It took nearly 24 hours for a rescue team to retrieve the body of a 22-year-old woman who had fallen in the Wemmershoek mountains in the Western Cape on Sunday evening. 

The team of professionals and volunteers from Wilderness Search and Rescue (WSAR) responded to a call for help after a team of professional alien vegetation clearers reported one of their members had fallen. 

She fell as her team was descending from its remote camp in the mountains surrounding the Wemmershoek Dam, between Paarl and Franschhoek. 

Rescuers hiked in to help the woman on Sunday evening but she was found dead. 

“Due to the treacherous conditions, a decision was made to return and recover her body at first light on Monday morning,” WSAR said in a statement. 

Setting out early on Monday, the large multidisciplinary team helped police to recover the body.

Rescuers spent a little over 12 hours covering a total distance of nearly 12km, including several river crossings and nearly 900m in elevation. 

“Her body was placed into a rescue stretcher, carried back to the staging point and handed over to local police and forensic services members on scene. The incident was concluded shortly after 8pm on Monday evening.” 

TimesLIVE