I'd previously been under the impression that once leaving the access track at the top, that it was only a matter of metres before a sheer drop off.
But as it sounds like a steep slope with plenty of woody vegetation to grab hold of, or to break a fall, I'm even less convinced by the accidental fall theory (or a deliberate jump for that matter).
"Wedged in a crevice in a tree," sounds more like a deliberately selected hiding place than a random fall spot. It depends how wide this crevice is and if it's the kind of thing a person could accidentally step into at the point it opens up. At which point I ask the question why make the effort to clamber 20 metres down the slope in the first place?
And if accidentally stepping or slipping into the mouth of the crevice is the case, then the distance to the tree branches below would have to be far enough to mortally injure, because although it was coolish, according to locals it was relatively mild, so I'm unsure as to whether hypothermia would have necessarily caused death. In which case you'd think a trapped person would be yelling out all night and sounds would be echoing all through the canyon. Perhaps that was the source of the 'cooee' that was reported during the night.
I hope police thoroughly scoured that whole slope to try to find the phone, as it seems like the most likely place for it to have fallen out of a pocket or been dropped.
Just wondering if maybe the images of the area that have been released have been deliberately hard to pinpoint the exact location. Authorities wouldn't want random people wandering about sightseeing putting themselves at risk, or contaminating the scene or whatever.