Three Men Who Got Stuck on Top of Uluru Have Been Rescued

Three 23-year-old men stranded on the top of Uluru, in the Northern Territory, have been rescued after an 11-hour recovery mission. The group had been climbing Uluru on Monday afternoon, and became stuck after veering off the path into a restricted zone. The local Aboriginal people strongly discourage any tourists from climbing the 863 metre high rock, which is sacred to the the Pitjantjatjara Anangu.

According to the Northern Territory Police, Fire and Emergency Services, a specialist vertical rescue team was able to reach the trapped men by midnight on Tuesday, and abseiled them back down at around 3.30 AM. When rescuers arrived the men were in good health, with adequate water supplies.

When they arrived on the ground, the men found themselves to be victims of intense (fairly warranted) mocking from Twitter users, who were incensed that they'd ignored the wishes of the Uluru's traditional owners. While climbing the rock is not illegal, a statement from the Anangu tells climbers it's "a really important sacred thing" for their people, adding "we ask you to respect our law and culture by not climbing Uluru."

The Anangu also point out that the highly dangerous climb—which is prohibited over the summer months due to extreme heat—has led to many deaths. There have been at least 35 climbing-related deaths on Uluru, most of them due to heart attacks. Last year, a Taiwanese tourist was trapped in a crevice in the rock for more than 24 hours before they were rescued.

"We have a responsibility to teach and safeguard visitors to our land," the statement on the Parks Australia website says. "The climb can be dangerous. Too many people have died while attempting to climb Uluru… We feel great sadness when a person dies or is hurt on our land. We worry about you and we worry about your family. Our traditional law teaches us the proper way to behave."

In spite of incidents like this one, it seems likely that tourists will continue to climb Uluru. Controversially, in April this year, the chief minister of the Northern Territory Adam Giles defended tourists scaling the rock, saying an outright ban would be a "knee jerk reaction" to the concerns of its traditional owners.

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