One body located after two hikers fall from trail in Central Mountain Range
An aerial search has located the body of one of two hikers who fell from a trail on a mountain in central Taiwan this morning, February 26.
The Hsinchu County Fire Department and Taichung City Fire Department dispatched a joint search and rescue operation involving 10 personnel and a helicopter, after receiving a report of the accident on Pintian Mountain on the border of the two counties, at around 11:00 am.
According to reports, a group of six hikers on the third day of a five-day hike were on a trail on Pintian Mountain when one man slipped on the icy trail and slid down a snow-covered slope. The 67-year-old man, named Chen, was left perched precariously among rocks above a more than 100-meter-high cliff.
The professional guide leading the group, a 50-year-old man named Wu, clambered down the slope in an attempt to help Chen back to the trail. However, when Wu reached out to Chen, he and Chen both tumbled over the edge of the cliff.
An aerial search located one of the men in a valley more than 100 meters below the cliff edge at 1:20 pm. Search and rescue personnel said that no signs of life were detected, and it is believed that the person had died.
The accident follows two similar incidents in the same location last year. One 50-year-old male hiker plunged to his death in May, 2021, and a 32-year-old female in December.
Pintian Mountain is located in Shei-Pa National Park. With an elevation of 3,524 m, Pintian Mountain is one of the “100 Peaks of Taiwan” – a kind of bucket list of must-do mountain hikes in Taiwan.
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