{"id":505664,"date":"2026-02-26T16:10:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T16:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/505664\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T16:10:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T16:10:13","slug":"hikers-found-after-24-hour-rescue-mission-in-snowy-mountains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/505664\/","title":{"rendered":"Hikers found after 24-hour rescue mission in Snowy Mountains"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two hikers have been rescued during a complex 24-hour mission in remote terrain in the Snowy Mountains, which involved crews navigating 350-metre cliffs.<\/p>\n

The two young women were hiking in the New South Wales back country at Watsons Crags when they became stranded on a ledge on Tuesday evening and called for help.<\/p>\n

NSW State Emergency Services (SES) Snowy Monaro local commander Chief Inspector Malika Bailey said crews were working against the clock, with nightfall approaching and “atrocious” weather conditions ahead.<\/p>\n

“We had [wind] gusts up to 80 kilometres,” Ms Bailey said.<\/p>\n

“We had horizontal rain and heavy rain. We had strong winds. We had some lightning \u2026 so we had significant weather concerns.”\"Rescue<\/p>\n

Crews worked through the night.\u00a0 (Supplied: NSW State Emergency Service)<\/p>\n

A crew of 14 specialist alpine search and rescue volunteers travelled kilometres by vehicle and carried equipment on foot, before having to undertake a 350-metre vertical descent to rescue the hikers.<\/p>\n

The crews had to descend the cliffs with a rope before making their way back up after rescuing the hikers.<\/p>\n

“It was far away, and it was significant technical work,” Ms Bailey said.<\/p>\n

“When we receive such a call, we have a significant amount of gear and organisation to prepare.<\/p>\n

“This can be life-threatening [work].”<\/p>\n

A challenging rescue<\/p>\n

Ms Bailey said her team was well used to operating in the unusual terrain of the NSW alps, but this was one of the more complex rescues they had undertaken.<\/p>\n

“Mother Nature is very cheeky,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We always prepare for the worst and hope for the best.<\/p>\n

\"Rescue<\/p>\n

The SES crews worked for 24 hours to rescue the hikers.\u00a0 (Supplied: NSW State Emergency Service)<\/p>\n

“We don’t go out there with just plan A and expect that it’s going to work beautifully.”<\/p>\n

Ms Bailey said it was challenging to manage the fatigue of crews, who persisted through the conditions.<\/p>\n

The hikers also had “sufficient gear”, including food, water and suitable clothing with them, and were prepared for a multi-day trek before running into trouble.<\/p>\n

The SES managed to bring the two women to safety last night, about 24 hours after the initial call for help.<\/p>\n

There were no injuries reported from the hikers or the search and rescue crews.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The crews faced challenging weather conditions, including fog.\u00a0 (Supplied: NSW State Emergency Service)<\/p>\n

Rugged, unrelenting terrain<\/p>\n

Watsons Crags is a remote area in the back country of the Snowy Mountains, located east of Geehi in Kosciuszko National Park.<\/p>\n

Geehi is the location where 23-year-old hiker Hadi Nazari spent two weeks lost in the wilderness<\/a> at the start of 2025, which was then labelled the most rugged terrain in the state.<\/p>\n

Back country ski and hiking guide Doug Chatten said the unrelenting environment was not for inexperienced hikers.<\/p>\n

“Watsons Crags is on the watershed of the highest part of the [main range of the] Great Dividing Range,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Doug Chatten is a tour guide in the NSW Snowy Mountains.\u00a0 (Supplied: Doug Chatten)<\/p>\n

“Summer, winter, 24-7, it’s just an unforgivable place that you just want to have all your ducks in a line when you’re in that area.”<\/p>\n

With over 30 years experience hiking and skiing in the region, Mr Chatten said the rescue mission was a timely reminder for hikers to prepare adequately before entering the NSW alps.<\/p>\n

“It’s unrelenting, and it’s all steep,” he said.<\/p>\n

“If you’re not comfortable in that sort of an area \u2014 even if your skills are good \u2014 you can be a bit overcome by the exposure<\/p>\n

“And you can find yourself in a very uncomfortable situation very easily.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two hikers have been rescued during a complex 24-hour mission in remote terrain in the Snowy Mountains, which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[165992,253931,253932,43,119462,125786,53472,253933,35068,44,4277,213999,253935,41774,253936,253934,33608,25210,151289,32635,41,39,42,40,253937],"class_list":{"0":"post-505664","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-bad-weather","9":"tag-geehi","10":"tag-hadi-nazari","11":"tag-headlines","12":"tag-hikers","13":"tag-hiking","14":"tag-kosciuszko-national-park","15":"tag-missing-hikers","16":"tag-mountain","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-nsw-police","19":"tag-nsw-state-emergency-services","20":"tag-rescue-crew","21":"tag-rescue-operation","22":"tag-rough-terrain","23":"tag-search-and-rescue-mission","24":"tag-ses","25":"tag-snowy-mountains","26":"tag-state-emergency-service","27":"tag-survival","28":"tag-top-news","29":"tag-top-stories","30":"tag-topnews","31":"tag-topstories","32":"tag-watsons-crags"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}