A climber wedged between two large boulders at Mount Arapiles, in western Victoria for more than 10 hours has been freed by emergency services.

The 24-year-old man was trying to negotiate his way through a "squeeze test" in a narrow crevice when he fell last night about 10:00pm (AEST).

He managed to ring friends, who contacted the emergency services.

The man was freed about 8:10am with the help of olive oil and a pulley system.

He is in a stable condition at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

Nick Thresher from Ambulance Victoria says emergency crews needed to slip the man out of the crevice.

"I believe some of his friends actually went around the campsite at Mt Arapiles waking up a few people just asking for some shampoo or any other lubricants they can find," he said.

"Funnily enough someone did bring up some motor oil but we declined the use of that one."

Mr Thresher says under the circumstances the climber is doing remarkably well.

"He's extremely hypothermic. He's been between two very cold rocks for many, many hours. His blood pressure is improving," he told Fairfax radio.

"There doesn't appear to be any significant musculoskeletal injuries but we're very concerned with the amount of time he's actually been trapped in this crevice."

What is crush syndrome? A medical condition characterised by major shock and renal failure following prolonged continuous pressure on skeletal muscle tissue.

A medical condition characterised by major shock and renal failure following prolonged continuous pressure on skeletal muscle tissue. Typically occurs after the release of crushing pressure when by-products of the damaged muscle tissue are released into the bloodstream.

Typically occurs after the release of crushing pressure when by-products of the damaged muscle tissue are released into the bloodstream. Can cause local tissue injury, organ dysfunction, metabolic abnormalities and irregular heartbeat.

Paramedics were concerned about crush syndrome.

"The concerns are that when that heavy weight is actually released the various toxins that can be really very harmful to the body can be released into the bloodstream," Mr Thresher said.

"[But] he was not actually trapped by any boulders. It was a more mechanical entrapment between the rock crevice."

Victoria Police Sergeant Jason Burgen said the man managed to get through the rocks on a first attempt yesterday but became wedged by the hips when he tried to go through again last night.

"It's two boulders and they're, at points, up to four or five inches apart, and the idea is to try and climb through this narrow gap," he said.

"He's gotten so far and his hips [were] wedged in the rocks."

It is not the first time there has been an incident at this spot.

"I do believe there may have been some incidents in years gone by," Mr Thresher said.

"It's a common rock that people use in the rock-climbing fraternity for various activities.

"I think they should take up something less hazardous."

Paramedics, the State Emergency Service, police and the CFA high angle rescue squad worked to free him.

Sorry, this video has expired Rescue crews used olive oil and a pulley system to rescue the climber (Image: Victoria Police)

Squeeze test has trapped people before: climbing school

A climbing school that operates out of Mount Arapiles says this is not the first time people have become stuck between the two boulders.

"It's the third time that the SES have been called out to rescue people, but there's probably been people stuck a couple of dozen times, but only for maybe a few minutes, or half an hour to an hour," The Climbing Company's Louise Shepherd said.

Ms Shepherd says the squeeze test is more of a caving exercise than a climbing one, but people underestimate how dangerous the section is because it is close to the ground.

"The perception is that it's safe because it's at ground level. It's not high off the ground so it looks safe, but in fact it is quite dangerous," she said.

"You have to wriggle your hips to get out in the best position and it's very easy to slip down and get stuck from your hips; this is what's happened before in this one spot.

"People slip down, they can't lever themselves up and then as they get more panicky their breathing rate increases and they often hyperventilate.

"Climbing a cliff that's 150 metres high appears to be dangerous and it is dangerous unless you know what you're doing. But going through a little caving exercise appears not to be dangerous."

However Andrew Clark, vice president of the Victorian Climbing Club, says the difficulty of the squeeze test depends on the specifics of the day.

"There were well over 500 people in the Arapiles camp ground over the Easter long weekend and dozens of those people would have experimented with the squeeze boulder," Mr Clark said.

"A large portion of the people trying it would have made it through, some more than once with various permutations to make it harder - for example going feet first instead of head first or south side to north side instead of north to south.

"Given the number of people that do the squeeze test and the number of incidents there's been, I'd say it is relatively safe.

"I've seen far more injuries from people walking to and from camp than anywhere else."

Ms Shepherd says the area should either be closed off or opened up so that people can no longer attempt the squeeze test.

"Guides and teachers take their students there to do this squeeze test on the belief that it's a safe thing to do, and then it becomes embedded in the school culture and university culture," she said.

"One day somebody is going to die in there unless it's blocked up or unless the two blocks are levered apart so you can walk through it."

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