Climbers lucky to survive

Asian tourists who ignored warnings as they climbed a snow-covered Mt Ngauruhoe late Saturday afternoon, would have died if they had not run into a well-equipped party at the summit.

That was the stark assessment of Palmerston North outdoors woman Emma Gregg who told King Country News the two men ignored warnings from herself and others on their way up the mountain.

“After spending a fantastic few hours up at the crater, my party of four came across this guy and his buddy on their way up.

“It was mid-afternoon, they were about two thirds up and heading for the crater,” Emma said.

“They were wearing cotton tees, jeans and sneakers. Not even good sneakers, just floppy urban jobs, no crampons, and one of them was using a rock as an ice axe.

“They had already been informed by several other groups that it was possibly not the adventure for them but chose to ignore, so the rant that I embarked on left no room for misunderstanding of the very possible consequences of their adventure.

“But they also chose to ignore me and carried on. Short of dragging them down, not much else could’ve been done.

“There was thankfully another group heading up that looked like they may have been going to camp [at the summit]; we warned them of the idiots and asked if they could look out for them.”  

Emma said three hours later, she and her companions were still lingering at the base of the mountain to see if the ill-prepared climbers would make it down.

“Then the rescue chopper turned up and deposited them back at the carpark.

“To say I’m a little annoyed would be an understatement.

“The pair were incredibly lucky that the other group were heading up late in the day and that New Zealand has the most epic, tolerant and empathetic rescue teams.”  

A police spokesperson confirmed that when found by the group of climbers at the summit, the two men were sitting in the snow frozen, frightened and unsure how to descend in rapidly increasing icy conditions.

“After feeding them, providing some warm clothing and some dialogue via Google Translate, the climbers called 111 and asked for police assistance to get the two men down.”

Midwest Helicopters were sent to the summit and managed to fly the men down safely.

Emma said the attitude of the ill-equipped climbers puzzled her on many levels.

“Some of the terrain up there is at a 45-degree angle.

“I had training and was equipped with crampons and two ice axes.

“Yet even I was turning round, from time to time, looking over my shoulder and wondering how I’d descend the icy slopes safely. They can’t have done that once.

“But the other thing is the way they blatantly ignored warnings, claiming they couldn’t speak English well enough to understand what I was saying.

“But it was pretty obvious what I was saying to them, because there were plenty of gestures, gesticulations and pointing, Also, I used single words, like, ‘No’.”

Constable Mark Bolton from National Park Police, who co-ordinated the men’s rescue, said it was one of the worst examples he’d seen in recent years of walkers with inadequate knowledge, equipment and skill climbing a mountain.