Extreme Ironing

Extreme ironing - "the danger sport that combines the thrills of an extreme outdoor activity with the satisfaction of a well pressed shirt."

You might think that loading an ironing board with a pile of laundry and pressing it whilst dangling on a rope from a helicopter flying hundreds of meters above the ground would be a very silly, purposeless thing to do. Well, the local mountain rescuers think so too, which is why we stick to stuffing our cold-weather laundry into rucksacks and pressing them onto stretchers while training for useful things like picking up people who come unstuck in the mountains.

But it would make for a great photo opportunity... ;)

(Surprisingly, this decidedly non-Olympic sport has taken off around the world, with South Africa's very own Troye Wallet winning the Rowenta Trophy for his flamboyant ironing session over the Wolfberg Cracks in the Cederberg - have a look here for more info and here for the winning pics...)

Without an iron in sight, a pair of mountain rescuers (far too creased to actually be allowed into AMS's spiffy Squirrel) are shorthauled out of a simulated accident site on the slopes of Table Mountain. While the pilot cannot actually see his human cargo dangling 25m below his aircraft, the crew keeps an eye on them and the terrain while pattering the pilot into position to insert or extract them.

More search and rescue images can be found on my website collections