Dragons Wrath 2021

Sad news this. Seems the incident happened near the Bell

Looking at the photo where the helicopter landed I would say this is another incident. The incident on 25th of April was just before you cross the neck at the Sisters, North, North East of the Outer Horn. 

Some years ago a lone hiker vanished on the Bell Traverse

Getaway has reported a missing hiker , who seems to have been doing a GT or northern GT.

wrote:

Getaway has reported a missing hiker , who seems to have been doing a GT or northern GT.

That one has been doing the rounds on social media a lot recently. From what I understand, he is doing a full DGT and only started last week - so he is hopefully fine and just not finished the hike yet. From what his sister has said on FB, I suspect those gear pictures are based on his past social media posts, not necessarily what he is actually carrying. I really hope he isn't attempting a DGT with that tent.

He also may have a flat battery on his phone, hence the lack of communication. There really isn't any information to go on, from what I've read. He also could have bailed down a pass, or into Lesotho. If this one does become a rescue, I have no clue where the rescue team will even start looking - he could literally be anywhere in the Drakensberg.

I wonder if he filled in the mountain register with suggested dates that he would be in certain areas.

More news on the missing hiker, Johann van Coller. The information in the article is a little inconsistent, saying he left from Witsieshoek, but was last known to be heading to Witsieshoek, but also hadn't confirmed "where he would start from or go to." His last Facebook post was from Giant's Castle. As Ghaz says, let's hope he simply hasn't finished his hike yet, but it doesn't sound good. Rescue teams have already been deployed and a missing persons case opened.

I understood the article to mean that the Berg hike was due to start in Witsieshoek but that family had not heard from him since he left for Witsieshoek i.e. since before he left for the start of the hike. 

The updated post I saw yesterday was that his mountain register entry stated he was hiking to Giants Castle, had 14 days food and did not specify an arrival date. He left on 19 October, so 2 weeks is 1 November. He was apparently supposed to go base jumping with a friend this weekend - he was scouting for spots to jump on the traverse.

The problem will be that there is nothing to go on - it could have rained on day 1, his phone got wet and now doesn't work, so he can't communicate, in which case he could be fine and be at Giants any day now. On the opposite extreme, almost anything could have gone wrong almost anywhere between the start and the finish and thus he could be almost anywhere in almost any state (including completely fine but without phone signal).

Hopefully he will emerge soon and will be fine - in which case I hope he shares an account of what actually happened. I would be interested to know what information he had researched about the Drakensberg beforehand and how it contributed to whatever happened. It could be good insight for many of us on this site - especially in terms of how to answer people's requests for information on sites such as this in future.