Taiwan’s ‘Bikini Climber’ social media star Gigi Wu dies after ravine fall in Yushan national park
- Wu called friends from a satellite phone on Saturday to tell them she could not move before rescuers located her body on Monday
Taiwanese rescue teams were trying on Tuesday to retrieve the body of a dead hiker who became famous on social media for taking selfies on top of mountain peaks dressed in a bikini.
Gigi Wu – dubbed the “Bikini Climber” by fans – used a satellite phone on Saturday to tell friends she had fallen down a ravine in Taiwan’s Yushan national park and badly injured herself.
Rescue helicopters struggled to reach her because of bad weather and officials eventually located her lifeless body on Monday.
“The weather conditions in the mountains are not good, 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,” Lin Cheng-yi, from the Nantou County Fire and Rescue Services, told reporters.
Officials said Wu had told friends she was unable to move the lower half of her body after a fall of some 20-30 metres (65-98 feet) but was able to give her co-ordinates.
She is the latest in a string of social media adventure seekers who have met an untimely end.
Last October, the bodies of an Indian couple were found at the bottom of a popular overlook in California’s Yosemite National Park after hikers alerted officials to their camera equipment at the top of the cliff.