Extraordinary People

[Constance]

I would like to honour and dedicate this thread to all the extraordinary people who have ever graced this world with their presence.

These may be:


People who live ordinary lives but who have exuded courage, bravery and inner strength throughout their lives.
Quiet unsung heroes who go about their daily work helping others.
The great innovators and inventors of our past and current times.
Beings who are the embodiment of unconditional love and compassion.
Extraordinarily gifted or talented or skilled individuals.
Someone you know who has touched your life deeply through an extraordinary act of kindness, bravery or unconditional love.
Beings who live their lives with extraordinary grace despite severe handicaps.
Those who inspire leadership and make great role models for the world.
Individuals who have overcome adversity, transcending it all to go on to living exemplary lives.
Warriors for social justice, equality, human rights; peace, animal rights, environmental rights etc.


All extraordinary beings are welcome here. :sun:



A Garden of Eden in Hell

I wanted to open this thread with Alice Herz-Sommer. Some of you may already be aware of who Alice was but for those of you who don't know, Alice was a survivor of the holocaust.

Alice was born in Prague in 1903. By the time she was 39, she had become an accomplished pianist.

In 1942, her entire world was shattered when she and her family were rounded up by the Nazis and sent to concentration camps.

She survived with her son because the Nazis wanted to create a propaganda film and her talents were useful to them.

Alice spent every night living on a frozen dirt floor, soothing her young son and trying to figure out how to survive.

If she didn't please her captors, she and her son would be exterminated that day. But somehow, she managed to find a way to not only survive throughout that entire experience but to thrive.

You are going to need hankies for this one.

0LffQQcUcnw
An Interview with Alice-Herz Sommer - Holocaust Survivor| Tony Robbins

[Valerie Villars]

I already started crying. What a beautiful thing to honor. It gives us all courage.

[Delight]

I would like to honour and dedicate this thread to all the extraordinary people who have ever graced this world with their presence.

These may be:


People who live ordinary lives but who have exuded courage, bravery and inner strength throughout their lives.
Quiet unsung heroes who go about their daily work helping others.
The great innovators and inventors of our past and current times.
Beings who are the embodiment of unconditional love and compassion.
Extraordinarily gifted or talented or skilled individuals.
Someone you know who has touched your life deeply through an extraordinary act of kindness, bravery or unconditional love.
Beings who live their lives with extraordinary grace despite severe handicaps.
Those who inspire leadership and make great role models for the world.
Individuals who have overcome adversity, transcending it all to go on to living exemplary lives.
Warriors for social justice, equality, human rights; peace, animal rights, environmental rights etc.


All extraordinary beings are welcome here. :sun:



A Garden of Eden in Hell

I wanted to open this thread with Alice Herz-Sommer. Some of you may already be aware of who Alice was but for those of you who don't know, Alice was a survivor of the holocaust.

Alice was born in Prague in 1903. By the time she was 39, she had become an accomplished pianist.

In 1942, her entire world was shattered when she and her family were rounded up by the Nazi and sent to concentration camps.

She survived with her son because the Nazis wanted to create a propaganda film and her talents were useful to them.

Alice spent every night living on a frozen dirt floor, soothing her young son and trying to figure out how to survive.

If she didn't please her captors, she and her son would be exterminated that day. But somehow, she managed to find a way to not only survive throughout that entire experience but to thrive.

You are going to need hankies for this one.

0LffQQcUcnw
An Interview with Alice-Herz Sommer - Holocaust Survivor| Tony Robbins

She has been one my main "people to look up to for inspiration". I remember that she said in one of her interviews that she LITERALLY was fed by the music she played with other musicians in the camp. They were starved and she gave what food she had to her son. They both survived. Not only did that inspire me about her deep connection to love but is PROOF to me that we are frequency and vibration energy beings who step down frequency and vibration into matter. Music IS food for those who are able to immediately assimilate it for the body.

My most most favorite teacher is Neville Goddard. He was a cosmic philosopher, (https://www.harvbishop.com/neville-goddard-a-cosmic-philospher/) far ahead and way beyond our "time" (though I am certain we will all one day grok what he said). When he was a young man, a fortune teller said that one day he would be known as one of humanity's greatest teachers. To me he lived everything he taught and not only had a life we can see was very healthy but he thoroughly enjoyed life.

He interpreted what we call the bible from a metapsychological manner showing that it is all about human character and a description of states of being that humans inhabit.

For me, listening again and again to the many many lectures he allowed to be recorded and reading his books is a "return to the basics". He (by the way) never cared about copy rights or fame or preserving his legacy. He wanted every one to know that our own wonderful human Imagination is God.

UfUAfKogWkI

[Satori]

I would like to honour and dedicate this thread to all the extraordinary people who have ever graced this world with their presence.

These may be:


People who live ordinary lives but who have exuded courage, bravery and inner strength throughout their lives.
Quiet unsung heroes who go about their daily work helping others.
The great innovators and inventors of our past and current times.
Beings who are the embodiment of unconditional love and compassion.
Extraordinarily gifted or talented or skilled individuals.
Someone you know who has touched your life deeply through an extraordinary act of kindness, bravery or unconditional love.
Beings who live their lives with extraordinary grace despite severe handicaps.
Those who inspire leadership and make great role models for the world.
Individuals who have overcome adversity, transcending it all to go on to living exemplary lives.
Warriors for social justice, equality, human rights; peace, animal rights, environmental rights etc.


All extraordinary beings are welcome here. :sun:



A Garden of Eden in Hell

I wanted to open this thread with Alice Herz-Sommer. Some of you may already be aware of who Alice was but for those of you who don't know, Alice was a survivor of the holocaust.

Alice was born in Prague in 1903. By the time she was 39, she had become an accomplished pianist.

In 1942, her entire world was shattered when she and her family were rounded up by the Nazi and sent to concentration camps.

She survived with her son because the Nazis wanted to create a propaganda film and her talents were useful to them.

Alice spent every night living on a frozen dirt floor, soothing her young son and trying to figure out how to survive.

If she didn't please her captors, she and her son would be exterminated that day. But somehow, she managed to find a way to not only survive throughout that entire experience but to thrive.

You are going to need hankies for this one.

0LffQQcUcnw
An Interview with Alice-Herz Sommer - Holocaust Survivor| Tony Robbins

Please do yourself a favor and watch this beautiful woman (who was at this time nearly a 108) and seek to listen to and understand her message. It is one of, if not the, secret to a happy life on this plane.

Thanks for posting Constance

[Satori]

Delight's post about Neville Goddard is no less important and meaningful. Whether you believe in a personal God, infinite intelligence, or whatever you use to describe source, from what I've listened to so far, he's very much on to something that is phenomenological.

Thank you for your post Delight.

[AriG]

I am sorry, and I don’t think my post here will be popular, but these examples are all paying homage to “blue pill thinking”. To pat someone on the head for their “positivity” in light of being shat upon, imho, reinforces ancient paradigms that have enslaved us all throughout aeons. Miss Alice, as an example, laughed her way through concentration camp internment, whilst laughing and claiming that everything is beautiful? Give me a break. What that tells me is that she was a participant who turned a blind eye to ensure her own survival.

[Constance]

The Man Who Lost his Body



I live at the edge all day every day

Ian Waterman was just 19 years old when he was struck down by a virus in 1971. The virus affected his entire body. The nerves which once told his body what it was doing were so damaged from the neck down that he could move his limbs but he just couldn't tell them what to do.

41337

He was pronounced as 'incurable' and was sent home in a wheelchair.

But Ian had an indomitable spirit. He was determined to walk again and he set himself a gruelling schedule.:muscle:




"Ian began to sense that the solution might lie in some hidden part of his mind. He had a hunch that if he could visualise a movement, he might by sheer force of concentration make his body perform it...

Using powers of visualisation, his eyes would have to tell his limbs what they were doing."

He had to forge a new link between mind and muscle. For many weeks, he couldn't sit up in bed. He had to teach himself how to recruit the stomach muscles to enable him to sit up.

The only way that Ian can walk is if he looks down at his feet. If the lights go out, he goes down. Every movement he makes has to be anticipated, all day, every day.


41338

He said, "Every day is like running a marathon".

Ian has made an unprecedented recovery - at the time of the video there were only 10 people in the world who had this disorder.

For the video, please click on this link here - Thedailymotion - The Man Who Lost his body - BBC documentary (https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x12647t)

[Denise/Dizi]

:clapping::heart:

[Cara]

A short little video about a Zimbabwean who was born blind, with tumors on his eyes and given only two months to live. 35 years later, still blind, he uses his sense of hearing as a cricket commentator!

qP3xj-lQvDk

[conk]

A short little video about a Zimbabwean who was born blind, with tumors on his eyes and given only two months to live. 35 years later, still blind, he uses his sense of hearing as a cricket commentator!

Another blind man with extraordinary skills.
PLPEcu6523Q

[conk]

There is a wonderful film named Life Is Beautiful about prison camp life. The lead actor plays a game for his young son's benefit. This scene is the beginning of the game. All for his son. Ms. Herz-Sommer's attitude of mirth and joy under horrid conditions kept her little boy from being too stressed. Life Is Beautiful captures a tiny part of that spirit. The movie and her experience are leagues apart, the movie being more light-hearted. Apologies for the rude comparison. This grand woman is a marvel of human expression, radiating such love.
9lTSqc1UnLU

A very good movie!

[T Smith]

0LffQQcUcnw

An Interview with Alice-Herz Sommer - Holocaust Survivor| Tony Robbins

"I never hate...." Alice-Herz Sommer.

Probably the very reason she's still alive at 108 years old....

[T Smith]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9RrTzcDcw0

[Words of Joy]

I am sorry, and I don’t think my post here will be popular, but these examples are all paying homage to “blue pill thinking”. To pat someone on the head for their “positivity” in light of being shat upon, imho, reinforces ancient paradigms that have enslaved us all throughout aeons. Miss Alice, as an example, laughed her way through concentration camp internment, whilst laughing and claiming that everything is beautiful? Give me a break. What that tells me is that she was a participant who turned a blind eye to ensure her own survival.

I think you are missing a very important point. The way she treats life made her reach the age of 108. That means life has been blessing her. And life doesn't bless if a person is doing things in a bad way. Her positivism and talent have inspired many around her, undoubtedly. Have you been in a similar situation? With parents killed, and a child you instinctively want to live? There's a difference in turning a blind eye and trying to stay alive by making the best of it, knowing at any time you could be executed. Do you think it's possible to turn a blind eye, when people around you are executed? Trying to make the suffering bearable, by playing tunes to the enjoyment, in a place where enjoyment is structurally affected in a negative way is not the easiest. What is your alternative? How could she have taken "the red pill" according to you? Rebel? Not play the piano? To what consequence? Would she have been able to give other generations valuable lessons like she's doing now? She is giving a very important lesson: Be grateful always, no matter the circumstances.

[conk]

I am sorry, and I don’t think my post here will be popular, but these examples are all paying homage to “blue pill thinking”. To pat someone on the head for their “positivity” in light of being shat upon, imho, reinforces ancient paradigms that have enslaved us all throughout aeons. Miss Alice, as an example, laughed her way through concentration camp internment, whilst laughing and claiming that everything is beautiful? Give me a break. What that tells me is that she was a participant who turned a blind eye to ensure her own survival.

Not popular at all. Your post is reprehensible, repugnant, and an affront to higher levels of consciousness. The poor woman was not displaying a positive attitude. She was exhibiting her supreme awareness of God and her ability to focus her thinking. Would you have her wallow in misery, lamenting every lack, every pain, every injustice? What would that have gained her? She was the epitome of selflessness and forgiveness.

Trotzdem Ja Zum Leben Sagen: Ein Psychologe Erlebt das Konzentrationslager

[Delight]

I am sorry, and I don’t think my post here will be popular, but these examples are all paying homage to “blue pill thinking”. To pat someone on the head for their “positivity” in light of being shat upon, imho, reinforces ancient paradigms that have enslaved us all throughout aeons. Miss Alice, as an example, laughed her way through concentration camp internment, whilst laughing and claiming that everything is beautiful? Give me a break. What that tells me is that she was a participant who turned a blind eye to ensure her own survival.

Not popular at all. Your post is reprehensible, repugnant, and an affront to higher levels of consciousness. The poor woman was not displaying a positive attitude. She was exhibiting her supreme awareness of God and her ability to focus her thinking. Would you have her wallow in misery, lamenting every lack, every pain, every injustice? What would that have gained her? She was the epitome of selflessness and forgiveness.

Trotzdem Ja Zum Leben Sagen: Ein Psychologe Erlebt das Konzentrationslager

Google translate called the german above "Still Yes To Life Say: A Psychologist Experienced the concentration camp"

I feel as if I am supremely blessed to know of people like Alice because they share their enthusiasm (that is being filled with "the spirit of god within"). Another statement I remember from her is paraphrased "I know about the bad but I live in the good"). The earth is such a strange place as it has EVERYTHING from the extremes of imaginable to the "un-imaginable until it is imagined".

I feel so fortunate to encounter teachings that remind me of what is essential. When I was 18 and 19 I was studying University psychology. We were given the assignment to take an author and deeply explore his or her writings. I chose Victor Frankl (https://youtu.be/zF65lvwQPbw). This was such an awesome and valuable investigation and helped me all the rest of my life.

The real human condition is so counter to what we believe when we think life is just an accident with no meaning. For people like the ones I admire most, life is FULL of meaning. Neville says the only sin is "doubt". Doubt misses the mark of truth that our focus will reveal what life means to us.

Frankl's experiences in the worst imaginable circumstance led him to profound realization about how our deliberate focus of meaning can lift us to transcend horrific experiences. Our will for meaning is a life saver and takes place in the heart and mind BEFORE we find the means. IMO our ability to imagine and have faith in the unseen which for us is MEANINGFUL (as exemplified in Neville's teachings) is our connection to god by whatever name we call god and in some way MUST become solidified in fact. I SEE and HEAR Alice's proof that god is acting in the world.

In the best of circumstances, life is tough. Even when in loving family and friendship we get pushed by the pains that seem inescapable in death, illness, the fortunes which change....(I call "the worst imaginable circumstance", like the example of the German concentration camps the UBIQUITOUS cruelty in human capacity and social structure.... multiplying cases where human beings systematically and gravely and DELIBERATELY mistreat another group... where one group of human beings with CALCULATION starve, humiliate, physically brutalize and murder another group EXPECTING genocide).

Life is hell when we are cut off from the roots of our being BUT we can choose at any moment to re establish the amazing, beautiful, loving, HUMAN quality of spirit in flesh. This is the gift we may find when we meet the horrors of circumstance which seem compeletly unimaginably cruel.

[Ti]

Not popular at all. Your post is reprehensible, repugnant, and an affront to higher levels of consciousness. The poor woman was not displaying a positive attitude. She was exhibiting her supreme awareness of God and her ability to focus her thinking. Would you have her wallow in misery, lamenting every lack, every pain, every injustice? What would that have gained her? She was the epitome of selflessness and forgiveness.

Trotzdem Ja Zum Leben Sagen: Ein Psychologe Erlebt das Konzentrationslager
I would suggest though, that your response is aggressive enough to alienate AriG from this conversation rather than uplift them and help them to see why you celebrate this lady's life and attitude as a reflection of truly divine love. A simple "I disagree and here's why" wouldn't have driven me away, but if someone called me "reprehensible, repugnant, and an affront" I would never go back to that thread, guaranteed, and thus never learn anything from the following discussion. Speaking for myself, I have almost 0 tolerance for being treated in that fashion. I would never complain or defend myself, simply leave. I don't really think AriG's feelings on the matter were worth your biggest, meanest vocabulary words. I also don't think that's what Alice would have wanted. She's a lady who I feel quite confident would have said something like, "I see how you could perceive it that way! This is how I view it."

As for AriG, maybe they saw someone who was oblivious to the suffering of others and just putting on a happy-go-lucky attitude to survive in their life experience. So that's what comes to mind when they see someone with such an attitude. This has resulted in you both having a different perspective on the matter. Both are valid notions to explore. There are real people out there who are acting like everything's all good and roses to overcome hardships. There are real people out there who've reached divine heights of love, compassion, and forgiveness which is the only thing which brings them through hardships.

Perhaps the best thing to consider is what Miss Alice's story can tell us about ourselves and how we engage with extreme challenges. For example, I have almost 0% spine. This post is aggressive enough that I would consider the likelihood of me returning here, to this specific thread, to be near nill. It's already like a 50/50 chance I won't risk returning to a thread lest it have turned into a big mean insultfest (forums have not always served me well in love; being a gentle person on the internet is hard) but having dared to challenge someone on their tone is an almost guarantee whatever brittle balsa wood supports my back will shriek, "NOPE" if I see responses. My great grandmothers all had the gift of Divine Spine, but I do not, I am a flinching lil flower with next to no endurance. Love is not my problem. I have an over abundance of it which makes me easily break when the world turns out to be a different way. What Alice's story would serve to best teach someone like me is how to practically apply our charged and ready hearts to a situation of extreme intensity where survival is the only road forward. I could do with a smear of her endurance level.

I feel like you have a ton of respect for Alice, conk, and your response is in defense of her honor. I respect that. She's an incredible ol' biddy with a lesson of love to teach. She survived one of the hardest times where people could live through. It's not fair to her to project the contemporary "love from a safe place thoughts and prayers <333" onto her memory, but I also don't believe she would think such a perspective worthy of your revulsion, only your love.

I hope AriG meets someone who's a force of divine love in real life because until you do it's hard to believe it's real. It's still hard for me to believe it's real sometimes, and I've met multiple people who are charged up with nothing less than the love of God as their primary driving force, and I'm sure I've BEEN that example for some people. But I can't PROVE it so that's not necessarily good enough and well, I mentioned that spine. Contemporary media does a very good job of blotting over the most uplifting aspects of life and bringing out divisive and distrustful motivations. It's easy to become jaded today. Don't be angry about that, just be a great example of love yourself, eh? So that when you are old and people are remembering the most intense parts of your life, they too learn more about themselves by considering themselves next to the concept of you.

Don't just admire extraordinary people. Be an extraordinary person. If you're here, reading this, yeah, that's right, I'm talkin' to YOU. Not everyone on the internet's made their way to Project Avalon, and even if they did, not everyone on this forum is reading about a 108 year old woman motivated by love. Synchronicity has brought you here. Go, be amazing, love people, challenge their assumptions in the kindest ways possible. Let's turn those mirror neurons to the task of mirroring the level of love Alice developed to the people we encounter, whoever they are, and see what happens by the time we're 108!

[Bill Ryan]

:bump: :bump: :bump:

[Delight]

IMO Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai is one of the here today exceptional people here to help us!


Uniting America. Real Problems. Real Solutions.
Sep 27, 2019

Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai talks on the need to Unite America around Real Problems and Real Solutions. We need to break the monopoly of the Establishment career politicians, the Establishment media, and the Establishment academics. These forces profit by dividing us as Americans and they profit by addressing Fake Problems, not the Real Problems and provide Fake Solutions while you and I fight each other. Dr. Shiva provides a different way of looking at this and finding out what is a Real Problem and a Real Solution.


3wUGL8kWZ3Y

[Harmony]

Outback mailman who delivered post by walking 700km through the Nullarbor (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-25/outback-mailmans-delivery-round-eucla-to-fowlers-bay-nullarbor/101361646)


https://live-production.wcms.abc-cdn.net.au/23d4f1d5d844f282415acc1023139c90?impolicy=wcms_crop_resize&cropH=825&cropW=619&xPos=0&yPos=76&width=862&height=1149


Here is an article, linked above, about an extraordinary man, Koolbiri. Just a short and a wonderful peek into the past.



"Ninety-nine years ago today, a small snippet of an extraordinary life was noted in an Adelaide newspaper.
On page 17 of the Saturday Journal, readers were introduced to Koolbiri, also known as Mailman Jimmy.
In the 1870s he delivered the post between Eucla in Western Australia and Fowlers Bay in South Australia.
The two Nullarbor communities are now linked by a 371-kilometre stretch of Eyre Highway, but that did not exist back then."

[grapevine]

Three mesmerising demonstrations of breath-taking ability to perform precise and fluid movement

Ana Luisa NEGRÃO, 314 – Prix de Lausanne 2023 Prize Winner – Contemporary

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY9PDSfEjUk (2:39)

Shemakhinskaya Bayaderka Festival / Yana Kremneva / 2016

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLmepH3L7r8&t=95s (2:49)

2019] Ju Wenxin - Taijijian - 1st Place - 15th WWC @ Shanghai Wushu Worlds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-QoTQ_ATVs (4:42)

[norman]

hard as nails.

https://t.me/SGTnewsNetwork/68596
SGTnewsNetwork/68596

[grapevine]

Daniel Tammet was interviewed on BBC today, promoting his new book, Nine Minds: Inner Lives on the Spectrum, which is available now from all leading booksellers.

What’s special about Daniel is that he has Aspberger’s and is on the autistic spectrum, a savant, with genius level abilities in maths, linguistics and memory. He also has synaesthesia. Yet unlike other savants Daniel is also able to communicate extremely well with “normal” people.

Here’s a short video posted 6 years ago but still relevant.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3Mecg8iuuE&ab_channel=BBCNewsnight
.

[grapevine]

Am I capable of being loved? - Daniel Tammet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzpZb10P1WQ&ab_channel=LaCiudaddelasIdeas
And here's a rather poignant video of a presentation by Daniel which shows his vulnerability and his inner beauty.

[Eva2]

Just bumped into Rajacenna on youtube - extraordinery talent
'I used both FEET and HANDS to draw 6 realistic portraits upside down

I love to challenge myself so I thought why not try for the first time painting with my feet while drawing in a realsitic way + upside down and also one drawing in 3D. This time I made 6 portraits: Bella Poarch, Harry Potter, Billie Eilish, Wonder Woman, Shakira and Angelina Jolie.
It surprised me how much control I was able to have over my feet, something I never realized before. All that time I was drawing while I thought my feet were useless with art and now I discovered they can do way more than I thought! I think if I paint more often with my feet I can really improve. I'm of course way better with painting with hands but painting with feet was so much fun!'


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enZbw1j8-ZE?si=wimZ4oAmI7jyMGmX

'Rajacenna The Ambidextrous Artist Draws w/ Two Hands At Once

A leftie, a rightie, a Swiftie, and a baddie, Dutch ambidextrous artist Rajacenna creates her own world through her drawings – which she masterfully executes with both hands, simultaneously.'


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05kSNmCF-YE?si=FYgsp9jCpnFzkJjp

[rgray222]

Most Parents Are Extraordinary People
https://img-9gag-fun.9cache.com/photo/aE0ABw9_460svav1.mp4

[grapevine]

Travis Doodles
Becoming best friends with a homeless person
_33CldFD2c8
Acts of kindness like this are so uplifting and a reminder too that there but for the Grace of God . . .

[grapevine]

Jacob Collier Improvises the National Symphony Orchestra (Live from the Kennedy Center)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TURkB9zqxa0&ab_channel=JacobCollier (18:51)
A truly extraordinary talent.
Jacob Collier, aged 30, is an English singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and educator. His music incorporates a combination of jazz and elements from other musical genres, and often features extensive use of reharmonisations and close harmony.

[rgray222]

A three-minute video about an autistic child with special abilities.

znNnFQYAM_w

[rgray222]

Children can be extraordinary.

This woman's mother has Alzheimer's. After years of care, she recognised her daughter, looks her in the eye and said she loved her.

https://img-9gag-fun.9cache.com/photo/aryZ4L7_460svav1.mp4

[sunwings]

I did not get one. I doubt anyone else can. I truly extrodinary girl with Visual Intelligence beyond comprehension.

ywQOnfWy6zI

[Harmony]

Below is a wonderfully documented rescue. Geoff Gledhill is 80 years old and his remarkable rescue of Hyun Park in the rugged bushland of NSW Australia is really amazing along with the rescue team's action as well.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-15/melbourne-woman-cliff-rescue-nsw-national-park-polair/105308660

Hyun Park dangled, unconscious, almost 200 metres above rugged bushland in western New South Wales, on the climbing ropes that had stopped her from plummeting to the ground.

Moments earlier, she had slipped while leading the fourth pitch of a 250-metre climb up Belougery Spire in the Warrumbungle National Park.

Unresponsive, with a broken rib, a ruptured lung, and a head injury, Ms Park's survival rested on her 80-year-old climbing partner, Geoff Gledhill.

https://live-production.wcms.abc-cdn.net.au/35bb7b84d02f4b867834401e2a488103?impolicy=wcms_crop_resize&cropH=2219&cropW=3329&xPos=437&yPos=172&width=862&height=575
Hyun Park and her climbing mentor, Geoff Gledhill.

Night was closing in and they were in treacherous terrain, completely exposed on the rockface of a cliff.

Neither was wearing warm clothing because they hadn't expected to be out overnight.
The rescue operation to save Ms Park would later be described by NSW Police aviation command PolAir as the most complex the crew on shift that night had ever encountered.

It would take at least 17 airborne emergency services experts and nearly 20 hours of extraordinary tactical gymnastics — much in the pitch black of night — to save Ms Park.

The fall

It was about 3:30pm on a clear afternoon in April when Ms Park, a 47-year-old cabinet-maker from Melbourne, hesitated at a rocky overhang.

https://live-production.wcms.abc-cdn.net.au/001ef78dc8a110eeecb2090799a479e6?impolicy=wcms_crop_resize&cropH=2587&cropW=4598&xPos=0&yPos=99&width=862&height=485
Belougery Spire (left) towers over the Warrumbungles, with Crater Bluff in the background.

The experienced climber later recalled thinking that navigating the overhang shouldn't be too difficult, but she knew that if she lost her footing, it was "a long way down".
Moments later, she was plummeting.
"I don't remember panicking in that moment, I just let go,"she said.

"What's the point? There's nothing I can do."

She almost immediately blacked out — a phenomenon that can be caused by a sudden drop in blood pressure, or by the brain as a protective mechanism when a person is faced with extreme trauma, such as intense fear.

She doesn't remember her head hitting the rock cliff, but her cracked helmet is evidence of the impact.

https://live-production.wcms.abc-cdn.net.au/491bae2acf6cc25d5e96d4b90c9de549?src
Ms Park's helmet bears the scars of her cliff fall.

Ms Park and Mr Gledhill, a retired mechanical engineer from Melbourne who has been climbing mountains for 59 years, were on the third day of a week-long climbing sojourn in the Warrumbungle National Park when disaster struck.

The remote park, more than 500 kilometres north-west of Sydney, is one of the nation's most popular destinations for rock climbers due to its towering cliffs.

The trip, over the Easter break, was meant to be a time of healing for Ms Park, who had been battling depression for two years after losing her greyhound companion of 12 years, Pocahontas.

"Pocahontas was the closest living thing to me. We shared so much. We supported each other," Ms Park said.

https://live-production.wcms.abc-cdn.net.au/1bdd5dee68e9b85c9cfe56236999e8ee?impolicy=wcms_crop_resize&cropH=2059&cropW=3088&xPos=0&yPos=261&width=862&height=575
Ms Park and her greyhound rescue dog Pocahontas were close companions for 12 years.

"I feel like we were both broken in a similar way and helped each other out.

"I'm grieving that the person I was with her has gone as well."

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When Ms Park felt she was ready to climb again, the first person she contacted was her mentor, Mr Gledhill.

He proposed they drive 11 hours north from Melbourne across the border to the Warrumbungles.

"I totally trust him," Ms Park said. "When he says it's going to be good, it's going to be good."

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Ms Park began climbing after she turned 40, saying it was "liberating".

On Easter Monday, they were tackling the majestic Belougery Spire in multi-pitch stages, alternating as climbing leader with two 80-metre ropes connecting them.

They were about 200m up the cliff when Ms Park moved out of sight before slipping.
Mr Gledhill heard a sharp shout and then silence as she swung into view, dangling motionless.

"I called out a few times, 'Are you OK?', and there was no response," he said.
"She was more or less horizontal and slightly head down, which isn't a good situation."

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Belougery Spire as seen from PolAir on the morning Ms Park and Mr Gledhill were rescued.

The veteran climber said he remained calm, but kept calling out to Ms Park trying to rouse her, as he assessed the situation and worked out what to do.

After about 15 minutes, Ms Park regained consciousness and finally answered him.

Ms Park recalls feeling confused about where she was and what was happening. As she took in her surroundings, she felt intense pain in her upper back.

Mr Gledhill spotted a tiny, sloping ledge jutting out of the cliff several metres below her.
It was no bigger than about one square metre, too small to even lie down on, but Mr Gledhill knew lowering Ms Park onto it was their best option.
"I lowered her about a metre and then … I couldn't get any more movement out of the rope,"he said.

The ropes preventing Ms Park from falling had become tangled, requiring Mr Gledhill to first climb up to untangle them and then return to his original position before he was able to lower Ms Park onto the ledge.

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Mr Gledhill with the ropes and gear he was carrying on the Belougery Spire climb.

By the time he joined her on the ledge, more than an hour had passed, and dusk was encroaching.

Precariously perched on the small outcrop, he anchored them both to the exposed cliff.
They were almost 200 metres highand about 80 metres below the pinnacle.

There was only enough room on the ledge for Mr Gledhill to stand, while Ms Park sat, taking shallow breaths through the pain.

With the sun setting and her injuries ruling out rappelling down, Ms Park activated her personal locator beacon (PLB) about 5pm.

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The personal locator beacon Ms Park activated after her fall in the Warrumbungles.

"I had it in a box, brand new, for a couple of years. But I always hiked or climbed with people who knew the area very well or who had a beacon with them," she said.
"This trip, I don't know why I remembered it. I [registered] it just the day before we left."That decision likely saved her life.

The rescue

Realising he had a mobile signal because of his elevation, Mr Gledhill called triple-0 and was put through to NSW Ambulance.
"I told the operator it will definitely be a helicopter rescue,"he said.

But as night fell, Mr Gledhill knew any hope of them being evacuated from the remote rock formation in the dark was slim.

"It was freezing. I wasn't wearing anything to keep me warm," Ms Park said.

She recalls she could not stop her teeth from chattering for hours after she was rescued.

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Ms Park and Mr Gledhill were stranded on Belougery Spire as the sun set.

Now in total darkness, the pair waited as the cold night enveloped them.

Ms Park was able to move slightly so Mr Gledhill was able to sit next to her for extra warmth.

They heard the hopeful sound of helicopters arrive and then retreat as emergency services performed reconnaissance flights to locate the climbers and determine how best to rescue them.

The first call to NSW Police Rescue came from NSW Ambulance about 7:30pm, after the crew on an ambulance reconnaissance flight assessed a search-and-rescue team would be needed.

Other agencies were also consulted, including the local Coonabarabran Volunteer Rescue Association, the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Western Region Police Rescue squad.

With a climb from the base of Belougery Spire deemed unfeasible, the police aviation command was notified.

PolAir commander Superintendent Chris Nicholson said his unit was contacted about 8pm — three hours after the alarm had been raised.

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Superintendent Chris Nicholson is urging all remote hikers and climbers to carry personal locator beacons.

With Ms Park's critical injuries in mind, Superintendent Nicholson knew Ms Park needed to be extracted as soon as possible.

He said the Blue Mountains Police Rescue unit was tapped for its high-altitude expertise in complex rescue missions.

As the retrieval plan was being devised, a PolAir helicopterleft Sydney at 10:28pm and flew to Mount Victoria in the Blue Mountains to pick up Sergeant Dallas Atkinson, the leader of the specialist mountain rescue unit.

At this point, Sergeant Atkinson was in phone contact with Mr Gledhill, discussing Ms Park's condition and assuring the climbers that a plan to rescue them was underway.

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PolAir crews worked through the night as the highly complex rescue mission in the Warrumbungles unfolded.

With Sergeant Atkinson aboard, the helicopter then flew to Dubbo, the nearest baseto the Warrumbungles, to refuel before flying directly to Belougery Spire.

Meanwhile, a small PolAir plane had left Sydney at 10:33pm to fly to Dubbo via Bathurst, where it collected more heavy gear required for the rescue and Senior Constable Dan Skinner, who works alongside Sergeant Atkinson in the mountain rescue unit.

Once the pair met in Dubbo, the PolAir helicopter flew with Sergeant Atkinson to Belougery Spire, arriving around 1:25am on the Tuesday to complete a rescue assessment.

Infrared night-vision goggles enabled the PolAir crew to safely navigate the dangerous terrain.

It was the first time the crew on this night shift had used their infrared-vision training to attempt a rescue.

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The PolAir unit on duty relied on its night-vision training to complete the rescue.

Sergeant Atkinson was winched onto the narrow peak at 2am with his survival bag and some basic gear to start preparations for a descent to reach the stranded climbers.

The PolAir helicopter returned to Dubbo to pick up Senior Constable Skinner and 100 kilograms of equipment, including 400 metres of rope and a battery-powered winch.

At 3:20am, he joined Sergeant Atkinson on the top of the spire and together they finished building anchors around boulders on the top of the peak to support the winch.

Shortly after 4:30am, Sergeant Atkinson began to make his way down the spire.

First contact

At 5am on Tuesday, 12 hours after Ms Park activated her PLB and Mr Gledhill made his triple-0 call, Sergeant Atkinson reached the climbers.

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Police infrared vision of Ms Park and Mr Gledhill on the tiny ledge on Belougery Spire.

With no room on the ledge, Sergeant Atkinson remained on his ropes, throwing a sleeping bag over Ms Parkas he and Mr Gledhill huddled around her, trying to provide some warmth as they waited for paramedics to arrive.

"With any trauma patient, keeping their core body temperature as stable as possible is really important," Sergeant Atkinson said.

"Once hypothermia kicks in, it's a very slippery slope to try and turn that around.

"We waited it out until the paramedics could get winched in at first light."

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A Toll NSW Ambulance helicopter carrying critical care paramedics flew Ms Park to the Dubbo Hospital.

The Toll NSW Ambulance helicopter arrived at 6:22am, and two critical care paramedics were lowered onto the peak.

Critical care paramedic Nicholas Carney was then winched down to the ledge around 7:30am, but also remained suspended on ropes as he assessed Ms Park's condition.

With so many bodies crowded into such a small space, there was little room for Mr Carney to treat Ms Park.

"That is when the decision was made to winch Geoff to the top of the spire first so that no time was wasted providing care to [Ms Park]," Sergeant Atkinson said.

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The cliff rescue of a Melbourne woman in NSW bushland was PolAir's most complex mission yet.

He and Mr Gledhill were then winched up to the peak, making it to the top just before 8am.

Still in great pain, Ms Park was given painkillers so she could be evacuated.

She was strapped into a patient seat harness by Mr Carney and they were winched carefully to the top of the spire. By the time she was reassessed and winched into the ambulance helicopter, it was around 12:30pm.

Ms Park was flown directly to Dubbo Hospital, where the extent of her injuries was revealed.

PolAir then moved in and winched Senior Constable Rachel Chetwertak onto the spire at 12:50pm to collect Mr Gledhill. Despite his ordeal, the veteran climber did not require any medical treatment.

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Sergeant Dallas Atkinson (left) and Senior Constable Dan Skinner with Mr Gledhill on Belougery Spire.

With both climbers safe, PolAir returned and winched out Sergeant Atkinson and Senior Constable Skinner at 1:27pm, along with all the rescue equipment.

At least 20 emergency services personnel, including pilots, were directly involved in the safe retrieval of Ms Park and Mr Gledhill over the 20-hour rescue operation.

"Any complex, remote area job like this — and they don't get much more complex — you're not sitting there twiddling your thumbs. That's how long these things take," Sergeant Atkinson said.

A rescue like no other

Superintendent Nicholson said rescuers faced unprecedented challenges during the operation.
"For all of the crew involved in the mission that night, that was the first time they had undertaken a mission of that complexity,"he said.

Challenges included the unfamiliar mountainous terrain, winching rescuers with 100 kilograms of equipment onto a narrow peak, abseiling to a narrow ledge, all in the dark.

And there was no room for error with "the unforgiving nature of that cliff".

"We were 60 miles [almost 100km] north of anywhere remotely civilised … There was literally no one coming if we got that wrong," he said.

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A NSW PolAir helicopter flies over the Warrumbungles during the rescue of Ms Park.

Superintendent Nicholson said infrared night-vision goggles, which require extensive training to use, enabled PolAir to safely navigate the terrain.

"If we weren't using those goggles, we would not have been permitted to undertake that mission," he said.

Although Sergeant Atkinson has been involved in numerous complex rescues in the Blue Mountains, he said the Warrumbungles operation was a "unique experience".
"I've been winched into lots of different places over the years, but being winched in, at night, onto the top of this prominent spire, this enormous feature, that was definitely something that made this job a bit different,"he said.

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Sergeant Atkinson and Senior Constable Skinner were winched onto the top of Belougery Spire with 100 kilograms of equipment.

Superintendent Nicholson praised Ms Park for carrying a PLB, which meant the rescue team knew exactly where she was.

He said PLBs were more reliable than mobile phones in poor coverage areas and could send precise coordinates via GPS long after a mobile phone battery might have gone flat.

Climb lifts cloud of depression

Ms Park describes the 15 hours she spent on the unprotected cliff overnight as worse than the injuries from her fall.

"I feel terrible that I caused so much trouble," she said. "I really appreciate the people who rescued me late at night.
"It was a terrible suffering, and cold, but these people all sacrificed their night as well."https://live-production.wcms.abc-cdn.net.au/efbfdd48a1a14fac886143d8b9118ede?src
Ms Park took up painting during her recovery.

Ms Park spent eight days in hospital in Dubbo, and then a further five days convalescing before doctors deemed her well enough to return to Melbourne.

She plans to return to the Warrumbungles, and says her depression has lifted following her harrowing ordeal.
"This is weird, this is really weird … But I'm actually now in better spirits,"she said.

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Mr Gledhill walks with Ms Park in Dubbo after she was discharged from hospital.

As for Mr Gledhill, he stayed overnight at a National Parks and Wildlife base then drove to Dubbo the next morning to visit Ms Park in hospital, before embarking on the 11-hour drive back to Melbourne.

He returned to the Warrumbungles almost two weeks later with a friend and climbed Belougery Spire again to collect the gear and ropes he and Ms Park had left, because he didn't want to leave any "rubbish" behind.

He then drove Ms Park home to Melbourne.

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The Warrumbungles attract rock climbers from around the world.

[rgray222]

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[grapevine]

A medical miracle they never saw coming
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