High drama in the mountains of ENZED

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

from The Timaru Herald....

Rescue climber falls to his death

Stu Haslett worked in search and rescue

By NICOLE MATHEWON and SARAH JARVIS | 8:33AM - Monday, 15 December 2014


CLIMBER: Stu Haslett was killed in
a fall on Mount Cook.

THE MAN who died on Mount Cook on Saturday was an experienced climber and part of the Aoraki Alpine Rescue Team.

Stuart Douglas Cargill Haslett, 28, had for the last three months called Mount Cook village “home”, where he was a seasonal mountaineer, employed by the Department of Conservation (DOC) as part of the Aoraki Alpine Rescue Team.

DOC spokesperson, Conservation services director Andy Roberts said “our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with Stu's family, partner, friends and colleagues here at Aoraki”.

Police have begun an investigation into what led to the fatal incident which occurred on the north side of the east ridge of Aoraki-Mount Cook.

The death has been referred to the Coroner.


The body of a SAR team member who fell to his death on Aoraki/Mount Cook is recovered on Sunday.
 — Photo: NZ Police.

A spokesperson from Aoraki Alpine Rescue Team said: “Stuart was a valued member of the community, he was an experienced climber and much loved member of the team.”

“He enjoyed spending time in the Southern Alps and was always professional, courteous and friendly no matter what the circumstances. He will be sadly missed and our thoughts are with his family and friends.”

Canterbury Rural Area Commander (Mid South), Inspector Dave Gaskin said the recovery operation went as planned yesterday. Despite cloud cover in the morning the climber and his belongings were recovered safely, he said.

Haslett worked at Canterbury's Mount Cheeseman ski area last year and at The Remarkables ski area, near Queenstown, this year.

The Remarkables ski area manager Ross Lawrence said Haslett worked on the mountain for about four-and-a-months months as a ski patroller.

He was a “great guy” and was always “keen to learn as much as he could”.

“He certainly fitted into the team very well. We were looking forward to having him back.”

Haslett lived in Queenstown during his time at The Remarkables and “commuted up and down the hill” with other workers daily.

“He was in his element up here. He loved the outdoors,” Lawrence said.

“He will be sadly missed and our heartfelt condolences go out to the family.”

http://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/64156027/Rescue-climber-falls-to-his-death

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

from The Timaru Herald....

Mount Cook: Does reaching summit outweigh risks?

Aoraki/Mount Cook claimed another life this week. ANNA PEARSON
reports on why reaching the summit, for some, outweighs the risks.

By ANNA PEARSON | 11:37AM - Saturday, 20 December 2014


CLIMBER: Stu Haslett was killed in a fall on Aoraki/Mount Cook. — Photo: FACEBOOK.

THERE'S A document in an office in Aoraki/Mount Cook Village with hundreds of names on it. It lists “age”, “sex”, “nationality”, “region”, “cause”, and goes back more than 100 years. George Napier, a Kiwi in his 20s, was the first to, in mountaineer-speak, “cross the divide”, or die, in the area. Napier went missing in the Hooker River region, on December 29th, 1907, “presumed drowned”.

There have been more than 230 fatalities in Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park recorded since then, including 78 from climbing Aoraki, a long, blocky mountain at more than 3,700 metres tall, with three peaks. Hypothermia, avalanches, lightning, rockfalls, heart attacks and plane crashes are all listed as contributing to the tally.

In 2004, 22-year-old Australian Phillip Toms made it to the summit of Mount Cook, only to fall 1,000 metres to his death down the East Face. A hut at Barron Saddle blew into the Dobson Valley in 1977, killing four young Kiwis inside, and in 1994, a 34-year-old Japanese woman disappeared without a trace on a day walk to Mueller Hut. The woman, Masami Somaki, is among about 60 people with “M” beside their name, for “missing/not recovered”.

“The park really is a bit of an urupa (burial site),” says Department of Conservation (DOC) partnerships ranger Shirley Slatter, whose colleague, 28-year-old Stuart Haslett, an experienced mountaineer and “much loved” member of DOC's Aoraki Alpine Rescue Team, died in a fall while climbing the East Ridge of Mount Cook last Saturday. Slatter's job is to update the fatality list for the national park. Haslett was number 234.

Bob McKerrow, a member of the Mount Cook rescue team from 1970 to 1973, has climbed Aoraki three times. At 66, he says mountain deaths have “stalked” his life. By age 20, McKerrow had lost more than 15 people he had climbed with on a rope or in the same party. “By 30 the number had doubled.”

There's a faded image of him with Keith McIvor and Graham Lockett, a young bunch, handsome, on the top of Mount Huxley in 1967. “I was 18 and when I returned to Dunedin from this trip, I found my cousin Mike Cooper had died on an Otago University climbing trip to Mount Awful. We were close and it shattered me,” he says.

Five years later, in 1972, McIvor, who was McKerrow's “best climbing companion and friend”, died too. McIvor, 27, was caught in an avalanche with his American friend William Hauck, 21, while attempting the first winter ascent of Mount Cook by the Caroline Face. His body was recovered in 1983.

As a mountaineer, McKerrow says, death “is not something you consciously think about”. Instead, “you try to lift your skill level to reduce the chances of something going wrong”.


ASCENT: A climber on the East Ridge route on Aoraki/Mount Cook. — Photo: MIKE ROWE.

There are 48 routes up Mount Cook, from the “easy” Linda Glacier route, a round trip from Plateau Hut (which people either walk or helicopter to), taking anywhere between 10 to 20 hours, to longer, more technical routes such as the East Ridge, described on ClimbNZ.org.nz's national database as “a classic ice climb, perhaps the finest in New Zealand”. It separates the East Face of Mount Cook with the Caroline Face and joins Aoraki's summit ridge about 200m south of Middle Peak, where Mark Inglis and Philip Doole, both former members of the Mount Cook rescue team, famously succumbed to frostbite, later losing their legs below the knee, in 1982.

Mountain Safety Council avalanche and alpine programme manager Andrew Hobman says the East Ridge is long, steep and exposed. You get “that feeling if you walk to the edge of a building, hang your toes off and look over the edge”. Dan Bryant and Lud Mahan made the first summer ascent of the route in 1938. Christchurch-based polar and mountain photographer Colin Monteath, along with Richard Schmidt, Steve Anderson and Greg Mortimer, did the first winter ascent in 1979.

Monteath, 66, remembers it well. He and his party bivouaced at Cinerama Col and left their sleeping bags there the next day to travel light in a push for the summit. Two of the foursome made it to High Peak and down the Linda Glacier back to the Plateau Hut that day, but Monteath and Schmidt were “a bit slower”. With light fading, they decided to sleep the night on the summit. “We ended up on the [top] of Mount Cook with no sleeping bags,” he says. It was “bloody freezing”. Monteath remembers the twinkle of lights from the Hermitage Hotel in Aoraki/Mount Cook Village far below.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Monteath climbed Aoraki about 14 times. “Have I lost [friends] on Mount Cook?” he says, reluctantly. “Yes, I have. I prefer to dwell on the positive aspects of mountaineering. The rewards are huge, but sadly things do go wrong in any sport or activity.”

The bulk of mountaineers are wary of media coverage. Many dislike its focus on death. “Easy sensationalism,” they say. “There is no interest in the hundreds of people who climb the mountain and have a great trip.” Paul Hersey, a Dunedin-based mountaineer and author of High Misadventure, a compilation of New Zealand mountaineering tragedies and survival stories, says media reports sometimes get locations wrong, like confusing climbing Aoraki with climbing elsewhere in the national park, and attributing blame. “There's a lack of understanding ... and it becomes, ‘The climber must have done something wrong for the accident to occur’, but so often accidents just happen”, Hersey says.


ON THE EDGE: On a beautiful day, Mount Cook looks almost benign. However about 60 bodies
remain missing on or near the mountain. — JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/Fairfax NZ.

Charlie Hobbs, 58, moved to Aoraki/Mount Cook Village in the 1980s, and has been guiding there ever since. He says he has “a lot of dead friends . . . but we still do it because we love it. I guide people just about every day. It's a great office [and] the rewards are fantastic”.

Hobbs' company, Southern Alps Guiding, is one of two mountain guiding outfits in the village, and Hobbs and his wife run the Old Mountaineer's Cafe. There are several other mountain guiding companies around, Hobbs says, that bring clients in to climb from elsewhere. The climbing season traditionally runs from November to February and the mountains are always busy over Christmas.

“It's a reasonably short season because if you wait too long you can get access problems on to the mountain. The Linda Glacier, which is the standard route, has some humongous crevasses on it.”

Hobbs says “at a guess”, and it can only be a guess, because it's not like you need a ticket or permission (DOC has an intentions book but people don't always fill it in), about 150 to 200 people climb Aoraki a year.

“There are a lot of guided ascents but there are a lot of guys who go up there unguided. It's 50/50 maybe.” In general, people are well prepared, but “you get the odd person who may not have been climbing for very long and has some pretty high ambitions to climb the big one and may not be quite ready. It's not a learner's mountain by any means. You have got to have your act together.”

Mount Cook is not regulated, despite the occasional “kneejerk” call for the introduction of backcountry permits, and “long may it not be”, Hersey says. “The fear I have with society is we can't accept that sometimes things just go wrong. Yeah, sure, if you chose a different sequence of events you wouldn't have been in that particular place at that particular time and the accident would not have occurred ... but that's life [and] you can't eliminate risk.”

In a room at the visitor centre in Aoraki/Mount Cook Village, people pore over four volumes of memorial books. Bound in leather folders, they are so well read the pages are falling apart. DOC is in the process of replacing them. The more recent memorial pages — there is one for each person, “are the most well-thumbed”, Slatter says. “The books are our way of remembering those who have passed away in the mountains,” she says. The remembrance room, with stained glass windows and views of Aoraki, “celebrates the history of climbing and why it is that people come here to climb.”

TERRIBLE TOLL

A catalogue of just some of the climbing deaths in Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park over the last decade:

• February 5th, 2004 — Adrian Iordache, 27, Romanian, slipped and fell from the Linda Ice Shelf on to the Linda Glacier below.

• March 30th, 2004 — Phillip Toms, 22, of Australia, fell 1,000 metres down the East Face of Mount Cook from the summit.

• March 9th, 2005 — John Lowndes, 59, English, Kazuhiro Kotani, 29, Japanese, and Erica Beuzenberg, a Kiwi guide, 41, were roped together in Ball Pass when Lowndes slipped and pulled the other two with him.

• December 6th, 2006 — Rikke Prior, 25, from Denmark, was on a guided climbing course when she slipped and fell 300m on the Annette Plateau. A guide tried desperately to catch her.

• January 24th, 2007 — Takao Futono, 52, and Meguru Inoue, 31, both Japanese, had reached the summit of Mount Cook with a third member of their climbing club. They were descending when a rock they were all attached to fell. The third member survived when another rock fall cut the sling attaching him to the rock that gave way.

• March 24th, 2007 — Nina Creedman, 29, from the United States, who had climbed Mount Sealy with three others, was hit by rockfall.

• January 1st, 2008 — Anton Wopereis, 54, fell on Mount Cook while guiding a Scottish woman.

• February 8th, 2008 — Alan Leger, 57, of the United States, slipped and fell from a ridge in the Mueller Hut area.

• December 5th, 2008 — Japanese climber Kiyoshi Ikenouchi, 49, died in his sleeping bag of exposure on the Middle Peak of Mount Cook.

• December 11th, 2008 — Mark Vinar, 43, a doctor from Perth, died when he fell from the Zurbriggen Ridge of Mount Cook after bad weather forced him and his brother back from a summit attempt.

• January 26th, 2009 — Ohad Dotan, 26, Israeli, had climbed to Mueller Hut and was descending when he took the wrong route. He lost his pack down a bluff and appeared to have been climbing down to retrieve it when he fell.

• September 30th, 2009 — Kok Wong, 32, Malaysian, disappeared somewhere in Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park after setting off for a walk.

• September 13th, 2013 — Duncan Rait, 36, slipped and fell 150m high up on the Tasman Glacier.

• September 14th, 2013 — Robert Buckley, in his 30s, from England, fell about 700m while climbing Mount Sefton above the Mueller Glacier.

• November 1st, 2013 — Magnus Kastengren, Swedish, in his 30s, fell 600m while skiing from the summit of Mount Cook.

• July 16th, 2014 — Gary Francis, 44, a Sydney-based Englishman and former Royal Marine, fell 40m when snow on an ice bridge collapsed under him in the Grand Plateau area.

• December 13th, 2014 — Stuart Haslett, 28, fell on the East Ridge of Mount Cook when he put his pick into some ice, pulled himself up and rocks gave way.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/life/64350575/Mount-Cook-Does-reaching-summit-outweigh-risks

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

from The Timaru Herald....

Three men missing on Mount Cook

By AUDREY MALONE and GEORGINA STYLIANOU | 5:26PM - Tuesday, 30 December 2014


The route taken by three climbers missing on Aoraki/Mount Cook.

THREE CLIMBERS missing on Mount Cook were warned about warm weather before they started their climb.

Alpine Guide chief guide Dave McKinley believed he was amongst the last to see Australian Michael Bishop and the two German climbers at 4am Monday morning.

They were last seen at 4am at Teichelmann's Corner on the Linda Glacier. The men were roped together as they left the hut.

“I did make them aware the temperature was quite warm and to be aware.”

McKinley was also climbing the mountain and did not cross their path again.

“It did enter my consciousness later in the day when I didn't see them where I expected to, but it wasn't dangerous conditions for them to be out in.”

“I talked to the two Germans mostly, their English wasn't that great but better than my German.”

“It was just the type of conversation you have over a cup of coffee, but I got the impression from their preparation and gear they had some climbing experience.”

He believed Bishop had been climbing solo before joining up with the two Germans.

The Mount Cook Village was still reeling from Stuart Haslett's death earlier this month, he said. Haslett had called Mount Cook Village home for three months before he fell to his death on the mountain.

So for something like this to happen again so quickly has left most people “shell-shocked”, McKinley said.

“Obviously we are not as close as we were to Stu, but it still hits home.”

The weather conditions were deteriorating to heavy rain, wind and cooler temperatures, he said.

It was still survivable as long as they found shelter, which could be done in the crevasse, McKinley said.


MARK INGLIS: It is possible for climbers
to survive a Mount Cook storm if they
find shelter. — Photo: Ross Setford.

Mount Cook storm survivor Mark Inglis believed that as long as the trio got to shelter there was hope for their situation

Inglis was stuck on Aoraki/Mount Cook for 14 days in 1982 when he was a search and rescue mountaineer. Both his legs were amputated below the knee as a result of time spent on the mountain.

“We have proven that you can survive as long as you find shelter from the weather.”

“Hopefully they are fine, but we don't know enough of the story right now to speculate on what's happening.”

The Department of Conservation's alpine rescue team had abandoned an aerial search due to bad weather conditions.

DoC ranger Shirley Slatter said it was frustrating to be on the ground unable to search and not continue the aerial search.

“The conditions are such that we can't go out and continue to search.”

Search parties would regroup tomorrow and decide what could be done, she said.

“But the weather forecast isn't looking too good.”

Senior Constable Brent Swanson believed the search would re-start on New Years Day, when the weather was forecast to improve.

The three climbers were not due back until tomorrow so could not be officially classed as missing, he said.

“They failed to make it back to the hut, which should have been part of their plan,” he said.

Swanson said police were keen to speak to anyone who knew the Australian — Michael Bishop.

He added the climb from the hut to the summit was 1,700 metres and the trio had been due back by mid afternoon yesterday.

Police were informed at 6am that the men had not returned to the hut.

A guided climbing group based on the plateau was providing updates on both weather and visibility, and would report any sightings of the missing party, he said.

MetService has issued a severe-weather warning predicting heavy rain in the Mount Cook area, starting at 3am tomorrow.

Duty meteorologist Leigh Matheson said up to 100 millimetres of rain was expected between 3am and 3pm.

The heaviest rain should be in the mountains, peaking in the late morning, with some gales also expected, she said.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/64544550/Three-men-missing-on-Mount-Cook

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

from The Timaru Herald....

Weather halts Mount Cook search, missing climbers ‘experienced’

By AUDREY MALONE and GEORGINA STYLIANOU | 4:12PM - Wednesday, 31 December 2014


Raphael Viellehner, a 27-year-old German, is one of the three climbers missing on Aoraki/Mount Cook.

A SEARCH AND RESCUE operation for three climbers overdue on Aoraki/MOUNt Cook has been deferred until tomorrow because of bad weather.

Alpine Guides chief guide Dave McKinley said the rescue operation would begin at first light.

“It looks like the weather will ease.”

“We hope to have the operation in play first thing tomorrow morning.”

New Zealand Police, Department of Conservation and volunteers will gather at 6am and all operations will be staged from Mount Cook Village.

The three men are experienced climbers who police say are “extremely fit”.

Senior Constable Brent Swanson confirmed the identities of the three climbers as Dr Michael Bishop, a 53-year-old from Sydney, Johann Viellehner, 58, and his son Raphael, 27, both from Germany.

Raphael Viellehner is a talented runner and has completed numerous competitive races.

A profile of Viellehner on online athletics community group LG Passau lists his best sporting achievements, which include running a half-marathon in 1 hour and 7 minutes in 2010. His hobbies are listed as rock climbing, cross country skiiing and mountain biking.

His Facebook profile shows he lives in Muhldorf, a town in south Germany, east of Munich. It also says he is in a relationship and graduated from college last year.

It is understood that Viellehner's sister Julia is a well-known cross country runner and duathlete who also lives in Germany.

Swanson said Johann Viellehner had significant climbing experience and had climbed in parts of Europe, including Russia. All three men were described as extremely fit, he said.

The Sydney man among the missing climbers on Aoraki-Mount Cook had previously climbed in the national park, police said.

It is understood Bishop is a GP in Brookvale, Sydney. Staff at his former clinic described him as an avid climber who was currently on holiday, but they did not know where.


Aoraki/Mount Cook was covered in cloud at 4pm yesterday, hampering the search for
three missing climbers. — Photo: John Cosgrove.

WEATHER HAMPERS SEARCH

Thunder storms, rain and strong wind gusts stopped the search today.

Police and the Department of Conservation were alerted at 6am yesterday that the trio were missing. A search began but was abandoned about 10.30am because of the weather.

The men left Plateau Hut at 1:30am on Monday and have not returned.

They were last seen at 4am on Monday at Teichelmann's Corner on Linda Glacier by a returning guide. They were roped together when they left the hut.

MetService meteorologist John Law said the weather today was “not looking flash”.

“There will be rain, thunderstorms and northwesterly gales up to 60km/h,” he said.

“The winds will make it feel slightly cooler, particularly cool if you are up high.”

The weather should ease this afternoon and should be fine in the region for the next three days, Law said.

Swanson confirmed there would be no searching today.

Alpine Guides chief guide Dave McKinley believed he was among the last to see the group.

He said that judging by their gear and their preparation, they seemed to have had experience in climbing.

The search and rescue team would regroup at Mount Cook Village this afternoon.

“We will be brainstorming an action plan for various scenarios to bring them back,” McKinley said.

“We will be thinking of as many different possibilities as we can.”

McKinley said Mount Cook had a unique terrain and was the only national park in New Zealand to require fulltime summer search and rescue staff.

He urged any members of the public who had any information about the plans of the trio to contact police.

“If they have personal information, any information on their objectives while on the mountain it could help.”

http://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/64563167/Weather-halts-Mount-Cook-search-missing-climbers-experienced

[reality]

All people doing pursuits that could lead to dangerous situations and/or rescue costs should have to have compulsory insurance to cover them for any of these costs......
....they are the ones getting the enjoyment...why should everybody else have to pay for their mistakes or misfortune when doing these activities

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

from The Press....

Climbers ‘perished’ on Mount Cook

By AUDREY MALONE and GEORGINA STYLIANOU | 10:56AM - Thursday, 01 January 2015



THREE CLIMBERS missing on Aoraki Mount Cook for three days are presumed dead, police say.

Australian man Michael Bishop, 53, and German father and son Johann and Raphael Viellehner, aged 58 and 27 respectively, were last seen on Linda Glacier on Monday morning.

Police said two helicopters had been searching the area this morning in vain and it was believed the trio perished on the mountain.

“The situation is grim,” police said.

“It was hoped that if they had survived the storm they would have been spotted from the air today.”

The three men's families had been advised that they were probably dead.

Further aerial searchers would take place over the next few days to find their bodies. The Christchurch based search and rescue team had returned home and Department of Conservation searchers were on standby.

About 30cm of snow had fallen at Plateau Hut, where the trio had set out from on Monday.

Senior Constable Brent Swanson said they were expecting the worst.

“If they were up and moving we would have seen them today.”

“It was beautiful conditions this morning ... they were very good for searching.”

The final helicopter sweep was happening this morning as it flew back to Christchurch with volunteers, he said.

Department of Conservation Mount Cook Search and Rescue team leader Jim Spencer said they had flown above the terrain this morning searching for signs of life.

“We flew above because it provides higher visibility ... we were looking for anything out of the ordinary, splashes of colour, movement, anything that was unusual.”

Swanson said the area would continue to be monitored and there was a number of operators in the area who were also keeping a “look out”.

CLIMBERS ‘EXTREMELY FIT’

Raphael Viellehner is a talented runner and has completed numerous competitive races.

Johann Viellehner had significant climbing experience and had climbed in parts of Europe, including Russia.

Bishop had previously climbed peaks in the Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park.

Bishop is understood to be a GP in Brookvale, Sydney.

Staff at his former clinic described him as an avid climber. They knew he was on holiday, but they did not know where.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/64584942/Climbers-perished-on-Mount-Cook

[reality]

Lets hope the govt bring in laws so that these  thrill seekers are made to get insurance to cover the costs of search and rescue( when it all turns to shit) so that the NZ taxpayers are not paying for their stupidity/lack of judgement...I'm sure the govt could think of something to spend the money on in the interests of NZ taxpayers

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Lets hope the govt bring in laws so that these  thrill seekers are made to get insurance to cover the costs of search and rescue( when it all turns to shit) so that the NZ taxpayers are not paying for their stupidity/lack of judgement...I'm sure the govt could think of something to spend the money on in the interests of NZ taxpayers

Well, seeing as you CHOSE to FLEE from NZ like a FRIGHTENED RAT when the economic going got tough, and now that the economic going has got tough in Australia, you have (true to form) FLED from OZ like a FRIGHTENED RAT, you have lost all right to whinge about the cost of search & rescues in NZ. It is none of your fucking business.

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

from The Timaru Herald....

Three climbers rescued at Mount Cook

By AUDREY MALONE | 11:56AM - Friday, 09 December 2015


Three climbers arrive at Mount Cook Airport after being airlifted to safety in the Aoraki/Mount Cook area.

THREE German hikers will buy a personal locator beacon after being rescued in Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park.

The trio called 111 about 10pm last night when they were "bluffed" in the Ball Pass.

Alpine Guides chief guide Dave McKinley said the term "bluffed" meant climbers or hikers descending an area discovered it was too steep to safely continue.

“Usually happens when someone is off-route,” he said.

“It is easy to do in the Ball Pass.”

Police decided that because of the mild weather, the trio did not need to be rescued immediately, and the hikers were lifted out at 8am today.

The three men, aged in their 20s, were not in any immediate danger last night, police said.


Rescue of three German trampers from the Ball Pass, in the Aoraki/Mount Cook national park.

The hikers were rescued by being short-roped to a location where they could be loaded into a hovering helicopter, which returned to the Aoraki/Mount Cook Emergency Centre at about 9.30am.

The hikers were uninjured but were grateful for the help they received, police said.

“The three men did the right thing by stopping when they realised they were bluffed and calling for help,” a police spokesman said.

“They were well prepared for their hike and had left details of their trip in the intentions book.”

The men are understood to be buying a personal locator beacon before continuing their hiking holiday in New Zealand.

The climbers at the centre of this morning's operation were not the trio which went missing in late December.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/64790808/Three-climbers-rescued-at-Mount-Cook

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

from the Otago Daily Times....

Base jump near 2km fall

By MARK PRICE | Monday, 12 January 2015


David Walden, of Lake Hawea, prepares to jump from the north shoulder of Mount Avalanche in Mount Aspiring National Park.

A LAKE HAWEA base jumper has completed New Zealand's biggest jump, with a vertical drop of almost two kilometres.

David Walden (45) stepped off a rock on the north shoulder of Mount Avalanche in Mount Aspiring National Park, near Wanaka, two days before Christmas.

He descended 1,840-metres and landed four kilometres away, crossing the Bonar Glacier as he flew at terminal velocity of 150km/h before landing safely.

Mr Walden jumped wearing a wingsuit to get a glide and landed with the assistance of a parachute.

“You fly down over a glacier, and over a frozen lake, and over a huge waterfall, over a forest, and over tussocks, and you land on one of the beautiful flats, next to a river.”

“There are a lot of nice things about it.”

“It's not just about making the biggest jump.”



Mr Walden, who was born in South Africa, began base jumping six years ago and has completed 450 jumps, mostly in Europe.

Mr Walden said he chose Mount Avalanche because he wanted to do a “big jump in the high mountains” and it offered an “exit”, or jumping off point, with the required vertical face of 150-metres.

“That is one of the few places in that area where the cliff is steep enough.”

“We jump with a wingsuit, but the first part of the jump, you still go down like a rock.”

Mr Walden said he had been dreaming about doing the jump for two years, and preparations included two “scoping” trips to the launch site where he used a laser to determine the cliff face was steep enough.

“I'm very methodical about my jumping,” Mr Walden said.

He was accompanied by his wife Renee, who skydives but does not base jump.

Mr Walden said there are no official records in base jumping and he had not set out to make or break records, wanting only to “make a nice jump”.

“It turns out at the moment it's the biggest jump, but there's a lot of terrain in New Zealand and it's probably not going to be long before there's an even bigger jump.”

http://www.odt.co.nz/video/news/queenstown-lakes/329715/base-jump-near-2km-fall

[nitpicker1]

Fiordland fall: climber 'seriously ill'
Home » News » Queenstown Lakes

By David Loughrey on Tue, 20 Jan 2015
News: Queenstown Lakes

A Wanaka man understood to be an experienced climber is in the intensive care unit at Dunedin Hospital in a serious condition, after falling 6m while his climbing party was returning from the Darran mountains near Milford Sound, in Fiordland.

The man was brought to Dunedin in what helicopter crew described as a ''seriously ill'' state yesterday morning.

That followed a night in the open, after he fell about 11.30pm on Sunday.

The four-man party set off an emergency locator beacon, but torrential rain and electrical storms meant a helicopter could not provide immediate help.

Instead, a Te Anau search and rescue team tramped to the site, arriving about 4.30am.

Southern Lakes Helicopters operations manager Lloyd Matheson said the alpine climbing group had been on a 10-day expedition, and was tramping during the night to the Milford Sound Highway where its vehicles were parked.

The group was only about 5km from the road.

Mr Matheson said the group had left an established track that had become unusable because of the weather.

Once the beacon was activated, the Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Wellington organised police at Te Anau to send in a ground party, Mr Matheson said.

One member of the climbing party had also walked to the road to raise the alarm.

The search and rescue team, which included a nurse, stabilised the man and cared for him until the helicopter arrived at dawn yesterday.

Mr Matheson said the country was ''dense bush on a sheer face in a river catchment'' by the Donne River.

The man had fallen in ''a real steep area'' covered with fallen trees, in a heavy beech forest in torrential rain.

''Just totally miserable,'' was his description of the conditions.

The rain had not stopped in the morning when the helicopter arrived and was ''absolutely persisting down''.

''We managed. through long-line extraction, to extract him from his predicament.''

The man was initially flown to Milford Sound, where a doctor stabilised him, before he was flown to Dunedin.

District Command Centre deployment co-ordinator Senior Sergeant Brian Benn, of Dunedin, said the two members of the climbing group left at the scene had also needed assistance, and were evacuated by the second helicopter.

It was understood they were suffering from hypothermia.

david.loughrey@odt.co.nz

http://www.odt.co.nz/news/queenstown-lakes/330523/fiordland-fall-climber-seriously-ill

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

from The New Zealand Herald....

Mates left stranded climber behind

By ANNA LEASK | 5:18PM - Sunday, March 01, 2015


Mount Taranaki. — Photo: NZ Herald.

A CLIMBER rescued after he got stuck on Mount Taranaki overnight was left at the summit by his mates.

The man and three friends climbed the mountain on Saturday, reaching the summit at 4.30pm.

Senior Sergeant Thomas McIntyre said three of the group decided to descend the mountain soon after but the man wanted to stay longer at the summit.

“Three of the group left him on the summit and returned. They got off the mountain safely and without incident,” Mr McIntyre said.

“The male that remained got into trouble when he started down a bit later. He descended down a steep part of the mountain and got lost and stuck. He got to the point where he couldn't go up, down, left or right.”

The alarm was raised when the man made contact with his friends at 8.45am yesterday.

Mr McIntyre said "balmy" conditions in New Plymouth in the last few days meant temperatures on the mountain would not have been dangerous.

But, the man was lucky he was not injured or worse.

“Luckily the weather has been kind to us for the last few days and it wouldn't have been too uncomfortable up there for him.”

Police worked with the Taranaki Rescue Helicopter and a local alpine rescue team to locate the man. The search was hindered due to cloud, and the fact the lost climber was “quite hidden”.

“Eventually an alpine rescue members was winched onto the mountain and sat with the man for some time. Another team with the appropriate ropes and equipment managed to get him out of his predicament,” Mr McIntyre said.

“He basically walked off the mountain after that.”

The climber was heading back to New Plymouth.

Mr McIntyre said there was a valuable lesson to be learned from the incident.

“From these sorts of events there is always something to take away,” he said.

“If you go up as a group make sure you come down as a group. It's about safety in numbers.”

• Anna Leask is senior police reporter for The New Zealand Herald.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11410016

[guest49]

The only place I can think of where he went wrong, is he bore right off the head of the Lizard below the Summer Entrance and he got onto Bryants Rocks over the head of Snow Valley.  Very difficult in there.

[Crusader]

That headline is misleading.  It suggests his mates abandoned their mate in need. However when you read the story it clearly states that the guy made a concious decision to stay a bit longer and not travel with his mates down the mountain of which he then got into trouble.  Typical media trying to sensationalise a story

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

from The Press....

Two bodies discovered on Tasman Glacier

By NICOLE MATHEWSON | 3:50PM - Monday, 02 March 2015


BODY UNCOVERED: The Tasman Glacier as seen from the Tasman moraine wall. — Photo: RACHEL HAY.

THE BODIES of two climbers killed on Tasman glacier have been recovered. One of them died more than 40 years ago.

Police today confirmed a set of human remains was recovered from the glacier in the Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park last week.

It followed the discovery of another set of human remains in mid-February.

Canterbury police rural area commander Inspector David Gaskin said the first set of human remains was located on the lower part of the Tasman Glacier, while the second set was recovered from the bottom of the Hochstetter ice fall as it entered the Tasman Glacier.

“The two discoveries are from separate incidents and are unrelated.”

Low snow fall over the winter and recent warm temperatures could explain why remains were being found more often this year, he said.

Both discoveries had been referred to the coroner.

Police were still waiting for DNA results to confirm the identify of the climbers, but one body was believed to be that of a 19-year-old South Island man who died in an avalanche near the top of the glacier on September 16th, 1973.

Department of Conservation (DOC) ranger Shirley Slatter said records showed a 19-year-old man had been climbing with a 64-year-old companion when they were swept away by a “cornice collapse” — an overhanging piece of snow that collapsed beneath them.

Searchers probed the avalanche for 20 hours and found the climber's bag and the body of his companion.

The avalanche was deeper than 9 metres in some places.

Slatter said DOC records stated the pair had been climbing from the Tasman Saddle landing strip to the Tasman Saddle Hut when the avalanche happened.

“Their route to the hut was unusual,” she said.

The bodies of 62 climbers who have disappeared in Mount Cook National Park since 1907 remain missing today.

Most disappeared on Aoraki/Mount Cook itself.

Slatter said the missing climbers would have fallen into glacier crevasses, where they could remain hidden for decades.

Glaciers were solid, yet fluid, and lost equipment or bodies could eventually be uncovered as the glaciers melted and moved.

In 2001, the remains of two Swiss climbers who went missing 38 years earlier were uncovered on the Hooker Glacier, near Mount Cook.

The remains belonged to Swiss nationals August Manser and Edwin Kunz, who disappeared on December 28th, 1963.

In 1999, the remains of Kiwi climbers John Cousins and Michael Goldsmith were found by another climbing party 36 years after they disappeared.

The young pair had gone missing in November 1963 while trying to climb the notorious south-east face of Mount Cook.

Slatter said the discovery of the 19-year-old's body in January was “a little bit more unexpected” due to the location where he was found.

“To get whole remains to come out and that can be identified is really good — it's great for the family,” she said.

Independent guide Gavin Lang was one of two climbers to find the well-preserved remains in January.

He told NZ Newswire he saw a “piece of meshy material” attached to an old tent peg, then saw a leather glove, socks and tweed from a jacket or pants.

“There was the body with leathery skin, and some boots nearby but I didn't want to look inside them.”

http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/66837686/Two-bodies-discovered-on-Tasman-Glacier

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

from The Timaru Herald....

Department of Conservation removes Gardiner Hut in Aoraki-Mount Cook National Park

By SAHIBAN KANWAL | 5:11PM - Wednesday, 15 April 2015


Gardiner Hut in Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park was removed by the Department of Conservation
in late March 2015 after an avalanche in July 2014. — Photo: Department of Conservation.

THE Department of Conservation has demolished Gardiner Hut in Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park after it was damaged beyond repair due to an avalanche last year.

The damage was the result of a significant rock avalanche on July 14th when the national seismograph network station, located at Fox Glacier 26km to the west, recorded two pulses of avalanche-type shaking, though damage to the hut was not confirmed until two days later.

The rock avalanche occurred on the south face of Aoraki/Mount Cook, from below the Hillary Ridge immediately northwest of Endeavour Col. The avalanche damaged Gardiner Hut, moving it off its foundations and destroying the adjacent toilet.

DOC's Aoraki conservations services manager Mike Davies said it was a “massive rock fall” and it was a testament to the hut's placement and design the structure survived at all.

The hut was removed over two separate days in late March after a detailed onsite engineering assessment concluded the need for its removal.

“The hut had been closed since the avalanche pending the assessment and the current loss of Gardiner Hut illustrates the challenge of building and maintaining huts in Aoraki's dynamic geological landscape. This situation is further exacerbated by glacial recession.”

The department will work with the public and its partners towards a decision regarding the replacement of the hut.

“This will link in to the review of the Park Management Plan later this year. It will need input from Ngāi Tahu in recognition of Aoraki's cultural importance and its Tōpuni status, as well as the Conservation Board, and alpine users of the park.”

The rock avalanche also severely damaged the Pudding Rock Cables and anchors that provide critical access to Gardiner Hut and the upper Hooker Valley climbing routes on the western side of Aoraki.

This includes a number of routes including the classic Grand Traverse, South Face of Hicks, La Perouse and Nazomi. The department plans to replace these cables next summer.

Related news story:

 • Avalanche hits Mt Cook hut

http://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/news/67773151/department-of-conservation-removes-gardiner-hut-in-aorakimt-cook-national-park

[reality]

Probably best not to replace the hut....it just leads to pollution of Aotearoa....

.....and even worse... Will also  lead to guys trying to go there in sneakers...then the NZ taxpayer needs to pay to rescue them😜

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Probably best not to replace the hut....it just leads to pollution of Aotearoa....

.....and even worse... Will also  lead to guys trying to go there in sneakers...then the NZ taxpayer needs to pay to rescue them😜

And that just basically shows that you are just plain dumb & stupid.

Do you actually KNOW the Hooker Valley in Aoraki-Mount Cook National Park?

Have you ever actually been there and set foot into the valley?

Have you been up past the terminal lake of the Hooker Glacier into the upper valley?

Because if you have been up there, you wouldn't be talking shit like you are.

For a start, you physically couldn't get into the upper valley unless you are wearing crampons.

You simply wouldn't be able to get there in sneakers, because you have to traverse ice-slopes which are steeper than 35°.

Yet again, you are talking through a hole in your arsehole.

Go back to your pretend job and your pretend bullshit where you ARE supposedly an expert and stop making a dork of yourself.

And BTW....I have been right up into the Hooker Valley.

I've used it as a route to gain access to some of the peaks up in there.

Here's a photograph of myself and climbing mates (one of them in this photo is my brother) taken while descending from a climbing trip up the Hooker Valley....

[reality]

...sooooo...if people tried going up there unprepared.....could they end up in a situation needing to be rescued?😜
...at the expense of the NZ taxpayer?😳

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Dumbshit........they wouldn't even be able to get into the upper valley (where the trashed hut is) without the right technical equipment.

Faaaaark, you're DUMB!! 

[reality]

Sooo....if they tried to go there to "have some fun in the hills"....they may need to be rescued...yeah....thought so😜

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

(click on the picture to read the news story)

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

(click on the picture to read the news story)

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

(click on the picture to read the news story)

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

from Fairfax NZ....

• Rescue team recovers two bodies at Mount Cook