3 Hikers Perish in Swartberg

[Nanfeishen]

Even fully prepared and equipped rescuers struggled to get through the thick snow, heavy rain and winds in the Swartberg mountains where three experienced hikers from Cape Town died of apparent exposure.

Charmaine Appels, 46, Berenice Jongbloed, 50 and Debbie Raubenheimer, 51, died along the mountain path near Oudtshoorn.

Three others survived the ordeal.

Oudtshoorn police station spokesman Louis Visser said the six, from Bellville and Kuils River, had started out on a five-day hiking trail on Sunday.

It would have been their seventh successful five-day hike had they completed the trail. Experienced hikers Appels and Jongbloed climbed Mount Kilamanjaro in January.

http://www.capetimes.co.za/?fSectionId=&fArticleId=vn20090929041706383C921933

http://www.news24.com/Content/South...9-09-2009-09-12/Hikers_distraught_over_deaths

Sad ending for what should have been a rather good hike.

 

[USZA]

I heard it on the radio this morning yes. Sad indeed.

 

[ponder]

Sad. But you must be an idiot to go hinking in the weather we have experienced since the beginning of last week.

 

[Alan]

Sad. But you must be an idiot to go hinking in the weather we have experienced since the beginning of last week.

and at least one was experienced

She was an outdoors person and loved hiking. She belonged to a hiking club."

He said his mother had climbed Kilimanjaro earlier this year.

Thankfully there were no causalities among the rescuers.

 

[kilos]

Shame very sad, but what weather to go hiking in, I suppose they did not not they the weather turned bad.
I was in a similar situation hiking on top of the Amphitheater in the Drakensberg, weather turned bad (got lost in the mist, raining, cold) but thank goodness it did not snow. We found a overhang of rocks (could not find Ifidi cave) an slept their the night.

Thats why you cannot always rely on a mobile signal only and have to rely on devices like Personal Locator Beacons (PLB) thay transmit your GPS co-ordinates to a GEOS monitoring organisation or you can use the Spot Satellite Messenger (not sure if their is coverage in SA yet)

Spot is due to release a smaller product soon http://bit.ly/1308FI