CAPE TOWN — Wilderness Search and Rescue (WSAR) teams have concluded one of the most grueling 24-hour periods in the organization’s history after responding to seven separate emergencies across Table Mountain this weekend.
The marathon rescue effort, which stretched through the night, saw volunteers balancing a record-breaking volume of distress calls. The chaotic sequence of events concluded at 8:00 a.m. on Sunday, October 25, 2026, when an injured 24-year-old hiker was finally transported off the mountain via the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway.
The rescue of the 24-year-old was the most complex of the day. The hiker had veered off the marked trails to scramble up a rock face above Union Ravine before falling four meters onto a narrow ledge. Technical rescue teams were forced to abseil down to the patient, stabilize him, and rig a rope system to haul him 130 meters back up the cliff face to the summit. With the cableway closed for the night and high winds battering the peak, volunteers remained with the patient until staff could safely operate the cable cars the following morning.
“Our rescuers are ordinary people who make themselves available to help others,” a WSAR spokesperson said. “Sometimes that means leaving a family gathering. Sometimes it means spending the night on a mountain, caring for someone they’ve never met.”
The Saturday surge—which equals the highest number of daily incidents in the organization’s history—began with a woman falling on a trail, requiring an immediate airlift. Shortly after, a 56-year-old American tourist collapsed in the popular Platteklip Gorge. Emergency responders from the Western Cape Government Health and Wellness EMS and the Air Mercy Service were dispatched to hoist the man to safety.
As teams were already stretched thin, the calls kept coming. A man near the summit of Platteklip Gorge suffered severe muscle cramps, requiring assistance from paramedics and SANParks rangers, while a young woman was escorted out of Cecilia Forest after twisting her ankle.
The pressure mounted further when a seventh call came in during the ongoing Union Ravine operation. A 32-year-old Tunisian tourist had lost his way in the dark while descending India Venster and became stranded on the Grotto Fountain Cairn Traverse. To avoid pulling resources from the critical cliff-side rescue, a separate team was deployed to abseil from a cable car and navigate the upper mountain to reach the lost hiker.
WSAR officials emphasize that the rise in emergency calls is not necessarily due to increased carelessness among hikers, but rather the significantly higher volume of both local and international visitors hitting the trails compared to previous years. With volunteers often covering their own travel and equipment costs, the record-breaking 2026 season continues to strain the thin resources of the dedicated search and rescue teams.
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