Mountain search response.

Helderberg Mountains Somerset West.

On Sunday the 25th of November 2018 at 17h00 the Winelands Wilderness Search And Rescue (WSAR) unit was activated by the Western Cape Provincial Emergency Medical Services (EMS) after a call for assistance was received.

The caller had reported that a 21 year old male hiker was overdue in the Helderberg Nature Reserve. Our responders were in the process of being mobilised and dispatched when the caller made contact with the Incident Commander to provide an update. Here the caller relayed that he had a visual of someone who matched the description of the overdue hiker who was about a hundred meters from him at the time.

The Incident Commander allowed the caller some time to meet up with this person and provide a further update. During the subsequent call, it was confirmed that the person who had arrived was indeed the overdue hiker, and after it was established that the hiker was in good health and in no need of any further assistance, the WSAR teams were stood down.

WSAR would like to commend the caller for taking the initiative to dial the emergency number. We also maintain that we would rather have a “false alarm”, . . . than no alarm.

WSAR would like to urge the public to please:-

let acquaintances know of your planned route and ETA
carry a cellphone with the necessary emergency numbers saved in the contact list
not hike alone
not hesitate to use the emergency numbers