A couple has been winched to safety after being stuck overnight in a canyon in the Blue Mountains region of NSW.
The 41-year-old man and 33-year-old woman spent a long, cold night in the Claustral Canyon before rescue teams abseiled in after daybreak.
Special operation paramedics had to walk and swim to reach the keen canyoners, who were both treated for dehydration after the almost 24-hour ordeal.
The couple entered the popular canyon about 8.30am on Monday and became disoriented when they made a wrong turn.
They weren’t able to activate their emergency beacon until 1am, prompting a large-scale search in rain and darkness.
“It just took a bit too long and then it got late and we missed the exit,” the man said after the rescue.
About 7.30am on Tuesday the canyoners were finally spotted, checked over by paramedics and winched to safety by an ambulance rescue helicopter in “difficult circumstances”.
“They’re in a stable condition. Very cold. Dehydrated. They were in the canyon all night,” Steven Lobley from NSW Ambulance said.
The Claustral canyon is in Mount Tomah, roughly 50 kilometres from Katoomba.
It’s a popular canyoning location but is considered one of the more challenging to navigate, with the exit track alone taking an average of four hours to complete.
Rescuers also had to be winched from the canyon due to the difficult terrain.
This content first appear on 9news