A Taiwanese woman who had become popular for scaling mountains and other high peaks wearing just a bikini died after falling down a steep ravine during one of her recent hiking trips.

36-year-old Gigi Wu, dubbed 'The Bikini Hiker,' froze to death after plunging 65 feet down a gorge while trying to climb Taiwan's highest peak, with rescue services unable to reach her on time due to extreme weather conditions.

According to the Daily Mail, Wu set out on one of her solo hiking trips in the landlocked Nantou County in Central Taiwan on January 11 with the aim of climbing Yushan (Jade Mountain), which rises 3,952 meters (12,966 feet) above sea level.



However, on January 19, she used her satellite phone to make a distress call to a friend, and a message passed on to the Nantou Fire Service revealed the 36-year-old had fallen 65 feet into a narrow gorge. She was trapped at the bottom in freezing weather conditions and was left unable to move because of the injuries she sustained during the fall.

Commander Lin Cheng-Li, the leader of the Nantou County Fire Department's Third Squadron, said Wu's distress beacon was activated at an altitude of 5,577 ft above sea level — which would put her a little less than half-way to the peak — and that night temperatures in the area dropped to 2 degree Celsius.

The poor weather conditions meant that the Black Hawk rescue helicopters that were dispatched to her location on three separate occasions by the island's National Airborne Service were grounded each time, crucially delaying her rescue.

Left with little choice, two search and rescue parties comprising of three members each made the perilous climb themselves to look for the 36-year-old. They found her lifeless body at the location of the distress beacon 28 hours later but have not been able to airlift it out of the ravine yet and are waiting for more suitable weather conditions to do so. In the meantime, the parties have set up camp at the site of the accident.

The Mail reported that, before this fatal accident, Wu had a similarly close run-in with death less than a month ago. In pictures she uploaded on Christmas Eve, the 36-year-old shows off her bruised legs after a fall which she admitted she was lucky to survive.

Wu had a large following on social media and was an avid hiker who would often upload mesmerizing pictures of herself on top of mountain peaks sporting nothing but a bikini. Passionate about the sport, she previously revealed she had spent more than a third of 2018 — 127 days to be exact — hiking, with her death resulting in many of her friends posting condolence messages on her Facebook page.