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Hollow mountain accident 28/4/2018 2-May-2018 At 12:20:08 PM gfdonc

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Interesting case in point:
Last month we (no names) were in at Wurzlegummage Walls when the wife ("X") of one of the climbers decided to de-camp back to the car by herself and drive back to base. We were up the RH end and didn't know this, until we heard screams coming from the LH end of the cliff.

Fearing the worst, we dropped everything (3 of us happened to all be on the ground), grabbed a spare rope, first aid kit and PLB and ran for it.

Turned out X had slipped on one of the rockier sections of track, fallen badly and made a major gash in her shin. There's no mobile reception there.

I had my PLB but our assessment was to self-extract, which we did. 2 of the burliest fittest guys, plus me, took turns piggy-backing down the track. About an hour later X was in Stawell hospital having 13 stitches in her lower leg, and made it back to Halls Gap for dinner.

I can't help but speculate how it might have panned out if we'd escalated the issue to the rescue services. The track is OK but steep, and I expect we'd have been waiting 1-2 hours to start the rescue process.