36 Year-Old “Bikini Climber” Freezes To Death After Falling Off Mountain

You can’t deny that death-defying feats shared on social media have a certain appeal. Yet our applause and ardent admiration often embolden the daredevils who then shoot to fame as social media sensations. Yet a quest to garner the most eyeballs often leads them in treacherous terrain. Such is the story of Gigi Wu fondly dubbed as the ‘Bikini Climber’ by fans.

The Taiwanese social media star who also went by Wu Chi-yun, froze to death after a 65-foot fall this past weekend. A native of New Taipei City, Wu was 36 and famous on Facebook for posting sizzling death-defying selfies on mountain-tops dressed in bikinis.

To be fair, she usually wore hiking clothes to scale the mountains. She only switched into a bikini once she reached the top for that coveted selfie.

In an interview with FTV last year, she revealed she had scaled more than 100 peaks in four years reports NDTV. When asked why she did it, she replied: “It just looks so beautiful, what’s not to like?”

“I put on a bikini in each one of the 100 mountains. I only have around 97 bikinis so I accidentally repeated some,” said Wu.

The mountaineer’s latest conquest was central Taiwan’s Yushan Mountain. A largely tropical country, Taiwan boasts a spine of towering peaks down its middle that regularly top 3,000 metres. She was eight days into a solo hike Saturday when she called a friend via satellite phone to say she’d tumbled down a ravine and badly injured herself.

Rescue helicopters struggled to reach her because of bad weather and the outlook seemed grim. In the winter, temperatures routinely drop well below freezing on the mountain slopes. The overnight temperature where she fell (at an altitude of over 5,500 feet) was close to freezing. The airlift came 28 hours later. But by then, the young woman was dead, officials said according to NY Post.

Nantou County Fire and Rescue Services’, Cmdr. Lin Cheng-I shared, “The weather conditions in the mountains are not good, we have asked our rescuers to move the body to a more open space.

“After the weather clears we will make a request for a helicopter to bring the body down,” said Lin.

Lin explained that their top rescue team hiked for 28 hours to reach the body. They only slept for three hours because they knew temperatures were rapidly plunging. Officials said Wu had told her friends that she was unable to move the lower half of her body after a fall of some 20-30 metres (65-100 feet). She was able to give her coordinates.

Shockingly, Wu had had a near-death experience just last month. On Christmas Eve, she shared an image showing her scratched-up legs after being injured in a fall that she said she was lucky to survive. Alas, the social media adventure seeker met her Maker after Saturday’s fatal climb.

The climb to social-media fame can indeed be deadly. We caution you against risking your life for flittering social media stardom!