The mountains around Geehi do not forgive the unprepared. When two women in their 20s called for help after becoming stranded on a rock face near the edge of a 350-metre cliff in Kosciuszko National Park around 6pm on Tuesday, the conditions facing rescuers were as formidable as the terrain itself: steep, remote, and wrapped in fog.
A crew of 14 NSW State Emergency Service volunteers mobilised and trekked through the night to reach the women, who had become stuck on a rock in the park's Geehi area. The rescue, which involved a full vertical abseil operation down the cliff face, took close to 24 hours from the initial emergency call to final retrieval.
NSW SES Snowy Monaro Local Commander Chief Inspector Malika Bailey described conditions that tested even experienced emergency responders. "We had to complete a 350-metre vertical rescue, and at times the fog meant we couldn't see two metres in front of us," she said. Her crews pressed on regardless, guided by interagency coordination and the fact that the women, to their credit, had come reasonably well equipped.
The hikers had food, water, and weatherproof clothing with them when they became stuck, a detail Bailey acknowledged played a meaningful role in the outcome. "Thanks to strong interagency coordination and the preparedness of the hikers, all members of the group were located and safely retrieved," she said. Both women were assessed by paramedics at the scene and did not require hospitalisation.
The rescue raises a question that recurs every season in Australia's alpine regions: how much responsibility do hikers bear, and how much falls to the state when things go wrong? From a fiscal standpoint, large-scale operations like this one, drawing on SES volunteers, paramedics, and interagency logistics, carry real costs. Some argue that hikers who venture into remote terrain without adequate preparation should face a greater share of those costs, a debate that surfaces periodically in policy circles around user-pays rescue levies.
There is, though, a reasonable counterargument. The SES is built on volunteer labour and community service, and attaching financial penalties to distress calls risks deterring people from calling for help when they genuinely need it, with potentially fatal consequences. Public safety systems exist precisely because emergencies are, by their nature, unpredictable. Even Bailey acknowledged that conditions in alpine areas can change rapidly enough to catch experienced walkers off guard.
The more constructive conversation, most emergency management experts agree, centres on prevention rather than punishment. Bailey's advice after the rescue was clear and practical: check the weather forecast, plan your route, tell someone where you are going and when you expect to be back, and carry appropriate supplies and communication equipment. The NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service provides trail and conditions information for Kosciuszko, and the Bureau of Meteorology's alpine forecasts are freely available online.
In the end, Tuesday night's operation was a success because several things aligned: the women kept their heads, they had the basic gear, and 14 volunteers were willing to hike into fog and steep terrain through the night. That combination is not something any hiker should rely on as a default plan. The mountains are worth exploring, but they reward preparation and punish complacency in equal measure.