Sunshine Coast woman rescued from the notorious Mt Tibrogargan after horror fall

A WOMAN who took a nasty fall on Queensland’s most notorious mountain has revealed why she was doing the hike in the first place — and if there’ll be a second date.

THE notorious Mount Tibrogargan, part of Queensland’s Glass House Mountains, has claimed another victim.

Sunshine Coast woman Sarah Wylie was hiking back down the mountain on Friday with a male she’d been “hanging out with” when she stepped on a loose rock and started to fall.

Her reflexes kicked in and she lunged for a tree but instead of grabbing on to a smooth branch, the 23-year-old’s hand landed on a sharp stump leaving her with a deep gash on her hand.

But help wasn’t far away with a group of off-duty auxiliary firefighters heading down the mountain at the same time, quickly coming to her rescue.

“I was fortunate enough that it happened in front of the off-duty firefighters that were there on a social climb,” Sarah said.

But as the rescuers abseiled Sarah down to a waiting ambulance, the crew were forced to deal with another tumble as one of their own fell and dislocated his shoulder.

Sarah was abseiled down the mountain.

A group of firefighters were in the right place at the right time.

Speaking to the Sunshine Coast Daily, a member of Sarah’s rescue team said the man who had accompanied the 23-year-old up the mountain was forced to abandon her to be on time for work.

“The three firefighters with me took charge of the situation and knew exactly what needed to happen,” ecologist Brian Coulter told the Sunshine Coast Daily .

“She told us she was actually on a first date and that he was the one that had decided to take her up the mountain. But apparently he was running late for work so he left her there while we attended to her injuries.”

Despite that, Sarah told news.com.au the pair’s hike up the mountain was simply “the first time we’d met and we both made a mutual agreement to climb the mountain together”.

“It was just two people catching up and hanging out and he’s checked up on me and made sure I’m OK,” she said.

Sarah, who had surgery on Saturday afternoon and had to receive a number of stitches in her hand, was coy on whether the couple would “hang” again but said they were still in touch.

Now on the road to recovery, the Sunshine Coast local said it’ll be a while before she “gets back on the Tibrogargan horse”.

“I’ve climbed it before and I’ve never had any issues, I literally just put my foot on a loose rock. It was a complete accident,” she said.

The firefighter who dislocated his shoulder during the rescue also had to be abseiled down the mountain and was also taken to Caboolture Hospital to recover.

“The fire and rescue and SES did an absolutely amazing job and I’m so grateful, I can’t thank them enough,” Sarah said.

“I climbed the mountain at my own will and at my own risk.”

Mt Tibrogargan is extremely steep. Picture: Megan Slade

Earlier this year, news.com.au spoke with Greg Toman, a member of Queensland Fire Emergency Service’s Remote Mountain Rescue crew.

Mr Toman is regularly part of the teams hiking up Mt Tibrogargan and said getting people safely down the mountain was never easy.

“All the rescues are tricky ones and they’re all strenuous because we have to carry our pack and all our gear. It’s even harder stretchering people down, the rescues are tricky. There’s nothing glamorous about it,” Mr Toman said.

The craggy peaks are also listed as a landscape of national significance and the views from Tibrogargan and Beerwah are described as two of the state’s most beautiful lookouts.

But as Mr Toman said, the issue generally wasn’t getting up it, it was getting down.

Tibrogargan starts with an easy few hundred metres of bushwalking before hikers reach a notorious place nicknamed “Chicken Rock”.

That’s the steepest part of the climb where hikers either chicken out or “scramble” up a nearly vertical rock face to the summit.

Getting down, climbers generally have to crabwalk or slowly scramble back down, otherwise they could potentially tumble hundreds of metres.