Former South Coast woman falls and dies while hiking in the berg
The missing woman was spotted in a deep, narrow gully
The body of a 40-year-old woman hiker, believed to have family ties to the South Coast, was found yesterday (Wednesday) after she went missing on Gray’s Pass in the central Drakensberg on Sunday, September 22.
The woman had camped in the valley below on Saturday night along with two of her friends.
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Early on Sunday morning they set out to climb Gray’s Pass and then to return to camp.
Two of the women did not go very far and turned around to wait for their friend who decided to carry on to the summit of the pass.
Gavin Raubenheimer, Search and Rescue convener of Mountain Club South Africa KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Section said that at about 11.30am she was seen by another group, just as she started descending the pass.
Later that day her friends raised the alarm as she had not returned.
The weather began to deteriorate on Sunday night and remained misty and rainy until Tuesday afternoon.
Late on Sunday afternoon, Mr Raubenheimer said the KZN Wildlife Monk’s Cowl ranger in-charge and three field staff set off for the search area.
They searched through the night and into the next day.
On Monday morning a joint team was set up between KZN Wildlife, the Mountain Club of South Africa and the SAPS Search and Rescue unit, including four search dogs.
Mr Raubenheimer said a full rescue plan was set up with the ops room at Monk’s Cowl.
Teams then had to leave on foot for the four hour hike to get to the search area.
A secondary base was set up at Keith Bush Camp below Gray’s Pass. Searching then went on by ground teams in five different sectors and in thick mist.
By late Tuesday, the missing woman had not been found.
“Then late on Tuesday there was break in the weather and an air search began with two helicopters being deployed. On the second sortie the missing woman was spotted in a deep, narrow gully and appeared to have fallen about 25m. She was presumed dead,” he said.
On Wednesday morning, the joint team extracted her body from the gully, using ropes and a stretcher.
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