Help message left in snow
Grieving woman survives month alone in wilderness
A desperate Czech woman used ashes to make a help sign in the snow and fashioned snowshoes from sticks during a month trapped alone in a remote Fiordland hut after her partner fell to his death. She was rescued on Wednesday. ‘‘Nobody can prepare you for this,’’ she later told police of her ordeal.
The woman spent three nights exposed to extreme weather before she reached the Lake McKenzie camp on the Routeburn Track, where she broke into a warden’s hut through a window and waited for help.
It was slow in coming. Nobody knew where the couple were and it was only after relatives in Europe raised concerns on social media that New Zealand police were alerted through the Czech consulate. The pair’s car was tracked to Glenorchy, near Queenstown, and the woman was rescued. She is staying with the honorary consul of the Czech Republic, Vladka Kennett, in Glenorchy.
Kennett acted as translator when the woman spoke to police and recounted her incredible survival tale.
The couple arrived in New Zealand on February 29 with a working holiday visa. They had a potential job organised on a farm near Dunedin. They set out on the Routeburn on July 26, despite being warned off by Department of Conservation staff.
Kennett said they had no tent or locator beacon and told no-one of their plans.
They spent one freezing night outside and the next day, disoriented in heavy fog and strong winds and with snow falling, slipped five to seven metres down a steep slope. The man fell further and became trapped between branches and rocks. The woman was able to reach him but could not free him. She heard his last gasps of breath before he died.
‘‘She tried everything she could, but she was totally exhausted,’’ Kennett said. ‘‘It was impossible [to free him].’’
Unable to move her partner, the woman spent two more nights sleeping above the tree line against a ‘‘vertical rock’’, with whatever possessions she had stuffed into her sleeping bag for warmth, Kennett said. Over the next two days, she tried but failed to reach the campsite she could see in the distance.
On the fourth day, the woman reached the camp, Kennett said, and broke into a warden’s hut through a window to find food, gas and firewood. There was a radio, but the English operating instructions were indecipherable to her. Her fingers had turned white and her feet swelled when she removed her boots. It was days before she could put them on again.
After she recovered, the woman fashioned snowshoes from sticks but was unable to walk out through the deep snow.
‘‘She made several attempts to get out but was always stopped by her physical and mental condition,’’ Kennett said. ‘‘She was devastated by the loss of her partner.’’
There were enough ashes from a fire for the woman to write an ‘‘H’’ for help in the snow in the hope of attracting a rescuer’s eye. It was a month before help finally arrived. On Sunday, Kennett had noticed social media messages from concerned friends and family of the pair in the Czech Republic. They sent the consul photos and car registration details that helped searchers track the couple to the Routeburn.
The woman was doing ‘‘really well’’ but wanted to return home as soon as possible, Kennett said. Her family knew she was safe.
Otago Lakes Central area commander Inspector Olaf Jensen said the woman was ‘‘relieved’’ to see the helicopter crew that picked her up.
She was taken to hospital as a precaution and was understandably upset, but otherwise in good health, he said. ‘‘This is a highly unusual case. ‘‘It very unusual for someone to be missing in the New Zealand bush for such a long period without it being reported.’’
A helicopter crew was unable to recover the man’s body last night. Police hoped to retrieve it this morning, weather permitting.