It's a good idea to bring your phone with you on a hike in case of emergencies, but if you drop it, sometimes it's better to leave it where it is than risk life and limb. One Australian woman learned this lesson the hard way when she was trapped upside down between two boulders for hours after falling while trying to retrieve her phone.
In a Facebook post yesterday, New South Wales Ambulance reports that the woman – named by ABC news as 23-year-old Matilda Campbell – slipped into a three-meter (10 ft) crevice after dropping her phone on a hike in the Hunter Valley earlier this month.
There was no cell service in the area and after over an hour of trying unsuccessfully to rescue her, Campbell's friends found a way to contact emergency services, but by this time the woman had been hanging by her feet for over an hour.
A multidisciplinary team was assembled at the scene which had to build a hardwood frame to prevent the boulders from collapsing and winch several heavy boulders out of the way, including one weighing 500 kg, before they could start to extract Campbell.
That entailed navigating the woman out through a tight “S” bend and in the end, the whole operation took seven hours. Campbell reportedly did not retrieve her phone.
"In my 10 years as a rescue paramedic I had never encountered a job quite like this, it was challenging but incredibly rewarding,” says paramedic Peter Watts
“We all worked incredibly well together to achieve a good outcome for the patient.”
Keeping your phone – and yourself – safe on a hike
This isn't the first time we've reported on hikers getting into hot water after going after a phone – in July 2022, an American hiker fell into Mount Vesuvius while trying to retrieve his.
Carrying your phone on a hike is recommended, especially if it's a newer iPhone, which has an SOS function that allows you to call for help even when you don't have service.
However, your phone is best kept in your pocket or backpack when you're on the move to avoid accidents. If you're using a navigation app like AllTrails to find your way, make sure you've stopped and taken your gloves off when you need to check it so you don't fumble it, or download the GPX map to your GPS watch so your phone can stay safely out of harm's way.
Learn more in our article on how to protect your phone outdoors, and if you do drop your device into a tricky location, know when to say goodbye.
