A climber whose companion\u00a0plummeted 200m down Mt Aspiring clambered up\u00a0difficult alpine terrain\u00a0in the bitter\u00a0cold\u00a0for\u00a0three hours\u00a0to\u00a0get a phone signal and raise the alarm.<\/p>\n
His\u00a0efforts were rewarded when a rescue helicopter plucked both climbers at around 1am on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n
The incident unfolded when police received a report of a climber falling an estimated down a cliff face and into a crevasse at about 6.15pm on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Sergeant Darren Cranfield, of\u00a0W\u0101naka police, said the climber’s companion was faced with an extremely challenging situation.<\/p>\n
“After the fall, the companion spent more than three hours climbing in difficult alpine terrain to find enough satellite reception on a mobile phone to raise the alarm.<\/p>\n
“During that time, they too were becoming increasingly at risk of hypothermia.”<\/p>\n
Otago Lakes Search and Rescue and Heli Otago took to the air to search for the\u00a0pair.<\/p>\n
The weather was closing in and the chances of a successful rescue were\u00a0“diminishing rapidly\u201d.<\/p>\n
“This was a complex and dynamic operation where two lives were at risk,” Sergeant Cranfield said.<\/p>\n
“Given the remote alpine environment, success depended on strong communication, effective collaboration between teams, cross-district coordination and clear decision-making throughout the rescue effort.”<\/p>\n
At about 1am, both climbers were successfully rescued by Heli Otago, with assistance from the Wakatipu LandSAR Alpine Cliff Rescue Team.<\/p>\n
“We are incredibly pleased with this outcome and grateful that we brought both climbers to safety,” Sergeant Cranfield said.<\/p>\n
Police thanks\u00a0search and rescue personnel, alpine rescue specialists, Heli Otago Rescue and all those who contributed to the operation.<\/p>\n
“The professionalism, skill and commitment shown by everyone involved played a critical role in bringing this incident to a successful conclusion.”<\/p>\n
Sergeant Cranfield said the incident was a timely reminder of the risks that can be encountered in alpine environments.<\/p>\n
“Conditions in the mountains can change rapidly, and even experienced climbers can find themselves in dangerous situations.”<\/p>\n
“We encourage anyone heading into alpine areas to thoroughly prepare, carry appropriate communication equipment and emergency supplies, and ensure they have a plan in place should the unexpected occur.”<\/p>\n
“Being prepared for the worst can make all the difference when things go wrong.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A climber whose companion\u00a0plummeted 200m down Mt Aspiring clambered up\u00a0difficult alpine terrain\u00a0in the bitter\u00a0cold\u00a0for\u00a0three hours\u00a0to\u00a0get a phone signal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-549828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549828","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=549828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}