A 29-year-old woman fell about 30 feet while hiking on Oahu and spent the night stranded on the mountainside with a fellow hiker before rescue crews could reach them, officials said.
According to the Honolulu Fire Department, the rescue effort began Monday, Dec. 15, at 5:26 p.m. local time, when first responders received a report of an injured hiker on the Kuli‘ou‘ou Ridge Trail in ‘Āina Haina, an east Honolulu neighborhood. A rescue unit arrived within roughly 15 minutes and began coordinating an aerial operation.
Officials said the woman fell from the Ko’olau Summit Trail and was unable to make her way back down due to her injuries. Her hiking partner, a 30-year-old man, managed to reach her location and stayed with her. Crews tried to deploy rescuers by helicopter, but the fire department said the combination of terrain, weather and darkness made it unsafe. The operation was paused shortly after 1 a.m. because conditions had deteriorated.
Rescuers resumed the mission at daybreak on Tuesday. A team reached the hikers on foot by 10:56 a.m. After providing care on the slope, crews used a complex rope system to lower the woman to a clearer area where a helicopter could land. By 1:15 p.m., she was flown to a nearby landing zone and transferred to EMS, officials said.
Fire department personnel then escorted the uninjured man back to the ridgeline, and the group descended the trail on foot.
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“Due to the dangerous terrain and inclement weather, the remainder of the rescue operation was extensive,” the fire department said.
EMS told local outlets that the woman suffered injuries to her head, neck, back and leg, along with abrasions from the fall, Fox affiliate KHON and ABC affiliate KITV reported. She was taken to an emergency room in serious condition.
The incident followed days of heavy rain that caused flooding in several parts of the island, KHON reported.
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“It’s been raining for several days, the ground is saturated, it’s muddy, it’s a really bad time to go hiking,” Captain Jaimie Song of the Honolulu Fire Department told the outlet. “There might be other activities that are less dangerous, less hazardous that you choose to do to stay active, but hiking is just not the best activity this week.”
Song also warned that the same conditions can put rescuers at risk.
“It makes it dangerous not only for the hikers, but also our first responders, because they’re out there hiking in the dark last night for hours,” he continued, according to the outlet. “Today, steep terrain, muddy conditions, just incredibly dangerous for everyone all around.”
