Trampers lacked equipment
‘‘Having not experienced the conditions or the park before, Paul and Michael probably did not realise they were likely to be out in exposed country for several hours.’’ Coroner Tim Scott
A coroner says two trampers who died in Tararua Forest Park were missing vital pieces of equipment when they embarked on their fatal trip, and could have saved themselves by abandoning their planned route. Mykhailo Stepura, of Lower Hutt, and Pavel Pazniak, of Auckland, died in the southern Wairarapa park in November 2016. The two foreign nationals – Stepura, 39, originally from Ukraine, Pazniak, 32, from Belarus – set out for a tramp in the park on November 19. They were found dead two days later, less than a kilometre from Alpha Hut. In his report released yesterday, coroner Tim Scott said the pair were physically fit, and that Pazniak had significant tramping experience, but neither had tramped in the park before. Scott said they were reasonably well-equipped, taking plenty of food and sleeping bags. However, there were some ‘‘significant’’ absences from their kit, he said. They had no survival blankets, waterproof covers for the sleeping bags, or a means of communication, apart from a cellphone. They had no maps, compass, torch or emergency locator beacon, and no wet-weather gear to keep their heads and torsos warm and dry. The jackets they did have were described by a police officer as ‘‘the kind that one might use in wet weather for a half-hour shopping trip’’, Scott said. ‘‘These parkas were clearly inadequate against the weather conditions that Michael and Paul were walking into.’’ The Tararuas were notorious for changeable weather, with strong wind and rain common, Scott said. ‘‘Having not experienced the conditions or the park before, Paul and Michael probably did not realise they were likely to be out in exposed country for several hours before reaching Alpha Hut.’’ The pair took photos of each other during their tramp, with the photos showing them posing in exposed open country against a strong wind, Scott said. A police officer who knew the area estimated it would have been another eight hours’ walk from the place where the photos were taken to Alpha Hut. Another police officer thought the pair should have turned back at the time the photos were taken, or at least taken a shorter route to the hut, Scott said. But they did not, walking in poor weather with inadequate clothing for up to eight hours. ‘‘The further they went, the worse their situation became,’’ Scott said. Not having a torch meant they would have struggled in darkness for the last part of their tramp. Paznaik’s wife called emergency services on November 20 when he did not arrive on a flight back to Auckland as expected, sparking a search and rescue operation. Scott said the police response was good, but the trampers were likely dead by the time the plane landed in Auckland, meaning any search was ‘‘doomed to fail’’. The person who came across the dead trampers used his cellphone to contact police. That showed it was possible for the trampers to call police with the phone they had on them, but they would already have been suffering hypothermia and struggling in the dark, Scott said. ‘‘Even had they been [able to use the phone], I think their rescue at that late stage in the dark would have been unlikely.’’