. A jumar is a clamp attached to a fixed rope that tightens when weight is applied and relaxes when it is removed.
The rescuers identified one of the men as Albertus le Roux and the other only as Christo, both aged 32. They were unable to say where they were from. – Sapa