Woman trapped upside-down between boulders for seven hours after trying to retrieve phone in Hunter Valley

A woman has spent seven hours hanging upside-down by her feet before she could be rescued when she fell head-first into a deep crevice between two boulders in regional NSW.

NSW Ambulance rescue paramedics had to move the boulders using a specialist winch to reach the woman, who had been trying to retrieve her dropped phone, before facing the tricky task of “navigating” her out from her precarious position.

“In my 10 years as a rescue paramedic, I had never encountered a job quite like this,” specialist rescue paramedic Peter Watts said.

“It was challenging but incredibly rewarding.”

The woman, aged in her 20s, was walking with friends when her phone fell into the 3m-deep crevice in the Hunter Valley on October 12.

She leant down trying to retrieve it and fell head-first into the crevice — where she ended up hanging upside-down by her feet.

Her friends tried in vain for some time to free her before hiking out to find phone reception to call triple-0 for help.

By this stage, NSW Ambulance said, the poor woman had already been literally stuck “between a rock and a hard place” for more than an hour.

NSW Ambulance said a “multi-disciplinary team” was sent in and had to remove several heavy boulders, using a specialised winch to move one 500kg boulder, to create a safe access point to reach the woman.

A hardwood frame was built to ensure stability of the area — and the woman — while the rescuers worked.

After removing the boulders and “with both feet now accessible”, the team then faced the challenge of “navigating the patient out through a tight S-bend”.

That process alone also took an hour.

In total, the woman spent seven hours hanging upside-down before she was freed — with only minor scratches and bruises but still without her phone, which could not be retrieved.

NSW Ambulance hailed the achievements of the rescue team in safely extracting the woman from her precarious predicament.

“Every agency had a role, and we all worked incredibly well together to achieve a good outcome for the patient,” Watts said.