'Bikini Hiker' Freezes After Mountain Fall

Taiwan's Gigi Wu found dead 28 hours after distress call
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 22, 2019 8:37 AM CST
'Bikini Hiker' Freezes After Mountain Fall
This 2006 photo shows a mountain in Taiwan's Yushan National Park.   (Wikimedia)

A Taiwanese woman with an affinity for climbing mountains in bikinis shared a photo on Christmas Eve, showing leg injuries from a fall she said she was lucky to have survived. Gigi Wu wasn't so lucky this time. The 36-year-old "Bikini Hiker" was eight days into a solo hike in Taiwan's Yushan National Park on Saturday when she made a distress call from 5,577 feet above sea level, claiming she was unable to move her lower body after falling 65 feet down a ravine, report the Telegraph and LAD Bible. It was 28 hours before firefighters could reach Wu on foot as search and rescue helicopters were forced to turn back three times due to weather conditions, per BuzzFeed. Wu had by then died of suspected hypothermia, per the Independent. Per LAD Bible, temperatures had dipped below 36 degrees.

Wu was an avid hiker—she claimed to have scaled 100 mountains in four years—and social media user, with 20,000 Facebook followers. Shared photos showed her posing on mountain peaks in a bikini top and skirt. "It just looks so beautiful, what's not to like?" Wu previously said, per the Telegraph, which notes she would change out of climbing attire for photoshoots. "I put on a bikini in each one of the 100 mountains. I only have around 97 bikinis so I accidentally repeated some," Wu said. Authorities were still trying to retrieve her body Tuesday as weather issues persisted. "We have asked our rescuers to move the body to a more open space and after the weather clears we will make a request for a helicopter to bring the body down," says a Nantou County Fire and Rescue Services rep. (Travel bloggers fell to their deaths at Yosemite.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X