He confirmed the man was skiing on Mt Dixon, one of the country\u2019s highest peaks. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe wasn\u2019t working, he was on a recreational trip with three other members of his party,\u201d Rowntree said.<\/p>\n
Everyone on the trip was \u201cvery experienced\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cSadly, he was avalanched while descending on skis and got taken off the sort of the northeast side of the mountain and down a very long way and then was buried in an avalanche and unfortunately didn\u2019t survive.\u201d<\/p>\n
The avalanche was in an area rated as moderate risk.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe entire team involved were highly experienced, and so it\u2019s an example of how the mountains are such a dynamic place and even a really small avalanche in such big consequential terrain can lead to the worst-case scenario,\u201d Rowntree said. <\/p>\n
Experts warned good weather and mountain conditions could mask avalanche dangers. <\/p>\n
Nathan Watson, operations manager at the New Zealand Mountain Safety Council, said a storm about 48 hours ago brought new snow. <\/p>\n
Watson added it was a reminder that \u201cgood weather conditions don\u2019t necessarily mean no avalanche danger\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cDifferent storms come through, and they bring new snow,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s wind, there\u2019s rain, there\u2019s varying freezing levels and what happens is the snowpack builds up and changes over time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithin the snowpack, there can be different layers of weakness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watson said even in good weather, there can be weaknesses or instabilities beneath a snowpack.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen if that\u2019s triggered in a certain way, such as with a human on it, that stability can break and release and still trigger an avalanche. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo the good weather at a particular time is not necessarily an indicator that there isn\u2019t a risk within the snowpack.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dixon Peak, where an avalanche has killed one person. Photo \/ Murray Foubister<\/p>\n
The New Zealand Avalanche Advisory and the Mountain Safety Council said in a joint statement they were \u201cdeeply saddened\u201d by the incident.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur heartfelt condolences go out to the friends and wh\u0101nau of the deceased, and everyone affected. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur thoughts are with you during this difficult time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The statement reiterated the \u201ctragic reminder\u201d that good weather doesn\u2019t eliminate avalanche risk.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough over 48 hours have passed since the most recent storm, avalanche problems can persist,\u201d they said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn exposed alpine terrain, the consequences of even a small avalanche can be extreme.\u201d<\/p>\n
The man\u2019s death will be referred to the coroner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He confirmed the man was skiing on Mt Dixon, one of the country\u2019s highest peaks. \u201cHe wasn\u2019t working,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,118646,682,113778,7126,84394,2842,50242,78,297128,10048,111,43,139,69,15120,48432,6633,1337,1316],"class_list":["post-635429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-avalanche","tag-being","tag-buried","tag-dies","tag-dixon","tag-experienced","tag-highly","tag-in","tag-mountaineer","tag-mt","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-remembered","tag-skiing","tag-snow","tag-victim","tag-when"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635429","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=635429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}