A mountaineer known for hiking mountains in her bikini was found frozen to death in a 65ft ravine in Taiwan.
Gigi Wu, 36 - 'The Bikini Hiker' - called a friend on her satellite phone on Saturday and Black Hawk helicopters were scrambled to save her high in the Yushan National Park.
But poor weather conditions prevented the aircraft from taking off and Wu was found 28 hours later frozen to death.
She had set out on a solo hike starting in the landlocked Nantou County in Central Taiwan on 11th January and put in the distress call on 19th January.
In a message to be passed on to the Nantou fire service, Wu revealed she had stumbled more than 65 ft into a narrow gorge while trying to ascend Taiwan's highest peak.
Wu said she was trapped at the bottom and unable to move due to the injuries sustained during the fall.
The island's National Airborne Service Corps said it attempted to dispatch Black Hawk rescue helicopters to her location on three separate occasions, but the flights were ultimately grounded due to poor weather conditions.
It finally decided to send in two search and rescue parties comprising three members each.
They found Wu's body at the location of her distress beacon.
Rescuers say they are still waiting for stable weather in which to airlift Wu's body out the narrow gully, with the search party having since set up camp near the site of the accident.
Commander Lin Cheng-I, who heads up the Nantou County Fire Department's Third Squadron, revealed Wu's distress beacon was activated at an altitude of 5,577 ft above sea level, where night-time temperatures reached just 2C.
Wu had a large following on social media where she often posted stunning photos of herself wearing bikinis on Facebook and Instagram scaling Taiwan's highest peaks.
In 2018, she revealed she spent 127 days - roughly a third of the year - hiking.
On Christmas Eve, she also shared an image showing her bruised legs following another fall, which she admitted she was lucky to survive.
Many of her Facebook friends have left messages of condolences to Wu after learning of her death.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
