TWO CLIMBERS LOCATED AND RESCUED AFTER BEING REPORTED MISSING

Press release: 112-11                                                                  28 April 2011


At 22.15pm MRCC Falmouth received a 999 call from a member of a climbing group at Bosigran in North West Cornwall.

The caller reported that two of their group had last been seen at 1100 in the morning when they had gone to climb in the Great Zawn area. The group were all due to meet up again at 20.30 pm but these two had not returned.

The St Ives and Lands End Coastguard rescue teams were called out, St Ives RNLI All Weather Lifeboat and Inshore Lifeboat were requested to launch and Rescue Helicopter R193 was scrambled.

As the teams and the lifeboats were commencing their search R193 located the two climbers at the base of the cliffs at a climb called Xanadu. In order to winch the climbers from their position, the helicopter R193 had to manoeuvre right in under the cliffs even disappearing from the view of Coastguards on the cliff top.

The two climbers were winched to R193 where it was confirmed that they did not require any medical treatment. They were then put back onto the ground into the care of the Coastguard teams and their climbing party. The climbers had been climbing all day when they realised that they were still at the bottom of a big climb when they ran out of light.

They decided that it was too dangerous to climb out in the dark so they sat tight and waited for someone to come to their aid. They had mobile phones but these had been left in their rucksacks at the top of the cliff. Bosigran is a very popular climbing area with some very difficult climbs.

Terry Collins, Watch Manager, Falmouth Coastguard said:

This incident shows that even experienced climbers can get into difficulties, but they had the sense to stay in their safe position and wait for help to come to them rather than risk climbing out in the dark.

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