Ain’t no mountain high enough to stop teens having a rave, it seems, but members of the Wilderness Search And Rescue (WSAR) in South Africa’s Cape Town weren’t in a party mood last weekend when they were called out to a peak named Lions Head after a hiker alerted them to an “unconscious teen lying in a fetal position”.
Arriving at the peak, volunteers for WSAR found the teen surrounded by DJ equipment and scattered empty bottles of alcohol. Not your usual mountain rescue scene.
Kosta Papageorgiou, chairperson of Friends of Lions Head and Signal Hill, was halfway through his daily climb up to the summit (he’s currently in the midst of a challenge to summit Lion’s Head 1,000 times, which is a story in itself) when at around 7.30pm local time he was, “alerted by one of the trail’s regular users that there was a party happening on the summit that involved a live DJ, including electronic DJ equipment, a generator and a mixing table.”
Posted by WSARWesternCape on
On reaching the summit, Papageorgiou found the teen amongst abandoned party debris, “lying in a fetal position, seemingly suffering from dehydration, heat stroke, and likely intoxication with closed eyes and some bystanders looking to help where they can.”
Papageorgiou called the emergency services, and the WSAR, which had had a busy Saturday already having been called out a number of time already, had to cancel a training session to attend.
Paramedics from the Western Cape Department of Health & Wellness EMS, helped by WSAR volunteers and Table Mountain National Park Rangers helped the teen regain consciousness, then assisted him down the mountain. He was driven home by a family member and the incident was concluded shortly before 3am on Sunday morning local time.
David Nel, spokesperson for the Wilderness Search and Rescue (WSAR), expressed dismay over, “the blatant disregard for both the environment and fellow mountain enthusiasts”.
Hiking around Cape Town is gaining a poor reputation at the moment with many incidents of muggings in Table Mountain National Park. Incidents like this aren’t going to help.
- The best hiking shoes 2024: for warm weather hiking comfort
