Police have praised heroic staff who today rescued two Fiordland National Park climbers, who spent three nights on a steep mountainside and “would not have survived another night”.<\/p>\n
At about 4.30pm on Wednesday, a personal locator beacon was activated in the Sabre Peak area.<\/p>\n
A Southern Lakes helicopter was sent but was unable to retrieve the climbers due to heavy rain and low cloud.<\/p>\n
Police were passed the information to launch a search and rescue operation by Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand.<\/p>\n
By Thursday morning, police were contacted by a brother of one of the climbers, who had received emergency SOS satellite text messages from his brother. Messages confirmed both climbers were uninjured, but were unable to move due to the severe weather.<\/p>\n
A second rescue was attempted, but was unsuccessful due to the conditions.<\/p>\n
Southland search and rescue coordinator Dougall Henderson said police had maintained contact with the climbers via satellite, and kept them updated with the rescue effots.<\/p>\n
At 7am today, the Southern Lakes helicopter crew successfully located the climbers, and carried out a 100 foot long line extraction from the mountainside.<\/p>\n
“Their survival is remarkable,” Henderson said.<\/p>\n
The climbers had been stranded on the steep mountains for three nights, and sheltered in a two-person bivvy and sleeping bags, which had become saturated due to the prolonged exposure to the severe weather.<\/p>\n
“They had run out of food, and believed they would not have survived another night on the mountain.”<\/p>\n
Both climbers were then checked over by a doctor on board the helicopter, and were then taken to Te Anau for further medical assessment.<\/p>\n
Henderson said the outcome highlighted both good decision-making by the climbers and the challenges faced by rescue services in alpine environments.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe climbers made the right decision to activate their beacon early and remain in place once the weather deteriorated,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were well equipped and they communicated clearly using satellite messaging, and that allowed rescuers to make informed decisions while waiting for a safe weather window.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was also an outstanding effort by the helicopter crew, operating in an extreme and unforgiving alpine environment.<\/p>\n
“Their ability to safely locate and extract the climbers using a long line technique prevented what could have been a far more serious outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n
Police said the incident was a reminder of the unpredictability of Fiordland weather, and how rescue operations can have limits in this type of mountainous terrain.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven when help is on the way, adverse weather can delay rescue efforts,\u201d said Henderson.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople heading into alpine or remote areas need to plan conservatively, monitor forecasts closely, and carry appropriate emergency equipment \u2013 including a PLB or satellite communication device, or both.\u201d<\/p>\n
Police encouraged people venturing into remote or alpine environments to leave their intentions with a trusted person, as well as check weather conditions before they left.<\/p>\n
It also suggested to be prepared to delay or abandon plans if conditions deteriorate.<\/p>\n
“More information and tips can be found on the New Zealand Mountain Safety Council website,” a police spokesperson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police have praised heroic staff who today rescued two Fiordland National Park climbers, who spent three nights on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372943,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[273,111,43,139,69,15488],"class_list":{"0":"post-372942","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz","13":"tag-southland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}