Police predict death on Tongariro
Trampers’ errors led to avoidable rescue mission at weekend
Police are warning that a tramper is likely to die soon on Mt Tongariro as visitor numbers on the alpine crossing soar to 125,000 a year. Last weekend two trampers, one with hypothermia, were rescued in the early hours of Sunday in freezing conditions on the mountain.
Senior Constable Barry Shepherd of Taupo said police at search and rescue headquarters were extremely worried the woman might die. She could no longer walk and was huddled in a sleeping bag on the side of a tramping track in the dark.
He said the rescue could have easily been avoided if the group had prepared better, made better decisions and stuck together. But there were other factors that led these hikers so near a meeting with death.
The Crossing has become an increasingly attractive draw after the Lord of the Rings films used neighbouring Mt Ngaruhoe as Mt Doom.
The party of four in their late 20s and early 30s had set out from Mangetepopo late on Saturday morning, intending to tramp to Oturere Hut on the other side of the mountain.
It took them more than five hours just to reach Red Crater, a walk normally taking less than half that.
Despite the sun setting, the group carried on down to the Oturere Valley where they met blizzard conditions.
In the snow, the group became separated.
The first two men reached Oturere Hut, but the man and the woman left behind were wet and became cold. They called police at 8.40pm.
Using the 111 location system, police were able to pinpoint the couple’s location and began a search and rescue operation but were unable to get a helicopter in because of low cloud.
Instead, LandSAR volunteers Luke Middleton and Brett Donaldson were flown to Ketetahi Hut just before midnight to begin the three-hour walk across the top of Mt Tongariro to Oturere, with another team 40 minutes behind them.
Meanwhile, police managed to contact the two other members of the group at the hut, told them of the couple’s location and ordered them to go and find their friends, which they did.
It took the three men more than two hours to carry the immobile woman 1km back to the hut.
The searchers arrived at the hut a few minutes later and were able to use the spare warm gear they were carrying to get her changed into dry clothes and into the two remaining dry sleeping bags.
The rest of the group and the searchers spent a cold night in the hut, which did not have a working heater, and were helicoptered out at about 8am.
Shepherd says the group made a series of mistakes which could have easily led to a death on the mountain.
First, they had set off too late and then failed to turn back when it became obvious progress was too slow to complete the walk in daylight.
They had taken crampons, but ones unsuitable for their boots and lost valuable time trying repeatedly to refit them.
They failed to travel at the pace of the slowest member of the group and became separated.
The group at the hut failed to raise the alarm when their companions didn’t arrive, even though they had a personal locator beacon and could have found cellphone coverage.
“People are reluctant to ring 111 because they think it’s for emergencies, but we say if you need us now, call 111 regardless of what it is.”
Shepherd said the group were lucky there were LandSAR volunteers and rescue helicopter crew who were willing to put themselves at risk.
“It required a really serious commitment to actually save [the woman’s] life — that was potentially where it was going.”
The search and rescue veteran of 27 years said that given the numbers visiting Mt Tongariro and the lack of preparation of many, a death was inevitable.