THE RACE TO SAVE MATILDA

THE YOUNG HIKER WAS WEDGED UPSIDE DOWN BETWEEN TWO BOULDERS. HOW COULD RESCUERS PULL HER FREE?

- Helen Signy

It was a pleasant morning on 12 October last year in Laguna, a village about 100 kilometres north of Sydney, Australia.

Matilda Campbell, 23, set off with a friend for a walk across the field behind the Airbnb cottage where their group of friends was staying for the weekend.

The pair scrambled up a steep embankment, through tall gum trees and over grey rocks, until they reached a ledge where they could look out over the sprawling countryside.

Wanting to capture the moment, Campbell pulled out her phone. As she was taking photos, the device slipped out of her hand and fell into a crevice between two boulders. She reached down to retrieve her phone, but it had fallen deep between the rocks.

As she stretched her arm farther into the crevice, Campbell lost her balance and tumbled headfirst into the gap. Within seconds, she was wedged fast between the massive rocks, unable to move, with her head three metres below the surface.

The boulders had bent her upside-down body into a banana shape. Her back rested on one of the rocks, with her upper body twisted and bent forward. The force of the fall had trapped her right arm behind her back, and her left hand was now jammed in front of her head. Her legs were pointed straight up above her.

Campbell could see a couple of spiders through the blackness and hoped that there were no snakes in the crevice. She could already feel the blood rushing to her head.

Standing up above, her friend could only see the soles of Campbell's feet, but she was too far into the crevice for her friend to reach down and pull her out. To make matters worse, there was no phone reception. The friend raced down the embankment to the cottage and drove down the road until, at last, some bars appeared on her phone and it was possible to punch in 000, Australia's national emergency number.